Visit with Hil in San Diego

A few weeks ago, Pat and I headed down to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista where our longtime pal Hilary is coaching the women's Under 23 National Rowing Team. We met Hil 16 years ago (and several lifetimes ago, it seems) in Portland, OR where Pat and I were wintering (it was so long ago that we weren't even dating yet!), and she had just nearly completed a cross-country bicycle journey. Over the years, we have kept in touch and our paths occassionally cross.

We arrived Saturday morning, and a bored looking security guard waved us through the athlete's entrance.

We quickly met up with Hilary, and took a little tour of the training center. It was pretty neat--I think being a national-caliber athlete is a good gig, if you can get it.

Here is the lake where the rowers practice. I stuck my toes in--very warm.

We then headed to downtown San Diego where pat and I were staying. We decided to take the ferry over to Coronado just to entertain ourselves.

There was a great view of the city from Coronado.

We then hoofed the whole way across the island to see the famous Hotel Del Coronado which was built a looong time ago (1888, I believe. A more ambitious person would Google it). It was pretty cool.

The hotel had a lot of neat seaside bars, and we enjoyed a pitcher of beer (Cost: $36. Not for the faint of heart!) Later we had dinner at a Italian place in the Gas Lamp district but no pictures were produced...


The next day we wanted to look around the training center's visitors' center but it was closed.

I did, however, get to stand on the cheesy medal podium. Darn, I forgot my gold medal.

Later that night, we scored a total coup: tickets to see Sting with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for free! Well, not quite, free, we had to pay $6 each for handling and parking. Hil had scored a bunch of tickets from the training center, somehow. I've never been a huge Sting fan, so I was orginally a little uncertain.



But, the show was amazing!

Sting was a true showman, played many of the hits and didn't quit for hours. Wow, wow, wow! Overall, it was a great way to end a great weekend and see an old friend.


NEXT UP: Vacation in Yellowstone and Montana.

Trip to Sequoia National Park with Mom

A few weeks ago, my most faithful visitor, my mom, came to visit. Since this was her third trip to California, we decided to go on a road trip to Sequoia National Park rather than hanging about Long Beach. We thought it would be fun.

Unfortunately, we hadn't really considered that it would still be WINTER in Sequoia. When we arrived, we were a bit chagrinned to see 5-foot snow drifts everywhere. Apparently, the area had received unusually large snowfalls throughout the winter.

When we went to the Giant Forest to see the World's Largest Tree, The General Sherman, we were dissapointed to find the trail closed. Luckily, a very nice ranger told us we could still access the tree by taking a shuttle bus to another trailhead.

The problem with these trees is that, while beautiful, they just don't photograph well. Above are a few different angles on the General Sherman Tree. There was a ranger stationed nearby, and we considered asking him if the tree was larger than a whale but then decided that question would surely label us as foolish.

Okay, this is not our best picture but it is the only photo we have of us together all weekend. Yes, we were cold...

The trails were covered with ice and snow and very treacherous.


Later, we did find a little path that was open, so we meandered through the big trees.

This is a view of the very nice little museum at the Giant Forest. At one time, there were almost100 cabins in this area but they were inhibiting the tree growth so they were all torn down in early 1990s.

As you can see, the weather was very gloomy. I kept thinking it would snow but it never did during the day (we did get about an inch overnight).

I thought the lichens on these trees made the forest look enchanted.

Later, we drove back to Grant's Grove (we were staying there) and walked through this downed tree.

Back in the day, the Native Americans used downed Sequoias like this one as living quarters.

Then we saw the Nation's Christmas Tree, The General Grant. It was very beautiful but not enough to keep us in Sequoia another night. After two nights, we decided to head back to Long Beach a day early to enjoy some sunshine and warm up a bit.


So, the next day, rather than sightseeing in Sequoia, Pat and I gave my mom the CSULB tour. Here are mom and Pat in front of the Pyramid where Pat works.

Putt Putt on Pine: a Cautionary Tale

When my friend Myrna invited me to participate in Leadership Long Beach's annual fundraiser, Putt Putt on Pine, I took my camera in anticipation of a tame blog entry about this fundraiser where teams of four rotate through Long Beach restaurants playing a hole of miniature golf at each location. As you will soon see, the night ended up being a bit more, well, how shall we phrase it...interesting...than originally anticipated.

First, we picked up our scorecard at Smooth's Sports Bar and headed for Taco Surf for our first hole, a beer and some yummy enchiladas. Here is Monica in action.

Then it was off to George's Greek Cafe for our second hole, a great buffet and...

Ouzo Shots! We felt morally obligated to partake in this $2 bargain. That is Myrna on the left, then Kenya, me and Monica to my right.

Less dedicated golfers might have been distracted but not us. We headed to L'Opera ( a noted restaurant I've been meaning to try) for another hole. I think my score was about a 12 here...

Then it was off to Rock Bottom where we never even made it to the golf area. Instead, we headed to the bar for cocktails. Here, Myrna tries to prove that she can tie a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue. For the record: not accomplished!

We spent a little too much time at Rock Bottom so, instead of finishing our round (of golf that is, we did finish our round of drinks) we headed back to Smooth's for the event wrap up. I thought I would wait around to see if I won anything in the drawings and then head home. I anticipated being home by 10 p.m., in time for a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately, that isn't quite how it happened. Instead, we decided to go downstairs in Smooth's and have one more drink. It is always a bad sign when you end up with random strangers in your pictures, and that is exactly what happened here. Now, Eric, on the right is an old friend of Kenya's so he doesn't count. But, these two gals on the left? No idea! Myrna picked them up somewhere outside and dragged them to our table, I believe. At least they were kind enough to buy us a round of drinks before heading out...

At this point, Eric suggested that we head down to the street to a dueling piano bar which seemed like a good idea at the time.



On the walk, we passed by the Ice Bar, a very weird place not usually on my radar. However, the bar manager out front offered us a free shot if we went inside. Of course, we couldn't pass that up, so in we went. It was deserted and had a very strange vibe. We downed a quick shot and were on our way.

We finally made it to the piano bar where we sang along and did a few more shots. The night eventually ended with a few additional high jinks (which will remain unexplained here in the interest of discretion). Let's just say that you can all draw this conclusion: everyone felt pretty terrible the next day. I'm a big believer in letting off steam every now and again but this experience really made me appreciate my mostly quiet life...

San Juan Capristano

San Juan Capistrano Mission has been on my Refrigerator List since we moved to Long Beach, and a few weeks ago, we finally made the drive down to OC to check it out.

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon, and the grounds were so beautiful.

We spent some time just walking around the gardens.

Then we snuck onto the back end of the tour.

And saw the remains of the original buildings. There was a Baptism (complete with crying baby) in the chapel so we didn't get to see that part.

I'm pretty sure the Missionaries didn't have Koi in their compounds. So, can someone tell me why all the missions have them now? I'm serious--the Alamo has them, too!

Pat thought this area was the most important part of the Mission and asked that I take his picture with this sign.

Here is the close-up: yep, apparently, SJCM is where the the California wine industry was born. Who would have known?


After we had our fill of the mission, we wandered down Los Rios street, a neat little touristy area with shops and cafes. We had a late breakfast so we didn't eat but we will keep it in mind for next time.

Dinner with Bruce & Stacy

Last week, after work, Pat and I drove down to Oceanside (about 90 minutes or so south of Long Beach) to meet up with his college roommate Bruce. Bruce, as many of you may remember, was the best man at our wedding. Over the years, we've managed to meet up with Bruce a bit more than some other far-flung friends, and we always enjoy getting together with him. This time, we were excited to finally meet his 16 month-old son and catch up with his wife, Stacy, as well.

I couldn't resist posting a picture of Pat and Bruce back in their glory days at UGA. Pat is in the front row, second from the right. And, Bruce is the last on the right in the second row. Wow--they look so young! Babies...

And, here they are today!

Okay, back to the story:

After an uneventful (which is pretty much an event in itself here in Southern Cal) drive down to Oceanside, we arrived at Breakwater Brewing just in time to meet up with them. We then proceeded to chat, chat, chat for several hours. And their son was super cute and did a great job of amusing himself without many props. The visit was far too brief but we always appreciate friends making an effort to see us (some of you could take a lesson from Bruce and Stacy--you know who you are)!

After dinner, of course, we had to take some pictures. Apparently, Bruce and Stacy's last visit was right before I started this blog. So, Bruce, you finally made the blog. Congrats!

Mojave Misadventures

Pat and I like to kick off the camping season around Easter by heading somewhere new for our first trip of the year. This year, we decided on the Mojave Desert, a sprawling National Preserve about 200 miles northeast of Long Beach. The trip was highly anticipated after weeks of dreary weather and even more dreary work hours.

Our Friday afternoon departure was a lame attempt to avoid the holiday Friday rush hour traffic but we must have done something right: we only sat in traffic for about an hour (in Greater LA, that is pretty good). After a long and somewhat monotonous drive, we arrived in the Mojave just in time to see the sun set).

If you have AWD, you can camp back any number of gravel roads in the park without a fee or permit so that is what we did. Our camp had a nice vantage point and lots of big rocks (good for sitting on, cooking on and as a wind break).

Pat set up the tent while I cooked dinner (the "kitchen" is in the background of this photo with the lantern). It was pretty chilly but we sat up awhile looking at the stars and trying to spot satellites (a popular camp time activity for us).

Here is the campsite in the morning light. This may be the last picture taken of our tent. We bought it right after our honeymoon with some of our wedding $$. Our "new" tent (funny, we still think of it that way) is now almost ten years old and is ready for retirement. We hope to have a new one before our trip to Montana in July.

Our goal was to spent the day hiking but, as you can see, we weren't in a big hurry.

For breakfast, I made a delicious but not necessarily nutritious meal of bagels pan-fried with butter, sugar and cinnamon. Yummy! After breakfast, we donned our hiking clothes, jumped in the car and...

It wouldn't start! So, there were were, miles from the nearest paved road, with nothing more than a very loud "Click" when I tried to start to start the car. I had been having some similar issues at home but thought they had been previously resolved by the purchase of a new battery. In the past, the car would eventually start after several tries. Nope, not this time. Instead, each time I cranked the key, just that infuriating "click." So, of course, we decided to play mechanic (never a good sign for us). After about an hour or so of fiddling around and talking a lot about what makes an engine start, I finally turned the key and voila, the car roared to life. And then we drove straight home without turning off the car (and, yes, you CAN get gas while the engine is still running). So, as far as a camping trip: not very fulfilling. But, we felt thankful that the car started at all (Note: since we have been home, the car has started perfectly every time).