WCT 2.1: first two days

 [reminder: wCt is West Coast Trip]

We’re done with 2 days of 4 in NoCal.

KG arrived “early” Monday morning and we spent the day doing SF and environs.  More on that later. 

But this is a golf trip, so we’ll start with today. 

We played Pebble Beach, which is my retirement “gift” (what it has been designated has been a moving target — birthday present? Waste of money? 😁)

We were told it might be the best weather day of the year.  It was sunny, not windy and got to 75. It was actually hot.  The locals were complaining about the heat. ROFL. 

One of the famous holes there is #7, which this picture shows you the day and the awesome setting for the little hole. 

We had a great time.  Our partners, Lea and Kevin, from Mammoth, were congenital and good players.  Our caddie, Tito, was good, too.  He was quite a character, having surf bummed for 17 years in Maui and generally been around.  He also had a recent knee replacement.  Said he sat around and ate ice cream.  A man after my heart. :)

Here we are on the 18th tee. 

Going back (and this is a quick run-through, John): I picked KG up at 10 and he was hungry.  He found a place and directed me to — the produce terminal for San Bruno. 🤣 we found another place not far away that was much better.  But the line of the day was “what kind of toast do you want” and KG said “white” and the guy said “we don’t have white toast.”  What??!?!!?!?  California.  They did have sour dough, which I guess isn’t what they consider white bread.  Huh. 

Then he wanted to see the redwoods, so we shot across (okay, the rental is a Toyota Corolla so “shot” is a lie”) the Golden Gate Bridge, grabbed pictures at the vista point there (hence) and saw the redwoods.  They were open despite the shutdown because they are a special designation (I was told).

Then in to San Fran. We had a Ghirardelli Sundae for “lunch”, then took the cable car up to Lombard St.  In an heroic effort, I walked about 2/3 of the way down Lombard St AND back up!!! My heart rate did not go down for about an hour. :)

Cable car down to turnaround and walked over to the sea lions

Then we drove up to Coit Tower (yes, we hit a lot of the city’s greatest hits in a day) and he went up in in (I do neither heights nor steps at this point).

Requisite pic from there:

Then down to the Embarcadero and dinner. 

Food porn coming. 

We had tiger prawns from prelim

And he had the locally caught spring trout:

I had the chowder, but, in a long and involved story, I ended up getting it comped because…well, the wait person said “we had an error of communications.”

Then we drove to Monterey, where we are staying at the Inn at Spanish Bay.  It might be the nicest room I’ve ever had — they have free snacks!!! And robes.  And both a tub and shower.  And turn down service. 

The food here is great too. 

We had breakfast burritos for breakfast.  

We had dinner reservations here in the INN, too.  It’s called Roy’s.  It’s won James Beard awards.  It’s Hawaiian fusion cuisine (so says the promos). 

We had the tiger prawns (a theme of the trip) and beef spring rolls 

I had the roasted chicken with red curry. 

KG had the surf and turf which was swordfish with spare ribs. (Hawaiian fusion, right?)

And he had to have the mango cheesecake for dessert.  That’s a mango gel layer.  He loves cheesecake and he said it was great. 

Worth noting is part of the charm of the place is they knew it was our birthday.  There were birthday cards in the room when we checked in and the desk people have all said happy birthday “to both of you”, including today as we checked in at the golf course.  

Been a good trip so far.  Here’s our SOP shot on 18th tee box — this was facing away from the the lodge and 18th green.  You can see the scenery and how lovely the day was. 

Also, part of the charm, there’s a deck to watch golf facing west to the ocean (which is right there) and each evening a bag piper pipes the sun down.  We have video…Okay, I’ll put it here. 

WCT 1.4: A loss on our last day

 It was our last day in LA.  The high was “only” 78 — just like back in PA 😂

For thumbnail purposes I’ll got to mid-day, which we spent at Griffith Observatory.  Its white facade and green metal domes are iconic and have appeared in numerous movies — the most recent I remember it being prominent was LaLa Land.   Here’s shot of the city of Los Angeles from there. 

For a brief educational moment, for those of you not familiar with LA geography, this is looking left (southeast ) from the observatory — to the right you can see the high rises of Century City, and on a clearer day than today the Pacific.  Straight east are mountains and we could just see a couple snow caps there. 

When I got up, K had found a breakfast place on the way — it was called Alcove.  It was “cute.”  By which it means you can eat outside under umbrellas and the building was covered onto the roof by some California vine.  

I had the lemon ricotta pancake meal.

K had their eggs Benedict, which had Meyer lemon hollandaise sauce. 

Got a double thumbs up.  We recommend and would return again.  They had good looking baked goods, too — a chocolate chip bread pudding, for one — that we didn’t get to try.

In terms of our little slices of life, today was again game day. I was wearing my Purdue hat again (it’s the only one I brought, for obvious reasons).  Well, both times in line to see the shows in the planetarium (we saw 2 of their 3), there was someone else in Purdue gear next to us and we ended up talking.  The first were 3 women originally from Indiana, 2 live in SF and one in Atlanta and they decided to meet and go to the basketball.  The next…well, I didn’t really talk much to him. 

The planetarium was pretty neat. 

On the way back to the apartment we stopped for ice cream.  This was lunch.  We shared, as you can see from the two spoons.  It is buckeye, coffee chip, apple pie and monkey business from lower left clockwise. 

But this was the best part.  You have to know the Geico “don’t become your parents” ads to fully appreciate this one —

He did this for like ten minutes!  No one took him aside and said “there are people who work here that do this”…😂

It was a long jog (45 minutes) to the parking garage at the game and we walked in with an old guy (and, yes, I’m saying this) who had coached there forever.  Saw Rick Mount play against Lew Alcindor in the sixties. 

The game was exciting.  Not particularly well played, including back-to-back turnovers up 3 in the last 2 minutes.  We lost by 2 as they made a 3 with 8 seconds left.  And we missed two shots at the end. 😪

The ride back, the long way and the highway, took 20 minutes.  We got home “early” and are packed and ready to go.

It’s been fun.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Till next time — again from Cali :)

WCT 1.3: WB

 Today was our “down day” as we had no plans as the day started.  We filled the time.  It is LA.

K wants me to put in here how funny we think it is that we have “friends” who we told we were coming here and they went like “ew…why?”  We both love it here. First, there’s the weather (~80 again today, in mid-January); then there’s some of the scenery; and finally there’s all the things to do, whether basketball games, museums, beach, or, like today a movie studio.  What’s not to like? 

Yes, we went to Warner Bros.  We never discussed the other options.  Who knows the difference (ok, someone more nerdy about where things are filmed than either of us)? 

I’ll go with the money shot for the thumbnail —

We started the day with the worst (though not bad) breakfast.  K had the NOHO — we don’t know what it stands for: 

I had the American, which is what you’d think it’d be. 

Then off to WB, eight minutes away. 

You may not believe it, but they have a lot of people doing studio tours there.  Like a cart of 14  five minutes.  Sometimes the street sets looked like traffic jams.  

The “highlight” of the experience was our tour guide.  No, she wasn’t good.  You’d think you have made the circuit multiple times a day for awhile you’d have th script memorized, but she kept saying “where was I?”  She stood little chance of answering impromptu questions.  Multiple times she confused places.  We’re not sure we know the real deal, but not sure it matters.

Since you probably don’t know any more than I did before we started, Warner’s did Friends, Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, George & Mandy, and Abbott Elementary on this lot.  The Abbott external street was good.  

Their two stock streets — Hennessey and Midwest — are familiar.  Outside scenes from Friends were shot in the first and the externals for Music Man at the latter.  To name a few.  A certain amount of “this from Gilmore Girls was shot here”.  We both commented how ratty all the buildings looked and wondered how they showed up on screen.  Or if they repainted them before shooting in front of them. 

We were taken into one soundstage (no pics allowed)— the one where they now shoot George & Mandy.  It used to be Big Bang’s stage.  As we entered she said “dad with the Purdue hat” (that’s me) and asked me to be the last one in. 

The end of the tour you go through a soundstage that holds the old Friends, Big Bang and Lord of Rings sets — giving you the opportunity to have your picture taken in each of them.  If you desired.   

And finally there was a Harry Potter exhibit (though it was shot at WB London, not here) and K did the sorting hat thing and was put in Slitherin house.  As we all suspected about her 😂

After a post-tour Starbucks run that involved both elaborate turns and driving, and a brief, painful question about how important Starbucks was (duh!), we went back to the apartment and rested for dinner. 

We listened to the end of the first half of the national championship game on the way to dinner; had them turn it on the TV during dinner, and listened to the late third quarter on the way back. 

Dinner, which was 4 miles and 20 minutes away, was basic pasta.  A step or two above Olive Garden.  Neither of us was particularly hungry.  We’ll go with K’s chicken parm as the food porn.

We tried an “ice cream place” down the street for dessert, but they had two flavors — plain or vanilla — and cookies, but no ice cream sandwiches.  We’ll do better next time. 

It was a blah day.  K said on the way back from the studio that she was glad she didn’t haven’t to be charming again today (her?!?!!?) and no one on the tour did or said anything very noteworthy, other than the inept guide. 

Tomorrow is the UCLA game.  Famed gym and a hard place for road teams to win.  It’s a late game, so not sure when and if a blog will appear.  

Manana…

WCT 1.2: Sideways

 Today there will be more food porn.  I’ll even lead with my breakfast.  The name of the place is Cafe Telegrama, and it was on the way out of town.  Parking was tough and I was told, after a 20 minute search landed us back at the first place I tried that was deemed “too far to walk in this neighborhood” that “this had better be good.”  It was. 😅

Brioche French toast in maple syrup.  It was good.  K, who is a great believer in the “maple syrup delivery system” way of life, thought it was lacking in maple syrup. :)

She had the breakfast burrito, in the morning’s attempt to get into the California vibe; she even added avocado.  She said it was very good; the sauce was “tomatillo like”.

Then we headed north on 101, following the footsteps of the movie Sideways, which turned out to be a recurring topic during the day. 

We made a similar journey in ‘21 in August for our anniversary, so knew a couple places to stop.  First was in downtown Santa Barbara, which seems another cute, quaint town on the water here.  The name of the place is Margerum, and it’s not a winery but a tasting shop.  

She tasted.  Supposedly the flight was 4, but the server added several (4?) more.  

The server could not have been more negative in terms of experience.  First, she did a lot of looking at her phone.  Like every two minutes she had to check.  Clearly, there was something going to happen in her life that was more important and exciting than work.  

Then her delivery on the wines was Bert Stein as teacher in The Wonder Years saying “this one is from our blah blah vineyard and its a cool spot with almond trees, so it has the aroma of strawberries, raspberries and a back note of citrus” (I think she said that word-for-word [sans blah blah OC] at one point).  

The best part was K calculating what to do about buying.  The tasting was $40 but if you bought 3 bottles of wine, it was free!  Newsflash: we bought 3 bottles of wine. :). We’ll worry how to get them home later. 

Then off north toward Solvang, which is where they stay in the movie.  K had found a place “on the way” and we ended up in some small town’s “industrial park” (it was one building :)) that had FOUR tasting rooms.  But she had this one picked out based on rating, Buscador.  

It was a hole-in-the-wall (sorry Matt), with some outdoor furniture and inside a sectional sofa and a bar made from a slab from a tree, with a place on the customer side that was chipped out…

There was a couple at the bar, in the midst of their tasting.  When K asked what he had the woman said ‘everything is good.”  Hmmm.  

There was a TV high on the wall above the sectional, angled so Matt could watch the NFL playoff game (the snow in New England just made us all feel better).  

Matt, who turned out to be the owner and the vintner, had eight bottles lined up on the bar.  He started K with the Chenin Blanc (unusual but one she likes) and somehow I got to talking (I guess I was bored watching someone else drink) to the couple.  

Turns out he is an inveterate golfer (got to use that word two blogs in a row!) — played 300 rounds last year.  He is a CEO of a company he owns somewhere nearby and he had played golf pretty much everywhere I mentioned.  I didn’t get to Australia, but I”m sure Dennis has been there, too.  He plays Pebble Beach, where we’re going in two weeks, “often” and has a guy there who caddies for him every time he goes up.  He gave me his number and the caddie’s. :)

Then there was his partner (I didn’t actually check their marital status) who turned out to be a schoolteacher of 29 years.  So she had questions about teaching.  She had this big laugh and I kept saying things she thought were funny — I didn’t think it was my best material.  But K texted the kids and said I had been “charming” (I just thought I was talking).  I asked at one point if they’d adopt me and if they had a spare room.)

Meanwhile, Matt is working K along the line of the bottles.  He isn’t saying a lot about the wine, I don’t think he mentioned strawberries or back notes at all, but he knew his stuff, obviously.  He had been an environmental engineer, then his wife died 20 years ago and he did a life change and ended up going into the wine business just about the time the movie Sideways came out.  He said when the movie came out the crowds on weekends went up 100 percent or more and that it went from 40 vineyards in the Santa Ynez valley to 400!!!  He also said the movie ruined demand for Merlot and that it had gotten that wrong in the movie — Miles doesn’t like Merlot bc that was his thing with his ex-wife and now that she’d left him, he associated it with her.  It had nothing to do with the wine. 

As you can tell, we had quite the time, and quite the chat, and Matt gave K tastes of a couple wines he didn’t have out (yeah, I think she had 10 pours there — she doesn’t remember :)) and she ended up taking my credit card and joining Matt’s wine club.  

Matt told a bit about wine-making and how a different vintner would put a different “finish” as a wine goes from cask to bottle.  He said he had his own way of doing it that was “accessible” (WTF does that mean?) and different and which I told K probably meant he used his old undies to filter it.  I was told that wasn’t true.  Huh. 

Then off to dinner.  This was at Petros.  In one of life’s small miracles, I remembered the name of the place from 5 years ago and we had reservations there again.  It’s not only a winery, but the restaurant specializes in Greek food.  It was an excellent dinner. 

We split this salad, which you can see what it had in it…I think (it was dark in there) —

Like almost everything, it had feta on it. 

I had the skewers with rice, which were good. 

K

Had the stuffed chicken, which had feta and something in it, with the Greek spices in and on it. 

They had this version of mousse (adulterated with whip cream) for dessert. 

Shockingly, as I listened to the Bears game on the 2 plus hour drive back to LA, my companion fell asleep about twenty minutes in — just as the Bears were tying the game!!!!  She missed overtime.  And about another hour.

And that was our Sideways day.  No one slurped from the spit bucket or ran the car into a tree, but much fun was had anyway. 

And I move in with Dennis and Danielle next week. 😂

Tomorrow we are going to do some LA tourist stuff. Manana. 

WCT 1.1: whew!

 [WCT is “West Coast Trip”; this is first of the year and the first day.  Clearly, there’ll be more]

We’re in LA.  The purpose (to tamper expectations of glorious food porn, though this morning’s breakfast was pretty good) is to see Purdue basketball.  They played today at USC and then again Tuesday at UCLA. 

For those of you who don’t know. Purdue won the game, 69-64.  They were down 14 in the first half before coming back to lead at halftime, then gave that lead up in the second half only to come back AGAIN and win.  It was a nerve-wracking, maybe even exciting, game, but we can do with something tamer Tuesday.  Please!

FYI: it was a very partisan Purdue crowd.  K guessed 75/25 Purdue, but I’d say closer to 60/40.  But it was more like a neutral court game than a road game. 

About that.  K is an inveterate (I could have used other terms, but I’m trying to be nice in blog one of the trip) listener to Purdue, especially basketball, podcasts.  One of them said there was an event before today’s game for Purdue and she had me get on the alumni site and found it.  It was at a place called the Lab Gastropub and it was RIGHT across the street from the gym.  

We arrived right at noon — starting time of the event — and the place was already packed with people in black (not so much gold).  I was in white.  K was in her yellow tee.  We didn’t get the memo. ):  (at one point as I was standing in the drinks line, two guys yelled back and forth about the choice of black — they were both wearing black Purdue hockey jerseys — saying “not sure it was a good move.”  It was sunny and 80 here today).

The woman who was repping the alumni association of LA talked to us and gave us some swag — K put on a chain of gold Mardi Gras beads and a chain of black — and we got in line and got drinks and were about to stand next to a fence for two hours (all the tables were taken) when she says “I’m gong over to see…” I didn’t hear the rest.  Well, I stood watching several minutes as she and the woman (her name was Laurie, neither of us heard [it was noisy and we’re old] her husband’s name) at the nearest table had a chat.  I finally came over with our drinks and K and Laurie spent the next two hours becoming besties.

Laurie and George (my filler) live two doors down from the Painters (if you don’t know, look it up).  They were staying at the team hotel bc Mrs Painter told Laurie where they were staying.  And they are moving “with” the team to wherever they are going for the UCLA part of the trip (you might ask, why ould you move, it’s like 5 miles?)…inside info. 

Other than the not uncommon experience of K chatting someone up (and getting Laurie’s number), one point here is how many Purdue fans were there.  And standing watching the passing crowd, it looked like a huge number of them going to the game, unaware of this delightful event. :)

Before that, we went to breakfast.  Bc I may want to go back, the name of it was Met Her at a Bar.  If you are wondering, there’s a place across the one street called The Night We Met, and a place across the other way Met Him at a Bar (which seemed to be a real bar).  It was a “cute place” (I was told; I don’t understand such things), but the food was both good and clever. 

Here’s my best pic, of the guy next to me’s breakfast: 

This was called the Flintstones waffle..  You will recognize why.  I didn’t admonish him for not finishing his ice cream…

His companion had this to drink: it is one of their mimosas which you could order with an infused cotton candy ball.  I have no idea, but it looked pretty interesting.  FYI she sucked down three mimosas at 10 in the morning like she was…well, she sucked them down.  I don’t want to lose readers with the possible metaphors there 🤣

We went more mundane. 

That’s their maple waffle and their Eggs Benedict, which, of course, they put on a waffle.  We enjoyed them both.  

And, flashing back, unlike the trip from France last month, yesterday’s flight out went pretty well.  The bad part, the most nerve-wracking, was we sat at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport, on the ground, in the plane, while they figured out if some mechanical thing was okay.  We had an hour and 25 minute layover in Charlotte; we were 55 minutes late leaving Avoca (the name of the town, giving it the designation AVP).  

Of course, originally we were coming in gate B6 and leaving out of B2, but then both changed, so we came into C12 (the farthest down the concourse) to A12, a long way down A concourse.  

We got there in time to walk right into line and board — they were past our group number already.  Whew! 

But it was a nice flight; they gave us drinks and biscotti TWiCE (we got nothing, and LIKED it, from Paris). 

The apartment is in Korea Town (on booking.com is is labeled “Glamorous apartment in Ktown” — I’m wondering how that works, but I guess it does, since we are staying here); I checked the neighborhood out and Reddit wasn’t 100% for hanging out here, but it seems fine.  One multicultural aspect: there’s a Korean BBQ across one street and a Mexican grocery (we went in there last night and had to work on our Spanish) on the other. 

Okay, we are back to the beginning of the trip yesterday.  We get to the airport, check our bags (thank you American Airlines for giving me free bag check), and K goes to the bathroom.  I’m standing, waiting, wearing my Purdue pullover, and this guy comes out, clearly going to wait for his partner, and he’s wearing IU gear.  He said something to start the conversation and then she came out and she had on IU gear (including, and I’m not making this up, a pair of leggings? That went up to mid calf that were red with white IUs all over them!!! :).  Well, K comes out and we talked for several minutes; we found out they had been to the Rose Bowl but were NOT on their way to Miami, they were going to see their daughter run a marathon someplace in Georgia.  So, they said see ya and went to check their bags…

We’re walking away to the escalator to security and K says “remind me who they were”…and I said we’d just met.  “Oh I thought it was someone you knew, a fraternity brother or something.”  😂😂 

And that’s a quick two day blog.  We are having coffee issues (the Korean apartment has a Mr Coffee but neither coffee nor filters and the Mexican grocery had no filters either).  #firstworldproblems.

Tomorrow, wine country.  Manana. 

Top 5 Worst Travel Home Days -- Today's version

 I was done blogging, but K insisted the tale was worthy of a post, and you'd all like to hear it, and then I have time on my hands as she continues her busy social calendar. :)

There will be no pictures and thus no thumbnail.  Unless I pick something random to make it pretty. 

Let's start with the known ugly: Ian's flight out of Nice to Paris Charles DeGaulle airport was at 6 AM.  We knew this and prepared (sort of) accordingly.  We (K went with us) were in the car at 4 and quickly made the 25 minute trip, sans traffic or light, easily.  She cried her good-byes and away he went. 

Likewise, quick, easy return trip.  Despite having done it half a dozen times, I made one wrong turn that I quickly turned around and we were back.  We both went back to bed, wondering if we could go back to sleep.  We did.

We were up and out of the resort at 830, as K wanted, for our 11 o'clock flight.  "You know, there's the rental car to turn in and all..." So, by 920 we were walking into the departure area -- plenty of time.

I look up at the big departure board and K says I said out loud, "where's our flight?!?!"  There was no Air France flight to Paris at 11, to the right airport or not.

I dug out my phone and looked closely at my boarding pass.

We were on the 950 flight!!!!  (getting in at 11)

Merde!

We didn't bother trying to sprint through all we had to sprint through to get to the gate on time (we weren't getting there).  Sigh.

We got in the short line to the Air France counter, got the staff person and she looked us up and said what EH says was a French version of "wow."  😂 

She called someone and offered us seats on their 1:50 flight (our flight from Paris was at 640), which we took.  She also took my credit card for the charge to switch to that plane: not horrible, but X 3 and it adds up. 😢

After sitting and regrouping, doing the math on the connection and our leaving Paris, we were all okay and decided to get breakfast.

If I haven't made this clear, the French aren't big on breakfast.  Petit dejeuner is their thing -- orange juice, coffee, and a bread.  Eggs? No.  For the people who invented both quiche and omelettes, this seems a bit odd, but there it is. 

After some struggle, we found the only open restaurant, and we hoped for real food.  The concierge turned us away until 11.  No eggs he said and you wouldn't find a place in the airport with them. 😢 We ended up eating at a Bread Co., where we ordered the quiche, I asked if he'd warm it up and he thought that was a novel idea, took it in the back for a moment and brought it out -- still cold!  LoL. 

We killed the extra 3 plus hours and got on the Air France flight at 1:50 easy-peasy.  Sigh. 

We got into Paris Orly airport (in case you wonder, it is or-LEE) and our luggage came quickly. 

We even found the train to the other terminal easily enough. 

Then we got to the French Bee check-in area.  Chaos!  There were people everywhere, long lines, and no signs.  A customer rep walked around saying important things in French, none of which I could pick up.  After standing in the long line awhile I noticed an arch that said "US Flights" and no one going through it.  It seemed we were in the line to St. Denis (EH says it's in the Indian Ocean), so we switched, and got passed close to the automated check-in counter.

If you think this is all a lot, you've not heard nothing yet. 

A sign indicated you should be to the airport 2 hours and 30 minutes before you flight; we were spot on.  

We got into the passport line.  The one for non-EU passports was long.  (This would be a reason I would have voted against Brexit if I was a Brit)  While we stood there, in sight of the down escalator that brought us there, a woman's clothing caught in the escalator's teeth and she was being yanked into the end.  The passport staff person rushed over and hit the stop bottom as she was on the bottom step.  I think there was an audible sigh of relief from the crowd.

But the staff person seemed upset by the whole thing and her supervisor came and sent her off (this is a recurring theme) and we no longer had someone directing us.  

I will cut to the chase, skipping several odd and amusing stories, to us getting through passport control in an hour.  They were fingerprinting and taking photos of everyone, and, of course, there were one or two who weren't ready.

Now our cushion was gone and the signs said that our gate, of course the farthest away, was half hour walk.  

We walked.  AS ws closed in, EH and I insisted on stopping at a convenience store and getting drinks and snacks.  There was no time for real food.  K was kind of panicking "don't stop!" but we did and fairly quickly were back at it.

They were already loading our group, 4, when we got to the gate and walked right up to the line and found that they were loading front and back and we were in what they thought was front (not really) and no one was in that line. 

To our seats, the usually jockeying with luggage, etc, but there was room when we got on in the bins and we sat down, ready to go. 

We were a few minutes late leaving, but it seemed ok. 

K was disturbed by the trip, and the whole French Bee (the airline) experience.  She thinks the seats are narrower and with less leg room than "normal."  We discussed various international flights experience.  I agree she was probably right, but only marginally.  That wouldn't be a big deal if a) the guy in front of me didn't decide to do a full recline; b) the staff were as inattentive as possible.  EH and K ended up buying food -- their mozzarella sandwich, which they deemed "not terrible" and not overpriced.  But we got little other service.  Two other tiny cups of water (smaller than juice glasses).  If you could catch one of them, you could get more, but good luck with that.  No one seemed to be using their movies or TV -- I guess everything was dated, or people knew better, or maye the 5 euro (I haven't figured out how to make the sign yet) for earphones was too much.  

Both flights on Sunday they insisted -- the staffer made a point of telling EH, who missed the announcement with her headphones on, to shut down -- that all electronics go off for the final minutes of descent. I put my ipad in the seatback pocket (I guess).

We landed in Newark, jumped up, got all the stuff and got off the plane.  

Doing okay. 

Then we hit passport control again.

The line was huge.  It was not good to be an American, or with a green card, or whatever.  After half hour walk through the cattle shutes, we got to the end and a staffer directed people.  She put us in line 18, behind a couple and a family of 4.

The couple took forever.  I don't know and will never know what happened, but, in the end, the agent shut down line 18, turning the green light to orange, and walked them off, (them) never to be seen again. 

As soon as he did so, K turned to the staffer who directed us and asked if we couldn't be put elsewhere.  "Sure, if you go to the back of the line."

K ended up asking again.  Then wanted me to say something.  I refused.  

The family ahead of us asked us and we said we didn't know. 

In line 19, the agent had some kind of experience, got out of his booth, walked back to those in his line and said "you have your passports?"  Everyone sheepishly held them up.

He turned to us in line 18 and asked us the same question.  We nodded and showed him.  He went back into his booth.

After about 15 minutes, our guy came back, but before going into his booth, came around to us and asked "you do have your passports?" 

He took photos of three of the four ahead of us and only one set of prints.  I was counting. 

When EH handed him our three passports, he gave them a cursory look, and told us to have a nice stay.  

Another hour in a passport control line. 😡

If you think I'm done, no, no, no.

Next, you know there was a snow storm Friday into Saturday on the East Coast, so not only did we come out to the bitter cold (we hadn't seen anything lower than 40 all week) AND snow and ice on the car.

Great.  Cleaned off.

Drive to the exit toll booths, go to one of two marked prepaid (I've gotten into the habit -- saves money) only to have the lines not move. 

Nobody moved.

By this time K is apoplectic with waiting (at this point we've been on the road for 21 hours) and not dealing well with it.

The car in front of me tries to back up (to go where, I have no idea) and a car in the next line backs up, gets out, and comes and jams into OUR line!!!

Eventually an attendant in the lime green vest comes and talks to the second car in the line next to us, and then we see the arm go up and one car finally get out. 

He ended up directing traffic, keeping us from going through too fast, I guess.  I guess in the cold their license plate read system was slow enough to be locking up. 

It might have taken 20 minutes to get through.  Our last nerve.  

The trip home was fine, with a quick convenience store stop for more drinks and some snacks. 

And then we were home. 

Remember the part about putting away electronics?  I went to pull out my iPad yesterday morning and...

Well, I left it on the plane.  It's the only answer.   "Find My..." app doesn't show it.  

French Bee said to email them at lost and found in Newark and I did, but I haven't heard back.  Morte de IPad. 😢

Apple

I was told it was an expensive trip home 😡😁

So, there you have it.  Enjoy our pain.  See you next time -- next month. 

The Last Day );

 For those of you who are living a vacation vicariously through us, and there some of you who worry me you are too invested, we have come to the all-but-the-travelling-back end. 😭😭😭

Today began, again, THE FORAGE FOR FOOD!!!!  It’s been a real issue here…

First, we found a pharmacy, for me; in and out and away we went, back to the old village, where someone (I really don’t remember who) thought a restaurant served breakfast. 

Holy effing moly!  Of course there was a Christmas market set up there and there were police and cars and…a lot.  After parking (another minor challenge), we found an elevator up two stories to street level. And made our way through all these vendors, and there was straw on the ground (atmospherics, I hope) and…the restaurant was not serving breakfast during the fair. 😡

We ended up getting food from the vendors: KG and I had sandwiches made with cheese melted off the wheel onto the sammy. Highlight. 

Then we took off to Menton, which is on the Italian border. 

More mountain views were had. 

After struggling to find parking again (it was crazy busy, too), we walked the promenade and got to the Jean Cocteau Museum (don’t ask me) but it wasn’t open till 2.  

We had a drink and the waiter talked them into trying the mille foil (sp) dessert, it had chestnut mousse in the middle (they love their chestnut here).

Knocked out the museum in no time, walked a ways, and, while I wasn’t there, the 3 of them decided “we” were going to the Basilica, which was visible up a very step hill.  I was told “it was only 7 minutes.”

Later, EH added “Google maps said ‘fairly flat.’” Lies!!

More than 7 minutes later we wheezed into the courtyard of the basilica.  Here’s the money shot from up there, toward Italy. 

Back down was easier and we headed back to Mougins. 

As is tradition, we had EH’s birthday dinner tonight (it’s as close as we can get).   We had to go back to the old village to do so, and K insisted we get a taxi.  So I asked the front desk to get us one.  He was there waiting at the right time and he took us the mile up the hillside to the front drive of the village.  We go to get out and he says “card?” and I say cash and he says something and both KG and I need a repeat.  According to KG when I heard it my response was a squeak of “Thirty!”  Yes, 30 euros for a mile.  Ouch. 

It took me awhile to recover from that.  It might have been the fifth course before I was really into it. 

The restaurant, which has had a Michelin star for awhile, is called La Place de Mougins.  I don’t know what his thing is, but tonight there were 3 set menus: beef, lamb, or “worldly pigeon.”  We wondered if that wasn’t a mistranslation, but for what?  In the end, KG had the pigeon, I had the beef, and the other two had the lamb.  Here’s their pictures.

and the desserts.  This is K and EH’s — a variation of what they had earlier, a mille foil but this time that filling is bergamon (sp)

KG. and I got a coconut and a chocolate cake thing.  The chocolate one was the bomb. 

It was like 6 courses and three amuse bouches and several variations among us, so there are too many pictures.  

We agreed it was quite good, though KG rather regretted the pigeon.  He thought it lacked taste.  

As we left, we were invited down to meet the chef, which we did.  I was disappointed he didn’t offer some coupon or something, but c’est la vie.

We ubered back.  It was half the price!!!  😁

KG has a 6 AM flight out of Nice tomorrow, so we are hitting it early tonight.  It has been another fun and memorable trip.  

Bon voyage!

NB: next trip is next month to SoCal…