LAst Day

 Today was the “big” day in LA: the reason we came here — the Dodgers game. 

But first. 

 

We had brunch in Manhattan Beach at the Café Wild (never got a clue about the name), which was quite good.  They had full English breakfast, which I had. 

 

Then there was this walk down to the beach.  Which was lovely.  As you can see, not really a cloud in the sky.  And we walked past a pot bellied pig going for its morning walk.  We were told it took the climb fine.  Fat sow! 

 

We survived our morning cardio climbing the hill and took off for “LA.” 

 

Stop one was LA Country Club, host of the US Open in two years.  I whipped in like I owned the place.

 

And the security guard in the kiosk cut me off like I didn’t!!! 😡 We didn’t get in.  So much for that cool souvie (and sale).

 

Next was UCLA campus.  RR’s initial impression was it was very “urban” (not surprising, really), but as we drove around it became less so.  I survived the mascot chewing my arm

And we moved on.

 

Stop number…was at Goorin’s hat shop.  It wasn’t terribly far away, and on the way we went through Beverly Hills and into LA proper.  I will state the obvious — from what we could see from the road, there are some beautiful and huge houses in Beverly Hills.  I think I even saw a cement pond! 😁

 

The Goorin stop has been a tradition since a vacation to New Orleans ca 2012? When M, EH and I all got new hats in their shop not far from Jackson Square there.  M & I got one in Seattle in ’14, but I don’t think we bought one in San Fran in ’16, though we looked. 

 

Y’day, RR got one to go with the straw hat she got for her birthday last month.  As you can see, it “matched her top”, which was a big selling point.  So was the fact they didn’t have another in their warehouse in her size.  It IS a sharp-looking hat. 

Then to Santa Monica pier. 

 

I whipped into the parking garage in the Wyndham (across the street from the entrance to the pier) like I owned the place.  And got away with it. 😁

 

The pier is a very kitzchy place, with all kinds of entertainment (yesterday a magician, a guy playing steel drums, and someone making animals from balloons), the usual treats for such places (we had ice cream, OC, for lunch) and the ocean.  It was a spectacular day and Water was a gorgeous aquamarine, as you can see in this picture back to the rides. 

 

Then to the ballpark. 

 

Dodger Stadium is in “Chavez Ravine,” which gives you some idea of the architecture of the place.  We had to fight a red line on Google maps the whole last 8 miles, then six lanes of traffic up the hill through the ticket kiosks, then down the hill to our parking place.  But not too far down the hill.  

 

The stadium sits against a ridge so that out the one side you can see downtown LA, which the centerfield side faces the ridge, with its famous view of it and palm trees. 

 

I do not think I have ever been in a stadium where you go in on the upper level, then walk down (or take the elevator) to get to the field level seats.  Maybe on the first level, but not up where this was.  An interesting use of the topography. 

 

Two things: there were 48,000 there to see the Pirates!   Wow.  And they all wore Dodger gear.  Which RR commented was NOT competitively priced in their shops.  

 

And they eat a lot of hot dogs.  According to a news article, they eat 2 hot dogs a piece (as in they may have consumed 96,000 last night).  There are endless “Dodger dog” sites throughout the park, and they all had long lines!  WTAF! ???  In fact, they even had a foam Dodger dog for sale in the shop. 💁

 

We enjoyed the place immensely — maybe it was the enthusiasm of the crowd, the near perfect weather, the quality of the game (won in the 8^th by the home team, 2-1), or some unrecognized quality of the park, but we agreed it was high on our list after 27 parks (the current if-I-have-to ranking is San Fran, Dodgers, Nationals, San Diego & Camden; bottom would include Tampa, Mets, Yankees, Cubs and KC).  

 

Here are shots of the field from way up where you can see the skyline the other way, and the skyline. 

 

 

And then we were back to our final night in the hotel and then an early flight…okay 845 isn’t that early but to get there we left the hotel at 530. 

 

And now back from LaLa Land. 

 

We loved LA.  Cue Randy Newman.  And talked about going back, in part since there’s a long list of things we still haven’t seen. 

 

Till next time. 

Sunday in LA

 Okay.  Before telling about our day, I have to give some background.

I said in Day 1 that we were here for our anniversary.  But the big focus was seeing a game at Dodgers Stadium, #27 in our quest to see a game at all 30 MLB parks.  The Dodger game is Monday night (they were in NYC for the weekend). 

So, everything after was “filler.”  RR contacted our nephew, who lives in Huntington Beach, and that “filled” Sunday.  Wine country one day and…eventually, Dwight Yokum tickets Friday.

So, Saturday night at dinner we asked what we were doing before our dinner in HB and we saw that Angels tickets were only $6! So, we went to the Angels game. 

On our second visit to the old park (1965) I decided it was okay.  I even kind of liked the faux rocks and waterfall in centerfield. It helped that we had good tickets (though in the blazing, 90’ sun) and it was good game, won 3-1 by the Angels. 

Then to HB.  

It is what you’d expect of a beachy place.  Acc to NB (our nephew), it claims to be the first place they surfed on the continental US.  I’m always attracted to tee shirt shops with all the pithy sayings.  I will go with this one as one I took a picture of:

But here’s a couple of shots of the pier and the beach, so you get the vibe.  Very what one might think of SoCal. 

We had dinner at a place a block from the beach.  I award them zero food porn shots.  It was the worst service I had had in a long time…I had to chase someone down TWiCE to get my great nephew ketchup (he’s a California kid — rolled up on his scooter :)).  And then had to chase someone for the bill.  The food wasn’t bad, just okay, but getting ignored, or whatever was going on, wasn’t a winner. 

And that was all I’m saying about our anniversary.  Oh, yeah, there was a bottle of “sparkling wine” bought in Los Olivos, which we opened when we got back to the hotel and toasted and celebrated. The memorial picture.

We discussed all the years, how happy we’d been, and how fast they had gone.  and drank faux champagne out of (as you can see) reused plastic cups.  😂

Now, to back up, bc RR can’t believe I didn’t tell this story, which has been the source of some amusement for two days.

Saturday on the way north, having eaten one donut (my hands were free) we were sailing down I-405 when there suddenly was a complete halt — slam on the breaks!  And everyone is jockeying around, at fairly high speed, and I’m trying to figure out what to do and where to go with five lanes of chaos. 

RR gives a blood curtling scream! I told her later I wondered if I was going to survive the crash that was clearly coming.  She said “didn’t you think about me” and I said that in the next nanosecond I realized —

It was a bug!!!

Took five years off my life and deafened me temporarily in my right ear.  

There was another, slightly less blood curtling scream later, for which I was sort of prepared. :)

FYI I did not see this infamous bug until two hours later when we got out in Santa Barbara and a large green beetle fell out of the car onto the ground.  Dead.  

five years of my life.  I’m not kidding. 

Later…

Sideways from LA

 Today was road trip to *Sideways* day and RR took full advantage. 

If you’ve never seen the movie (let alone read the book), our two “heroes” (cough double cough) go on a journey from LA to Santa Barbara County wine country for the one’s “bachelor weekend.”  The protagonist, Miles, is an obnoxious wine-lover and they go to many places tasting wine and generally being mildly obnoxious.

We went there. 

First we stopped for Randy’s donuts.  Pictured. 

She had six different “tastes” at the place in Santa Barbara and we hustled off to real wine country — near Los Olivos, which is central to the movie, where we had a reservation for tasting #2.  There were 7 tastings there, not that anyone was counting.

It is worth noting that I was freezing sitting outside in Santa Barbara.  It was 70 with a healthy sea breeze. It was 93 and dry in Los Olivos.  I was no longer cold. :)

I went to the bathroom in Santa Barbara (I”m not going to start recounting ALL of these). Here was the poster on the wall there. 

I was unaware that Santa Barbara was the “American Riviera.”  We even walked down to the pier there and looked, and I took pictures, etc.  The American Riviera is a significant downgrade from the French one.  Just sayin’

Aside: as I sat watching people during the tasting in Santa Barbara, a BMW 3-series pulls up in front of the expensive (I looked it up, they wanted $700 for tonight, cheapest rate) and this guy, maybe 30 gets out.  He opens the trunk and pulls out a guitar bag (not a hard sided case) and comes back around and I realize that he’s wearing plaid pajama bottoms.  And a tee shirt.  We attributed it to “California.” 

Back to Los Olivos.  I had a charcuterie and cheese plate for “lunch”…and called the next place to say we were late for our appointment. 

At place #3, which was on a hillside with nice views and trees jutting through the deck boards, RR had some unknown number of tastes.  On two donuts and less than half of the charcuterie thing.  She kept saying, and I’m not making this up, that first one tree was beautiful and then that she loved it.  I was a bit worried, as I come from a long line of tree worshippers. 

We never made it to place #4.  In part because Adam, the server at place #3 (am I really supposed to remember the name of all these places that I hope I never return to; I mean, Santa Barbara County is okay, but it’s really NOT the Riviera, and the inland part isn’t the Napa Valley, or Loire Valley, or even the Finger Lakes.  

Adam was the real life equivalent of Miles.  In fact, he actually discussed Miles’s love of the pinot grape (which Miles says, and it’s true, are notoriously hard to grow, so much so that Adam admitted they couldn’t grow them on the property laying in front of us — too hot and dry).  Miles…errr, Adam, explained the microclimates of where we sat as well as those 5 miles away, in Santa Barbara and even Catalina Island (many, many miles away)…I am pretty sure he said their syrah had a bit of a back nose of broccoli.  Or words to that effect. 

We left there and visited Fess Parker’s place, famed in the movie, which we had visited in our previous visit in 2016, and then to a smaller, quainter, prettier place own the road.  

Then we were in time for our dinner res.  At a winery, of course. Food porn. 

We shared all of the above.  And something they call “mousse” for dessert which was very good but which I would NOT call mousse. Ah, well…

And I drove home, with no screams in my now deaf right ear that foretold imminent death…or a bug. 

Life is sometimes a bit sideways. 

Manana. 

A Day in LA

 Yes, folks, we are on another trip.  This one we justify (bc even we think we may have travelled too much this summer) by it being our annual anniversary trip (obviously NOT done last year) and it’s an anniversary year that divides by 5.  Oh, yeah, and 10.  Yikes. 

Los Angeles was not the first choice.  But getting into an out of Europe is still iffy and neither Bermuda nor Canada were open open.  So, LA.  “To see a ballgame.”

Now, day 1.  I don’t want to bury the lead: The experience of the Dwight Yocum concert was just weird and crazy! 

Bc we’re not doing details here (it’s supposed to be short), I’ll go with the bullet points:

• It took us over 2 and a half hours to go 45 miles, including 45 minutes to go the last 2!!!
• We never saw the warmup act!
• Having not had anything since lunch (see pics below), we grabbed a quick bite b4 going in and had cold hot dogs (and not good ones) and bad lemonade that cost $40 for what RR called “the worst meal dollar for dollar of my life”
• We both got our butts pinched by a complete stranger during the concert! She explained (is that what we call it?!?!) that she liked to pinch random butts!!!!!!
• The guy next to me decided me, the woman on his other side, and I paid money to hear him talk and not Dwight Yocum sing 😡
• We parked so far away that we walked into the next county (apropos since it was the county fair) to and from our car. 

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, it was a fine day.

But, to the beginning, we began by walking from the hotel to Enterprise to get the rental car.  We experienced the “LA is not a city for walkers” but since it was only .8 mile, it was okay.  At the time it was 70ish.

Then to Griffith Park.  And the iconic observatory.  The views are amazing.  Funny story: RR wanted to park at the first spot and “walk up.”  😃 It turned out to be 1.6 miles straight up.  I drove us to the parking lot at the top. 😂  We got a picture of the two of us in front of the Hollywood sign, but we were so early that nothin was open.  Only in LA can an iconic tourist site not open till noon!

From there we went to Pasadena (for those of you needing help with LA geography, we are staying at the airport (almost literally) in the southwest corner of the city and Pasadena is very much the northeast corner — over an hour away on a good traffic day. 

RR found this place in midtown Pasadena for brunch.  La Grande Orange.  She had the short rib hash, I had the chiliquiles (sp).  They were great.  Here’s your food porn:

Good thing it was good and large — it was our only sustenance for the day. 

Then to the Huntington Library and Museum and Gardens.  I wanted to see the place, where I looked into doing work in the summer of ‘98 but went to the British Library instead.  The friendly docent said they had the 2nd most books of any library in the US.  We doubted. 😃  Although they don’t think it’s their most famous/best painting, this one by Gainsborough was my favorite:

I have no pictures of either the immense grounds and gardens, nor the immense buildings.  The main house was purportedly 35,000 square feet, but said docent said it was actually bigger.  Yeah, you need bigger. (Huntington was a railroad mogul of the Golden Age — he built the place in the early 1900s.)

Then to the hotel, a nap, and off to Dwight.

When we bought the tickets, on whim, having found them on StubHub during another search, the 45 minute trip seemed easy.  But before we left the hotel the Google Map (GM) showed a red line down the interstate for miles with +35.  Which became at one point. +41. 😡 ONce we got past that clog, it turned out there was another clog, worse, at the off ramp from the highway into the fair grounds.  It is the weeks of the Orange County Fair and it was sold out last night.  I know because no less than a dozen signs said so.  The concert was on the edge of the fair grounds, so…many, many, many cars.  No one knew what to do. Life was good. 

We got to the venue gate and my StubHub app didn’t work. 😡  We got in and people were milling around — it was 830 and the show started at 730.  We got in the shortest line for food and drink and were handed hot dog buns and told to get the dogs from the guy handling the grill.   He warned that they werent done, but I said I like mine undercooked (true) and he gave me one.  I took one bite and it was cold like straight out of the refridgerator.  Same face.  RR waited “a couple minutes’ for hers and it still wasn’t “hot.” 

We got to our seats, which you can see weren’t bad, about 5 minutes b4 Yocum came on. Or is it Yokum? Never mind.  As for his concert, it was okay.  First, for reasons his mumbling into the mike didn’t clarify, he covered 3 or 4 “Merle” songs.  Including Okie from Muskogee.  Then he stopped a couple times to remind us that a) he had a baby now a year old last year (he’ll be 65 in October), b) he spent two weeks last summer in covid quarantine.  He tried to tell us to be careful about our freedom AND safe…a mixed message I could have done without.  But he hit his high notes, he still has a good voice, and his lead guitarist was brilliant. Rah rah. 

So, day 1 done.  Butt pinched, cold hot dog, and sick of Google red lines already. 

I love LA!!! 🎶

Bethpage (Black (&blue) & Red)

 Thursday and Friday my friend Josh (pictured below) and I made the trek to central Long Island for a chance at playing “the People’s Golf Course,” aka Bethpage Black.  

As you may know, Black was built in the 30s by the WPA and designed by famed (rightly) architect AW Tillinghast.  He also designed the less famous Red course and the Blue — which has undertaken extensive changes since the mid 30s. 

As the sign below indicates, the Black course is infamously hard.  

No report on the Black course is worthwhile without a discussion of the difficulty of getting onto the course.  Non-residents (aka “us”) can try to get a tee time online 5 days ahead of time at 7 PM.  AS in, Saturday for the next Thursday.   At exactly 7 PM on Saturday there was ONE tee time! 5 PM.  Josh got it. !!!  (if that didn’t work, then you either wait at the gate at 430 Thursday morning or walk up later and home there’s an available time).  By the time we got to Bethpage, we had swapped tee times back from 5 to 2:40 — the weather looked awful (look at those clouds in the background of the picture).

Okay, the Black is remarkably, but not originally, hard.  First, it is very long — from the old man tees it was 6200 yards (the course I played on Monday OTOH was 4100 and played to a higher par!).  Second, the rough is extraordinarly penal.  You were lucky to find your ball (we did, all of them) but even if you did, you had no chance of getting on the green, because (as the picture shows you) there are many sand traps guarding the greens (a Tillinghast thing) And they are big and deep and penal.  It was a long day of laying up out of the rough, or sometimes the fairway, and trying to hit a wedge shot close enough to save par.  

You have to walk the Black.  We took a caddy, named Michael, who was a recent college grad who was making money for grad school.  At $90 per bag, plus tip, he did alright on gathering coin to go on to grad school.  He carried both bags, FYI.

To get to the point, it is a long walk.   It is also very hilly, as can be seen by this picture toward the clubhouse from the 18th tee. 

Finally, you may wonder about the weather: we started in dry but threatening conditions; I put on my rain slicker on 2 in a light rain and took it off when it stopped on 4, and we played to 15 before it came down hard.  And the last 4 holes are exceptionally long and hard.  We weren’t soaked when we finished, but plenty wet. 

I took 20,000 steps on the day, twice what someone recommends to be fit.  I was more than doubly fit when it was over. 

I did NOT enjoy the Black.  Josh seemed to revel in the masochism.  When I told our playing partners Friday (we had none Thursday) that I was both damaged in body and in psyche, they agreed that was a correct interpretation. 

Then, to the supposedly easier Red. 

First, we looked all week on the website, from Sunday at 7 till even during the round on Thursday and after (Josh famously asked in the middle of a hole whether a 612 tee time was okay and I said yes and he responded “damn! too late!” ), without success.  We showed up at 7 am Friday without a tee time.  But on the board were several times for the Red; the first was at 1120.  We OC took it.  We killed the time with putting, watching people tee off, breakfast (the food there is pretty good, if, not surprisingly on LI, pricey) and watching the USWNT live from Tokyo in a match that went happily to penalty kicks, as we were killing time. 

The picture of 18 shows that it was a much different day on the Red — burning sun the whole day. 

The Red from the old man (is that “OG”?) tees is only 100 yards shorter than Black.  Supposedly.  But the course is much more playable, mainly because the rough is not penal.  I hit my first tee ball into the left hand rough and was able to hit it on the green from 150 yards uphill.  No way you even try that on the Black.  

The Red is notorious because most of the par 4s have doglegs and I thought a preponderous of right hand ones (which was more comfortable for me as I was working the ball well from left to right).  The 13th, a shortish par 4, has bunkers down the CENTER of the fairway, on a rather straight hole.  None of the par 3s was particularly memorable and there were only 2 par 5s (the most memorable hole on the Black is the par 3 8th, set over a pond, the only water on any of the courses, we were told).  

You also got to ride carts on the Red, which didn’t speed up the round as the course was full (unlike in the threatening rain the afternoon before).  

Is the Red the great course that the Black probably is? No.  But it is much more playable and “fun” (though Josh liked the pain of the Black) than its big sibling. 

All in all, the Bethpage facility is quality and quantity golf.  There are 5 courses there.  And the price tag is not so high — the Red was only $90 plus cart.  Which isn’t bad for NYC area quality golf. 

It is worth the journey to homage to Mr Tillinghast (and by extension President Roosevelt)’s work; to say you played a top US public and a place where they’ll play the Ryder Cup in 3 years.  And to stand in front of a warning sign and then say “I survived the Beast that is the Black!”