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.