A very belated update.
What's this? Could it be? Is John writing once again? Oh my friends, am I ever. It has been far far far too long since I've posted here, but soon you'll see why.
I had thought about giving you all a blow-by-blow account of my week in California last month, but let's face it. Unless you're able to write it out in realtime, accounts of vacations can quickly become tedious and boring. After being virtually absent from the blogosphere for eight weeks, that's the last thing I want to do to you guys. So now, with that said, here's the condensed version of my trip last month.
After a slight delay, I left DFW International with my mom, Nanna, Uncle Mike, and cousin, ryan, (Mike's son), on Saturday night. We arrived in Santa Barbara just after 8:00 local time. We were all pretty tired, so we went straight to our hotel-type room things after we landed. All of us had been pretty groggy on the flight, but california greeted us all with forty mile per hour winds and temperatures in the lower fifties. Needless to say we woke up rather quickly.
Our whole excuse for coming to California in the first place was essentially to see how my Aunt nancy was doing. She had moved to Santa Barbara awhile back and had only returned to Louisiana when Paw-Paw's health started to go south. (I guess that was in 2006 or so when she moved back home.) While there, she became close with an old beau of hers, and they were engaged sometime around Christmas. I don't know if they ever actually set a wedding date or not, but tragically her fiance died of a sudden heart attack while walking their dog, only a day or two before Nancy's birthday. (This was maybe two or three months into their engagement.)
With Paw-Paw's passing in December, this has been an unimaginably hard time for her. I think though that she's finally ready to move on with things, and her moving back to Santa Barbara was what she needed to do at this point in her life. But basically that's why we'd tossed around the idea of going out there. I think initially it was going to be just Nanna and my mom, but more people wanted to go, and I'd never been out there, so why not? Wow that's too many commas.
A friend of hers is co-owner and manager of the Harbor House Inn, which can best be described as a bed and breakfast. these California bungalows were built back in the 1910's, but they've been renovated significantly so as to properly accommodate the contemporary services and amenities that weary travelers demand. But since they were good friends, our family was given a slight discount.
My Aunt Susanna and her son, John, my youngest cousin, wouldn't be coming in until Wednesday night. So ryan and I ended up staying in the smaller of the two rooms we had rented, while Mom and Nanna took the larger room, and Uncle Mike stayed with Nancy at her apartment. Once we were all settled, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight or so, which meant that I had enough time to catch the last hour of the MarAmy Show from March 15 before getting some sleep.
Much of the next day was spent adjusting to the time change. Ryan and I weren't even stirring really until 10 or 10:30. Once Mike and Nancy came by, we all walked over to a quaint restaurant overlooking the harbor. The weather that entire afternoon was simply perfect. There was a strong northerly breeze blowing, but the sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool, and the stupid pigeons were trying to get my cobb salad! Ok, so they weren't really, but it sounded amusing, so I wrote it. There I go with the commas again. Hmmm. I should really work on that.
Each Sunday there is some sort of art walk thing where local artists set up shop along Cabrillo BLVD. (Here's a link for anyone who for whatever reason is interested in that sort of thing.) After lunch, we walked around there for the next few hours. Now you can all imagine that, with me being such the art enthusiast that I am, how painfully boring this was. However the weather altogether made it better than a letter from the sweater of an ice-cold Dr Pepper, so I really did enjoy myself. To avoid some of the most frivolous froo-froo, I stuck with Uncle Mike and Ryan for much of the afternoon-noon. Oh no. I can't believe I just wrote that. Noon-noon? John needs a second spring break, and quick!
Once we had gotten that mes out of the way, it was of course time to eat again! nancy recommended The Brewhouse, which had quite the touristy feel to it. Though I was quite tempted by the nachos grande and the Brewhouse enchiladas, I managed to avoid the evil foods and had a fourteen-ounce pork chop topped with a apricot chipotle glaze and grilled pineapple. It came with what my aunt referred to as a "forest of broccoli." And it was certainly a large portion of the fibery goodness, I must admit.
She did say that this place had killer cheesecake, so we had to order a slice, along with some tiramisu. I had a bite or two, and it definitely did not disappoint. The cheesecake in particular was unique in that it had a tinge of some sort of habanero or chipotle sauce on it. Quite a contrast, yes, but it was a good one.
Once we had finished, we returned to the hotel. Ryan was pretty much ready to head out on the beach, and I think the rest were about ready to call it a night. I kinda wanted to head out myself, but I had a twelve-paged paper due at 8AM that coming Monday. Believe it or not I actually did get some work done that night. Even so, I was still eager to adjust to the time change. So I called it a relatively early night.
I woke around 6AM the next morning just as Ryan was getting in. Before he crashed he told me he had arranged a dinner date with one of two drunken Texas girls he'd come across late the previous night. The amusing element of this whole thing is that he was reduced to using Nanna's phone during the week, as he is on a TMobile plan which only covers the southeastern part of the country. So this potential fling of his has his grandmother's number and not his own.
Today Mike, Ryan, and I would be heading for Los Angeles, so needless to say that was another factor in my being a shut-in Sunday night. If I'm going to be mugged in broad daylight, I want to be awake for it, dag nab it! But in the meantime, John was hungry! Mike and Ryan wouldn't be over for awhile, which gave me plenty of time to lounge in the other room and drink me some coffee. fortunately Mom and Nanna were up when I went over. After we'd each had a cup or two of coffee, we went out on the boardwalk to take in the early morning.
Since we landed Saturday night, there had been a brisk prevailing wind out of the north. It wasn't until this morning that it finally subsided. I still was wearing a light jacket constantly, but it was now it was at least bearable. In its wake, it left many palm branches scattered everywhere. On the ground, on the grass, all around, all in mass. If it was feasible, I might have tried to bring one or two back, but I'm lazy, and I wouldn't have had room anyway, cuz John packs very efficiently.
After the walk, we came back to the room around 8:30 or so. Mike didn't show up until almost 10, by which time Mom and Nanna left to go do some shopping. We gave Ryan a few more minutes, but we needed to beat as much of the L.A. traffic as we could. So we gave him a proverbial poking around 10:30 so we could be on the road by 11. Neefless to say he was sleeping in the car on the way to Los Angeles.
As was the case for the entire duration of the trip, there were sushi places everywhere. I personally have nothing against sushi. I quite like it in fact, but could someone tell me why it's as popular as it is? I just don't get it!
Ryan was insisting on having some, so Mike and I headed next door to a Thai restaurant while he indulged in some, uh, raw fish wheels. I'm still not all that well-versed in Asian cuisine. So I stuck with my default Asian dish, Mongolian beef. Overall I'd have to say it was pretty good, though it wasn't as spicy as I'm accustomed.
for the next few hours we perused the various guitar shops along the Sunset strip. Since I am a bassist and not so much a guitarist, there wasn't a lot I was really interested in. My next musical purchase will most likely be an acoustic bass, so I looked at what little selection I could find to at the very least gauge the different makes and models. Ibanez seems to be the best bang for the buck so far, but I'll keep looking.
Once we'd had our fill of the various guitar shops, we jumped back in the car and began driving around aimlessly for the next few hours. While we did so, we came across a brand new Jaguar which had a license plate that read: "MRAAOP," or something to that effect. We saw this car on our way into perhaps the only convenience store in Los Angeles County to pick up a few drinks. Unfortunately when we came out, it was gone, so alas no pictures were taken. But wow was that amusing!
After a bit more driving around, we decided to scope out some of the nearby waterfronts. First we went to The Santa Monica Pier, but we weren't all that impressed. Venice Beach proved much more interesting. I didn't even realize until after the trip just how eclectic that place was. the one notable attraction that we did get to witness firsthand was Harry Perry. he was this guy on roller skates, wearing a turban, and playing the guitar. Need I say more? I dropped twenty bucks to get a copy of one of his CD's, along with a poster and a T-shirt. Unfortunately I left the shirt in our rental car, but the CD has already been featured on the March 24 edition of The John Zone.
By the time we'd had our fill of Venice Beach, it was about 7:00, and we still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I think if Ryan could have had it his way, we'd just stroll up and down the pier all night drinking and hanging out with the homeless people, who were far less crazy than your typical homeless crowd. And truth be told, I wouldn't have minded that course of action so much. However, I like sleep, and I like being indoors when I do so. After some more searching, we found two places open: a Holiday Inn Express and The Marriott.
Needless to say we ended up staying at The fabulous Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Talk about swanky! The price may have been a bit more than we had expected to pay. But I don't even want to think of what might be going down at a Holiday Inn Express in downtown L.A. True, similar things would probably also be going down at the Marriott, but they would be done more discretely.
By the time we had booked a room and had gotten everything settled, we were starving. None of us had eaten much of anything since the Thai-sushi fest from earlier that day. We'd hoped to find something independent of the hotel's dining options, as you can only imagine how expensive that might be, but unfortunately we couldn't find anything. And so it was that, at 9:30 on that lovely Monday evening, we found ourselves reclining on several couches in a quaint outdoor lounge with warm fireplaces everywhere and relaxing colipso music playing through powerful but nonobtrusive speakers disguised as rocks. Their food was nothing to write home about, or even blog about for that matter, but I liked it. And given all of the running around we'd done that day, I couldn't complain in any way, shape, or form about the fried calamari I had.
Mike and Ryan didn't care too much for this particular dining experience. I did agree with them both about the service not being all that great, especially when you consider the fact that we didn't really order that much to begin with: just some calamari for myself and some shrimp quesadillas for the two of them. But there was another reason, particularly in Ryan's case, that I guess soured the experience for them. I won't go off onto a long tangent on the matter. But for those who don't know, state liquor laws in Louisiana and California are a bit different from one another. Apparently in Louisiana, an individual can purchase alcohol at a restaurant at the age of eighteen if he or she is with a parent. In California, this is not the case. And when Ryan was carded upon asking for some sort of adult beverage, he didn't take it too well.
I was a good Clower and didn't even really have my first drinking experience until I was twenty-one. (See this entry from December 17, 2005 for more details on my first foray into the land of alcohol.) So while Ryan and Mike were slightly put off by that incident, I found it kind of amusing. But I only mention the fact that I didn't drink until I was twenty-one to illustrate that this is why I'm not all that familiar with the various state liquor laws. Because by the time I started to drink, I was already twenty-one and had no need to worry about such things.
The next morning I awoke around 7AM and took care of the mundane morning routine, befitting a Clower such as myself. Uncle Mike and I both knew full well that Ryan wouldn't be up for awhile. So while we waited for him to stir, we helped ourselves to the complementary coffee in the room while watching some coverage of Barack Obama's speech in response to the whole Jeremiah Wright debacle. After an hour or so of that, Ryan still wasn't showing any signs of life. So while he slept, we went downstairs to partake of the breakfast buffet.
This buffet had some selection, as is customary for buffets in general. Sausage, cheese, ham, fresh pineapple, and a manly omelette were mine for the taking. It wasn't until this unexpected gorging that I realized just how little I'd had to eat the previous day. And even though Ryan was a bum and slept in till after 9, we brought him back an omelette, piled high with jalapeños. Oh no! Jalapeños and coffee? LOOK OUT!
We were back on the road shortly after 10:00 to indulge my lone site-seeing request. There was one thing and one thing only that I had my heart on seeing while we were in California. Don't get me wrong: everything up to this point was wonderful, as would be everything afterward. But in Hawthorne, California, meerly seven miles south of Los Angeles International Airport, lies the ever-popular Beach Boys historic landmark. It is more or less a large brick structure standing at 3701 West 119th Street, on the site of the childhood home of Brian, Dennis, and carl wilson. The plaque on this monument reads:
It was here in the home of parents Murry and Audree that Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson grew to manhood and developed their musical skills. During Labor Day Weekend 1961, they, with cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, gathered here to record a tape of their breakthrough song "Surfin'." This marked the birth of the rock group known worldwide as the Beach Boys and the beginning of an historic musical legacy that would change the recording industry. The music of the Wilsons broadcast to the world an image of California as a place of sun, surf and romance. Brian Wilson would become a legendary producer, arranger and songwriter.
I was hoping for a tourist trap, complete with overpriced Beach Boys' shirts and caps and shoes and lawn chairs, but none were forthcoming. Instead all I have to show for the excursion are a few pictures of myself in front of the landmark. Nothing too exciting, I know. But you guys all know how huge a Beach Boys fan I am. It made for a wonderful experience, and an inexpensive one, too, which is always a plus.
Shortly before noon we were heading back north to Santa Barbara once more. I think ryan slept for a good portion of the ride back, but I was still buzzed off of the two cups of coffee I'd swigged down earlier. So I was wide awake when we pulled up to the small parking lot of our hotel-type condo thing around 1:30.
Since we had yet to really explore State Street, we opted to check it out for much of the afternoon. We stopped at a wonderful Italian restaurant which had seating right there practically on the sidewalk. Our waiter was particularly awesome. he wanted us to "keep an eye out for his wife." This amounted to one of us calling out "Hey, there's your wife," when a beautiful woman was walking along the street in front of the restaurant, so he could turn and presumably have a good look. After the relatively uninspired service we'd received Monday night at the Marriott, he was a wonderful change of pace.
The rest of the afternoon marked one of the highlights of the entire trip for me. After we'd walked about two miles down State Street, we turned around and began walking south. ALong the way we came across a used music store, where I bought the first season of Chappelle's Show and the second season of King of The Hill on DVD. Combined, I think I only spent thirty-two bucks. Not bad at all by my standards. I'd have picked up a few Eagles' CD's as well, but they were far far too expensive, wonderful as they may be.
Around 4:00, we stopped in at a Starbucks so we could get our token afternoon caffeine fix. Both Mike and ryan got some froo froo sugary coffees, while I went with a nice French roast, black of course. By this point we were getting relatively close to our temporary place of residence. The street was becoming crowded with venders and the like, as Santa Barbara often has a sort of out-door market, which shuts down State Street for several hours each Wednesday and Sunday night.
There were street musicians out with tip jars in hand, including one homeless woman who was playing classical music on some sort of keyboard. I have no idea what model, and because I'm not a nerd when it comes to such things, I really didn't care to ask. But what we came across next almost defied description. It was a man with a rat riding on a cat riding on a dog. When the dog would trot, the cat would stand up. When the dog slowed down, the cat laid down on the dog's back. It was the most amazing thing ever!
We snapped a few pictures, which I'll upload at some point. But when we got back to our room, we were overjoyed to find this video and this video on Youtube. How awesome is that?!
That night was fairly slow. Mom, Nanna, and Nancy had plans to go somewhere. ryan wanted to go perusing potential womens, but I was pretty exhausted. So Mike and I ended up staying put until Mom and Nanna came back from wherever it was they had been. I needed to get some work done on that pesky Roman history paper anyway. There was also some sort of serial killer special on A&E which was quite interesting. Kind of freaky at the same time, but interesting nonetheless.
By 10:00, I was back in the room I shared with ryan. I actually got some work done and was fairly productive for a little while. But then I got caught up in checking on the latest Dallas Mavericks news, so that was the end of that. Oh well. It had been a long day, but a good one.
Wednesday was a very relaxing day, much in the same manner as the previous three had been. I slept in until about 8:30 this particular morning and helped myself to a couple hard boiled eggs and two cups of coffee after showering and heading over to the room Mom and nanna shared. Today we were going to the wine country, which meant Ryan would be staying behind. I don't know why he passed on it though. I mean come on! free wine? Who could turn that down?
Just after 11:00, we drove out to The Cold Spring Tavern. This was a really awesome place. For one, the food was wonderful. I had me a big ole bowl o' chili and wow was it amazing! But it wasn't just the food. This whole restaurant had at one time been an authentic stage coach back in the late nineteenth century. Well, scratch that. I'll just be lazy and post the description from the website.
The Cold Spring Tavern began as a stagecoach stop in 1886. The physical appearance of the Tavern has been protected by a series of owners and most recently by Adelaide Ovington and her daughter Audrey. They purchased the Tavern in 1941. It has been operating as a restaurant/tavern continuously since that date.
Many famous people have been to the Tavern over the years. One movie and several television programs were filmed here. When asked why the fact that many Hollywood stars visited the Tavern was never publicized, Audrey's answer was, "... Honey, .. That's why they come."
The current owners are Joy Ovington Wilson and her husband, Wayne. They have said that they will carry on the traditions of the Tavern and will endeavor to protect the Tavern for the enjoyment of future generations. "It's a tremendous responsibility but we will do our best.
I actually had to correct something. On that final quote, 'tremendous' was spelled 'tremedous'. And who says Californians are smart? They left out the n! That's discrimination or something! Ok, maybe it isn't. But they made a good bowl of chili, so I'll forgive them this time. But if they ever do this again, rest assured that Kung Fu Docta will be rivid!
for the next few hours we drove around stopping at various wineries to partake of their bounty. I'd list the various wines we tried and where, but to date I'm just not much of a wine connoisseur, so in truth I don't remember. All I know is, red wine is better than white. Always has been, always will be! End of story! But unfortunately, not the end of this entry!
I did some work on the way out and on the way back. That stupid paper. It must die, I tells ya! But on the way back we stopped off at this point along the highway where there was a striking precipice on the edge of a cliff that went straight down to the water. Mom and Uncle Mike took a few pictures. I didn't necessarily see what was so fascinating about that particular spot, but I guess the view was unusually appealing to them.
Aunt Susanna and my youngest cousin John were coming in tonight. So once we were back at the hotel-inn-bungalow, I went online to check on the status of their flight. To our communitive dismay, we were shocked and appalled to discover that they were scheduled to be three whole minutes later than expected! But since they wouldn't be in for another two hours anyway, we decided to hit up one of the restaurants along the wharf.
Would someone please explain to me what the difference is between a wharf, a pier, a dock, a promenade, and a boardwalk"? To me they just seem interchangeable. It's pretty obvious I'm making this entry as detailed as possible, but properly distinguishing these structures is too tedious, even for this Clower. Ok, moving on now.
At this particular restaurant, I finally broke down and tossed the diet away for the week. I had a cheeseburger basket type thing with two jack and cokes. It wasn't the best meal or the best drink I'd had, and the service could have been a bit better. But I hadn't eaten all that much in the last day. And aside from the wine from several hours earlier, I hadn't had a drink since the January 13 re-airing of The January 11, 2008 MarAmy Show. Suffice it to say that jack tasted good!
The next few hours were relatively uneventful. We sat around in the hotel-inn-condo-room Mom and Nanna shared. Nancy left just after 8 to go pick up Aunt Susanna and John from the airport. (Their flight was scheduled to get in around 8:30 or so.) Earlier that week Nanna had picked up about eighty dollars worth of chocolate from somewhere on State Street. Since I had already blown the diet quite convincingly, I helped myself to about ten bucks worth over the course of the rest of the evening.
Nancy, Aunt Susanna, and John returned around 9:15 or so, by which time I was exhausted. After I welcomed them, i went to what was now the room I would share with Uncle Mike, Ryan, and John. Of all the nights so far this week, this was the one in which I crashed the hardest. I vaguely remember Ryan coming in or going out, I can't say for certain, around 1:30 in the morning. Other than that, it was a very sound sleep for yours truly.
Thursday was probably the quietest day of the week. nancy wanted us to meet some of her co-workers. So here we were at 9AM, in our t-shirts and jeans, traipsing into a semi-distinguished law firm like a herd of Brazilian black-headed spider monkeys. We were only in there a few minutes, though, as we didn't want to disrupt matters more than was necessary to properly embarrass our beloved aunt. So once we did that, we headed back to the beach to lounge around a bit.
Ryan and John opted to stay on State Street for awhile, since John hadn't been able to explore the local culture just yet. Tomorrow we'd be spending the day at Magic Mountain, and Saturday would be largely spent on Balboa Island. So while they walked around, the rest of us returned to the condo-hotel-house-room to get a few chairs so we could relax on the beach. For my money, the beaches in Florida are far nicer, but these weren't too bad. I brought out the trusty Iriver, just in case I decided to take me a nap out there. I didn't, but it was good to have a dose of Little Britain when my mom and Aunt Susanna started talking about shopping and the like.
We met up with Ryan and John shortly before noon. By this time we were quite the hungry family, so we ventured back to that open-air restaurant that we'd had lunch at that previous Sunday. I once again had a wonderful cobb salad, complete with a whole mess of peanuts and a beverage of a diet nature. The pigeons were relatively tame this afternoon. But hey, I guess they can be on vacation, too, right?
This originally was going to be our surfing day. Ryan had done this once before and said it was a lot of fun. However, things really didn't work out for us this time. Even though our instructor was the daughter of Johnny Rivers, she didn't seem to follow up on much of anything. On Tuesday she had apparently EMailed Mike asking if we could reschedule, when she knew full well we were already in california and didn't exactly have a lot of time to check our EMail, particularly work-related EMail. On top of all that, John (my cousin, not me) was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing. Plus, it was March in california. the water was even more freezing than usual. I don't mind a Harry Perry T-shirt, but hypothermia is not a souvenir that I'd like to take home.
After we had finished at the restaurant, most of the group wanted to jump on some bikes and check out The Santa Barbara Zoo. I needed to take care of some work. And that being the case, I hung back at the condo-room-hotel-inn while the family went biking and zooing. I ended up being in quite the productive mood. I think I wrote a good four pages on that paper over the course of the next few hours.
By 5:00 though, the laptop battery was dead, and I was pretty papered out. Conveniently that's about the time when everyone returned from the zoo. Apparently after riding in one of the baskets on the way there, John convinced Nanna that she could ride in it on the way back. Now I am told that pictures were taken of this feat, and wow do I wish I had them for you guys. But alas, I do not. Maybe I can bug various relatives when we're down in Florida, so's I can upload them somewhere. Oh well.
That night we all piled into the rented Armada and drove out to the house of one of Nancy's good friends for perhaps the only home-cooked meal we'd have this week. Ryan and I soon found a horribly cheap guitar which we tried in vain to tune, and a fridge full of beer! I was slightly disappointed with the initial selection, but we did find a few bottles of Heineken, so I was satisfied.
The dinner itself was quite nice: steak and salad and the like. Afterward we sat around and talked for a few hours. Tales of Nancy's Californian exploits abounded, and the five-year-old daughter of the friend performed some ballet-type dancing before we left around 9 or 9:30. Tomorrow was to be our epic trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. So for once I was determined to call it an early night. And I did! And it was good.
The room was kind of crowded now that Mike and John were sleeping there as well. But somehow I managed to avoid tripping over anyone when I got up the next morning to shower and such. Or wait, maybe I did kick Ryan a couple of times. But he didn't wake up, so there's no proof!
I took it easy on the strong coffee this morning, as I really didn't want to have that swirling around in my system during flip-flopping roller coasters. It would have been really interesting to get the mics out and get some stereo recordings of spinning around in some of the larger coasters. If I had more than one set, I might have tried it. But today was about having some fun, and the last thing I needed was to be burdened down by recording equipment.
Similarly to Wednesday's trek to the wine country, Ryan opted to stay behind again for today's excursion. So it was just Mike, John, and yours truly who arrived at Magic Mountain just after 11:00. Well to be fair, there were another few thousand people I guess. But clearly we were the only three that mattered, right? Well? Huh? Ok.
Our first ride experience didn't start off all that promising. We wanted to progressively work our way up to the largest coasters, since the lines for the most popular rides would be the most obnoxious. Therefore our first choice was Déjà Vu, which is said to be the largest boomerang roller coaster in the world. From the lovely description offered up by the ever-infallible Wikipedia, the ride consists of "inverted floorless coaches suspended beneath an overhead track," which "traverse an open-circuit track forward and in reverse -- featuring two completely vertical drops and three inversions."
When we were about ten minutes from the front of the line, the ride broke down. By this time it was almost 1:00 and we were debating whether to break for lunch or to wait out the repairs. As it turned out, we didn't have to wait more than a half hour before patrons were allowed back on the coaster. It was quite a fun one, too, but I don't think it was worth a ninety-minute stint in line.
The Let's Go and Get Lunch ride was almost as long. John and I secured a table for the three of us while Uncle Mike went to the local foodery to pick up some lunch. It took half an hour for him to order the food and another twenty minutes before he was given the food. He told us later that the girl taking his order didn't speak a word of English, and the manager had to be brought over just so he could translate that we wanted two chicken strip baskets and a cheeseburger! I'm sorry. If you can't speak English well enough to understand that, you shouldn't be working behind the register.
For whatever reason, there were a bunch of French tourists at a table nearby. I tried to be rude and eavesdrop on what they were saying, but I couldn't hear them well enough to get more than a word here and there. Oh well. More ride's were calling, like Viper. This ride was a giant seven-inversion steel roller coaster featuring the world's highest 360-degree loop." And I was not expecting that loop either! Don't you love fun surprises like that? My only gripe with this coaster was that it was a fairly short one. When you're spinning vertically at a starting height of 188 feet, you need to keep going, dag nab it!
All of that spinning and looping made us hungry, so we stopped off for some dipping dots before making our way to The Riddler's Revenge. This was the second best coaster of the day, though perhaps the longest wait. While we were in line, there was this obnoxious techno trance beat going over the loudspeakers. I need to record an approximation of it to see if Maria or Cortney or Vanja might recognize it. Maybe some of you have some trance know-how as well, but those three are the only ravers I know of. Anyways, this particular ride is venerated for being the world's tallest, fastest and longest stand-up roller coaster, complete with six loops on 4,370-feet of steel track. Wow was this one worth the wait. Never had I screamed so girlishly.
the last ride we rode was my favorite of the day. Goliath is a steel hypercoaster featuring an opening drop of 255-feet into a subterranean tunnel. Need I say more? For those who are familiar with the Superman ride at Six Flags over Texas, it's quite similar to that ride, though while Superman: Tower of Power begins at 325 feet, Goliath has a longer singular freefall. Both are amazing though, and well worth going on if anyone ever happens to venture to either theme park.
There were two other rides we wanted to go on, namely X² and Ninja. However the former wouldn't open until May 30, and the latter was down for maintenance. That had to be my only real problem with the park. Too many rides were down when we were there. Overall though, it was a wonderful experience, and it definitely outdid any shopping venture on State Street.
We made it back to Santa Barbara around 8:00. The three of us were starving. And because Santa Barbara sucks in that they have no fast food establishments whatsoever, we stopped in at Rusty's Pizza Parlor. That greasy goodness really hit the spot, too. John went to play some of the arcade games while Mike and I talked for a few minutes. The place was going to close at 9, anyway. So suffice it to say we weren't there too long.
When we did get back to the hotel-inn-condo-room-bungalo, I was about ready to crash. I found to my delight that we still had a bit of the candy left that Nanna had purchased earlier in the week. The candy had been neglected over the course of the last day or two, but rest assured John made up for that in short order. After a hefty dessert though, I was ready to call it a night. Much of the day tomorrow was to be spent at Balboa Island, to visit a friend of my mother's. She's a bit on the wealthy side to put it mildly, but her and her husband really are wonderful people.
waking up the next morning I could hardly believe it had already been six days. They'd gone by so quickly, and yet I was still looking forward to returning to Denton. Now I was not looking forward to the prospect of finishing the paper during Easter afternoon, but such things couldn't really be avoided at this point. Well, unless I wanted to bail on the class that is. But despite all of the work that I had waiting for me, it would still be good to get back home.
We left for Balboa Island shortly after 10:00 after a wonderful light breakfast of coffee, eggs, and candy! I didn't really say much on the way to the island. Instead I was huddled in the backseat with my laptop, very much in hyper-paper writing mode. I now had the thing up to nine pages, which meant that I'd just need to do some trimming when I returned to Texas. We did have some traffic to contend with, but that's Orange County for you. Even with all that, we still made it to Balboa around noon.
After taking a quick tour of their house, we headed to the harbor for one amazing lunch aboard their boat. The boat itself was covered with retractable windows and very comfortable bench seating around a large but stirdy table. The spread was fairly ordinary, but was it ever good: typical sides of chips, potato salad, fresh fruit, and vegetables, along with about two dozen sandwiches on croissants and an ice chest full of beer. I've gotta say, I couldn't really think of a lunch that could have topped that. We Clowers are very easy to please.
We must have stayed out in the harbor a good two hours. When we made it back to shore, Ryan and I sat down on a retaining wall that ran near one of the piers, while the others walked around and did various boring things. I don't think they went shopping or anything like that, but I didn't pay much attention. Instead ryan and I talked over a couple of beers for the next half hour or so.
I think this was the first time really that it suddenly hit me. Ryan wasn't a kid anymore. Now we're only separated by four-and-a-half years here, so it isn't as if I've ever really been the scary older cousin. But drinking a beer with the guy and talking college and post-college life was very surreal for me. I still remember the days of yelling at him for pulling my hair when I was six and he was two. I still remember the days when all of us kids would go to Toys Are Us with Paw-Paw in '91 and '92. I still remember the first time he came with us to throw garbage down the shute in Perdido Key, Florida back in 1997. And now I feel old just reflecting on all this. But it's a sign of the times, you know? And now I'm rambling.
After we bid our farewells, we left around 4:30. I didn't get all that much work done, as my battery gave out about twenty minutes into the car ride back to Santa Barbara. When we finally did get back, I headed to the room I shared with Ryan, Mike, and John to plug in the laptop and at least knock out one more page before I started packing.
Even though we'd eaten ourselves stupid, we all were getting hungry around 6 or so. Upon the recommendation of Mike, John, and myself, we ordered a few pizzas from Rusty's to serve as our final meal in California. There were some leftovers in the fridge to take care of as well. I think by that point I'd knocked out most of mine, but you can't say no to free food, or hot pizza for that matter.
After dinner, Mike and I watched part of this Rick James DVD he'd bought for Nancy last Christmas. nancy had said this was bad, but we had no idea. It was just awful! Perhaps he was just having an off night, but what an off night it was! The guy had virtually no stage presence, and an ego that wouldn't quit. Overall, not a winning combination. Mike had also brought with him a couple of Tom Petty live DVD's. The Petty concert was much much better. It was sort of a concert/biography. Hmm, I guess that would make it a bio-pic. But it was very well-done.
We must have watched those until after 9:00 I guess. Our flight the next morning was to leave at 6AM, which meant that we needed to be up no later than 3:30. I had been packing off and on while we watched the Petty documentary-type thing, so I was ready to go. Unfortunately sleep was not as forthcoming as I'd have hoped. Lounging in the sun all day eating sandwiches and drinking beer isn't exactly a physical work-out. Go figure.
I did manage to get to sleep shortly after 11, but my watch battery decided to die during the night. 3:30 came and went, but when 4:00 came, I was ready! I took down that hour so hard you'd have thought it was 5:00! It probably doesn't come as any surprise that the whole morning is kind of a blur. I was ready in time to grab a cup of coffee, but I held back on the fiber bar for obvious reasons. Oo I think I grabbed some cheese, too. Then next thing I know, we're in the Armada heading for the airport. Oh yes, that's right. Reverend BigDawg was going on an airplane. AGAIN!
The airport was much more crowded going out than it had been when we came in. I'm not sure why that was the case. I mean if anything I'd assume that it would be virtually empty on Easter Sunday morning. Oh well. I was too hyped up on coffee and Diet Coke to mind all that much. Though there was this annoying witch who kept harping the tellers and the clerks, as if they chose to work at 5:30 Easter Sunday morning.
I did some Roman reading while we flew. With the roaring of the engines and the fact that I was pretty burnt out, I'd be lying if I said that I got a lot done that morning. But I did get a few things written, and it was more productive than listening to my music collection during the entire flight. I thought about messing with the King of The Hill DVD's, but things were crampt enough as it is.
We landed in Dallas around 11:00 local time. During the descent, my ears popped in the worst possible way. Only once had they ever popped this badly, and that had been during our trip to new York back in February of 1996. Mom and I saw Nanna, Susanna, Mike, Ryan, and John off at their terminal. Then we gathered our luggage and tossed them in the car. As luck would have it, Steve's flight landed some fifteen minutes after ours. So while I sat in the car knocking my head this way and that, trying in vain to get my ears to cooperate, Mom went to get Steve.
By 1:00 we were back at home once again. Never in my life had I been so exhausted, well, with the possible exception being that forty-four-hour day where I had to deal with three finals and a presentation. For more info on that stressful week, see this entry from May 12, 2007. After I did some very preliminary unpacking, I flopped down and took what must have been a five-hour nap. If I didn't have a few things to do that night, I might have just slept straight through till Monday. However I was a good Clower and did take care of some minor edits to my paper, which was now eleven or twelve pages in length. It may not have been flashy, but it was a good anticlimactic ending to an amazing and certainly memorable Spring Break.
I know that was a bit brief, and I do apologize. Things have just been too hectic around here for me to catch up with a lot of you, and consequentially my blog has had to suffer as well. But with classes winding down, I'm going to make a concerted effort to be around more.
And my cousin John turns thirteen today! Wow do I feel old.
I had thought about giving you all a blow-by-blow account of my week in California last month, but let's face it. Unless you're able to write it out in realtime, accounts of vacations can quickly become tedious and boring. After being virtually absent from the blogosphere for eight weeks, that's the last thing I want to do to you guys. So now, with that said, here's the condensed version of my trip last month.
After a slight delay, I left DFW International with my mom, Nanna, Uncle Mike, and cousin, ryan, (Mike's son), on Saturday night. We arrived in Santa Barbara just after 8:00 local time. We were all pretty tired, so we went straight to our hotel-type room things after we landed. All of us had been pretty groggy on the flight, but california greeted us all with forty mile per hour winds and temperatures in the lower fifties. Needless to say we woke up rather quickly.
Our whole excuse for coming to California in the first place was essentially to see how my Aunt nancy was doing. She had moved to Santa Barbara awhile back and had only returned to Louisiana when Paw-Paw's health started to go south. (I guess that was in 2006 or so when she moved back home.) While there, she became close with an old beau of hers, and they were engaged sometime around Christmas. I don't know if they ever actually set a wedding date or not, but tragically her fiance died of a sudden heart attack while walking their dog, only a day or two before Nancy's birthday. (This was maybe two or three months into their engagement.)
With Paw-Paw's passing in December, this has been an unimaginably hard time for her. I think though that she's finally ready to move on with things, and her moving back to Santa Barbara was what she needed to do at this point in her life. But basically that's why we'd tossed around the idea of going out there. I think initially it was going to be just Nanna and my mom, but more people wanted to go, and I'd never been out there, so why not? Wow that's too many commas.
A friend of hers is co-owner and manager of the Harbor House Inn, which can best be described as a bed and breakfast. these California bungalows were built back in the 1910's, but they've been renovated significantly so as to properly accommodate the contemporary services and amenities that weary travelers demand. But since they were good friends, our family was given a slight discount.
My Aunt Susanna and her son, John, my youngest cousin, wouldn't be coming in until Wednesday night. So ryan and I ended up staying in the smaller of the two rooms we had rented, while Mom and Nanna took the larger room, and Uncle Mike stayed with Nancy at her apartment. Once we were all settled, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight or so, which meant that I had enough time to catch the last hour of the MarAmy Show from March 15 before getting some sleep.
Much of the next day was spent adjusting to the time change. Ryan and I weren't even stirring really until 10 or 10:30. Once Mike and Nancy came by, we all walked over to a quaint restaurant overlooking the harbor. The weather that entire afternoon was simply perfect. There was a strong northerly breeze blowing, but the sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool, and the stupid pigeons were trying to get my cobb salad! Ok, so they weren't really, but it sounded amusing, so I wrote it. There I go with the commas again. Hmmm. I should really work on that.
Each Sunday there is some sort of art walk thing where local artists set up shop along Cabrillo BLVD. (Here's a link for anyone who for whatever reason is interested in that sort of thing.) After lunch, we walked around there for the next few hours. Now you can all imagine that, with me being such the art enthusiast that I am, how painfully boring this was. However the weather altogether made it better than a letter from the sweater of an ice-cold Dr Pepper, so I really did enjoy myself. To avoid some of the most frivolous froo-froo, I stuck with Uncle Mike and Ryan for much of the afternoon-noon. Oh no. I can't believe I just wrote that. Noon-noon? John needs a second spring break, and quick!
Once we had gotten that mes out of the way, it was of course time to eat again! nancy recommended The Brewhouse, which had quite the touristy feel to it. Though I was quite tempted by the nachos grande and the Brewhouse enchiladas, I managed to avoid the evil foods and had a fourteen-ounce pork chop topped with a apricot chipotle glaze and grilled pineapple. It came with what my aunt referred to as a "forest of broccoli." And it was certainly a large portion of the fibery goodness, I must admit.
She did say that this place had killer cheesecake, so we had to order a slice, along with some tiramisu. I had a bite or two, and it definitely did not disappoint. The cheesecake in particular was unique in that it had a tinge of some sort of habanero or chipotle sauce on it. Quite a contrast, yes, but it was a good one.
Once we had finished, we returned to the hotel. Ryan was pretty much ready to head out on the beach, and I think the rest were about ready to call it a night. I kinda wanted to head out myself, but I had a twelve-paged paper due at 8AM that coming Monday. Believe it or not I actually did get some work done that night. Even so, I was still eager to adjust to the time change. So I called it a relatively early night.
I woke around 6AM the next morning just as Ryan was getting in. Before he crashed he told me he had arranged a dinner date with one of two drunken Texas girls he'd come across late the previous night. The amusing element of this whole thing is that he was reduced to using Nanna's phone during the week, as he is on a TMobile plan which only covers the southeastern part of the country. So this potential fling of his has his grandmother's number and not his own.
Today Mike, Ryan, and I would be heading for Los Angeles, so needless to say that was another factor in my being a shut-in Sunday night. If I'm going to be mugged in broad daylight, I want to be awake for it, dag nab it! But in the meantime, John was hungry! Mike and Ryan wouldn't be over for awhile, which gave me plenty of time to lounge in the other room and drink me some coffee. fortunately Mom and Nanna were up when I went over. After we'd each had a cup or two of coffee, we went out on the boardwalk to take in the early morning.
Since we landed Saturday night, there had been a brisk prevailing wind out of the north. It wasn't until this morning that it finally subsided. I still was wearing a light jacket constantly, but it was now it was at least bearable. In its wake, it left many palm branches scattered everywhere. On the ground, on the grass, all around, all in mass. If it was feasible, I might have tried to bring one or two back, but I'm lazy, and I wouldn't have had room anyway, cuz John packs very efficiently.
After the walk, we came back to the room around 8:30 or so. Mike didn't show up until almost 10, by which time Mom and Nanna left to go do some shopping. We gave Ryan a few more minutes, but we needed to beat as much of the L.A. traffic as we could. So we gave him a proverbial poking around 10:30 so we could be on the road by 11. Neefless to say he was sleeping in the car on the way to Los Angeles.
As was the case for the entire duration of the trip, there were sushi places everywhere. I personally have nothing against sushi. I quite like it in fact, but could someone tell me why it's as popular as it is? I just don't get it!
Ryan was insisting on having some, so Mike and I headed next door to a Thai restaurant while he indulged in some, uh, raw fish wheels. I'm still not all that well-versed in Asian cuisine. So I stuck with my default Asian dish, Mongolian beef. Overall I'd have to say it was pretty good, though it wasn't as spicy as I'm accustomed.
for the next few hours we perused the various guitar shops along the Sunset strip. Since I am a bassist and not so much a guitarist, there wasn't a lot I was really interested in. My next musical purchase will most likely be an acoustic bass, so I looked at what little selection I could find to at the very least gauge the different makes and models. Ibanez seems to be the best bang for the buck so far, but I'll keep looking.
Once we'd had our fill of the various guitar shops, we jumped back in the car and began driving around aimlessly for the next few hours. While we did so, we came across a brand new Jaguar which had a license plate that read: "MRAAOP," or something to that effect. We saw this car on our way into perhaps the only convenience store in Los Angeles County to pick up a few drinks. Unfortunately when we came out, it was gone, so alas no pictures were taken. But wow was that amusing!
After a bit more driving around, we decided to scope out some of the nearby waterfronts. First we went to The Santa Monica Pier, but we weren't all that impressed. Venice Beach proved much more interesting. I didn't even realize until after the trip just how eclectic that place was. the one notable attraction that we did get to witness firsthand was Harry Perry. he was this guy on roller skates, wearing a turban, and playing the guitar. Need I say more? I dropped twenty bucks to get a copy of one of his CD's, along with a poster and a T-shirt. Unfortunately I left the shirt in our rental car, but the CD has already been featured on the March 24 edition of The John Zone.
By the time we'd had our fill of Venice Beach, it was about 7:00, and we still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I think if Ryan could have had it his way, we'd just stroll up and down the pier all night drinking and hanging out with the homeless people, who were far less crazy than your typical homeless crowd. And truth be told, I wouldn't have minded that course of action so much. However, I like sleep, and I like being indoors when I do so. After some more searching, we found two places open: a Holiday Inn Express and The Marriott.
Needless to say we ended up staying at The fabulous Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Talk about swanky! The price may have been a bit more than we had expected to pay. But I don't even want to think of what might be going down at a Holiday Inn Express in downtown L.A. True, similar things would probably also be going down at the Marriott, but they would be done more discretely.
By the time we had booked a room and had gotten everything settled, we were starving. None of us had eaten much of anything since the Thai-sushi fest from earlier that day. We'd hoped to find something independent of the hotel's dining options, as you can only imagine how expensive that might be, but unfortunately we couldn't find anything. And so it was that, at 9:30 on that lovely Monday evening, we found ourselves reclining on several couches in a quaint outdoor lounge with warm fireplaces everywhere and relaxing colipso music playing through powerful but nonobtrusive speakers disguised as rocks. Their food was nothing to write home about, or even blog about for that matter, but I liked it. And given all of the running around we'd done that day, I couldn't complain in any way, shape, or form about the fried calamari I had.
Mike and Ryan didn't care too much for this particular dining experience. I did agree with them both about the service not being all that great, especially when you consider the fact that we didn't really order that much to begin with: just some calamari for myself and some shrimp quesadillas for the two of them. But there was another reason, particularly in Ryan's case, that I guess soured the experience for them. I won't go off onto a long tangent on the matter. But for those who don't know, state liquor laws in Louisiana and California are a bit different from one another. Apparently in Louisiana, an individual can purchase alcohol at a restaurant at the age of eighteen if he or she is with a parent. In California, this is not the case. And when Ryan was carded upon asking for some sort of adult beverage, he didn't take it too well.
I was a good Clower and didn't even really have my first drinking experience until I was twenty-one. (See this entry from December 17, 2005 for more details on my first foray into the land of alcohol.) So while Ryan and Mike were slightly put off by that incident, I found it kind of amusing. But I only mention the fact that I didn't drink until I was twenty-one to illustrate that this is why I'm not all that familiar with the various state liquor laws. Because by the time I started to drink, I was already twenty-one and had no need to worry about such things.
The next morning I awoke around 7AM and took care of the mundane morning routine, befitting a Clower such as myself. Uncle Mike and I both knew full well that Ryan wouldn't be up for awhile. So while we waited for him to stir, we helped ourselves to the complementary coffee in the room while watching some coverage of Barack Obama's speech in response to the whole Jeremiah Wright debacle. After an hour or so of that, Ryan still wasn't showing any signs of life. So while he slept, we went downstairs to partake of the breakfast buffet.
This buffet had some selection, as is customary for buffets in general. Sausage, cheese, ham, fresh pineapple, and a manly omelette were mine for the taking. It wasn't until this unexpected gorging that I realized just how little I'd had to eat the previous day. And even though Ryan was a bum and slept in till after 9, we brought him back an omelette, piled high with jalapeños. Oh no! Jalapeños and coffee? LOOK OUT!
We were back on the road shortly after 10:00 to indulge my lone site-seeing request. There was one thing and one thing only that I had my heart on seeing while we were in California. Don't get me wrong: everything up to this point was wonderful, as would be everything afterward. But in Hawthorne, California, meerly seven miles south of Los Angeles International Airport, lies the ever-popular Beach Boys historic landmark. It is more or less a large brick structure standing at 3701 West 119th Street, on the site of the childhood home of Brian, Dennis, and carl wilson. The plaque on this monument reads:
It was here in the home of parents Murry and Audree that Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson grew to manhood and developed their musical skills. During Labor Day Weekend 1961, they, with cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, gathered here to record a tape of their breakthrough song "Surfin'." This marked the birth of the rock group known worldwide as the Beach Boys and the beginning of an historic musical legacy that would change the recording industry. The music of the Wilsons broadcast to the world an image of California as a place of sun, surf and romance. Brian Wilson would become a legendary producer, arranger and songwriter.
I was hoping for a tourist trap, complete with overpriced Beach Boys' shirts and caps and shoes and lawn chairs, but none were forthcoming. Instead all I have to show for the excursion are a few pictures of myself in front of the landmark. Nothing too exciting, I know. But you guys all know how huge a Beach Boys fan I am. It made for a wonderful experience, and an inexpensive one, too, which is always a plus.
Shortly before noon we were heading back north to Santa Barbara once more. I think ryan slept for a good portion of the ride back, but I was still buzzed off of the two cups of coffee I'd swigged down earlier. So I was wide awake when we pulled up to the small parking lot of our hotel-type condo thing around 1:30.
Since we had yet to really explore State Street, we opted to check it out for much of the afternoon. We stopped at a wonderful Italian restaurant which had seating right there practically on the sidewalk. Our waiter was particularly awesome. he wanted us to "keep an eye out for his wife." This amounted to one of us calling out "Hey, there's your wife," when a beautiful woman was walking along the street in front of the restaurant, so he could turn and presumably have a good look. After the relatively uninspired service we'd received Monday night at the Marriott, he was a wonderful change of pace.
The rest of the afternoon marked one of the highlights of the entire trip for me. After we'd walked about two miles down State Street, we turned around and began walking south. ALong the way we came across a used music store, where I bought the first season of Chappelle's Show and the second season of King of The Hill on DVD. Combined, I think I only spent thirty-two bucks. Not bad at all by my standards. I'd have picked up a few Eagles' CD's as well, but they were far far too expensive, wonderful as they may be.
Around 4:00, we stopped in at a Starbucks so we could get our token afternoon caffeine fix. Both Mike and ryan got some froo froo sugary coffees, while I went with a nice French roast, black of course. By this point we were getting relatively close to our temporary place of residence. The street was becoming crowded with venders and the like, as Santa Barbara often has a sort of out-door market, which shuts down State Street for several hours each Wednesday and Sunday night.
There were street musicians out with tip jars in hand, including one homeless woman who was playing classical music on some sort of keyboard. I have no idea what model, and because I'm not a nerd when it comes to such things, I really didn't care to ask. But what we came across next almost defied description. It was a man with a rat riding on a cat riding on a dog. When the dog would trot, the cat would stand up. When the dog slowed down, the cat laid down on the dog's back. It was the most amazing thing ever!
We snapped a few pictures, which I'll upload at some point. But when we got back to our room, we were overjoyed to find this video and this video on Youtube. How awesome is that?!
That night was fairly slow. Mom, Nanna, and Nancy had plans to go somewhere. ryan wanted to go perusing potential womens, but I was pretty exhausted. So Mike and I ended up staying put until Mom and Nanna came back from wherever it was they had been. I needed to get some work done on that pesky Roman history paper anyway. There was also some sort of serial killer special on A&E which was quite interesting. Kind of freaky at the same time, but interesting nonetheless.
By 10:00, I was back in the room I shared with ryan. I actually got some work done and was fairly productive for a little while. But then I got caught up in checking on the latest Dallas Mavericks news, so that was the end of that. Oh well. It had been a long day, but a good one.
Wednesday was a very relaxing day, much in the same manner as the previous three had been. I slept in until about 8:30 this particular morning and helped myself to a couple hard boiled eggs and two cups of coffee after showering and heading over to the room Mom and nanna shared. Today we were going to the wine country, which meant Ryan would be staying behind. I don't know why he passed on it though. I mean come on! free wine? Who could turn that down?
Just after 11:00, we drove out to The Cold Spring Tavern. This was a really awesome place. For one, the food was wonderful. I had me a big ole bowl o' chili and wow was it amazing! But it wasn't just the food. This whole restaurant had at one time been an authentic stage coach back in the late nineteenth century. Well, scratch that. I'll just be lazy and post the description from the website.
The Cold Spring Tavern began as a stagecoach stop in 1886. The physical appearance of the Tavern has been protected by a series of owners and most recently by Adelaide Ovington and her daughter Audrey. They purchased the Tavern in 1941. It has been operating as a restaurant/tavern continuously since that date.
Many famous people have been to the Tavern over the years. One movie and several television programs were filmed here. When asked why the fact that many Hollywood stars visited the Tavern was never publicized, Audrey's answer was, "... Honey, .. That's why they come."
The current owners are Joy Ovington Wilson and her husband, Wayne. They have said that they will carry on the traditions of the Tavern and will endeavor to protect the Tavern for the enjoyment of future generations. "It's a tremendous responsibility but we will do our best.
I actually had to correct something. On that final quote, 'tremendous' was spelled 'tremedous'. And who says Californians are smart? They left out the n! That's discrimination or something! Ok, maybe it isn't. But they made a good bowl of chili, so I'll forgive them this time. But if they ever do this again, rest assured that Kung Fu Docta will be rivid!
for the next few hours we drove around stopping at various wineries to partake of their bounty. I'd list the various wines we tried and where, but to date I'm just not much of a wine connoisseur, so in truth I don't remember. All I know is, red wine is better than white. Always has been, always will be! End of story! But unfortunately, not the end of this entry!
I did some work on the way out and on the way back. That stupid paper. It must die, I tells ya! But on the way back we stopped off at this point along the highway where there was a striking precipice on the edge of a cliff that went straight down to the water. Mom and Uncle Mike took a few pictures. I didn't necessarily see what was so fascinating about that particular spot, but I guess the view was unusually appealing to them.
Aunt Susanna and my youngest cousin John were coming in tonight. So once we were back at the hotel-inn-bungalow, I went online to check on the status of their flight. To our communitive dismay, we were shocked and appalled to discover that they were scheduled to be three whole minutes later than expected! But since they wouldn't be in for another two hours anyway, we decided to hit up one of the restaurants along the wharf.
Would someone please explain to me what the difference is between a wharf, a pier, a dock, a promenade, and a boardwalk"? To me they just seem interchangeable. It's pretty obvious I'm making this entry as detailed as possible, but properly distinguishing these structures is too tedious, even for this Clower. Ok, moving on now.
At this particular restaurant, I finally broke down and tossed the diet away for the week. I had a cheeseburger basket type thing with two jack and cokes. It wasn't the best meal or the best drink I'd had, and the service could have been a bit better. But I hadn't eaten all that much in the last day. And aside from the wine from several hours earlier, I hadn't had a drink since the January 13 re-airing of The January 11, 2008 MarAmy Show. Suffice it to say that jack tasted good!
The next few hours were relatively uneventful. We sat around in the hotel-inn-condo-room Mom and Nanna shared. Nancy left just after 8 to go pick up Aunt Susanna and John from the airport. (Their flight was scheduled to get in around 8:30 or so.) Earlier that week Nanna had picked up about eighty dollars worth of chocolate from somewhere on State Street. Since I had already blown the diet quite convincingly, I helped myself to about ten bucks worth over the course of the rest of the evening.
Nancy, Aunt Susanna, and John returned around 9:15 or so, by which time I was exhausted. After I welcomed them, i went to what was now the room I would share with Uncle Mike, Ryan, and John. Of all the nights so far this week, this was the one in which I crashed the hardest. I vaguely remember Ryan coming in or going out, I can't say for certain, around 1:30 in the morning. Other than that, it was a very sound sleep for yours truly.
Thursday was probably the quietest day of the week. nancy wanted us to meet some of her co-workers. So here we were at 9AM, in our t-shirts and jeans, traipsing into a semi-distinguished law firm like a herd of Brazilian black-headed spider monkeys. We were only in there a few minutes, though, as we didn't want to disrupt matters more than was necessary to properly embarrass our beloved aunt. So once we did that, we headed back to the beach to lounge around a bit.
Ryan and John opted to stay on State Street for awhile, since John hadn't been able to explore the local culture just yet. Tomorrow we'd be spending the day at Magic Mountain, and Saturday would be largely spent on Balboa Island. So while they walked around, the rest of us returned to the condo-hotel-house-room to get a few chairs so we could relax on the beach. For my money, the beaches in Florida are far nicer, but these weren't too bad. I brought out the trusty Iriver, just in case I decided to take me a nap out there. I didn't, but it was good to have a dose of Little Britain when my mom and Aunt Susanna started talking about shopping and the like.
We met up with Ryan and John shortly before noon. By this time we were quite the hungry family, so we ventured back to that open-air restaurant that we'd had lunch at that previous Sunday. I once again had a wonderful cobb salad, complete with a whole mess of peanuts and a beverage of a diet nature. The pigeons were relatively tame this afternoon. But hey, I guess they can be on vacation, too, right?
This originally was going to be our surfing day. Ryan had done this once before and said it was a lot of fun. However, things really didn't work out for us this time. Even though our instructor was the daughter of Johnny Rivers, she didn't seem to follow up on much of anything. On Tuesday she had apparently EMailed Mike asking if we could reschedule, when she knew full well we were already in california and didn't exactly have a lot of time to check our EMail, particularly work-related EMail. On top of all that, John (my cousin, not me) was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing. Plus, it was March in california. the water was even more freezing than usual. I don't mind a Harry Perry T-shirt, but hypothermia is not a souvenir that I'd like to take home.
After we had finished at the restaurant, most of the group wanted to jump on some bikes and check out The Santa Barbara Zoo. I needed to take care of some work. And that being the case, I hung back at the condo-room-hotel-inn while the family went biking and zooing. I ended up being in quite the productive mood. I think I wrote a good four pages on that paper over the course of the next few hours.
By 5:00 though, the laptop battery was dead, and I was pretty papered out. Conveniently that's about the time when everyone returned from the zoo. Apparently after riding in one of the baskets on the way there, John convinced Nanna that she could ride in it on the way back. Now I am told that pictures were taken of this feat, and wow do I wish I had them for you guys. But alas, I do not. Maybe I can bug various relatives when we're down in Florida, so's I can upload them somewhere. Oh well.
That night we all piled into the rented Armada and drove out to the house of one of Nancy's good friends for perhaps the only home-cooked meal we'd have this week. Ryan and I soon found a horribly cheap guitar which we tried in vain to tune, and a fridge full of beer! I was slightly disappointed with the initial selection, but we did find a few bottles of Heineken, so I was satisfied.
The dinner itself was quite nice: steak and salad and the like. Afterward we sat around and talked for a few hours. Tales of Nancy's Californian exploits abounded, and the five-year-old daughter of the friend performed some ballet-type dancing before we left around 9 or 9:30. Tomorrow was to be our epic trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. So for once I was determined to call it an early night. And I did! And it was good.
The room was kind of crowded now that Mike and John were sleeping there as well. But somehow I managed to avoid tripping over anyone when I got up the next morning to shower and such. Or wait, maybe I did kick Ryan a couple of times. But he didn't wake up, so there's no proof!
I took it easy on the strong coffee this morning, as I really didn't want to have that swirling around in my system during flip-flopping roller coasters. It would have been really interesting to get the mics out and get some stereo recordings of spinning around in some of the larger coasters. If I had more than one set, I might have tried it. But today was about having some fun, and the last thing I needed was to be burdened down by recording equipment.
Similarly to Wednesday's trek to the wine country, Ryan opted to stay behind again for today's excursion. So it was just Mike, John, and yours truly who arrived at Magic Mountain just after 11:00. Well to be fair, there were another few thousand people I guess. But clearly we were the only three that mattered, right? Well? Huh? Ok.
Our first ride experience didn't start off all that promising. We wanted to progressively work our way up to the largest coasters, since the lines for the most popular rides would be the most obnoxious. Therefore our first choice was Déjà Vu, which is said to be the largest boomerang roller coaster in the world. From the lovely description offered up by the ever-infallible Wikipedia, the ride consists of "inverted floorless coaches suspended beneath an overhead track," which "traverse an open-circuit track forward and in reverse -- featuring two completely vertical drops and three inversions."
When we were about ten minutes from the front of the line, the ride broke down. By this time it was almost 1:00 and we were debating whether to break for lunch or to wait out the repairs. As it turned out, we didn't have to wait more than a half hour before patrons were allowed back on the coaster. It was quite a fun one, too, but I don't think it was worth a ninety-minute stint in line.
The Let's Go and Get Lunch ride was almost as long. John and I secured a table for the three of us while Uncle Mike went to the local foodery to pick up some lunch. It took half an hour for him to order the food and another twenty minutes before he was given the food. He told us later that the girl taking his order didn't speak a word of English, and the manager had to be brought over just so he could translate that we wanted two chicken strip baskets and a cheeseburger! I'm sorry. If you can't speak English well enough to understand that, you shouldn't be working behind the register.
For whatever reason, there were a bunch of French tourists at a table nearby. I tried to be rude and eavesdrop on what they were saying, but I couldn't hear them well enough to get more than a word here and there. Oh well. More ride's were calling, like Viper. This ride was a giant seven-inversion steel roller coaster featuring the world's highest 360-degree loop." And I was not expecting that loop either! Don't you love fun surprises like that? My only gripe with this coaster was that it was a fairly short one. When you're spinning vertically at a starting height of 188 feet, you need to keep going, dag nab it!
All of that spinning and looping made us hungry, so we stopped off for some dipping dots before making our way to The Riddler's Revenge. This was the second best coaster of the day, though perhaps the longest wait. While we were in line, there was this obnoxious techno trance beat going over the loudspeakers. I need to record an approximation of it to see if Maria or Cortney or Vanja might recognize it. Maybe some of you have some trance know-how as well, but those three are the only ravers I know of. Anyways, this particular ride is venerated for being the world's tallest, fastest and longest stand-up roller coaster, complete with six loops on 4,370-feet of steel track. Wow was this one worth the wait. Never had I screamed so girlishly.
the last ride we rode was my favorite of the day. Goliath is a steel hypercoaster featuring an opening drop of 255-feet into a subterranean tunnel. Need I say more? For those who are familiar with the Superman ride at Six Flags over Texas, it's quite similar to that ride, though while Superman: Tower of Power begins at 325 feet, Goliath has a longer singular freefall. Both are amazing though, and well worth going on if anyone ever happens to venture to either theme park.
There were two other rides we wanted to go on, namely X² and Ninja. However the former wouldn't open until May 30, and the latter was down for maintenance. That had to be my only real problem with the park. Too many rides were down when we were there. Overall though, it was a wonderful experience, and it definitely outdid any shopping venture on State Street.
We made it back to Santa Barbara around 8:00. The three of us were starving. And because Santa Barbara sucks in that they have no fast food establishments whatsoever, we stopped in at Rusty's Pizza Parlor. That greasy goodness really hit the spot, too. John went to play some of the arcade games while Mike and I talked for a few minutes. The place was going to close at 9, anyway. So suffice it to say we weren't there too long.
When we did get back to the hotel-inn-condo-room-bungalo, I was about ready to crash. I found to my delight that we still had a bit of the candy left that Nanna had purchased earlier in the week. The candy had been neglected over the course of the last day or two, but rest assured John made up for that in short order. After a hefty dessert though, I was ready to call it a night. Much of the day tomorrow was to be spent at Balboa Island, to visit a friend of my mother's. She's a bit on the wealthy side to put it mildly, but her and her husband really are wonderful people.
waking up the next morning I could hardly believe it had already been six days. They'd gone by so quickly, and yet I was still looking forward to returning to Denton. Now I was not looking forward to the prospect of finishing the paper during Easter afternoon, but such things couldn't really be avoided at this point. Well, unless I wanted to bail on the class that is. But despite all of the work that I had waiting for me, it would still be good to get back home.
We left for Balboa Island shortly after 10:00 after a wonderful light breakfast of coffee, eggs, and candy! I didn't really say much on the way to the island. Instead I was huddled in the backseat with my laptop, very much in hyper-paper writing mode. I now had the thing up to nine pages, which meant that I'd just need to do some trimming when I returned to Texas. We did have some traffic to contend with, but that's Orange County for you. Even with all that, we still made it to Balboa around noon.
After taking a quick tour of their house, we headed to the harbor for one amazing lunch aboard their boat. The boat itself was covered with retractable windows and very comfortable bench seating around a large but stirdy table. The spread was fairly ordinary, but was it ever good: typical sides of chips, potato salad, fresh fruit, and vegetables, along with about two dozen sandwiches on croissants and an ice chest full of beer. I've gotta say, I couldn't really think of a lunch that could have topped that. We Clowers are very easy to please.
We must have stayed out in the harbor a good two hours. When we made it back to shore, Ryan and I sat down on a retaining wall that ran near one of the piers, while the others walked around and did various boring things. I don't think they went shopping or anything like that, but I didn't pay much attention. Instead ryan and I talked over a couple of beers for the next half hour or so.
I think this was the first time really that it suddenly hit me. Ryan wasn't a kid anymore. Now we're only separated by four-and-a-half years here, so it isn't as if I've ever really been the scary older cousin. But drinking a beer with the guy and talking college and post-college life was very surreal for me. I still remember the days of yelling at him for pulling my hair when I was six and he was two. I still remember the days when all of us kids would go to Toys Are Us with Paw-Paw in '91 and '92. I still remember the first time he came with us to throw garbage down the shute in Perdido Key, Florida back in 1997. And now I feel old just reflecting on all this. But it's a sign of the times, you know? And now I'm rambling.
After we bid our farewells, we left around 4:30. I didn't get all that much work done, as my battery gave out about twenty minutes into the car ride back to Santa Barbara. When we finally did get back, I headed to the room I shared with Ryan, Mike, and John to plug in the laptop and at least knock out one more page before I started packing.
Even though we'd eaten ourselves stupid, we all were getting hungry around 6 or so. Upon the recommendation of Mike, John, and myself, we ordered a few pizzas from Rusty's to serve as our final meal in California. There were some leftovers in the fridge to take care of as well. I think by that point I'd knocked out most of mine, but you can't say no to free food, or hot pizza for that matter.
After dinner, Mike and I watched part of this Rick James DVD he'd bought for Nancy last Christmas. nancy had said this was bad, but we had no idea. It was just awful! Perhaps he was just having an off night, but what an off night it was! The guy had virtually no stage presence, and an ego that wouldn't quit. Overall, not a winning combination. Mike had also brought with him a couple of Tom Petty live DVD's. The Petty concert was much much better. It was sort of a concert/biography. Hmm, I guess that would make it a bio-pic. But it was very well-done.
We must have watched those until after 9:00 I guess. Our flight the next morning was to leave at 6AM, which meant that we needed to be up no later than 3:30. I had been packing off and on while we watched the Petty documentary-type thing, so I was ready to go. Unfortunately sleep was not as forthcoming as I'd have hoped. Lounging in the sun all day eating sandwiches and drinking beer isn't exactly a physical work-out. Go figure.
I did manage to get to sleep shortly after 11, but my watch battery decided to die during the night. 3:30 came and went, but when 4:00 came, I was ready! I took down that hour so hard you'd have thought it was 5:00! It probably doesn't come as any surprise that the whole morning is kind of a blur. I was ready in time to grab a cup of coffee, but I held back on the fiber bar for obvious reasons. Oo I think I grabbed some cheese, too. Then next thing I know, we're in the Armada heading for the airport. Oh yes, that's right. Reverend BigDawg was going on an airplane. AGAIN!
The airport was much more crowded going out than it had been when we came in. I'm not sure why that was the case. I mean if anything I'd assume that it would be virtually empty on Easter Sunday morning. Oh well. I was too hyped up on coffee and Diet Coke to mind all that much. Though there was this annoying witch who kept harping the tellers and the clerks, as if they chose to work at 5:30 Easter Sunday morning.
I did some Roman reading while we flew. With the roaring of the engines and the fact that I was pretty burnt out, I'd be lying if I said that I got a lot done that morning. But I did get a few things written, and it was more productive than listening to my music collection during the entire flight. I thought about messing with the King of The Hill DVD's, but things were crampt enough as it is.
We landed in Dallas around 11:00 local time. During the descent, my ears popped in the worst possible way. Only once had they ever popped this badly, and that had been during our trip to new York back in February of 1996. Mom and I saw Nanna, Susanna, Mike, Ryan, and John off at their terminal. Then we gathered our luggage and tossed them in the car. As luck would have it, Steve's flight landed some fifteen minutes after ours. So while I sat in the car knocking my head this way and that, trying in vain to get my ears to cooperate, Mom went to get Steve.
By 1:00 we were back at home once again. Never in my life had I been so exhausted, well, with the possible exception being that forty-four-hour day where I had to deal with three finals and a presentation. For more info on that stressful week, see this entry from May 12, 2007. After I did some very preliminary unpacking, I flopped down and took what must have been a five-hour nap. If I didn't have a few things to do that night, I might have just slept straight through till Monday. However I was a good Clower and did take care of some minor edits to my paper, which was now eleven or twelve pages in length. It may not have been flashy, but it was a good anticlimactic ending to an amazing and certainly memorable Spring Break.
I know that was a bit brief, and I do apologize. Things have just been too hectic around here for me to catch up with a lot of you, and consequentially my blog has had to suffer as well. But with classes winding down, I'm going to make a concerted effort to be around more.
And my cousin John turns thirteen today! Wow do I feel old.