Soco's visit to the dentist: November 11, 2008.

So, we had enough of Soco's bad breath that I decided to brush his teeth. As I was doing so, I realized that Soco had 2 loose teeth in the back. One was a scuzzy color, so I figured that was the breath culprit.

We took him to the vet and they decided they needed to put him to sleep and remove the 2 bum teeth. Well, when we picked him up, he was stumbling like a drunk. He practically fell out of his crate in the car when I climbed in the back to cuddle on the way home. I think his legs were still a little numb because the back 2 weren't exactly working as planned! He conked out cold when we got home.....right in front of the fireplace. His mouth hanging open and legs sprawled all over. He's been groggy for the last 4 hours. I think he's gonna need an Aleve! Poor thing.




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Just for fun!

I saw this gorilla off of the interstate on the way home from a meet I think. I don't know what type of establishment this place was, but the gigantor gorilla was worth the picture!







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James Arthur Winery: November 1, 2008

James Arthur Winery in Raymond, Nebraska.





We decided to find a winery nearby. We had a bunch in Virginia that we liked, so we decided to venture out and see what we can find in Nebraska. We found James Arthur Winery. It's down a little dirt road but was a nice and quiet place to sip some wine and relax on the porch.


What a view........ FLAT.



We didn't find wine that we were head over heels for, but we did end up buying tickets for their Wine Dinner. We're gonna be wined and dined and go home with 2 bottles of their wine! Sounds like a yummy time!





Oh.....and I think this is Santa!??



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Nichole and Dennis' Wedding: October 25, 2008

Nichole and Dennis got married!

We drove to St. Louis for a wedding.... we like weddings. Their wedding was held at Lau-Nae Winery in Red Bud, Illinios. It was a perfect day! Clear skies and NO RAIN! There was a mishap or three surrounding the whole weekend, but the wedding went off without a hitch.



The ceremony site, right by the grape vines.




It was such a nice day AND it was fun to see Big Mike dancing! Yipee for wine!


I managed to get a good shot before she walked up the aisle!

Congrats to Nichole and Dennis...... yea!!





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Jeff passed the Bar!!

We found out Jeff passed the bar on Thursday Oct 16th!! YIPEE!!
So we celebrated with a little dinner at Venue, a nice local swanky dinner spot. It was fantastic!








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VT v. Huskers Sept. 27, 2008

What a fun weekend! It was great to have everyone here to visit. We had our first guests in Nebraska! I'd like to give a shout out to Sarah and Mike Ames, Farmer Dave, Z, John Tabb. Thanks for making the trip!

There was some downtown fun friday night at Sidetracks. Nothing like a crude old lady playing MC of the night! Then some football outside before the game, what perfect weather!

And of course a fantastic Hokie win in Husker town! I loved it!





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Brandy and Dannie's Wedding

Ok, so this post has nothing to do with their actual wedding, sorry guys.

This post has to do with the drive there and back!

We'll start with how Jeff got out of work early, super cool because it's about a 7 hour drive to get to St. Louis....immediately followed by a 2 hour drive up to Decatur. Lots of driving ahead of us.

We hit the road at about 2:30, fully loaded little car, complete with the dog on my lap. It doesn't take long before we run into trouble. This doesn't include Soco farting in the car.

So here's the list...and it seemed to constantly be one thing after another, as soon as one would clear us, there'd be another right there.

Rush hour traffic
Car accidents
TORRENTIAL downpours, the kind where you can't see the car infront of you!
Construction Delays and detours
And last but not least and the best and FIRST one to date: TORNADO SIRENS!!

At first I thought the car beside us had some kind of a blowout, repeatedly, and then it went away. And then it came back again a few seconds later. WHAT IS THAT NOISE?? I never put two and two together, thank god. About 30 minutes down the road I realized what it was! "Oh, wait, it's raining really hard and we're in the mid-west!" I'm glad I didn't realize it at the time or I woulda had a heart attack. Then I was on the lookout for tornados all the way across Missouri. That is a long drive by the way, especially with a hot panting and shaking and nose drippey dog on your lap.

Moving In

Two words, and I wish I could tell more people about it.

PODS SUCK!

The photo should explain it very clearly.

They are NOT weather proof as they claim to be.

Also! They still have yet to address this issue with us even after phone calls.

San Diego: Day 2

We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning, coffee was on order. We picked up our car from valet and we were off to the San Diego Zoo in hopes of more shade than the day before! We got it thank God!

He's a modest fella!

The zoo wasn’t anything special. Actually we found that a lot of the animals were “off exhibit” for the day. Baby tiger cubs, OFF, polar bears, OFF!! GRRRR!!!

We saw alot of this!!

We had high expectations since we’ve heard it’s the best zoo in the country. We didn’t exactly agree. I think we prefer the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. We did manage our way over to the Hospitality Center for some free beers. Those ice cold beers tasted great after sweating to death all day! We downed several and decided our zoo time had come to an end.

On our way out Jeff and I had a brief discussion about what animal we’d like to come back as in our next life. We almost immediately agreed on the otters. What a way to spend the day, carefree and swimming and playing all day long. Then I changed my mind, but Jeff stayed an otter. I’d like to come back as a Koala Bear. Eat and sleep all day long and they are cuddly and cute. That sounds like a winner to me!

We headed to Coronado Island to go check out Hotel del Coronado, or as the locals call it, the “Del”. We wandered around the property and took pictures and walked out onto the HUGE beach.

We went into the "Crown Room" which is where Presidents have hosted some flashy events. It's a beautiful facility with wood floors walls and ceilings. I liked the chandeliers.

The crown chandeliers designed by Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum!

We decided to eat on their mighty large deck overlooking the ocean, my chicken salad was good. Then I ate most of Jeff’s fries! We decided to drive around Coronado for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel.

Before we could get to the hotel we drove by the piers on the oceanfront. There was a festival of some sorts going on. And do I like corn dogs and cotton candy, we had to come back. Turns out they were having the “Festival of Sail”. All the tall ships were in the port and people were taking tours of them. It was really beautiful. There was one ship from another country that was in port and they were preparing to leave, so all the men climbed the rigging and went across the masts as the tugboats were pulling them away from the dock. They were all singing in unison. It was really cool.

Do you see them all standing on the masts??

That pretty much signified the end of the festival and people were being shood out. Instead of walking back to the hotel we decided to take a Rickshaw, or as some people call it, a Peddlecar. That was kinda neat.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to meet up with Patrick, an old friend who happens to live in town. His mom was there too. How ironic, because she lives in Richmond. We met up at a bar called Bub’s, which is a HOKIES bar!! And probably the farthest Hokie’s bar from Blacksburg. It was like being back in Virginia. Hokie flags and so on.

Patrick recommended we get a burrito at Roberto’s before we leave town. Since we had kinda just eaten at “the Del” we decided to split the “California Burrito”, complete with French fries inside. It was delish!!

We watched the closing ceremonies at we ate our burrito and then hit the hay for our long day of plane travel back to St. Louis.

San Diego: Day 1

We arrived in Los Angeles early in the morning. Neither one of us had any quality sleep on our 6 hour flight. It was long and uncomfortable and we were hungry. As soon as we got our rental car, a funny looking Chevy HHR, we headed to this place we had heard about on TV. Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. It’s like an IHOP, but small, intimate, friendly, and cleaner. Breakfast was yummy and we gorged ourselves.






Then we hit the road for San Diego. Thankfully it was only about an hour, and because I didn’t sleep at all on the flight, I conked right out when I got in the car. Jeff was struggling a bit too. We were tired. So what do you do when you’re exhausted? You go to Sea World!

The lady at the ticket booth was nice, she decided to give us the children’s admission price. How’d she know we act like children? Anywho, Sea World was good and HOT! Of course we saw Shamu, duh. I think there is a Shamu at every Sea World in the country.









We petted some critters, the dolphins were just a big tease. There you are dangling over the edge of their pool and you’d see them coming and you’re ready with your arm outstretched into the water and you’re super excited to tough their slimey rubbery body and then. . . . . . . . .wait for it. . . . . . ..they’d swim away. Those terds. The stingrays were super creepy. Ever since Steve Erwin, I suppose people are creeped out by them. I was. Even though the lady is telling everyone that their barbs had been removed, it’s still creepy to stick your hand down into the 50 degree water and reach for them as they swim by. I don’t know what I was expecting them to do, but it creeped me out. Did I mention it was creepy? Well, I finally managed to touch one and grab it by the end of the fin. It feels slimey and like a tongue. It was like touching a slippery muscle. Slimey and firm and it moves.


Jeff touched the sea stars. I’m a chicken.









We wandered around to the sea lions enclosure where you can buy a little container of fish to feed to them. It is really funny. They obviously know it’s feeding time and they start screaming. Literally! Perched on top of the pile of ricks screaming like a 5 year old until you throw them a fish, and then if they miss, then it’s a free for all to retrieve it.









They had really good shows. There was an entertaining pet show with dogs and pigs and cats and a ferret and ducks, but NO JACK RUSSELL!!!! There was a Sea Lion show with a big ol blubber boy. I’ll see if I have a picture of that behemoth.






My favorite show was called Cirque de la Mer. It was like a Cirque de Soliel but on water with Jet Skis and a water trampoline and one of those big beach balls with a person running around in it, trapeze artists and tumblers. I’m a fan!









After baking in the sun for many hours and after getting no sleep, we decided it was time to go home. We hit the hotel shower, which we badly needed and then we wandered down to Little Italy. We must have found THE place to eat because we waited probably 45 minutes in a LINE wandering through their Italian foodstore. Made me hungry just waiting and looking around at pesto, olive oils, pasta and wine! The name was Filippi's. Their food was very good! Yummy Caprese salad too. Tasty.

Eating was exhausting, so we went to bed.

Hawaii: Day 5

Today consisted of mostly re-doing things we wanted to see again. Since we had to check out of our hotel, we left our stuff with the bellhop and wandered off. We went looking for a rental car. Low and behold, who ever thought Jeff and I would end up driving another stick shift Geo Tracker?? Taa-daa! We did, and it was sea-foam green at that. Had no side or rear windows in the back, it was all beat to hell and full of sand, but all we wanted to do was get to the beach for a little more R&R before our day of traveling. We decided to start early because we wanted to see if we could make it to Hanauma Bay before the parking lot filled up and we couldn’t get in. Mission failed. Lot full and closed.

On we went back to MakaPuu Beach, the beach we visited and loved a few days prior. Same as we remember, crystal clear and rough waves. . .perfect. This time it was a little more sea-weedey, but it didn’t slow us down. There was the occasional spaz when seaweed got wrapped around your leg and it gives you a heart attack. It would make me start looking for Portuguese Man o’wars! None found. Nothing found but a swimsuit full of seaweed. . .ick. After a few hours of lounging around we decided to head back to the hotel. On our way back the parking lot for Hanauma Bay was open! So we went on in to take a look. It was quite stunning from the parking lot up on a cliff. You could see the reef and people snorkeling amongst it. By then we didn't have enough time to snorkel, so we decided to save it for our next trip to Hawaii!



Hanauma Bay


We went back to the hotel to clean up. Fortunately for us they had a hospitality type room where we could shower and change. We decided to go to a restaurant we heard about from the ladies at the front desk. It was also listed in the Waikiki Beach section of the book 1000 To See Before You Die. It was called House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel. They have outdoor cocktails and Hawaiian music under the century-old Kiawe tree. We could see the performing group and dancing hula girl every night from our hotel room. It was a beautiful setting, especially during sunset over Waikiki Beach.


Our nightly entertainment!




We ordered Mai Tai’s of course and out came the most stunning drink!


Isn't this the most beautiful thing you've ever seen!!



A little while into our meal, it started to sprinkle a little. Fortunately we were just under the roof of the lanai, so we stayed dry. Not 5 minutes later, a double rainbow appeared and looked to be ending right down into the ocean amongst a group of people swimming. This was one of several rainbows during our short 5 days in Hawaii.



Our time was winding down and we headed back to the hotel to collect our belongings and take the taxi ride to the airport for a 10 pm red-eye flight back to Los Angeles.

Hawaii: Day 3 and 4

Honolulu, Day 3, Wednesday

We decided to tour the island of Oahu by car. We headed to breakfast really early and then went to pick up the car. We started from Waikiki west towards Hawaii Kai (the wealthy area) and went counter clockwise around the island. Our first stop was Diamond Head.




Diamond Head was about a mile walk up STEEP steps/pathways to the top of a dormant volcano. The view up there was amazing though; you could practically see the whole island, it was beautiful.


Next, we tried to stop at Hanauma Bay, but as soon as we crested the hill the parking lot was full and they do not allow any more people in the bay until it clears out somewhat. We had to put our snorkeling on hold for now.


We continued on around the island with stops at Sandy Beach and then MakaPuu Point and Beach, the latter of which was our favorite of any beach we have ever been!!



Great aerial shot of MakaPuu Beach, from the Point.

This beach had the clearest water and the sandiest bottom. I was shoulder deep in water and I could see my toe nail polish!! There was NOTHING to step on, nothing slimey, it was awesome. It also had some fantastic waves.

Michael Phelps, eat your heart out!

Jeff and I played around in there for a while and decided we’d have to move on or we’d never make it around the island before the day was over. We were starting to get a little hungry, so we decided to stop at Panda Express. Oh yes, there are freestanding Panda Express restaurants in Hawaii. We took it to a local park and ate as we overlooked some random bay with sailboats. It was pretty.

We next went on to Lanikai Beach. This is consistently rated on of the top beach in Hawaii, and I think America. It certainly was a nice beach – very quiet, clear water, clean beaches. It was a little too calm for us though, we were looking for adventure and big waves, so we were off shortly after arriving. From there we drove along the coast until we got to the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.



"Banzai Pipeline" in the summer.........placid.


This apparently is where all the surfers go because the waves here are the largest around . . . in the winter. We showed up and there wasn’t a surfer in sight and you could barely tell the water was moving. No waves whatsoever. We later learned that the big waves are in the winter (the waterfalls too apparently). It was a nice beach though. We then tried to see one of the many waterfalls on the island, but upon arriving we were informed we would only see plants because the waterfalls dry up in the summer. Ah well, back to the hotel . . . or so we thought.

Driving home we noticed the Dole Plantation off to our right. After an abrupt stop and U-turn, we made our way to the parking lot. It was 5:20 and they closed at 6pm, what else should we do besides get lost in the largest hedge maze in America. After the ticket lady gave us the stink-eye for wanting a ticket (apparently it takes 45 minutes to get through this maze and she didn’t want to wait around for us to finish) we were off. They give you this card and you’re supposed to hunt for these various stations to stencil in different figures and then find the exit. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race running around this place, getting lost, splitting up when we came to forks in the road and then calling each others names trying to find each other when one of us hit a dead end. After awhile we had to cheat because this thing was intense. Finally we made it out at 6:08. There wasn’t a soul left in the place. So we let ourselves out and headed back to the hotel.


The 2 acre Dole Plantation Pineapple Hedge Maze.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was rather late so we decided to look up places to eat and settled on Hula Grill. It was outdoor seating on a second floor of a hotel and it over looked the beach with tiki torches and the whole nine. Kim stepped out of her normal food box and tried some kind of “foofey” fish called Opah. It’s not really foofey, but it was new. It was a great view and the weather was nice. We did a little more strolling on the town and window shopping and then it was back to bed.

Honolulu, Day 4, Thursday

We slept in today, didn’t even set an alarm clock. We were one of the last one’s to show up for breakfast. It was awesome. After breakfast we had about an hour or so before we needed to meet our bus for the catamaran ride so we headed down to the beach. After moving twice because either there were too many rocks on the ocean floor or too much seaweed it was getting close to when we had to leave, so we made our way back to the hotel, changed, and were on our way.


The Makani Catamaran. a $1.8 million vessel.

The bus arrived and it ended up really being a small van, driven by none other then the captain of the catamaran himself, Captain Jon. We were the only people he had to pick up so we chatted it up on the way to the marina. He was a really neat guy to talk to. He actually built the boat we were going to sail on. He said he moved to the Caribbean for a year and him and 25 Rastafarians built the catamaran. Then, they all sailed the ship from St. Croix through the Panama Canal and then up to Hawaii. What an awesome trip.



"Pal" He was totally intimidating!

After a short detour to pick up his dog “Pal”, a miniature pincher, who snuggled right up on Kim’s lap, we got to the dock. We boarded the vessel and were off. This was probably one of our favorite activities on our whole trip. The three crew members were very funny and very accommodating. The views from the boat were simply amazing. Drinks were cheap, the food was great, everything about it was perfect. There were only about 20 of us so we got to interact with the captain a lot while he sailed. It was a lot like being out on a friends boat for the weekend, it was really neat. I think I took about 100 pictures.


After we got back Captain Jon drove us back. This time, however, we had another family with us and I think the dad was a little drunk because he was talking really loud, making asinine comments, and being generally annoying. Captain Jon dropped us off first, we thanked him, and then wished him luck on the rest of the drive. He rolled his eyes with a smile, said he’d need it, and was off.

We got back to the room and gave our good friend from college a call. Garrett had just moved to Hawaii about a month prior. We hadn’t seen him in a very long time, later we guessed it was probably 5 years, so it was nice to meet up. After rendezvousing on the street we headed over to Dukes for dinner. The food there was great. We had a few drinks, ate, chatted away, and then decided to stroll for a bit to find a bar. We settled on a place that looked neat from the outside and it turns out it’s the bar the cast from Lost frequents when they are filming. We had several concoctions served in coconut mugs and figured it was quitting time. After all, we had a big day of sleeping in ahead of us.

Hawaii Days 1 and 2

Leaving Los Angeles was horrible. The LAX airport is too big for it’s own good. It’s one of those places where there are too many people going in too many directions and too many irritated and irate TSA workers. For my luggage to be a pound and a half overweight she sure did give me a mouthful. “Hurry up and take something out, I don’t normally let people do this, hurry up, hurry up, You need to hurry up, there are people waiting. If it’s overweight we may have to charge you $80 or $90 for an overweight bag depending on when you bought your ticket. I need you to hurry up.” The rant went on and on. Security line was longer than some amusement park rides. Jeesh.

The flight into Hawaii was nice and smooth. Nowadays there are very few positive experiences at airports and on aircrafts. We flew Delta and had a very positive experience. Jeff will differ on one item. He could not recline his seat. That normally isn’t such a big deal, but for a 5 ½ hour flight it makes a significant difference. Jeff swears that the guy behind him had one of those doo-dads they sell on TV that you just stick into the back of the seat in front of you somehow and it makes it to where the person in front cannot recline. We’ll never know. They actually fed us on that flight. Egg and cheese omelet, coffee, blueberry muffin, sausage link, juice. It was pretty good for airplane food.

We made it into Honolulu airport around 11 am. We found our luggage and no wine bottles were shattered during transport! We found an airport shuttle and headed to our hotel. Waikiki Parc Hotel in Honolulu, about 15 minutes away. Since our room wasn’t ready, we checked our luggage in with the porters and wandered around. We found a place called Waikiki Beachwalk which is just a foofey new strip of stores and restaurants (not on the beach at all). We ate at the Yard House. Nothing fancy, but they have about 40 beers on tap! We walked up and down the nearby streets, which reminded me a little of Rodeo Drive with high end stores. We made it back to the hotel and checked into our 15th floor room with a lovely view of the Pacific overlooking Waikiki Beach! We decided to change and go on down to the beach until the sun was too hot!



For dinner we had Coldstone ice cream and sat on the beach with our ice cream and watched the sunset. Boy was that fast too. Everyone is standing on the beach with their cameras ready because the sun is low in the sky. (By the way, all kinds of people still surfing). If you left to go pee, you’d have missed it! It was a matter of minutes where the sun was completely above the horizon until it was gone! Then the sky was a blaze of colors, it was awesome! We got some nice pictures of that. Oh and our chocolate devotion ice cream in a chocolate and sprinkle dipped waffle cone was awesome too. We walked around a little more and then headed to bed, it was a LONG day. A 29 hour day to be exact.



Day 2 started with breakfast in the hotel restaurant Nobu. It was French Toast for me and eggs and bacon for Jeff. We decided to wander off for a bit today and get out of Waikiki. Navigating the public transportation proved to be more of a nuisance than it was worth. Although we hear Hawaii has one of the best public transportation systems in the country (we were just beginners). Sparing the details it took us an hour to get to Pearl Harbor by city bus. Before this, I don’t think Jeff and I really appreciated exactly what occurred there in the harbor in 1941. They start the tour with a short video on what happened that day and then they take you by ferry boat out to the memorial. There were about 1000 people who lost their lives on the USS Arizona Battleship, which was attacked and sank right there in the harbor. They are still entombed there with their shipmates to this day. An amazing thing we noticed was a plaque that noted the individuals who survived the attack, but who later in life died and were subsequently buried in the Arizona with their fellow soldiers. It was a quiet and quick viewing of the memorial before they whisk you away. Moving is the only way to describe it.





After we finished our viewing we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The topics coming out of the mouth of the taxi driver were somewhat inappropriate. Too much talk about politics, women drivers, what race our president should be and so forth. The end of that cab ride couldn’t come fast enough. We had a dinner reservation at the Pacific Beach Hotel Aquarium restaurant. The ad made the place seem very nice and we schedule our reservation so we would be able to see the feeding of the stingrays and various fish. Turns out the restaurant was a buffet and not all that nice, which normally is fine, but we were expecting/hoping for something else. The aquarium was neat though. The feeding consisted of a scuba diver jumping into the tank, hand feeding a few fish, and then flashing happy birthday and happy anniversary signs to people eating by the window. The food was adequate and we made our way back. We strolled the beach and found a secluded spot were we could watch the stars and listen to music coming from a beachfront bar, which, by the way, played amazing song after amazing song, it was great.

Los Angeles

Two words. . . . .the first one that immediately comes to mind is TRAFFIC. The next one that comes to mind is superficial, more on that later.

To answer your first question about celebrity sightings, the initial answer is No. Unless you count some random dude at the hotel pool that was some one-liner in an Adam Sandler movie, then the answer is Yes. I don’t remember him, but apparently he was the Jets quarterback in Mr. Deeds. More on our other celebrity sighting later.

We decided to split up our time between 2 hotels to dapple in more waters. The first hotel was the Ayers Hotel. It was nice, had tall ceilings in the guest rooms, and included breakfast. The pool area was a nice courtyard style, with those white stringy lights up in the palm trees surrounding the pool. We soaked in the hot tub for as long as we could stand. . ..15 minutes. It got a little toasty.




Jeff and I above Hollywood Boulevard!

Our first matter of business the next day was Hollywood. We started with Rodeo Drive. It wasn’t what I had pictured, but there’s nothing wrong with that. The place is a little odd. The entrance to 90% of the stores were guarded on either side by a stoic foreign person. And when I say guarded I mean that literally. We passed Harry Winston and there was one person in front of each of the two doors with their bodies positioned inches from the front of the door, just peering out. Also, it is very obvious the dollar is in the tank because everywhere we went there were people from Asia, Europe, etc. buying everything in sight. It got a little frustrating though just because they were so loud and secondly because they were very oblivious to the people around them (i.e., stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, cutting you off as you walk, cutting in line, etc.). It’s nice to have people visit, I mean, we’re visitors, it would just be nice if they were a little more aware. The stores were very nice though and they definitely had a lot of stuff we wanted, maybe on our next trip we will be able to buy something, let’s say from Cartier, Harry Winston, Tiffany, Jimmy Choo, Armani, Louis Vuitton, and the list goes on. On our way back to the car we decided to detour by Sprinkles Cupcakes, you know, the one that you see on TV. There was quite a line outside and OF COURSE we waited in it!! As we waited a car drove by and the passenger yelled “It’s not that good!” He lied, they were delicious. If you could taste Heaven, this would be it. We got a box of 6 (dark chocolate, black & white, red velvet, strawberry, marshmallow crème, and lemon coconut). We split 4 and had to call it quits until later . . . and we ran out of milk to wash them down.



We went on to drive down Sunset Blvd which was supposed to have a great view of the Hollywood Sign, but we never saw it from the road. We drove through Bel-Air Estates and Beverly Hills. You would never “see” a celebrity home because they are so guarded by 10 foot shrubbery and security cameras galore! We toured Mann’s Chinese Theater and Kodak Theater (from the outside). The Kodak Theater is where they hold the Academy Awards and the finale of American Idol. It was near that area that we got our best glimpse of the Hollywood sign. Then we wandered around and made our way back to the hotel. Dinner was at the hotel and then we went to the Laugh Factory.



I had never really heard of the Laugh Factory until we got here and Jeff was telling me about it. Subsequently we realized we had seen it before, but on TV. It’s where “Kramer’ went on his rant and tirade while doing a show. You can see that on YouTube. Well, because of that incident, you can no longer take pictures during the show. . ..boo! We were there to see Harland Williams, Damon Wayans and Dane Cook. What an awesome show. This was our only other celebrity sighting, although I’d call it more than a sighting. We were in the third row. . .we could have reached up and high fived, it was that close of a venue. They were all very funny!

On our way home from the show, what else did we encounter??? TRAFFIC!! Yes, traffic at midnight, it never ends.

Now, back to that superficial part: We have never seen so many people “trying” to be celebrities in our life. For example: We checked into the Ritz Carlton at Marina del Rey for our second half of the stay in LA. When in Rome right?? Upon check-in we were informed of a pool party on Sunday. We were more than happy to attend with our best people watching-sunglasses. You should have seen the way some of the ladies pranced around the pool deck. . ..bikinis and high heels and big brimmed hats, carrying flutes of champagne. . .who are these people!!!! It’s like they think they are auditioning for some role in a movie. Like they think some kind of talent scout is at the hotel pool! They had it all going on. . .the strut, the champagne flutes, the pout, oh boy. It was totally done in an over the top fashion that was tacky, not classy. The lady lounging in front of us at the hotel pool felt free to offer up to her buddies that her “manager” was going to meet her at the pool to “do business”. Gimme a break! All in all it was a great viewing experience that must be typical of LA. Gag! We did enjoy the pool though, it was saline, not chlorine. And the lounge chairs were nice, and the hot tub was nice and the view of the marina was great too. It was even better just after sunset the way they lit it up. Nice.

After our poolside entertainment and sunburn (WITH sunscreen, mind you) we went to Palm Springs to take an aerial tram ride up the side of a mountain to see what we could see. It was called the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. They have cable cars, the kind that dangle, that can hold 80 people each! The floor revolves 360o and it’s a fantastic view! You can take the ride up to the top and enjoy a meal (fine dining or café) or a drink and overlook the earth below. Literally I say earth because we were over 8000 feet above sea level, that’s higher than a mile, and NOT in a plane! We opted for a coffee with Bailey’s since it was slightly cool up there. Which brings me to another dummy story! As we were walking around the pathways at the top of the mountain and looking out on the overlook I couldn’t help but overhear this woman saying to her family the following . . . and I quote “I thought it would be warmer up here since we’re closer to the sun?” Are you serious?? I was amazed that came out of an adult woman’s mouth!



It was another quick 5-7 minute ride down, with everyone reacting as a group with a big “whoa!” every time we went over some rollers on the towers holding the cables up. Then we saw some bright children in the parking lot trying to play with a wild raccoon. All we could picture was Will Ferrell in Elf trying to give the raccoon a hug. The drive home took 2 hours and we packed up our stuff and went to bed. We were headed for Hawaii in the morning and needed to be up early.

San Simeon, Hearst Castle

After checking in at the J. Patrick House (after-hours), it was straight to our room and then right to bed. . . . .actually we had a bottle of champagne that we had bought at Mumm Napa Winery, then it was to bed.

The morning came quickly, as normal, and we went to breakfast in the main house at the Inn. It was yummy. . ..ever had Eggs Florentine?? We have. This one was made with spinach. As soon as it landed on our plate, I thought for sure Jeff was going to pass on that one because it was VERY spinach-ey and very green! But it was good, Jeff ate it all.

We moved on to my favorite site so far (Jeff will probably differ): Hearst Castle. It was AWESOME!! I could totally live there if they let me. I could totally show up for a pool party too. Talk about another thing of excess, that was it. Gold leaf in the tile floors of the pool deck!! I mean come on! The gardens were awesome. So pretty! I loved it. However, I could have done without the teeterey bus ride up the windey road to the castle. We wish we had more time to do another tour of a different area of the castle, but we had to move on down Highway 1 to LA.

From Napa to Alcatraz to Monterey to Carmel to Cambria...whew!

Since our check engine light came on in Napa, we were due for a replacement rental for our rental. Confusing and irritating, I know. Well the day started early at car rental place for a replacement rental. Thankfully it got us out of the Kia. . . . .0-60 in 3 days...stupid sewing machine engine.

We were headed back through San Francisco to do our tour of Alcatraz. We headed through Oakland, which wasn’t as bad as I have heard. Into San Francisco we went to go on out Alcatraz Tour. It’s cold on “the rock”. Rather windy too and smelled like VERY concentrated bird poo. It was not at all creepy like we thought and were kind of hoping it would be. The history of the place is definitely fascinating. Seeing holes prisoners dug through walls with spoons and bullet holes in the walls and grenade pocking marks in the floor was neat. Small cells, small island, it’s not as big as I had pictured. . ..25 acres. Held at a max 300 prisoners. Kinda stinks to be locked up there with a clear view of the city of San Francisco, but to be a mile and a half across the 50 degree water! No one is known to have escaped. The tour guide man told us that there are school aged groups of kids that come for some kind of educational overnight experience and they lock them in solitary confinement for the night and they just love it!

This dude : Darwin Coon (actual name) was an inmate at Alcatraz!

Me sniffing out the cells.

Tiny quarters!

Jeff scoping out the dimensions of solitary confinement.

After Alcatraz we went over to an area of the city called "Postcard Row". It is supposed to be the most photographed homes in San Francisco. I think they are right, they were very cute, so I took pictures. I think this was where they filmed the opening musical scene of Full House. We also decided to take the car for a stroll and test it's steering on Lombard street, that was fun!

Postcard Row: San Francisco, Ca.

Lombard Street: San Francisco, Ca.

After that we finally headed south to the city of Monterey to take a drive on the scenic “17 Mile Drive”. We passed big ol homes, the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Course, saw sea lions, the lone cypress, more big ol homes, it was a sight-worthy drive.

The Lone Cypress.... isn't it a lone cypress?

Silly Sea Lion.....

We then cruised into Carmel-by-the-Sea. . .Carmel for short and obvious reasons. What a beautiful picturesque little town! White sandy beach on one end and small tree lined streets of shops and coffee houses and boutiques and eateries and bed and breakfasts headed out the other end of town. Those buildings made some great photos.

Cute...

Cute...

CUTE!!!!!

One local store keeper felt inclined to keep us in the know when I asked what was going on in town and when some woman came into the store asking to buy a poster on the wall “at any cost”. Evidently we missed by a hair the biggest luxury car show probably on the west coast. Jeff says it must be for rich people. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maserati's, Porches, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, and so on. They were all lined up on the golf course, each on a stage under big tents and each with a cover on them waiting for their big reveal. They will be lined up the next day all along the streets on Carmel in a car show style. He went on to tell us about a guy from “South Florida” (sounds like originally from Columbia) who came with his cars, body guards, wife, girlfriend and pinky ring. Supposedly he came with his Enzo. I don’t even know what that looks like. I was more into looking for Jay Leno who seems like he could be at this kinda shin dig showing off a car or two of his.

One of MANY MANY MANY we saw!

Day turned into late evening and we needed to get outta town. We headed for our Bed and Breakfast in Cambria, J. Patrick House via Hwy. 1.

The Main House.

The Carriage House, where our room was.

It was a long windey car sickness style ride. Supposedly the pacific coast highway from Monterrey to San Simeon (right up the street) is the best coastal drive in the country. Too bad we’ll never know because it was too foggy to see ANYTHING but about 10 feet infront of the car. The turns got tighter and slower the closer we got to our destination. It took us about 3 hours from Carmel to reach San Simeon. We did notice 2 things while on our drive, the aftermath of wildfires on the mountainside facing the Pacific Ocean and the effects of a recent earthquake on the roadways of Hwy 1. It was a long but interesting drive.