Just a tad behind, but not too bad. Two weekends ago I went down to LA to visit Charleen in anticipation for her up and coming 28th b-day! Once again, the novelty of being an hour flight away was just so exciting! Of course, with that said, my flight got delayed an hour there AND back. Go figure.
So, I got there Saturday afternoon. We grabbed a bite then hit up the Santa Monica/Venice Beach boardwalk. On the way there I saw this on the side of a building and Charleen pulled over so I could take a picture.
The beach was nice, we walked around for a while and caught a street performance where one of the men in the group jumped over 10 people! Wait, not only did he jump over them, he did a somersault jump over them. It was definitely impressive. Plus they did some break-dancing and balancing poses. We got to catch some of the sunset as well. Afterwards Glenn met up with us and we took Char out to a nice dinner then glow in the dark miniature golf!!! That was fun, I am not very good at it. I think Charleen beat Glenn and I, but I beat her at air hockey!
Sunday more fun was to be had once Jerry and Krysia showed up. We started off with crepes. Then it was off to the LA Zoo!
Not only did we see fun animals, but we also got to enjoy the signage, such as 'don't feed muppets popcorn', and my personal favorite 'fake snake'.
And what birthday would be complete without cake? With our belly's full, we played 90s trivial pursuit, I think Krysia was declared the winner when we gave up, then watched Adventures in Babysitting. All-in-all, a good day.
So, this weekend Jerry made an impromptu visit up to SF to hang out with me as well as his bro Perry and lovely wife Heather. I don't think the novelty of being an 1 1/2 hour flight away (or 1/2 days drive) from hanging out is going to wear off anytime soon. Altho, I can't leave out the fact that Jerry missed his first flight out due to some sort of shortage of personal at the security checkpoint. Luckily he still got in around 6:30.
We decided to go to Cafe Gratitude, basically because I have been wanting to go there, but Jerry was down. They are known for using organic foods, mostly from local, self-sustainable resources. Only in California, I know. It definitely had a 'hippy' feel, complete with self empowering menu dish names, but their 'I AM SASSY' Virgin Healthy Mango Margarita and 'I AM INSIGHTFUL' Spring Rolls made up for it. Jerry had a pretty awesome 'I AM THANKFUL' Thai Coconut Soup. Our entrees were a little less exciting, but still tasty. I would like to go back and try some of their other juices and cocktails sometime.
Saturday day was a little dull for me, but Jerry went to have Dim Sum with Perry and Heather, and saw some cool Chinese New Year celebrations while walking around. Even after 5pm when I headed out to meet up with them, I came across three dragons dancing outside a business with fireworks going off.
Saturday night we ate at Za Gourmet Pizza. As I've mentioned, good pizza is not as easy to find out in CA, this place did a pretty good job. Altho my stomach wasn't all that happy with me afterwards. Not sure if it was the pizza, or the pound of cherries and two white russians beforehand. But, seriously, check out their artwork!?!?! Then we walked over to Cobb's Comedy Club to catch Janeane Garofalo with Mary Lynn Rajskub, better known as Chloe from 24. To be honest, I was hoping for a bit more laughs. 'Chloe' was amusing, but I sort of couldn't get over her being a comedian and her way of talking and acting on stage was a little nerve racking. Janeane had some fun things to say and rant about, but still, overall, I lost interest at points and had to make myself pay more attention, instead of it keeping my attention.
Sunday, Perry and Heather found a hike near Pacifica at the James V. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. It turned out to be not so much of a hike, but more walking along the beach looking at tide pools.
We got there as the tide was coming in, but we still saw some cool stuff. The beach had very pebbly sand... A neat sea plant: A star fish jerry found: There was an abundance of seaweed, some that Heather tied Jerry up in: The seaweed was really strong and felt almost like an extension cord...so after throwing it around a little bit, Heather decided to jump rope with it. Unfortunately the Wagner brother's couldn't find a good swinging rhythm.
Then I came across this gross fish carcass:
After the beach/tide pool walk, we went up the bluff (where I saw these) and walked back along the ridge. It was really pretty overlooking the water on one side, and then full of trees on the other. At the end of the train there was this little plank bridge you had to cross to get back over to the parking lot. It doesn't look it, but it seemed pretty dangerous.
And, well, I couldn't resist taking a souvenir
Then, like all good weekend visits, we ate out AGAIN, this time at Pacific Catch. This place is also very environmentally aware and serves up only sustainable sourced seafood based off the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. People may look at California sometimes and rag on it for being so 'hippy dippy', but I really appreciate these small things in my community and want to support this type of mindset. I think it's just another reason I enjoy living here. We decided to go there though because not only did they have a basket of sweet potato fries on the menu, they offered up Wasabi Bowls, complete with seaweed salad, ahi tuna (marinated in an awesome sesame/spicy sauce), brown rice, ginger, cucumber and avocado. So tasty!
