Meeting Little Jake

Day 2 in LA was reserved for Jujubee, another very good friend that I've been friends with since the 7th grade. She probably knows more about me than any other person on earth, and she always seems to understand me when others may not. I was especially excited about visiting her this trip because I would be meeting Little Jake, her newborn son, for the first time.

I decided to have breakfast at the hotel before departing on my journey to Glendale. This was actually my first trip driving on my own in the LA area. I had driven around Torrance on my own before, but not on the freeways. Although I am a pretty confident driver, the LA freeways were always intimidating to me, and when I would travel with my ex, he would do the majority of the driving, or would at least be in the car with me during those rare times that I drove in LA. The drive to Glendale would be a major test for me, since my drive into Redondo Beach was via the Pacific Coast Highway.

I managed fine, and was quite proud of myself! Although people complain about California drivers, I think they drive smart. They don't slow down to let you on the freeway, but generally, they leave enough space. You just have to keep up (as it should be - sometimes Hawaii drivers are too nice, and will inconvenience many others to be nice to one person). And I don't mind the speed at all. The only thing I was not comfortable with was the driving distance. They follow each other VERY closely there, and if you're not paying attention and someone slams on the brakes, it could be disaster - which is my theory about why there are so many massive pileups there. But, aside from that, it was fine, and I made it to Jujubee and Eggo's house safely and without getting lost.

Jujubee's mom was there visiting and helping with Little Jake, who barely made a peep while I was there! Eggo is such a good daddy and was caring for Little Jake while Jujubee and I caught up and drove out with Jujubee's mom to pick up lunch. While we were driving, I thought it was funny that there is a Honolulu Street in Glendale! Glendale is such a cute place, and we went to an area that was fully of boutique shops and restaurants. We decided to pick up lunch from Zeke's a BBQ place. I had a pulled pork sandwich, which was excellent! It was huge too, I don't think any of us, except maybe Eggo, finished our food.

I spent just about the whole day just relaxing and chilling with them, even getting so comfortable that I fell asleep for a little while! It's nice to have friends that you can do that with - just be comfortable doing nothing. Later in the afternoon, I was awaiting a call from Florist Girl, who I planned to meet for dinner. She came over to Jujubee's house since she also lives in the general vicinity.

Jujubee helped us decided on going to Dish for dinner, a nice, kind of homey, place in La Canada Flintridge, near Glendale. Jujubee even provided us with directions and a discount coupon! It's too bad I was being a dope and went the wrong way on the freeway! I was driving separate from Florist Girl, and we got separated. However, I realized my error immediately and knew how to get back the way I needed to go.

Dish is a very unassuming restaurant that seems to be pretty popular. The service was good and the prices reasonable. I started with a tasting flight of 3 2 oz. glasses of wine - a Riesling from Oregon, a Chenin Blanc from South Africa, and a White Shiraz from Australia. Although I love California wines, I decided to try wine from other areas. The food was awesome - I had a trout with tarragon butter served with fresh green beans, and potatoes w/ bacon (kind of like skillet potatoes, or maybe roasted). So good! I decided on trout since it's not something readily available in Hawaii, and definitely not as fresh. Besides the food, the company was good, as usual. Florist Girl and I were able to catch up even more.

Day 2 in LA was a most excellent day! Coming up, day 3 (pictures to follow)...

Journey to Redondo Beach

After Avila Beach, I was headed to Redondo Beach, my final destination this trip. The Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club would be my home for three nights.

Mapquest told me the drive would be about 3 1/2 hours, so I planned on taking about four to five hours to drive from Avila Beach to the LA area. I tend to want to stop to take pictures and explore, so I padded the time. I anticipated getting there at about Noon, but I think it was closer to 1 p.m., after leaving Avila Beach sometime around 7 a.m.

The drive was interesting. A few years ago, I went to Santa Barbara, so I was looking forward to driving through the area since I enjoyed it so much. An unexpected surprise was to find The Hitching Post, the restaurant/bar seen in the movie "Sideways." I also drove past Eladio's, across from Stearn's Wharf, which I remembered being a great lunch spot (sole piccata, yum!!).

The Portofino was a nice hotel in a pretty convenient location on the water at Redondo Beach. I chose a room on the water, since I had read so much about being able to see sea lions from the room. I'm glad I chose the view of the water, because the view of the parking lot would have been quite boring. It was nice being able to open the balcony door and enjoy the sights and sounds.

My first item of business was to have lunch with an old friend from high school. I'll call her Florist Girl, since that's the first job I recall her having in high school. Florist Girl came to pick me up at the hotel, then we drove around a bit trying to decide what to eat, with the help of OnStar (or whatever navigational device was in her car). I mentioned Olive Garden, so we found one near Del Amo Mall. I know Olive Garden is kind of "generic" Italian food, but I still love it! It doesn't help that they taunt us here in Hawaii by showing all those commercials, even though we don't have an Olive Garden. But, I digress...I ordered a yummy Grilled Steak Crostada.

After that, Florist Girl offered to take me to Trader Joe's for my omiyage. I didn't want to buy much in Vegas since I still had a long trip ahead of me, so I saved the bulk of the shopping for LA. One of the big finds this trip was a salt that sure looks like Fleur de sel, but with a different name, and at a much lower cost. At TJ's, the salt was about 1/3 the price I paid at Foodland for a bottle of Fleur de sel that was 1/2 the size of the TJ's salt. More recently, I learned that TJ's sells some pretty awesome salami! You can bring it home since it doesn't need to be refrigerated until it's opened.

Florist Girl asked if there was anything else I wanted to do or see, and I couldn't think of anything, so we headed back to the hotel. However, we had a serendipitous moment. We spotted a Penguins! As in Penguins yogurt. When we were in high school, that was a pretty trendy thing. Although Florist Girl has lived in Southern California for a number of years, even she didn't know that Penguins still existed, so it was a pretty exciting find! We had to spin around and have some. I was glad we found it and decided to stop because it also allowed us to spend more time together to sit down and chat. Florist Girl is one of those people you can not see or talk to for a very long time, yet just pick up wherever you left off as if time hadn't passed at all.

Since it was a long day, I decided to stay in and order room service. The hotel restaurant, Baleen, has received some pretty good reviews. The food didn't disappoint. I had a bowl of clam chowder, which was made with smoked bacon and potatoes - and we all know that bacon makes everything better! Next was a reconstructed Caesar salad - I'm not sure what was "reconstructed" about it. I think this was pretty standard. Since I was only having soup and salad, I rationalized that I could also order a creme brulee - yummy! I love fruits, particularly berries, on the mainland.

To be continued...(pics to follow)