Roam With Me! Some of my Firsts in California. Part Two.

Allow me to continue sharing some of the many firsts I experienced during my July 2018 trip to California. If you haven't had a chance to view the earlier post -- Part One -- please do that.

8. 

 Visit to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As luck would have it, we managed to pick the hottest day imaginable to go there. Frankly, we went to simply say we'd been there. It's the truly touristy thing that I usually try to avoid while traveling, and with the intense heat added plus all the concrete, it was by far our least enjoyable first of this trip. 

On a positive note, I did go to Hollywood Harley-Davidson where I got a cool t-shirt, and I also found a bookstore dedicated to the film industry where I picked up a copy of the screenplays for "The Shawshank Redemption" as well as an episode of "Friends," so this visit wasn't without its perks.

Additionally, we ate lunch in an out-of-the-way elegant Italian restaurant that served excellent food. Plus, it was air conditioned, so I was able to cool off a bit before our next crazy adventure.

9. Saw where some of the stars live on a van ride from Hell! Perhaps, I should clarify -- "tried" to see 
where some of the stars live. Our driver took us up Mulholland Drive, which is apparently (and seemingly so) the highest street in L.A. and where stars like Tom Hanks live. Between holding on for dear life as he drove like a maniac around sharp curves with steep drop-offs to his sudden stops where he'd point in a general direction before speeding off again, I can only take his word (not sure how much I'd give that) for it that stars actually lived in the houses he pointed to. At one point we stopped by a gate behind which supposedly was Bruno Mars house. Could be. No idea. All I saw was a closed gate. We did get to see houses better in Beverly Hills including a massive one that apparently is Sandra Bullock's 55 million dollar house. 

10. Walked down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. This was still the hot day, so between me sweating like crazy and the fact that I don't have enough money to purchase even the smallest item from any of the stores on that street, we simply walked and peered inside each store as we passed.

 

Basically, we saw incredibly bored looking sales people all dressed up with nobody to talk to -- I guess there are a lot of people who didn't want to be out shopping on that hot day. Rich people have better sense than we did.

11. Took a train ride. In all honesty, this was actually my second train ride, but my first happened years ago in Spain, and it was an overnight ride spent in a horrible small bunk in a sleeper car from which I never got to look at the landscape as we rode, so I don't like to count that trip. This one on the Coastal Starlight train which runs from L.A. to Seattle with numerous stops along the way was the first actual train ride that I was able to thoroughly enjoy both for the scenery we passed and for my companion. 

We rode along the Pacific coast for a good chunk of the trip, and we were in the very last cabin (number 14), so the only people wandering through the aisle were those actually riding with us. We did wander down to the snack area and the observation cabin, but the soft drinks were warm and the good seats were all taken, so we mostly just stayed put for the 11 hour trip to Oakland. The views from our windows were still stellar. Here are a few.

Can you tell I love the water?!!


While this was a long time to be cooped up on a train, it was so much better than being on an airplane. For one, we were still on the ground (no matter how many times I fly, I will always hate it because there's nothing right about being 30,000 feet in the air!). Also, there was a lot of foot room, and the seats actually reclined! None of that minuscule half a centimeter reclining action bullshit you get on an airplane. Thirdly, you could walk around as much as you like and go from cabin to cabin, and you could even get off for a minute to get some air at each of the stops. Additionally, the restrooms actually had enough room to turn around in. We were enough impressed by train travel that we are going to look into taking more trips this way. Oh, yeah -- none of those stupid security body scans, no checked luggage, and you can take aboard your own food and drinks (that is something we wish we'd known ahead of time, but we'll certainly remember for the next train trip we take.)

12. SAN FRANCISCO!!!!! Oh my god, I love this city. Everything about it was a first for me really, so I'll try to stick to the highlights. Unfortunately, our first glimpse of the city took place at night after we deboarded the train in Oakland. We took a bus across the huge Bay Bridge and got our first look at San Francisco while it was all lit up. Gorgeous. I was too much in awe of the bridge and the city and tired from the long train trip to even think to get a photo. Oh well. More to come.

13. City Lights Books visit. Knowing I was finally going to visit San Francisco, a city I'd only dreamed of seeing, I booked us into a hotel only a block from this famous bookstore, so that way I wouldn't have to carry my haul of books so far -- and I could easily visit it more than once, which I did, naturally. Oh my, isn't it pretty?

I came away with only nine new books for my home collection, and that was after two visits to City Lights and one to Russian Hill, another wonderful bookstore in this great literary city. I was pretty proud of my restraint.

14. The Golden Gate Bridge. Not only did we take a boat ride out under it and around Alcatraz, but we also walked all the way across the bridge and back. Comparing this bridge walk to the one from last summer across the Brooklyn Bridge, I think I enjoyed the set up of the Brooklyn Bridge better for walking across it, but I more thoroughly enjoyed the views from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Maybe you can see the little dividing line in this photo which shows that bicyclists are supposed to stay on the side closest to the cars while walkers are supposed to stay on the side closest to the edge. Let's just say that a lot of people don't pay much attention to that, so there are a lot of bikers who have to ding their little bells to get walkers out of their way. The sidewalk isn't really all that wide, so there were times where I feared we would be hit by some of the natives who bike across the bridge regularly and don't have patience for us tourists who get in their way. This is why I liked the wider walkway set up on the Brooklyn Bridge. However, we found that not too many tourists actually walk all the way across the bridge like we did, so the number of people thins down to a trickle, as you can see by this photo, the further across the bridge you go. It is a little over a mile across, and we had a beautiful morning for our crossing. But it was quite windy up there, and we noticed many caps that people had lost in the crossing lying on the track just over the edge. What a great experience this was, though.

15. 

 Since we were staying by City Lights, that meant we were staying in Chinatown. Never having eaten real Chinese food in a real Chinese restaurant, we had to give it a try. Let's just say Kim used his chopsticks in the photo only and for one failed attempt to eat some rice. I, however, ate most of my noodles that way, so I was actually pretty proud of myself. We learned that Chinese food is pretty good, but we still prefer Italian and Mexican if given a choice.

Allow me to put in a plug for the hotel where we stayed. I found it online simply by searching around the area where City Lights is located, and I read some of the reviews. People said good things, and it was reasonably priced for San Francisco, so I reserved a room for us. 

We were very very pleased with our stay here. The people working at the desk each day were so wonderful, and the room was just the right size. We didn't have a view, but we got enough of that traipsing all over the city each day. It goes by SW Hotel online. When we first arrived in the dark in Chinatown in what by many standards is a bit of a seedy part of town, I had my doubts as to what I'd got us into, but once inside the hotel and our room on the 4th floor, we were very happy with it. There are so many great things to see that are walk-able from here. I'm so glad I chose to stay there.



16. Everything else we saw and did while in San Francisco were firsts for us as well. We loved the climate and temperature and the fact that there was no humidity and seemingly no bugs!

We saw this MASSIVE container ship sail under the Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio park and couldn't believe how huge that ship was. I wish we'd still been on the bridge to see this beast sail under us.

 Went to Alamo Park to see the Painted Ladies from the opening of "Full House," and, yes, this is a VERY touristy thing to do, but we loved looking at the architecture of San Francisco.

 This is the house used in "Mrs. Doubtfire." The trees are new since the movie, and the steps have been redone.

 Even though this is the heavily touristy part of San Francisco, no trip there, especially no first trip there, is complete without a stroll along Fisherman's Wharf. We are glad we went because that's where we found the boat that took us on the great ride out to see Golden Gate Bridge from below and around Alcatraz. Visiting the island itself wasn't possible for us as all the trips out there were booked up for over a month. We were o.k. with just seeing it from afar though.

This is looking down Lombard Street -- the block long section of it that is called the crookedest street in the world. We walked up what felt like a million stairs to get to the top, but it was worth the view. Unfortunately, it was early evening, so much of this is in shadow.

The massive Bay Bridge coming from Treasure Island toward San Francisco. The other half of it is hidden from view behind the island, but that half goes to Oakland.

These are just sailboats docked at San Francisco, but I think this picture is really pretty.

This was our sneak peek into At&T Park while the Giants were playing.

We did not ride a cable car while we were there because what this photo does not show is the mile long line of people waiting to get on it. We did get to watch the conductors turn the car, though, which was very interesting to see.

I had long wanted to go to San Francisco, and I'm so glad it finally happened. Three days couldn't do justice to all this city has to offer, and I really loved our time there. I'd like to go back someday for a longer stay, but time will tell. I'm not sure if I could manage those intense hills if I wait too long to return, so I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity and a willing traveling partner to finally make my dream of seeing San Francisco come true. 

Roam With Me! Some of my Firsts in California. Part One.

The older I get the less I like to repeat visits to places I've already seen -- unless I'm showing them to someone dear to me because then I can experience the newness and accompanying excitement through that person. So, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up when my boyfriend and I were invited to his nephew's wedding to be held in Anaheim on July 7th. I'd never been to California; he'd never been to California -- so everything we were about to do was going to be new for both of us. How wonderful.

So, here are some of the many first-time things we did and saw during our first two days in California.

1. Meal at an In-N-Out. This one is near or perhaps still within the giant beast that is LAX, and it's quite popular because you can watch airplanes come in for landings while eating outside.

While the food was fine, it wasn't anything to write home about. I realize that many people have eaten in an In-N-Out, but we'd only heard of the chain prior to landing in L.A.





I wish I'd captured the gigantic airplane that passed over us from China. How those massive things stay in the air will always astound me. 

A lot of amateur photographers hang out where you see the people in this photo just waiting to capture a shot of the very large planes.






2. View of the Pacific Ocean. While I've seen, flown over and even swum in the Atlantic many times, I'd never been anywhere near the Pacific before, so that first glimpse was magical.

 This was taken from Del Cerro Park in the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. From here we could see Catalina Island. 




We also found this little gem engraved with words from one of the best known Nebraska writers! I'm a little known Nebraska writer myself, so seeing this at an overlook of the Pacific gave me chills: 

This was taken BEFORE the killer hike we went on through a portion of the Portuguese Bend Reserve. Look how happy and naive we were. A few short hours later I pretty much looked like death warmed over, but the views were gorgeous! Me? Not so much. 






3. Meal at House of Blues. I mention another restaurant only because of the amazing piece of artwork on display there. This one is in Anaheim, near where we were staying. It's a massive piece of art comprised totally out of Mardi Gras beads, and it wraps around a tall, thick post at the bar. I was drawn to it even more so because of its Day of the Dead motif since I am a Spanish teacher. It's breathtakingly beautiful.

Look to the bottom of the pillar and you'll see the artist's name: Anna Walton, and you can visit her website at www.annanola.com to see more of her very impressive pieces of Mardi Gras bead art.

If you go to House of Blues, I highly recommend their Bloody Marys and their jambalaya -- I had mine with chicken, but it comes with shrimp, too, if you prefer seafood.









4. Views of the Hollywood sign and L.A. from Griffith Park's observatory.

The zoom on my phone's camera doesn't work the best, so I just stick to taking photos as is; however, the sign is there.

 No photo will ever do L.A. justice because it's just too big to get in one shot. Living where there are fewer people in my entire state than can be found in L.A., it boggles the mind to stare out at this huge city. It's o.k. to visit, but I can't imagine living here.

5. Celebrity sighting. Turns out it was our only celebrity sighting, but we thought it was pretty cool to see one on our first full day in the L.A. area. This was in Burbank in a mall called Burbank Town Center. The celebrity? John Ross Bowie who I know as Barry Kripke from The Big Bang Theory. Honestly, if he hadn't spoken within my hearing, I don't think I would even have noticed him, but once I did, I just had to snap a quick photo to show my kids. I cropped out his own child from this photo, and this time I did attempt to use the zoom on my phone, and as you can see, that then distorts the image a bit, but you can still tell it's him. We were enjoying our ice cream and really not paying attention to anyone walking by when I heard a man's voice that could be no other than Bawwy Kwipke's from The Big Bang. We both looked at each other in astonishment, and I caught a couple shots of him descending the escalator with his kid. Good thing, too, since he was the only celebrity we saw, but considering that I don't pay that much attention to other people, it's possible we walked right past someone else famous and I never even noticed.

6. Treatment as if I were the celebrity at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank. We received the royal treatment by the owners, Barbara Holliday and Dave Reinitz. I met these two ten years ago at the inaugural Great American Comedy Festival in Norfolk, Nebraska which was created in Johnny Carson's honor. Johnny is a Norfolk High School graduate, and he hosted his long-running show from Burbank. 

I was a member of the committee that got the comedy festival up and running, and I was given the honor to be the host to these two zany, creative people. I kept saying that one day I'd get out to California and see the club they opened. It took me longer than I thought it would to actually do that, but Barbara not only remembered me fondly, she also gave us free tickets to the shows we attended and a celebrity behind-the-scenes tour of every part of the club -- the back entrance, the kitchen, the green room, both comedy rooms, the bar, etc. She also introduced us to her club manager who treated us like royalty. We enjoyed a great meal, some drinks, and definitely some great comedy.

This is the YooHoo Room which has an adorable stage and a smaller, cozy room for the audience. The night we were in attendance, this stage was populated by comedians from or connected in some way to NEBRASKA! Can you believe it? It was a total coincidence.

 This is Dave preparing for the open mic auditions which they do every so often. We were able to watch a large group of wanna-be comedians do their three minute tryout sets while we ate supper. Then we attended part of the Nebraska comics show in the YooHoo Room before returning to this main room for a show entirely of female comedians who had just completed a long course teaching them how to do stand-up comedy. They were all very good, and I nearly peed my pants laughing. Maybe someday I'll give stand-up a try again, and if I do, I'll go back to Flappers. It's a great club.

7. Uber rides. No photos of those except for this view of traffic on the the I-5:    I lost count of how many rides we ended up taking during our time in the L.A. area and then in San Francisco, but it was better than renting a car and attempting to navigate ourselves around the mass that is L.A. and beyond. We were initially nervous to try travel by Uber, but once we did the first one, it was simple after that. Our only problems occurred when the very first driver we had didn't speak English or even Spanish at any sort of communicable level (all the others spoke English very well or were natives of the U.S.), and when there was a glitch or a misconnection once when we desperately needed a ride and couldn't get the app to process the credit card -- meanwhile, our phone batteries were fast being drained, so I was a bit of a basket case for about fifteen minutes or so, but that's part of travel, and we survived.

To be continued . . .