"I'm not drinking any - - - merlot!"; NorCal, 08.05.11

Our tent is in the middle

Our camping stove!

Iverson and his booties!

It's our annual camping weekend getaway!  Mai, Jason and their friend John hosts an annual camping trip with a bunch of us in Arroyo Seco, a campground in Los Padres National Forest.  This year, there were about at least 22 of us, and we took up about 4-5 campsites.  The campsite costs about $15-$30 a night per site, and there's shower and modern bathrooms as well in the general campground.  Parking is free for 1 per site, 2 per double site, and extra car cost $5.  There's also a primitive campground with no plumbing, and there's a group site as well.  Every year, we always talk about getting the group site, but it's always reserved on weekends way ahead of time.  

Mai and I have been camping one way or another since 2005, we have done the Kern River for a nice white water rafting weekend, we have climbed the Yosemite's Half Dome where we had to have a bear locker - - which means limiting the food items you bring to the campground.  We have done Big Sur, Sequoia, but this Arroyo Seco is a group favorite because of the gorge, which is a 4-mile hike from the parking lot.  At the gorge, we enjoy the lazy sun with our floaties, and just enjoy the day floating about.  It feels so nice to be laying out, getting some sun and to not have Tico digging up sand next to my face for once.

Although Chris, Jason's friend, brought their 4-year old dog Iverson, I am still weary about bringing Tico in a group setting where I may need to baby-sit him all the time.  So off to Whiskers N Tails he goes.  That places takes very good care of our dog, so we are very rest assured that he's in good hands. Two years ago, someone else brought a little dog too.  So this camping place is dog-friendly.    Iverson had a ball in the gorge, he did not want to get out of the water.  That night, he was down for the count.

To get to Arroyo Seco which is on 47600 Arroyo Seco Road, Greenfield, CA; you just take the 101 Freeway North, and exit on Espinoza.  From there, it veers you right to El Camino Real, where you make a left on Elm Street.  You take that street all the way, and make a left on Arroyo Seco.  The campground is at the very end.  There's a country store that's open until 5pm, where you can restock on ice, etc.  Otherwise, you need to trek back 15 miles to the town on the corner of Elm and El Camino Real.  If you need to make a cell phone call, you'd need to do the same thing too.  Arroyo Seco is just north-east of Cambria, which is a popular tourist coastal town off the Pacific Coast Highway.

Besides a handful of people, B and I see these people only this time of the year, so it's nice to catch up with everyone's life.  At nights, we enjoy a campfire, sit, look up at the stars in the sky, eat, drink and talk story.  My favorite highlight of the night is the s'mores.  It's a great sugar-full dessert after lots of carne asada, curry, rice, chicken, hot dog, watermelon, nectarine, chips, margarita, beer, hummus and crackers, and whatever else is brought up in front of me and I can stuff in my mouth.  Which makes me glad that I at least put in an 8+ mile hike in the middle. 

After camping and on the way home, I love to stop by the town of Paso Robles to try out a new winery.  One of the girls got married at this winery called Vina Robles.  So we went to check it out.  It's off of the Highway 46 East, which is on our way to the I-5 Freeway South back to LA anyway.  They offered Estate tasting, which has a red and white collection for $7 plus the glass, or the Reserve tasting, which is $10.  B did the Reserve, and I did the Estate.  They also offered a complimentary tasting of their 3 popular reds. 

B really liked this one Petite Syrah, and the wine lady made us taste another Petite Syrah for comparison, so that B can make an informed decision.  He likes to asks questions and background, etc., since he's a Paul Giamatti wannabe of the movie Sideways.  Me, I like reds.  And I like them to taste like candy, but not too sweet.  I like a grenache blend, but that's as much knowledge as I can pull out of my brain when it comes to wine.  So when B turned around after tasting the 2nd syrah, he asked me eloquently: "what was going through your mind (after tasting this blend)?"  To which I responded: "yum, yum, yum!". 

...Bart Simpson got nothing on me.  I might as well responded "more Duff beer".  I think he was expecting a response somewhere along the lines of: "quaffable, but uh...far from transcendent".  But "yum, yum, yum" is my qualified response as Jack to his Miles.



"First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light..."

We came home right around 6pm Sunday, and started putting away our camping gear and leftover food, clothes, etc.  After straightening the house up, I came across our pile of birthday cards (our birthdays' a month apart) and just lined them up together on top of the entertainment center.  I just noticed that, since we had Tico, most of the cards we get from our friends and family nowadays has some sort of animal theme going on.  These are two of my favorites. 




For me.  Cute hamster with a big beer belly!  So like me...

 

For B.  The inside caption: "hope it's a gas!"



I've been noticing that, as much as this blog was created to discover new places for Tico, we have been excluding him from some of the dog-friendly events lately.  Being a puppy, I get neurotic about his unpredictability.  The good news is, Chris mentioned that Iverson, after the age of 3 (he's over 4 now), he tamed a lot in comparison to his high energy self during the puppy years.  And Iverson was mellow this weekend, but Sydney, Chris' gf, said that he's 'just acting' because of the large crowd.  What a great, well-trained dog.  B and I really needs to step it up beyond Tico's PetSmart training.

Everyone loved Iverson this weekend.  So well-behaved, so quiet, and calm.  I so look forward to Tico behaving well in large crowds.  Hopefully, we can enroll him to boot camp this year.  We planned to do it last year, but in the midst of the new house and wedding planning, we knew we were not in the right mindset to follow-through with the house training after bootcamp.  So we hope to do it later this year.

I just want him to behave well, like when he's around the house, in front of B and I.  We want him to behave that way in front of others, out in public.  When he's in public, especially if it's only the two of us, he's always nervous.  Like he always feels like he needs to protect me.  And he's huge, so his barking and nervousness puts people off, and scares people.  And his nervousness feeds off of their nervousness.  We just want him to be a fun, well-behaved dog, which is how he is at home.

We want Tico to be his normal, fun-loving self, in public.  We want him to be how he is at home, in public.  Like how Iverson was, this weekend.

"...remember that guy?  People love that guy." 

  

"While You Were Sleeping", Chicago; 05.14.11

Being so busy, it never dawned on me to do a ""While You Were Sleeping" tour while in Chicago.  It's only like, my most favorite movie ever.  Oh, well.  We'll likely come back next year, so there's a second chance to do it.  And I never got a chance to meet Belle, my friend that I met through work a decade ago in Hawaii, who moved back here (her hometown), and she lives over an hour from Chicago.  We made plans to meet up, but our schedules for the weekend were just too tight.  So I owe her a meeting for next year.

On a side note, we flew with Spirit Airlines.  We loved the fact that it was cheaper.  But with $30\pp carry on or a $28\pp checked bag fee each way, it comes out about the same.  And the seats are not good for a large, tall guy.  I felt really bad for Bryan during the entire trip to Chicago because he had to keep his legs sideways.  We had a larger plane on our way back, but the plane to Chicago was just small and cramped.  They also charge you for water or any kinds of drinks at $3 each minimum.  There were no TV's, nothing.  These are not big deals for me, but when flying with a large guy, Spirit will not see us again. 

So while B is on a Herbalife seminar, I played tourist on Saturday and Sunday.  But first, we got in on Friday morning, after a red-eye from LAX.  We got in the Marriott Hotel O'hare shuttle, and took a chance to see if we can check in early, and we did.  It never hurts to ask.  This hotel apparently is being renovated, and is the first Marriott hotel ever, as the talkative shuttle driver told us.  They put us in one of the lower leve, cheapie wings on the second floor, which we did not mind, because were just going to be in and out of the hotel anyway.  It was too cold and rainy that the swimming pool, which we can see from the room balcony, were tarped off.  The hotel is nice, especially the lobby area where the conferences and the business centers are.  That is the way to the tower as well, where the people who are willing to pay more stayed.  We paid less than $100 for each night, and I packaged it with my airfare, so it's about $400 for two nights stay, and a round trip with Spirit Air.  B's airfare I think is about $250+.  I don't mind this hotel, it's not a bad hotel for the price, and the Marriott customer service is still there.  But we'd definitely go back to Chicago and stay in the Magnificent Mile area the next time around so we do a whole lot more sight-seeing as there's nothing really to do in Rosemont, where the hotel and the airport is at.  I was more concerned with making sure B gets to go to this seminar easily and on time, since he had a hard time getting around the last time he was in Dallas by himself.  Whereas I can just take the train wherever I want to go and at no specific time since I'm only sight-seeing.

We got in, plopped ourselves down, and more than two hours later, it's past 10am and we still needed to scramble for tickets to the Cubs game at 1pm.  We scored at $2 each, with fees it came out to $15, and took the Blue Line Cumberland station, just around the corner from the hotel, to Jackson station 45 minutes south, and took the Red Line back up to get to Addison station, which is just right outside Wrigley Field.  So for $2.25 each, we did not  have to worry about traffic, or getting lost.  It was so easy.  Because it was windy and rainy, the stadium was not packed.  We got ourselves a better seat under the top level so we are as far from the wind and rain, and we had a ball.  To make it even sweet, the Cubs won that day.  B always wanted to see a game in Wrigley field, so this is off his list.  I never thought I'd see this stadium, considering I only saw it growing up through opening credits in one of my favorite 80's show Perfect Strangers (Balky! Lol).  But then again, being cooked up in a little island in the middle of the Pacific, I would never think I'd be in the mainland, much less being in Chicago altogether. 

These townhouses are $500K and up

"It's my life, my dream, and nothing can stop me now..."

B had a great time.  He was like a little kid.  Afterwards, we walked along Wrigleyville looking for a place to eat.  After a jet-lag and a handful of beers, we were so over the pubs and bars that graced the stadium area; so we walked east along Addison in hope for a better place to eat, and came across D'Agostino's on 1351 W Addison, which is a popular pizza chain in the city.  B ordered a deep dish double-stuffed sausage pizza, and I ordered ribs with spaghetti and marinara.  We were full and happy.  While eating, we saw a lady walking her large German Shepherd, and it reminds me of Tico.  I just realized, for the price that we paid to take Tico to the day care, we could have flown him to Chicago with us.  But that in itself has a lot of logistics that I am not ready to look into (tons of airline/airport security issues and paperwork, crates, cargo safety and comfort level, other dogs in the cargo, etc., etc.).  So maybe for another time, Tico.  In the meantime, he gets to hang out with his buddies at Whiskers N Tails.

Afterwards, we took the bus to get to the Blue line and headed back home for an early, much-needed sleep.

I joined B at the Herbalife seminar in Hyatt early in the morning on Saturday, which is also a walking distance from the Rosemont station of the Blue line, the next station down from our hotel (Cumberland).  Afterwards, I took the Blue line back to Jackson, and walked to get up the Skydeck Chicago, or Sears Tower/Willis Tower; whichever you want to call it.  It's on 233 Wacker Drive.  At 1400 feet high, it's probably the tallest building I've gone to.  I love these skyscrapers.  Each city I go to, I like to check these places out.  Unfortunately, Chicago had an awful weekend, and there were no visibility.  I was really sad about this, since I never got to fully experience being in one of those see-through clear ledges where you can literally see the city down below right under your feet.  So obviously, it was not crowded, so I had a fun time just chatting it up with the really bored workers.

Afterwards, I grabbed  bite to eat at a medittarenean hole in the wall, and walked up along Michigan Avenue to the Art Institute of Chicago.  Because of the rain, the line was long, so I proceeded to hang out for a while to see the 'bean' on Millenium Park.  What a treat.  The bean, or Cloud Gate, was so cool because it reflects the tall buildings across the street.  I also came across the famous Chicago Crown Fountain landmark with the two faces.  I waited for the girl to smile and take a picture.  There were also colorful ball structures that looked like giant dog toys.  Tico would have loved it here.

At 3pm, I came across a bridge that took me up to the 2nd entrance to the museum, and cut through the line that way.  With only an hour and a half to enjoy the place, I bee-lined to the Impressionism area and spent almost all of my time there, and also see some of the famous painting that I read about in my one semester of art class.  There were Grant Wood's "American Gothic", Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", and there was a full room of Monet, where I spent a few minutes just sitting down the bench and see the people come in and out of the area.  I knew about Monet's love for the haystacks and his garden Japanese bridges and the lily pond, but I came across a snow scene (in Norway) painting that was a nice trivia to know about Monet for me.  They have some really good Degas too.  I tried to spend a few minutes in the Armors wing, but alas, I ran out of time.

A dragon in the middle of the city




Smile!





So I headed back to the hotel, and the bell guy hooked me up with a car service for $24 and picked up Bryan at the Hyatt, and we met his friends at the Hilton across the airport for some dinner and drinks at Andiamo's and Gaslite.

"I know you're hungry, but you can't use that fork for dinner!"

Sunday morning, I bid adieu to my lovely husband, and we went on our way to the seminar for him, and to Magnificent Mile for me.  I took the Grand exit off of the redline, and just walked up and down the Michigan Avenue in the middle of rain and wind.  I got pretty tired of that, and got inside Bloomingdales for some comfort and break from the weather craziness.  Ordered a capuccino and a delicious muffin top, and took a breather.  Then off to Macy's across the street for me, because I'm not a Bloomingdales' kind of person anyway.  The mall where Macy's at was huge, and tall.  It has about 8 floors of shops that are more catering to my type - not too much $$ to burn, and want to get a good deal.  There were Aeropostale, Victoria's Secret, Forever 21 - the usual. 

At 1pm, I braved to walk down to the Navy Pier, and thought twice about walking along the harbor.  I spent a few minutes there, because the pier itself is closed.  The beach area next to the pier would have been great, but maybe on a summer trip. 

A not so famous Chicago dog

J Hancock Observatory

There's a beach somewhere here!

Next stop - California!  I heard it's nice there...

At 2, I got on the 66 bus to get to the Blue line, and B wanted to come down and see Mag Mile, so I cancelled a date with my friend Belle, and met B back on Mag Mile, waiting at the Ghirardelie coffee shop.  We did some walking, ate at a hotdog place along Rush street, and did some more walking, and off we go back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, and head back to LA.

We almost had an opportunity to be a volunteer to be bumped because of overbooking with Spirit Airlines, but alas, it didn't happen.  It would have been great to spend another day in Chicago with B to go sight-seeing with me this time around, and Monday was to be a sunny day too.  And of course, a chance to meet up with Belle for lunch; who happens to work in the Willis Tower building.  The kicker for me was that they were going to put us up at the Hilton across the street - AND give us each a round trip ticket to anywhere they fly.  They fly to Lima.  But, nothing really that too good to be true happens to us, so we did leave Chicago, picked up our car at the Green line station at the LAX airport, and got home by midnight.

"While You Were Sleeping" is a movie by Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, where Sandra's character Lucy, who worked for the train station, pretened to be Peter's (Peter Gallagher) fiancee, who was in a coma.  So Lucy pretended to be the coma guy's fiancee, and end up getting to know Jack (Bill Pullman), who's Peter's brother, and end up falling in love with him instead.  A few trivias that I will keep in mind for next time - and will keep building the list once I get more info.  Most of these are courtesy of itsfilmedthere.com:

Train: Randolph/Wabash station on the loop is where Lucy worked and Peter fell in the tracks
Logan Square Boulevard and Sacramento, Logan Square is where Lucy lived. 3017 W Logan Blvd.
Lake Point Tower - Peter Callahan's apartment. 505 N. Lake Shore Drive.
Wabash Ave. bridge - where Lucy and her boss were eating hotdogs at
Church for wedding - Lady of Mount Carmel Church - 708 W Belmont Ave.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital - not going there, but it's good to know
La Grange, IL - Callahan's family house.  Not going there, but it's good to know