Ailantha - Blog

Off To Legoland

4/18/2018

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Off to Legoland

...Continued from yesterday:
Midway through our grand daughters' spring break we all set off to Carlsbad, California for a trip to Legoland,

...a magnificent Lego-themed amusement park geared towards the young crowd.

As Carlsbad is a good hour-and-a-half drive south from Los Angeles, we decided to leave Thursday afternoon after my daughter and son-and-law finished work, spend the night in Carlsbad and arrive at the park early for a long day of amusement.

After a scenic drive margined by mountains,

..and palm trees,

...we stopped at a Denny's outside Carlsbad for dinner,

...where we were surprised, though mayhaps we shouldn't have been, that the chain-restaurant food was so good.
Or maybe we were all just muy hungry.
In any case, we all ended up liking what we'd ordered:

The Grilled Talapia from the 55+ menu,

The Veggie Burger,

...the Veggie Skillet,

...the Skillet Supreme (minus the chorizo sausage) for me,

...and mac and cheese that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Kraft boxed variety which, of course, made it a great hit with my grand daughters,

... who generally are not exposed to such a prefabricated gustatory delicacy at home.

After dinner we headed for our hotel, The Carlsbad Holiday Inn,

...which had a beautiful outdoor pool, hot tub,

...and fire pit.

After a dip in the pool the girls got into their jammies and snuck over to Grammie and Grandpa's room for a visit.

The following morning we rose early, checked out of the Holiday Inn and sought breakfast at a nearby restaurant called the Beach Plum Kitchen.

The restaurant was already crowded but we were able to snag a table on the patio under a heating element,

...and the server offered us blankets - a first-time and much appreciated restaurant experience for us -

...which, it being a chilly morning, my daughter and I did not turn down.

So then, all warm and snug, we proceed-ed to order break-fast.

The food was very good, especially the breakfast potatoes. Among us we ordered:

A veggie breakfast burrito,

...veggie omelet,

...scrambled eggs,

...French toast,

...sunny-side -up eggs,

...and for the girl whose birthday it was that day, a birthday muffin.

After breakfast we were back on the road,

...following the hordes to our mutual destination.

To be continued...

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Passover And Easter

4/16/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
My grandchildren have the benefit of having one parent of a Jewish background and the other raised with the Christian traditions.
And so in their family they celebrate both Chanukah,

...and Christmas,

...as well as both Passover and Easter, as did Tom and I during our visit.
On Saturday morning, March 31, the second day of Passover this year and the day before Easter,

...our grand daughters told us the story of the biblical Ten Plagues upon Egypt that preceded the first Passover.

On the shelf in the background is an afikomen holder our younger grand daughter made at her preschool. The afikomen is a special piece of matzo eaten during the seder meal.

Then we blew out a dozen eggs,

...which I used in a recipe I found on the internet and wanted to try for healthy, low-caloire banana pancakes made only from eggs and mashed bananas. They were actually pretty dreadful,

...unless drowned in syrup. (When will I ever learn to stop falling for those too-good-to-be-true internet recipes?)

Then we dyed the egg shells.

That evening we attended the Second Night seder meal at the home of my son-in-law's parents.

Some of us helped with the final preparations in the kitchen,

...while others helped by playing nicely in the living room.

When all the guests had arrived we took our places at the table and the seder began.

The Passover symbols.

Each of us were given a copy of the Haggadah, the text used to tell the story of Passover and to explain the significance of the elements of the seder.

We took turns reading from the beautiful text,

...while we ate the traditional and symbolic seder foods,

...among which were gefilte fish,

...a hard boiled egg in salt water,

...and a delicious matzoh ball soup.

The following day, Easter Sunday, my daughter and son-in-law hosted an Easter egg hunt and kosher brunch for about 30 children and adults.

We started early preparing the food,

...and setting up an obstacle course in the backyard.

...with some friends arriving early to help with the preparations.

The menu included scrambled eggs and a veggie scramble, fruit salad, popcorn, relishes,

...matzo with assorted toppings, including lox, regular and vegan cheese, cream cheese, hummus, sunflower seed butter, avocado,

...and a lovely tray of Passover sweets brought by one of the guests.

At 10 am the guests began arriving,

...including Pinky's friend Sneakers.

When everyone had arrived,

...and understood what they were supposed to do,

...the hunt was on, outdoors,

...as well as indoors.

When all the eggs were found we moved on to the next activity, which was a raffle,

MC'd by my daughter,

...for which each young guest was given a strip of five tickets.

It had been arranged that each guest would end up winning a prize,

...from the trove of treasures we'd gleaned from the Dollar Tree, the biggest hit among which turned out to be the whoopee cushions, which continued to be a source of entertainment for the duration of the party.

When a person's ticket was picked they chose a prize and then reached into the bag to choose the next winning ticket.

My daughter kept the raffle moving along,

...and the crowd entertained.

After the raffle the guests spent the rest of the day playing,

...eating, socializing,

...and relaxing.

And so the the kosher Easter brunch went on until about 5:15 pm when the last guests left, though they'd have stayed longer if my daughter and son-in-law hadn't had tickets for that evening's L.A. Clippers game.
I, of course, invited the guests to stay longer, have some more food, watch some more TV,

...but the time had come.

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Call Of Duty: Grandparent Special Ops

4/14/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
   On Friday morning, the R &R segment of our California trip being officially over, Tom and I plunged into the occupational specialty for which we had had been deployed From Columbus, Ohio, to Los Angeles, California:
     Babysitting our grand daughters over spring break.

Now, while I feel a mix of gladness for and envy of my fellow grandparents who live so close to their offspring that they can be part and parcel of their grandchildren's lives on a regular basis, still, living so far away does give Tom and I the benefit of our visits being special occasions.

Thus may we go about our grandparental mission of spoiling to our hearts' content and guilt-free,

...knowing it's only temporary and therefore unlikely to produce any long-term adverse outcomes in our grandchildren's development.

To that end, as our four-year-old grand daughter's break began on Friday, one school day before her sister's, we planned a full operation of activities for her and a couple of friends who came over for a day-long play date.

We started with some supervised nail-painting,

...then a crafts project,

...then some playtime, during which the girls composed on the keyboard tunes in the expressionist dissonant style of which Pinky Poo appeared to be a rapt admirerer.

The girls then made up a game that involved taking turns blocking the hallway and allowing passage only with the password, which was "bunny shoes and kitty shoes." Grandpa Tom kept getting the password wrong, much to the girls' delight, and hence was denied passage every time.

We also took a trip to Pollywog Park (see post from 8/29/2014),

...after which we went to Mandy's for lunch (see yesterday's post),

...where the girls were fascina-ted by the counter seating,

...and the old-fashioned claw-crane vending machine.

The girls opted for grilled cheese sandwiches,

...while I made a most auspicious choice, the delicious veggie skillet.

After lunch we went for frozen yogurt,

...then returned home for another round of playtime before it was time to retrieve the big sisters from school.

And so at the end of that first day of our grandparental call of duty we could say that the day's maneuver went down with unanticipated success - no casualties: no fighting, crying, or boo-boos - and much thankfulness on Tom's and my part that we'd built up almost enough stamina for just such a mission as this one,

...by having twice hiked the 497- mile Camino de Santiago across northern Spain. (see https://www.andlightenyourpack.com/ and https://pattiliszkay.weebly.com/)

Day One: mission accomplished.

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Strolling ― And Eating ― Around The Beaches

4/12/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
Tom an I returned from Monterey to Los Angeles on Wednesday. As our grandchildren's spring break hadn't yet started, we had most of Thursday to ourselves to while away as we wished.
So after dropping the kids off at school we started the day at our favorite breakfast spot, a little local eatery called Mandy's,

...where I had my usual, potatoes and eggs, sunny-side up,

...while Tom went Rogue One and ordered the epic strawberry-topped Pancakes.

After breakfast we strolled around Manhattan Beach,

...and down to the pier.

Then it was back to the house to keep the dogs company,

...until it was time to pick up the kids from school.

That night for dinner we headed over to Hermosa Beach to our favorite dinner spot on the beach, Scotty's.

Amazingly, Scotty's is never crowded, even though the price is right, it's located right on the beach with a view of the Hermosa Beach Pier,

...and the food is soooo good. Among us we had

...the Roast chicken,

...the Veggie burger,

...the Street Tacos,

...ba-sketti,

...and fish tacos that surely rank among the best on the planet.

Mayhaps Scotty's simply lacks a schtick,

...which is fine by us.

To be continued...

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Good-Bye Monterey, Then Back To L.A.

4/10/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
On Wednesday, March 28, Tom and I said good-bye to our quarters at the Presidio of Monterey military hotel (see post from 4/1/2018).

On our way to the airport we stopped at the Presidio Historical Park, located on a hilltop next to the army post, to have a look at the views below us of Monterey Bay and the surrounding landscape,

...and to visit the Presidio Museum,

...which chronicles the history of the Presidio of Monterey - "presidio" is Spanish for fortress - from its construction on that site by Spanish soldiers in 1771 to the present.
In the park was posted this sign,

...the wording of which ― especially the use of the word "hosted" ― made me laugh. (The Native Americans really should have left the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans off their guest list).
As the Spanish priest Junipero Sierro (see yesterday's post) accompanied the Spanish army to Monterey, founded a mission here (which he later moved to Carmel - see post from 4/7/2018), and oversaw the economic development of the region, there is a statue of him in the park on a spot overlooking Monterey Bay.

In 2015 when Junipero Serra was proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church there was protest against his canonization because of his subjugation and mistreatment of Native Americans and his forced suppression of their culture. At the time of his canonization some mystery protesters cut off Junipero Serra's head and threw it into the bay where it was later found. A new head was made and reattached.

After our visit to the Presidio Historical Park we headed to the Monterey Airport.

We grabbed some lunch at the sole airport restaurant, where the food was not noteworthy,

...except, perhaps, for the noteworthiness of the bread of my veggie sandwich being remarkably stale and my French fries being remarkably cold. But then, this was the only restaurant in the airport, so I guess the customers are pretty much a captive audience.

Then we took off and within the hour we were back in L.A.,

...just in time for a baby-sitting gig with our grand daughters and some friends over for an after-school play date,

...also pinky poo,

and his wild-and-crazy pal Indie, who was still visiting for a few more days.

The wonder of it all.

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Big Sur

4/8/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
On Tuesday we headed back to California Highway 1 and this time drove 30 miles South from Monterey to Big Sur, the breath-taking mountainous stretch that runs for about 70 miles along the Central California coastline.

Our first destination was lunch at Nepenthe, a restaurant built on a cliff 800 feet above the Pacific Ocean,

...famous for the panoramic vista from the terrace of the mountains and the sea.

Though we arrived at the restaurant’s opening at 11:30 am, there was already a waiting list, but fortunately not a long one, so we had about 10 minutes to stroll around the restaurant and take in the view.

We got a seat on the edge of the terrace with a wonderful view.

However, as we were perched atop a steep cliff I got butterflies when I looked down and was careful to keep my feet tucked in.

The service was slow and the menu was way pricey. My veggie sandwich cost $17.50,

…and Tom’s crab sandwich was $24.50.

The sandwiches did not include fries, which had to be purchased á la carte, and of course everybody’s going to buy fries to accompany their sandwich, even at $9.50 for a large basket,

…or $6.50 for a small basket, one of which Tom and I ordered and shared.

The food was nonetheless good - my veggies were topped with a very tasty basil pesto– except that the buns were so big that our sandwiches were impossible to eat as sandwiches and the so chewy were these mega-buns that they were difficult to cut with a knife, especially on the surface of the paper-lined baskets they were served in.
Still, I guess Nepenthe’s credits outweigh its debits, and when we left the restaurant about an hour-and-a-half after we’d arrived there was a pretty sizable crowd waiting around the terrace to be seated.

     I felt sorry for the waiting children and their parents.
     As for the Nepenthe experience, I felt that it was fine to do once, but I have no need to ever go there again. If I’d had to wait a long time for a seat – especially if I’d ended up with a seat without a view – I wouldn’t have felt that the experience would have been worth the view, especially since there are such lovely views to be gleaned for free from other lovely spots along Big Sur.
      However, the restaurant’s gift shop – which one need not patronize the restaurant to enter – was another story.
     I loved the Nepenthe gift shop. It was full of the neatest, prettiest, stuff.

…and also had a beautiful outdoor terrace with a view.

All the neat, pretty stuff was, of course, too expensive to buy – all right, I bought two colorful woven $12 oven mitts as a gift for my daughter – but the place was inspiring to browse.
In fact it was at the Nepenthe gift shop that I discovered the bedspread environment of my dreams:

…the whole ensemble costing about $1,000.
     I figured I could zip over to Joann Fabrics and for a fraction of that price and buy the material to make reasonable facsimiles of the quilts, skirts, throws and pillows of my Nepenthe Dream Bed.
      Eh, it’ll never happen, of course. But it was nice to dream for a few minutes.
       After lunch we turned and headed back north up California 1,

...until we arrived at the entrance road (unmarked along the highway but which Tom had found marked on a map) to Pfeiffer Beach,

…at the end of which was a walking path,

…that led to the most beautifully scenic beach.

The hills and rock formations reminded me of the setting of a scene from one of my favorite, watch-over-and-over-again movies, “Jason and the Argonauts," when the enraged giant metal god appears from behind a hill on the beach, chases the Argonauts into the sea,

...then wrecks their boat.

     I wondered if that scene was in fact shot in this location, so I looked up the filming info on “Jason and the Argonauts” and learned that the movie was shot in Italy. My thought is that the producer could have save some bucks by filming at Pfeiffer Beah.
       But then, really, what do I know?
       After Pfeiffer Beach we headed back to Monterey,

…stopping for dinner at a restaurant we found in Pacific Grove called Coco’s,

...which, we later learned, is a California restaurant chain famous for its pies, of which we later partook, though the we found the dinner food really good, too.

I ordered the open-faced sirloin smothered in mushrooms and onions with a side wedge of lettuce with bleu cheese dressing, all of which was delicious. The steak was especially good, not always the case with steak – of which there are dozens of ways to ruin it – but this piece was rare as can be and so tender, and the garlic bread atop which it sat was tasty and soft.

Tom liked his grilled salmon with vegetables equally well,

…and the hot, fresh bread was so good, soft on the inside, just a little crispy on the outside.

     For dessert we split a slice of the berry pie with ice cream (which, sadly, I forgot to snap), which was also delicious.
    On our way out of the restaurant we chatted for a few minutes with the friendly manager who, we learned, not only enjoyed his job but was a fervent practicing environmentalist, conservationist, and low-consumptionist.
      We’ve been gifted with such a beautiful, wonderful planet, it’s nice to know that there are some people out there who consciously care about it..

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Carmel-By-The-Sea

4/7/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
After visiting the Dali 17 museum on Monday morning (see yesterday’s post), Tom and I drove to Pacific Grove, the next town over from Monterey, to seek out some lunch.

We came upon a promising-looking pizza place in a strip mall,

…where we snagged and subsequently polished off a very decent deep-dish pizza.

After lunch we headed about 4 miles south along beautiful California Highway 1,

...to the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Our first stop was a visit to the historic Carmel Mission,

...founded in 1770 by the Spanish priest Junipero Serra,

...who claimed the land for Spain,

...converted the native Americans,

...pressed them into servitude,

...and oversaw the agricultural and economic development of the region,

...as well as the decimation of its indigenous population.

Junipero Serra was canonized a saint in the Catholic church over much controversy in 2015.

After our tour of the Carmel Mission we drove into town.

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a beautiful gem of a place,

...its streets lined with cute little shops and eateries,

...and gingerbready-looking houses.

The main street leads to the beach,

...and a beautiful panorama.

On our way back to Monterey we stopped again at Pacific Grove where there is a Monarch butterfly sanctuary full of eucalyptus trees to which butterflies migrate from colder Midwestern climates to winter over from October to February,

...though now the butterflies have all returned to their homes.

Before heading back to Monterey we revisited Los Amigos where found the Mexican food so good the other night,

...and did again.

"Equal and Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay
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The Dali 17

4/5/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:
Though our plans for Monday had originally included a visit to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium,

...while strolling along the bay on Sunday we happened upon the Dali 17 Museum, which is a permanent exhibit of hundreds of works of Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

Now, I'm as fascinated and charmed as anyone by aquatic creatures and habitats,

...but Salvador Dali is my favorite artist, even though I've seen only a few of his actual paintings, having seen mostly photos of his works in art books.

So rather than going to the aquarium I really wanted to go to the Dali museum. Which we did.
As the museum didn't open until 10 am we started out Monday morning with another walk around downtown Monterey,

...where we discovered a doughnut shop displaying the most wonderful-looking wares, which of course we had to sample.

After our doughnut break it was almost time for the museum to open so we headed down to the bay area to the Dali 17.

We learned that the museum was named the Dali 17 in commemoration of the years during the 1940's when Salvador Dali, having fled Spain during World War II, lived in Monterey at the Del Monte Hotel on 17-Mile Drive, the scenic highway along the Pacific Ocean.

We did not know that.

Interestingly, the museum was filled not with Dali's more known works,

...with the exception of a couple of "Persistence of Memory" doubles,

...but rather with etchings, lithographs, mixed media pieces,

...and a few sculptures.

It was not the Dali I was used to, but wonderful all the same.

At one spot in the museum there was a sofa shaped like a pair of lips across which the light fell to create lines,

...that reminded me of the eyelashy-looking lines Dali often put on his paintings.

An awesome coincidence, thought I.

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Monterey

4/2/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:

We arrived in Monterey on Saturday afternoon and settled into our quarters at the Presidio of Monterey (see yesterday's post).

Making a brief foray into town on Saturday evening,

...we decided rather to drive to the next town over to seek out dinner, thinking that mayhaps we could find some less expensive eateries outside the touristy area.
So we drove a few miles down the road to the town of Pacific Grove,

...where we came upon a cute-looking Mexican restaurant,

...with a likewise cute interior,

...reasonable prices, and yummy food.

Tom ordered the lentil and bacon soup, which he pronounced very tasty,

...while I had the veggie fajitas,

...with all the trimmings, muy rico.

On Sunday we took our first proper walk around Monterey,

Along the way we came across California's first theater.

I would like to have had a look inside but the door was locked.

We walked down to the bay area,

...which offered some pretty views,

...but to me felt excessively tourist-trappy,

...especially Fisherman's Wharf,

...the principal Monterey attraction.

When lunchtime rolled around we walked back downtown,

...where we found a nice bagel place,

...and snagged ourselves some nice bagels.

...after lunch we walked back down to the bay,

...towards Cannery Row,

...which is no longer the site of the sardine canneries of John Steinbeck's era,

...but rather, as described on the official Cannery Row website, "Monterey California's premiere destination for great hotels, shopping, dining, family fun and nightlife."

I believe I preferred the view of Monterey Bay from a distance.

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The Presidio Of Monterey

4/1/2018

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...Continued from yesterday:

The Presidio of Monterey is the U.S. Army post on which is located the Defense Language Institute, the Army's school of foreign languages study.

On this post is also located a hotel that quarters military personnel on temporary duty or military families who are still waiting for their housing assignments.