We made it!

The flight was uneventful, as was getting the rental car.  Well, apart from the older man who somehow drove his private car into the car return garage.  As with any Orlando weekend trip, we made a quick getaway from the city itself to check out some of the more natural destinations within a few hours away.  This time, we decided a trip to Merritt Island to check out the ocean and the wide variety of birds that call the island home.  Along the way we stopped for a late breakfast/early lunch at a little diner called Country Cookin’ Diner.

If you are looking for Osprey in winter time, Florida won’t disappoint.

The diner doesn’t look like much from the outside – we actually drove by it – and the ambiance is old-school formica and soda fountain tables inside.  The food, however, is fantastic.  The chicken fried steak with gravy, home fries, eggs and a biscuit was some of the best chicken fried steak we’ve had.  You also can’t go wrong with biscuits and gravy.  The coffee was fresh, hot, and decently strong.  We’d definitely be back any time we’re in the area.

Immature Bald Eagles look a lot like Golden Eagles.

Once we reached Merritt Island we stopped to watch an osprey flying, and a few dozen coots swimming.  At the visitor center we took the short boardwalk trail around the pond, and saw a few gators and a turtle.  We also spent some time camped out by the bird feeders, and were rewarded with a few female and one male painted bunting.  By that point we decided the trip was a success and anything else was just a bonus.

This Painted Bunting was the star of the show.

The bonus material included a hike by a hammock trail, where we saw an Eastern Meadowlark popping its head up in a meadow about 10 yards from us.  It kept popping its head up and then ducking back down.

We were surprised by the size of the Eastern Meadowlark.

By this time it was mid afternoon, and Canaveral National Seashore was waiting for us.  After a walk along the ocean we headed towards the hotel for dinner at High Tide Harrys.  The beers were good, and the seafood was excellent; if gumbo, shrimp, or scallops are on the menu, we highly recommend all three.  Dinner was so good, actually, that we went back Sunday night to watch some of the Super Bowl and get dinner.

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Our destination was the Vdara Hotel.

We stopped for lunch at The Mad Greek, a family run restaurant in Baker, CA. We managed to beat the lunch rush by getting there a little after 11; the food was excellent, we sampled the gyros (I recommend the sandwich over the platter, it comes with onion, lettuce, and tzakiki), which came with a side of lightly seasoned rice. The gyros platter also came with a salad, whose star was the single stuffed grape leaf.

Our rental car did not have a good sun visor. Louisa fixed that problem.

After lunch we took a detour through the Mojave desert. The desert was pretty neat, with metamorphic rocks, cinder cones, and lots of Joshua trees.

They do exist!

We reached Las Vegas by the early afternoon, just after 3pm. This is a great time to get to Las Vegas since the traffic is usually pretty light. Our hotel was Vdara, which we like because it’s a non-smoking, non-gambling hotel. That night we had dinner at the Mirage buffet. The Mirage is within walking distance of Vdara, and has an excellent dinner buffet. Favorites were the wonton soup, shrimp bisque, chilled jumbo shrimp, albodingas (meatball) soup, fried wontons, dim sum, and meat station. The desserts, particularly the chocolate gelato, were also excellent.

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A tour of the Santa Barbara Mission is well worth it.

The Mission tour is a self-guided tour, with an optional video introduction that cycles through a few different programs.  After the Mission, we parked at Stearns Wharf for lunch, and to walk the waterfront.  The wharf is a fun walk if you like waterfront areas, and they do have a few good places to grab seafood to go.  We opted for the Moby Dick fish & chips takeout special.

No Mr. Pelican, our fish & chips is not for you.

Next, we drove over to Los Olivos to sample some wine, and some olive oil. (Hey, it is named ‘the olives’ after all.  How can you not sample some olive oil?)  We enjoyed our wine tasting at Carhartt Vineyard, and had some nice habanero-infused olive oil at a local tasting room.  We ended the visit by getting some espresso beverages at Corner House Coffee.

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The garlic cheese bread is well seasoned and cheesy, and served on a submarine roll (no French bread here).  We might not get the bread again, but we’ll be back for the pizza.  Oh, and they’re cash only, so either make sure you have an emergency $20 in your pocketbook, or an ATM card.

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We started the day with a drive into the hills.

After the break we continued on to LA, by way of Santa Monica. As we got closer to the city we noticed the smog noticeably increase, although it didn’t seem too hazy once we were inside the city itself. We parked by the Page museum, home of items recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have an interesting interpretive video there, as well as a few reconstructed skeletons, including a saber tooth cat, mini horse, North American camel, and woolly mammoth. You can also walk outside and see some of the pits which are still undergoing excavation, which is scheduled for the warmer summer months.

This colorful warbler was found at Point Dume State Beach.

After the museum we walked across the street and found a few good food trucks, as well as part of the Berlin wall. Tony had Indian food – curry and an appetizer roll/wrap. I had bahn mi, a traditional Korean sandwich with sweet barbecued pork, pickled veggies, jalapenos and aoli, served on a toasted roll. The meal also came with shrimp spring rolls (shrimp and veggies, wrapped in rice paper) with peanut sauce for dipping. The food was all excellent, and set us up for some driving through the city over towards the history museum.

Don’t be fooled, this pond is actually a tar pit.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has an impressive dinosaur exhibit. We also enjoyed the rose garden outside, which was still in bloom (though past peak) even during the middle of November.  Another bonus of going to the history museum is the science museum is next door. We were fortunate to get two same-day timed tickets to see the space shuttle Endeavor. The shuttle itself is huge, and we both enjoyed walking around and under it.

No bones about it, this is a good exhibit.

We decided to get dinner closer to our hotel, since it was nearing rush hour when we left the science museum. Fortunately, traffic going out of the city was quite light, while the expressways into downtown were packed. Our dinner destination was a local burger chain called The Habit. While Tony still prefers Five Guys overall, this may be Louisa’s new favorite fast food burger spot. We got a mushroom and swiss burger, and the teriyaki burger with grilled pineapple and swiss. Both burgers were great, and the fries were good – the sweet potato fries were even better.

The space shuttle is one of the most impressive achievements ever done by mankind.

After dinner we walked next door to an Hawaiian ice shop called Shave It. We got a root beer float – root beer ice surrounding a cone of vanilla ice cream. The ice itself is quite fine, not “crystally” at all, and the ice cream was fantastic. It was so good that we tried another flavor combo – coffee ice cream with vanilla ice. The ice cream was very coffee-y, almost bitter; Tony really liked the vanilla ice, but I didn’t think it was sweet enough or strong enough to hold its own against the ice cream.

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Los Angeles on Dwellable

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You’re welcome.

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We saw this group of birds right outside the hotel.

Up next was a Nike Missile base at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. While the actual missile part of the base is closed, we could see the missile sites and several bunkers. There’s also a great view of the ocean from the hilltops.  Our tour of San Francisco ended back at Fish, where we got clam chowder (excellent!) and fried oysters and steak fries.

Come for the Nike Missiles, stay for the awesome coastline.

Then began the drive to Thousand Oaks, which is about an hour outside of Los Angeles. The trip included a stop at In ‘N Out for dinner (be sure to try the animal style burger), and a side trip to a mission and historic town of San Juan Bautista.  Louisa was intrigued by the replica mission bells that line the road, marking the spot of the Camino Real which connected the missions in California.

Our ‘mission’ was to investigate The Mission at San Juan Bautista.

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Our week in the southwest begins!

The flight went well (we had a direct flight) and we landed in San Francisco around 10:30. We picked up the rental car and drove over to Matt’s apartment. He suggested lunch at a nearby diner called Crepes on Cole; we happen to love diners, so thought this sounded perfect. They had great coffee, and Tony really enjoyed the NY Benedict (a classic eggs benedict) with potatoes. I opted for the (not smoked) salmon crepe, with capers and melted havarti cheese; this also came with salad and potatoes. The portions were quite generous, and all the food was good. We also got a couple cookies to go; ironically, we realized after the fact that they were vegan. And they tasted as good as any “regular” cookie we’ve tried.  We highly recommend this place if you find yourselves in San Francisco.

We passed a few sites on our way to lunch in San Francisco.

After lunch we walked a block to the Ice Cream Bar and Soda Fountain. They’re not cheap, but they are very good. Tony tried a soda with sarsaparilla, other flavorings, and a toasted marshmallow on top; it was served as a float with sweet cream ice cream. I had something that tasted like a creamsicle, also made with sweet cream ice cream.

Be sure to admire the view of the city on the way to Muir Woods.

By now it was mid-afternoon, but we wanted to take time to go to one of our favorite places, so we headed to Muir Woods for a quick afternoon walk. It had rained the night before, so we stayed on the paved trail through the woods.We rounded out the day by having dinner at Fish, in Sausalito. The food is always fresh and excellent; we had raw oysters, crab dip (fantastic), fish with fresh pasta, and a local beer.  The crab dip may have been the surprise star of the show, with lots of fresh crab.

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We were properly decked out for the game.

Tonight the Celtics were playing the Washington Wizards. It turned out to be a good game, and eventually went into overtime; Celtics won, which made it an even better evening. Random recollections from the evening:

1. The crowd is very good at getting their own “De-fense” and “Air – ball” chants going, but they also have a “Bull – sh**” (to the same tune as “Air – ball”) that they use once or so a game to protest calls that they think are particularly bad.
2. People are quick getting in and out of the arena, I’ve never seen such a large crowd move that quickly.
3. The Celtics weren’t expecting to almost lose that game, you could see a definite difference in body language (particularly from Garnett) with about 2 minutes to go in regulation.
4. The crowd loves Rondo.
5. The crowd also likes to dance to the random music they play during timeouts. The random music also happens to be pretty catchy.
6. The crowd didn’t like the little solar house that was walking around, dancing and passing out solar house fliers. I thought he was cute.
7. The history at the Garden is pretty cool, particularly all the championship banners hanging from the rafters. We couldn’t even see all of them from our seats.

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