Our Anniversary :)

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary! We can't believe how fast it went by...

We had a nice lunch at Duke's in Malibu. Eddie ordered the fried calamari appetizer which we both loved. Very, very tender, and not the least bit rubbery or chewy. Next, Eddie had the huge plate you see underneath, which is the Mahi Mahi sandwich. According to Julia, the Mahi Mahi was pretty good; not the least bit dry or overcooked, and the criss cut fries were perfectly seasoned. Eddie, ever the critic, thought it was ok, but was not terribly impressed.
Julia had the open faced Crab and Shrimp sandwiches, which she thought was really tasty. What a shocker! :) We both had passion fruit iced tea while watching the ocean and huge pelicans doing straight dives into the water trying to get fish.
We both thought we were too full for dessert, but Eddie said they had a very popular dessert called the Hula Pie, so we ordered one. We are glad we ordered just one! It was huge! Not to mention rich and sweet and gooey and delicious! It was what looked like one quarter of a pie. Vanilla ice cream on top of a chocolate cookie crust, with a layer of fudge, then smothered in whipped cream and sprinkled with chopped macadamia nuts. Yum!
After lunch Eddie drove to Bartels' where we finally got what we said we were going to get two years ago: Harley Davidson boots for both of us! Julia was thrilled. Eddie picked out a really "bad to the bone" looking pair, and Julia initially picked out a similar one. But both the sales girl and Eddie thought another less clunky one looked better, so she ended up going with that one.
Next we went to stroll around the Santa Monica Pier, and finally rode on the ferris wheel, which we had watched so many times but never had the time to go. Then we ended with a stroll at the Third Street Promenade, where Julia got to spend some time browsing through one of her favorite stores, Sur La Table.
Then we came home and Eddie, still full from lunch, watched as Julia ate nachos and chocolate cake. Fun day! :)

Palms Springs

We just came back from spending two days in Palm Springs. Those of you who don't know, Palm Springs is about a 2 hour drive from Los Angeles. It's in the middle of the desert. We had been there before, but only for a short day trip, during which we took the tram up to the top of the mountain and pretty much spent the whole day up there. So it was nice this time to actually stay overnight and visit the city itself. That time we took the tram up was in 1996, and it was making creaking and squeaking noises... This time, it looked like the tram has been updated since then. But we went straight into the city because not only had we done the whole tram thing before, it looked like it was pretty cold up there...! Neither one of us are fans of cold weather unless we are skiing or snowboarding!

So the picture you see above is where we ate lunch the first day there. It's a place called Fisherman's Market and Grill. We know, it's in the middle of the desert, no ocean in sight... But hey, we didn't name it, so, send your letters their way, not ours. And to those of you who are Food Network fans, yes, this is one of the places Rachael Ray ate at in $40 a day.

We ordered the Fish and Chips and a Crab Cake Sandwich. Both were pretty well cooked. The fish was well fried. They were crispy on the outside, and done just right on the inside so that it was cooked but not tough. And not too greasy or heavy, which is always hard to achieve with fried foods. The crab cake was pretty good. The cole slaw, on the other hand, we both agreed was a little on the bland side... We are both fans of KFC coleslaw, so I guess it's kind of hard to top it...
Here we are, just sitting in the middle of a plaza in the heart of downtown Palm Springs. Eddie thinks the plaza has a name, but Julia has no idea what it could be.
The picture above is the Plaza Theater. It's famous for the Palm Springs Follies, which from research that Julia did before going, seems to be a pretty popular show there. We didn't go, since it didn't seem like our cup of tea. So, we just took a couple of photos. It is, after all, a landmark.
Above are some interesting structures built by some artist guy... We have the info that Julia grabbed from the Palm Springs Museum of Art, where they are located. But they are not in the room, and neither of us feel like getting up to go get it.... Sorry. We promise we will fill in the artist name and all that other educational info later. We can tell you these are rattan, though! We had a great time there. They had all these different collections from sculptures, to prints, to artifacts, and paintings. Definitely worth a visit. If you are ever in that area, it's free on Thursday nights after 4 pm.
So right after the museum visit, we went to the big weekly Palm Spring event: Villagefest. Every Thursday night at 6 pm, a stretch of Palm Canyon Drive is shut down and is filled with people and street size stands. The festival is bigger than we thought it would be and you can find everything from street performers to palm dates (we will get to that later). This photo you see above is a booth selling nothing but different rubber duckies mounted on soaps. We thought they were colorful and cute, so Julia couldn't resist taking a photo of them.
Here is a shot of people browsing Villagefest. In the desert, after dark, it was pretty comfortable and not as hot as it was during the day, where some businesses had cold mist spraying out toward the sidewalk, reminding us of the long lines at Magic Mountain.
So after we retired back to the hotel, we were relaxing when we noticed this very clever, but also very umm, "interesting" tissue box holder. Julia sees a certain humor in it. But Eddie says it's disgusting.

Day two: we got up early in the morning. Okay, not early, but still in the morning, and drove out to Indio, which is about 40 minutes east of Palm Springs to the Shields Date Gardens. We read about this place online. This is where the palm dates thing we mentioned before should be explained. To those of you who already know this, this might not be interesting. But neither of us knew that the many palm trees that line Palm Springs are actually "date palms", so we had to go see it for ourselves. We didn't know that dates grew on a certain kind of palm trees. We thought all palms were coconut trees. :) So the trip to the date gardens was educational for both of us.
Here is Julia standing outside the Shields Date Gardens. Those of you who know her, yes, she is wearing a tank top. Thats how hot it was. Those of you who don't know her, she NEVER wears tank tops.
Above is the only sorry date palm we were allowed to get close to... the rest of the garden, of course, was fenced off and off limits to us. They had a 20 minute video that explained how date palms are planted, polinated manually and picked. It takes a lot of time and effort to grow them successfully, and that is why it's almost impossible to find dates growing on trees in the wild. They require a lot of manual help for the dates to grow and ripen successfully.
Here we are enjoying one of their famous date shakes. They taste like dates and are very, very sweet. They cost $3.75. Not a bad deal, we think. Especially after learning how much time and effort it takes, and how hard it is to grow dates. And of course, we bought a variety pack of dates to bring home.
They will ship their dates. They take orders online if our blog has peaked your interest... www.shieldsdates.com. According to them, 90% of palm dates are produced by them. And they even cultivated their own breed, Blond dates. Eddie liked the soft Medjools. The biggest, most expensive variety, considered the "royalty" of dates. Julia pretty much thinks they are all good. We were allowed to sample a huge variety, and Julia still couldn't decide which one she liked the best after tasting almost all of them... Probably the Medjools also, but she is not sure. (Eddie rolls his eyes...)
Back from Indio, we headed back to downtown Palm Springs and after having our third ice cream or shake, we went to La Casita Mexican Restaurant, located right next to the Plaza Theater. Julia was hungry and ordered the concoction above: a Mexican Pizza with chicken and black beans. Eddie was too hot and full of shakes and ice cream to eat. He just nibbled on chips and salsa and sipped cold lemonade.
Of course, a trip to Palm Springs wouldn't be complete without photos of the windmills above, and of the Cabazon dinosaurs below. This time, Julia actually got to walk inside, which she didn't get to do last time they passed by because they were closed. Those of you who dont know, the dino is a gift shop.
The photo below is of some interesting bottles of wine we saw at Hadley's Fruit Stand. It is located right next to Morongo Casino and Resort. If you are a fan of trail mix and dried fruit, Hadley's will be heaven for you. According to their website, they claim to be the ones who invented trail mix. They had tons of varieties of it. Neither of us are trail mix fans, so we really can't tell you if they were any good. But their certainly had a nice variety, and they looked pretty... healthy?

This was a pretty good, relaxing two day getaway. We were scratching our heads trying to figure out where we could go for two or three days, and couldn't think of any place we havent already been within southern California. So finally we settled on Palm Springs since the last time we went we didn't really visit the city. We are glad we went. We learned some things, about art, about growing dates, and now got the chance to relax. So we came back well rested, and with the new found knowledge that not all palm trees grow coconuts! :)

Shrimp and Crabs at Redondo Beach

So we went to the Redondo Beach Pier again yesterday, for some more of the Santa Barbara female crabs that we both like. But this time, we each got only one so that we could have some room to try something new. The crabs were great as always! The picture below is Eddie walking back with our freshly steamed crabs from Quality Seafood, where we always get our crabs. $3.99 a pound; can't beat that! So we decided to have the medium sized Shrimp and Veggies. It was $13.99, and considering how much there was, it was a bargain. They certainly did not skimp on the shrimp! And they even throw in a garlic bread to help you mop up the juices.

Great... Looking at these photos is making Julia hungry again... We can't wait till the next time!

FOX Studio

After working at Fox for so long, Eddie finally agreed to go into their lot for a little self-guided tour. We walked around, saw some fake sets and murals, including this one of Star Wars on the outside of one of the stages. The one you can barely see on the left is the Simpsons one. For those of you who are Marilyn Monroe fans, you probably recognize this one: The Seven Year Itch. Neither of us have ever seen the movie, or have any interest in seeing it. Julia actually thought it was Lucy and Desi at first :) But the mural was pretty detailed and certainly well painted.
The photo below is Julia, standing in New York. Well, the fake New York set, at least. I'm sure some of you may have seen this in some movie or TV show, but we can't quite recall where... We'll have to get back to you on that one.
Below is Eddie, sitting in fake New York, also.
And here is Eddie, standing in what is a ridiculously tiny New York subway entrance that doesn't really lead anywhere...
The nice structure behind Julia below, while looks like Solvang, or something, is actually some offices. We are not sure what people work on in there, but we saw one sign that said "Back to You". Not quite sure that TV show is still surviving, though...!

This Century City lot wasn't as big as we thought... We walked around and took our time, and it only took us a little over an hour to walk through it. Not much going on, but it was kind of fun to walk around the different looking structures and seeing production office signs posted for different shows like Bones and Shark. Even How I Met Your Mother. Not too sure why that is since the show is on CBS...

Carlsbard Flower Fields

We finally made it to the Flower Fields this year! We've been wanting go to for years now. Last year we missed the season by a week, and the year before we just forgot about it. This year we finally made it.
We didn't expect it to be as big as it was. We had to walk around quite a bit...

But it was worth it. Everyone should go take a look at least once. We are not really big flower people, but even we appreciated the beauty of it.

Anyone who is interested in going can take a look at their website www.theflowerfields.com to check if they are in season. Admission is $8.00 per person.

Big Bear Lake, California

Today is a good day. We just came back from our much needed vacation. Pretty much our first one since 2001. We've been busy running the studio for all these years, and for the first time in 10 years, we don't have to get up at 8 am to go open up the store!

We just spent the last 3 days and 2 nights in a cozy little cabin at the Three Pines Lodge in Big Bear. Those of you that are not in the area, it's about 2 hours from downtown Los Angeles, up in the San Bernadino mountains.

We drove up the mountain, and went straight to the Big Bear convention center, where they just happened to be holding their annual Oktoberfest.
We drank beer, (which we both hate, but did it anyway) listened to music, watched them do the chicken dance, ate Bratwursts, heavy potato dumplings with rich gravy, and one of us, (we'll leave it up to you to guess who) passed out in an alcohol and starch-induced coma. Next, we headed to the lodge to check-in.

The folks at Three Pines Lodge were great. If you are ever planning a vacation to Big Bear, we recommend this place. We arrived a little late in the day, and they had our key waiting, with a nice little letter saying that they had upgraded us for no additional charge.
We had booked a one-room cabin, but they upgraded us to a one bedroom, cabin with a separate living room and a kitchen. It was pretty chilly up there, and we built a fire with the endless pine cones we found just steps from our door.

We didn't want to do anything during this vacation. The only thing we had planned was to relax and nothing else. We just wanted to eat and sleep like bears going into hibernation. What we learned during this trip, was that Big Bear businesses close pretty early. Since we just wanted to stay in and watch tv by the fire, and everything was closed at night, we found a Big Kmart and bought some ramen noodles. The cold weather was such a contrast to the temperature below the mountain that we were thrilled with the MSG filled hot soup packet.

The second day, we headed down to the Big Bear Discovery Center. We learned some interesting info, but it was not very big, and we didn't spent too much time there. We then headed down to the lake for some sightseeing. We took a long walk along the water, watched the boats, and picked up some twigs to use for firewood at night.

The other reason for our trip, was October 2nd is our wedding anniversary.
And after a day of walking around, shopping in their tiny little "Village" twice, buying some sourvenirs and a pack venison jerky, we headed over to Cowboy Express for what we had been looking forward to all day: a big Texas steak dinner. As usual, Eddie's eyes were bigger than his stomach, and Julia polished off this steak...

The third and last day, we decided we had seen all there is to see in Big Bear, and decided to head over to the neighboring Lake Arrowhead before the drive home. There was a big shopping center in Lake Arrowhead, and also a boat tour, which we happily took. It was interesting to see the lakeside homes of the rich and famous, including one big house with two boats parked in the water, one of them called "California Girls".
If you are thinking Beach Boys, you are right. The home is owned by Brian Wilson. An interesting fact we learned during the tour... The owners of the homes were tired of being regulated by the government, so they all got together to pitch in and buy out the land from the government. So in a way, one could say that Lake Arrowhead is private property!

In short, Eddie's thought on Lake Arrowhead: a very nice and luxurious resort town. We might head back for a weekend there some day in the future. Julia's thoughts on Lake Arrowhead: looking forward to that weekend there some day in the future.

So, it may not sound like the most interesting vacation ever to some of you out there, but after 10 years couped up in a studio, this was a much needed rest, and a time for us to get our sanities back! Three days may be a bit much, but Big Bear would be perfect for a regular weekend getaway. There's skiing in the winter, and water sports during the summer. But, we were too lazy to do anything but lift our forks to eat steak. So there you go.