Snowboarding in Big Bear

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! :)

Sevilla, Long Beach

Today we met with a couple who is getting married on a golf course next September. Pretty nice people, and seemed easy going. We had to drive to Huntington Beach to meet with them, so we decided to go somewhere farther for dinner. Julia thought it was a great opportunity to try Sevilla, in Long Beach. She has been wanting to try their tapas for a while now, and since it was on the way home, we stopped by.

The picture you see below is the one that caused the most opposite reaction for us. It's Dates Stuffed with Cabrales Bleu Cheese, wrapped with bacon and covered with apple cider vinegar glaze. Eddie hated this dish more than any other dish we had this night. He doesn't usually like sweetness in dishes that he thinks should be savory, and this one was just too sweet for him. Julia, on the other hand, loved it, and thought it was a great explosion of flavors, despite the fact that she hates blue cheese. If we ever go back, she will definitely order another one of these and happily eat them all herself!
Below is a photo of Chicken Ajillo, Shrimp Azafran, Spicy Marinated Octopus, and Aioli with Fresh Baked Bread.
Ever the carb lover, Eddie loved the bread with Aioli. So much so that he ordered another loaf. Julia didn't mind, though, since she thought it was good too. The octopus was spicy and marinated with red wine vinegar. It had a nice flavor, but Eddie thought it was way too tough and chewy. Even Julia, who doesn't mind chewing tougher meats, had to agree it was on the tough side...

The shrimp was sauteed with cooked with hazelnut brandy and saffron cream sauce. Eddie thought it could have used a little bit stronger spices, but still liked it. Julia, easy to please as always, thought it was good, and was impressed with how perfectly they were cooked: crisp, and not overly cooked.

The chicken was simply sauteed with white wine and garlic. Eddie thought the flavors were right on. Julia, well... You can guess that she liked it too, like almost everything else she eats! :) She was happy just chomping on the olives while we waited for the food to arrive.

So tonight's favorite for Eddie was fresh bread with Aioli, while Julia's was the dates. Overall, Eddie rates the food 3.5 out of 5 stars. Not that impressed, but okay. Julia rates it 4 stars.

If you do decide to give this a try, here is their website:

www.cafesevilla.com

They have their menu posted online, so you can go take a look. Eddie doesn't necessarily recommend this place, but Julia does, just for the sake of trying different flavors. This is definitely a good place if you love to drink. We just stuck to lemonade and iced tea this time.

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!

Ensenada, Mexico Tour

We just came back from an overnight tour to Ensenada, Mexico. It was a relaxing getaway. To those of you who have not been on a bus tour, this would be a great way for you to "break into it". We have been on plenty of trips, getaways and road trips by ourselves. It's always involved a lot of time doing our own research, mapping out routes, and booking hotels and tickets. This was a different experience.

For those of you who have never taken a bus tour, this is basically a non-stressful way to go somewhere, visit a new place, but with none of the hassles of driving, calling, researching or even any planning at all. You just book the tour, make sure you are available on those days, and show up by the time the bus is leaving with change of clothes, and you are on your way.

We booked our getaway through www.traveldesignusa.com. It's the 2-day Ensenada, Mexico tour. Since we live nearby, we just showed up in person, paid for the trip in advance, and were told where and when to board the bus. All we needed to do then was bring our clothes and toothbrushes. The trip cost us $95.00 per person, not the $89.00 the website says. But still a pretty good deal, since it includes the one night hotel stay in Ensenada.

After a brief stop in San Diego's old town and a casual lunch, we headed to our first Mexican destination: Tijuana.

To us, Tijuana was just that one street. We don't even remember the name, but it's that one street where all tourists apparently go to for shopping. There are a lot of pharmacies, leather-goods shops, restaurants, and colorful photo op stations with burros and sombreros, waiting for tourists. By the way, those of you that are worried about the language barrier, the locals that work in the area speak much better English than a lot of immigrants in Southern California!

Next, we drove by Ensenada. This was the first time in Ensenada for both of us. Our first impression of the place was not that great. There was dirt everywhere, and poorly constructed little shacks that looked ready to tumble down the hill.

While on the bus, going through winding hill-side roads, Eddie even looked up at the hill side and commented on how scary looking the loose dirt on the sides of the hill were. (Not long after we came back from the trip, we saw on the news that there was a landslide in Mexico, which buried a tour bus, killing everyone aboard!) But we are sure that was just one incident, nothing to worry about. There are millions of tour buses going all around Mexico every year, and this was a fluke. We hope. Needless to say, we made it back safe and sound.


Even though our stop for the night was Ensenada, we had another destination before retiring for the day: La Bufadora. Translated, it means the "buffalo's snort". Along the highway, on the way there, we saw a lot of big, beautiful mansions on the top of the hills along the ocean. A huge contrast to the poverty we saw not far behind.

If you are even in La Bufodora, allow yourself some time to not only look at the "snort", but also to shop a little along the interesting little shops stationed along the walk down to the main attraction.

There were souvernirs, silver jewelry, and of course, leather goods. Julia was drooling over the sweets that they were offering, but was chased away by the bees that showed equal interest...









The "Bufadora" itself was a semi-under water cave formed by the crashing tide. And everytime a wave came in, the water would hit the rocks and come up in a mist, thus forming the "snort".

We gave in to the temptations, and bought two small bottles of tequila covered with leather and branded with "Mexico". We know, these are tourist traps, designed to make money off of tourists who don't know better. But we were tourists after all, so what were we supposed to do?
We also gave in and bought keychains to add to our collection. Those of you who have been to our office, have seen our collection of keychains hanging on the wall. Everytime we go somewhere, we try to get a keychain of the place we visited. We have some very interesting keychains, if we do say so ourselves. One of Eddie's favorites is the little Space Needle replica, that we got on a 9-day road trip to Seattle last October. One of Julia's favorites is an angry, but silly looking tikki that we got on our honeymoon in Maui.

But, back to the story. La Bufadora, was a beautiful, sunny place, not too different from what we expected to see. But around every corner, there were things that reminded us that we were not in the luxurious surroundings that we have grown used to in southern California. Which, we suppose was not entirely a bad thing.

The stop in La Bufadora was not very long, and soon we were back on the bus to make the 2 hour drive back to Ensenada, where we would stop for the rest of the day and spend the night. After we were checked into the Hotel Santo Tomas by our tour guide, Phillip, he told us that those of us that wanted to go have a seafood dinner at a local restaurant were welcome to meet him at the lobby in half an hour and walk over together. We decided that we would skip it.

We were not that hungry, and having heard that it's not safe for tourists to wander the streets alone after dark, we wanted to go out and explore before it got too dark. We figured we'd get the most out of our time by going out and nibbling on local street food while we looked around the port city of Ensenada. And of course, we had to go to a local bar and have a genuine Mexican margarita.




Ensenada was like many other port cities. Cruise ships, restaurants, bars, and plenty of gift shops. We do want to emphasize that while we walked around and went back to the hotel safely, it is not to say that tourists should wander around and forget their surroundings. If you find yourself walking around Mexico after dark, do be smart and aware of your surroundings.


The hotel room was simple, nice, and clean. We slept with the air conditioning on all night to fight off the Mexican summer heat. We got a good night's sleep, and were rested for the next day.

The next morning, we headed for our only stop before we would cross into the US again: Hotel Calafia. On the way to the hotel, we passed by a Fox movie production site that was built especially for the production of the movie "Titanic".

Our tour guide informed us that this sea side hotel was the site where the dinner scene from Titanic was filmed. Eddie had his doubts and was not entirely impressed with it... The breakfast buffet was average. Not too shaby or too impressive, but there was one interesting item that we never had before, which was a tortilla topped with some kind of stew that we were informed was "nopalitos", which was cactus strips. The best part of the experience, was that the manager kindly allowed us to eat in the "Titanic Room", which was usually off-limits. But that day was unusually chilly, and we didn't want to sit outside, which is where half of the seats are.

After that, it was time to head back to the US. Crossing the border took quite a while, but to us, it was all part of the experience. Those of you planning on going, please remember to pack your patience. Luckily, nobody in our tourbus decided to bring anything suspicious back!

The rest of the day was spent driving back to LA, with a brief stop for lunch in San Diego, and another brief stop in Hotel del Coronado.

This trip is not a wonderful, magical and unforgettable place that will leave you in awe. That is not what this trip is about. This trip is about relaxing, not having to plan anything yourself, and still being able to go and enjoy the beautiful scenery, look out at the ocean, feel the vibes of the local people, and just take in something entirely different.

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.