Dreams, Moments, Travels
I believe we were one of the last tables to be sat, and lucky for us as after a 12-hour drive from Phoenix to Pacific Grove, California, we needed something to eat before checking in to our hotel. We are staying just across the street at the Lovers Point Inn.
A month ago, an employee of mine recommended that Caroline and I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. We finished it while we were out on the road, and seeing we were passing Salinas, we decided to stop at the Steinbeck Center. We were here right as they opened; we had to be as we had over 700 miles to drive today before getting back to Arizona.
That’s right, we went to the National Steinbeck Center, and all Caroline got to do was ride the plastic pony that didn’t even move or make a sound. The folks who built this place could have learned a thing or two from Walt Disney down there in Los Angeles.
Last photo of our nine-day road trip as we drove across central California, heading back to the desert southwest.
We stayed near the water’s edge last night with the Battery Point Lighthouse in our sights. This is nearly from the same vantage point as last night.
After more than a dozen years passing “TREES OF MYSTERY” and then repeating the phrase in a deep sing-song voice for days we have decided to finally visit this cheesy roadside attraction that pulls in the tourists. Today, we were the tourists.
Big trees are what you find up the hill.
After a stop in the Redwoods National Park and the obligatory Junior Ranger Badge hunt, it was high time to hit the road and finish the 400 miles we’d allocated to drive today that would deliver us to San Jose, California, for the night.
This is why we came to Los Angeles this weekend. Caroline wanted to join in on an attempt at the largest gathering and playing of ukuleles in one place. We picked up this particular ukulele on Kauai and Caroline has been practicing off and on ever since.
A lot of people showed up with ukuleles of all shapes and colors, and while there were at least one thousand players here, it wasn’t enough to break the record. Actress Tia Carrere led the festivities, and it was pretty cool that my wife felt inspired to be a part of something so large.
Lunch at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo was an added benefit!
After a walk around Little Tokyo and a coffee, it was time to start the drive back home to Phoenix, Arizona.
Caroline and I left Phoenix last night for a special event being held in downtown L.A. tomorrow that she needs to be here for. So today, we are starting the day with breakfast at The Original Pantry Cafe and will bum around the city doing stuff.
Off to Arcadia and The Arboretum where the two of us have never visited together. I visited 40 some odd years ago during a field trip that took us here and to the San Gabriel Mission, but my memories are weak, so this visit was certainly in order to refresh things.
These intensely beautiful southern California days make visiting and dealing with the traffic all the easier. Add some art, good food, and the ocean; life is perfect.
Although this part of the state has its fair share of drought-related issues, it never fails to amaze us how lush everything is. Of course, our perspective is likely skewed due to our arrival in L.A. from the desert well east of here. The Arboretum is great, but Descanso and The Huntington are maybe a notch above.
I’m convinced a giant used these matches and that they may be responsible for one of California’s notorious fires.
We needed some German stuff, and so off to Alpine Village in Torrance we went. Lunch was had in their German-themed restaurant, and the cheesy factor of the entire place was not lost on us. Sadly, it seems that the attraction of places like Alpine Village is waning. I’ll bet in its heyday, this place was packed.
Update: in March 2023, Alpine Village was permanently closed.
Twenty minutes away over in Palos Verde, we set our sights on the Point Vicente Lighthouse as somewhere else we’d never been, and so we had to pay a visit. The island in the distance is Catalina.
Spent some hours here walking around the peninsula; where else should we go that might be more beautiful than where we are right now?
Stayed through sunset, I think you can understand why.
Well, this is embarrassing. Nine years after the events of this day, Caroline had a reminder from Facebook about a drink she had on Christmas Day at a posh Koreatown restaurant called Pot. Searching for other details about the trip, she discovered that we were in Los Angeles on a fourth day, but those details never made it to the blog. Searching my old posts, she learned that we ate at the Huckleberry Bakery & Cafe in Santa Monica. Green eggs and ham for the win. From there, with no other details on Facebook and no itinerary to back anything up, we must have headed home.
The image was taken from Facebook as we no longer have a copy of it. This post was added on 25 December 2023.