Okie dokie. So it’s Friday afternoon, the boss is in another office teaching someone to crochet, no angry donors are calling me with laughable demands, and there’s no work to be done. The desk is pristine. Clean. Okay I lie, there are pen markings and paperclips and such all over it, but no paperwork that has to be completed. I’m not about to go looking down the hall for work, either. Momma didn’t raise no fool.
So… let’s travel back to a happier time, shall we? A time of joy and laughter, of Skittles and of beer… my (albeit very short) summer vacation to Pasadena, California.
DAY 1:
The purpose of this little jaunt was to port furniture to Lizz, my younger sister. She just moved to a new apartment and was sans bed and desk for awhile. We managed to stuff all of her furniture and incidentals into the bed of The Truck, which required advanced geometry and sturdy bungee cords. Higher-level thinking folks took care of that. I helped lift stuff.
The drive to California isn’t too bad, really. I-10 is a little windy at certain points, and hot, but no one from Arizona should mind that too much. I like the drive because it reminds me of My Childhood, that glorious time of your youth when money came in a Monopoly box and taxes were for the adults. I always look for familar sights along the way. The first one I look forward to is Quartzsite. It’s this seriously strange little town near the Arizona-California border. In summer it’s pretty empty, but in the winter the population swells to cataclysmic levels with Snowbirds and their motor homes. It’s frightening as hell, honestly. Still, it’s funny to see this little town and its empty trailor parks and flea markets. I don’t see the attraction, even for the ‘Birds, but… okay.
Later on, just about at Palm Springs, you come across the huge farms of windmills. This area’s so windy they’re using these huge-ass windmills to supply energy to the desert towns. This is a seriously cool concept as far as I’m concerned. I just love to watch them as we drive past. Good thing I wasn’t driving.
My next favorite place along the way is the diner with the dinosaur buildings. If you’ve seen “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” then you’ve seen them. So fun. I think we stopped there once to let our dog walk around. It’s very close to the outlet malls at Cabazon, which, I must say, are looking damned impressive these days. Le Creuset outlet store? Villeroy and Bach? Crabtree and Evelyn??? Be. Still. My. Beating. Heart. We didn’t stop there, which is probably a very good thing.
This is the part of the trip I don’t like. After we pass the outlet mall, I always look at my watch and say… “What? We’re not there yet? We’re only at the outlet mall?? Did they freaking move this city or something?? I freaking hate this drive!!!” The Husband just shrugged, but honestly, I swear to whatever higher being’s up there, that they deliberately move wherever we’re going at least an hour west just to piss me off.
At some point around Riverside, there’s this hotel that’s perched close to the freeway that I always look for. It’s called the San Gorgonio Inn. I have never stopped there, but it boasts that it’s “World Famous.” Judging by the sign, however, it’s anything but. This is intriguing for some reason. I don’t really understand why. I would love to stay there sometime just to say I have stayed somewhere World Famous.
Even though higher beings moved the city of Pasadena just to piss me off, we did finally arrive. We checked in at our hotel and trucked upstairs to the room. For some bizarre reason, it was marked as “The Washington Suite.” It was big, but not terribly fancy. Still, it’s nice to have a big room. There was a poster of Washington, DC hanging above the wet bar. After dumping off our stuff, we ambled over to Lizz’s place.
Lizz’s apartment is pretty nice, really. Nice in that student apartment way, of course. Landlords seem to think that college students don’t deserve nice accomodations. Her roommate’s an interesting sort, too. My thanks go out to him in assisting us while we ported stuff up and down stairs to my sister’s room. He’s a swell chap that way.
While we were at the apartment, Lizz mentioned that she couldn’t get her audio-video-DVD-whatever equipment hooked up properly. She said she was told by several of her Caltech genius engineering buddies that she needed a few expensive adaptors to make it work. The Husband had it all hooked up and working in under two minutes. He did what Caltech nerds couldn’t. Rock on. He’s my nerd and I love him.
For the evening’s entertainment, we all piled in The Truck (with The Husband squished in the crew cab) and headed to Old Pasadena. It’s a collection of nice and pricey joints to get yummy eats and drinks. There’s a collection of nice shops there too, like a Z Gallery and Pottery Barn. We decided to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was like… an hour wait or so, so we wandered the streets awhile. It is a very ritzy place, and it’s filled with very ritzy people. Woosh. While we were at Z Gallery I bought a book on the proper placement of silverware on the table (the title escapes me… it’s pretty cool!) and a book about famous last words. I think that’s the title. Hmm. I will look that up later and post it for reference. They are both seriously nifto books.
Back at the restaurant, we had a yummy dinner. I had (at least) two Cosmopolitans, and they really hit the spot. I wish I could remember what I ate… it was divine, whatever it was. I can’t remember what The Husband or Lizz ate either. Doh. It’s not surprising, though; those Cosmos were of nearly-lethal strength.
DAY 2:
I was only slightly hung over the next morning, which was a good thing, because this was our day to trek to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Husband and I slept in to some terribly late hour (like… 11?), which was very nice. Lizz had to knock on our hotel room door to get us up.
The Getty is fabulous. The architecture is glorious. The location couldn’t be more beautiful. The views from on top of the hill are lovely. The cafeteria serves good food too! I had a taco salad, which seemed more nacho than salad. I think The Husband had a ham sandwich. I think Lizz had… I need to write this stuff down, huh? It was yummy nonetheless. Unfortunately The Husband’s co-worker called him right in the middle of lunch a few times. Oy.
We headed for a far gallery of the Getty that houses the Greek pottery collection. This is what I was most looking forward to. Unfortunately, when we got there, we discovered that the pottery’s been taken off display. They are building a “villa” to house their Greek and Roman stuff, which is set to open in Malibu in the fall. I was a wee disappointed in this, but there was at least a statute of Marcus Aurelius there to study to make up for the long journey there.
Next we headed for the Impressionist gallery, which I was told housed Van Gogh’s “Irises.” Indeed it did, and it was worth the trip to see it. The colors in the painting were more vivid than I’d imagined. I was also really in awe of the Munch work they houses there. I will have to look up the title… I think it’s “Starry Night,” or somesuch. It’s quite lovely, if not a teensy bit ominous somehow. (It would hardly be a work by Munch if it wasn’t, right?) Again, unfortunately, The Husband’s co-worker called him. Poor guy. He couldn’t view the Monets and Manets without interruption.
Next we stopped off in another gallery to look at more ancient stuff. We saw an interesting exhibition detailing the influence that Islamic art had on the Renaissance. We saw more Greek and Roman stuff, but no pottery. Oh well. We had coffee outside overlooking a lovely view of hillsides and fancy houses.
We headed back to Pasadena at this point. After hanging out in the hotel room for awhile while Lizz worked on a paper, we all got together again and went back downtown to have a meal and watch a movie. There was an event going on there, an exhibition of artists who like to draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk. Themes varied from art masterpieces to pop culture icons. Very odd. After wandering a bit, we decided on Delmonico’s, a seafood restaurant. It was to die for. I had swordfish, which was served over potato cakes and topped with onion rings. (I know there was a sauce involved, but… I can’t remember what it was. Rum something perhaps?) Lizz had a dish of penne pasta topped with salmon. She said it was very good. I think The Husband had some lovely halibut.
After dinner, we went to see “The Stepford Wives.” It was pretty good. The opening credits were the best part (which sounds terrible for the film, doesn’t it?), portraying all these images of women dancing with their dishwashers and other utopian scenes of domestic bliss from the 1950s and 60s. It was a lot of stuff I’d seen spoofed on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” I giggled quite a bit. The rest of the film was ok too.
DAY 3:
Well, there really wasn’t a day three, because we drove back. Boo. But, we did get to have brunch at Mi Piace’s, a nice restaurant in Old Pasadena. The food was very nice and we had a lovely time. I had the huevos rancheros, and The Husband had eggs benedict. I’m kicking myself for not trying some of their Italian baked goods, though. There was a glass case filled with treats that looked wonderful.
Actually, we did make one stop on the way back that was pretty amusing. There’s a little town along the way that hosts the General Patton Museum. There’s a whole garden filled with old tanks. It’s pretty creepy and it amused me greatly. I’ve never been inside the museum, I just enjoy the tank garden. At least you don’t have to water it.
So… that was my vacation. Consider Pasadena for YOUR next vacation destination.
