Sunday, March 3rd, 2002

Laurel, Megan, and I go for breakfast at a 50's diner named the Busy Bee. I get the three biggest pancakes ever and am completely impressed with the remote-controlled jukebox. I just can't believe someone would actually install a controller box at every booth and wire them all within the wall to a jukebox on the other side of the room! Much less, in the 50's! No 802.11b? No way! Stop the insanity!

Anyways...

We had planned on meeting Kyle at Santa Barbara beach, but Andy changes his mind so we drive back to the LA area (through traffic) and get a quick drive-by tour of Sunset blvd., Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, and some other random things.

Our server brings the current selection

We decide we go for dinner at Picanha, a Brazilian churrasqueria near Andy's work. The food is overwhelming -- salads and side dishes are great and the servers (dressed like Gauchos) continuously walk around carrying a spear of meat from a wide variety including brazilian steak, tri-tip, garlic steak, pineapple chicken, bacon-wrapped chicken, lamb, sausages, etc. The way it works in places like these is you're given a mas ó no más indicator which you turn over so the red end is pointing up to signal no más!

Yours truly admiring the sunset

After dinner we decide to head to Balboa, a small beachside town southwest of LA, which had been recommended by our friend Lucy (of Java Lounge fame). We go on to the second pier we find on the way, park, and start walking around. The area is under some construction but nevertheless there are a lot of people around and the long line of quaint beachfront houses bordered by a cozy bike path altogether making it a very pretty view. We walk around the main strip where we get ourselves a cup of coffee, complete with an attached personal Shout wipe which, mind you, we didn't ask for. They are sold this way! As the sign in the store explains: Espresso Makes a Messo.

We head over to the pier to watch and take pictures of the sunset (and each other taking pictures of each other). It is here that Megan proceeds to prove true her Theorem of Unavoidable Clumsiness:

Lucky for her pants we had those wipes!

Driving resumes and we reach Megan and Andy's place in Dana Point where we clean up and finish the weekend by relaxing to a nice and soothing movie: The Game.

Monday, March 4th, 2002

Today we plan on heading up to Bear Lake for some skiing but we get a late start and end up leaving past noon. Keep in mind that Dana Point is a good 45 minutes south of LA and Bear Lake is about 1½ hours northeast of LA so basically we have a three hour drive in LA traffic. Add the fact that we are hungry so we stop for lunch at a Mexican restaurant named Don Pedro's near UC-Riverside and the whole plan just starts having bad idea written all over it (of course, we don't know this yet).

A panoramic shot of the mountain combining three pictures

We finally hit the base of mountains north of San Bernardino and start the hike up the mountain. The weather is very pleasant -- almost a little too warm for skiing but we move on. We stop for some shots of the mountain view and reach the point where the road splits and we need to choose whether to go on the north- or south- side of the lake. We choose to go to the north which ends up being the wrong thing to do as we can see a bunch of civilization on the other side of the lake. We turn around and finally arrive at around 2:15pm only to find that all skiing stops at 4pm.

Note to self: Learn to use this crazy technology commonly referred to as the telephone to avoid this scenario in the future.

Laurel takes a bite

Our only option now is to go tubing at one of the family-oriented parks which is still a hefty $18 for a short ride down a slope of man-made snow. However, Laurel just isn't going to head back without being on snow after driving this far so we go for it. There are five straight shots and one snake which ends up being our favorite because of the turns. Well, the fact that it lasts a whole 5 seconds longer also has something to do with it, I'm sure. It was all just silly anyways.

We head back before 4pm (ouch). As we drive through Perris, a town southeast of LA where things look very arid, we stop to take a closer look at some painted rocks that look like a frog and an apple.

It's near dinner time so Megan drops us off at home so we can get ready while she picks Andy up at the train station. It's interesting to note that Andy's work is over an hour away by train which means he has to be up every morning at 4am (which actually translates to the alarm going off starting at 3:30am). Crazy Californians.

Our dinner destination: 230 Forest Ave, a sweet bistro in Laguna Beach with, among other things, a great crab & artichoke dip served with pita slices. Word of advice: Don't leave without trying their Very Berry Martini.