Oakland and Costa Mesa…….

So we were flying out of Oakland at 9am so had to be up and ready to catch the shuttle at 7:30 this morning. Maria, Kami, Matt and i all came up to Oakland in one set of clothes and all flew back to Lon Beach in the same ones. It was only like a 20 hour trip so we didn't need all our luggage etc so  only the essentials were packed, you know, cell phone, iPods, cameras and of course laptops!

We caught the hotel shuttle and one of the stewardesses from our flight caught it with us. We’d met her yesterday on the flight in and found out she was going to the show too. We got to our hotel and also found her to be at the same hotel as us.

Mari and Matt waiting for the shuttle     Long Beach airport                           Long Beach Airport

  

The stewardess on the plane came over to see how we had enjoyed the show and also offered us all a free Bloody Mary, i passed but Kami, Matt and Maria took her up on her offer. We arrived back at Long Beach around 11am, Matt and Maria took the shuttle bus to the hotel over in Costa Mesa while Kami and i waited at the airport as my good friends Gail and Joe were flying in from Phoenix in half and hour.

Gail and Joe arriving in Long Beach

   

We all headed to the car which id parked up for 24 hours yesterday and then drove the half hour over to the hotel in Costa Mesa, was funny that just as we arrived Matt and Maria were just getting out of the shuttle bus they had taken, they had left a  good hour before us though! We checked in, unpacked and arranged for us all to meet in the lobby in a couple of hours time.

Hotel lobby                                                Lilly's in the lobby                                     View from the hotel room

    

I managed to fall asleep listening to the pros and Cons and Kami managed to get a couple of hours sleep too. Kami, Gail and i met in the lobby at 3:30 and drove over to Newport beach to watch the sunset and grab a cocktail before going out for dinner.

We had about 45 minutes before the sunset  and took a walk down the pier, there were a lot more clouds in the sky than there had been the last couple of nights so the sunset wasn't going to be as good but we decided to watch it from the end of the pier. Kami was hungry and bought a corn dog, something else i don't think I've ever tried and it was nice, real nice!

Gail in winter jacket         Newport pier                                              Clouds before sunset

   

Took a few pictures along the pier and tried a few “artsy” pics but they didn't turn out!

Kami and Gail vetting pictures            Newport beach                                   Sunset clouds

We took a walk along the beach after sunset,Gail and Kami went to take some more pics under the pier which I'll have to get off Gail as a couple of them are really cool.

     

I went for a wander round and then met up on the beach. The idea was to get a cocktail before dinner however we spotted a donut store instead and settled for a donut each! We made our way back to the car via a few side streets along the beach looking at the houses all lit up for Christmas.

  

So on the drive back to the Westin in Costa Mesa we went a different way and happened to come across what was a Christian church type place all done up with lights, I've never seen anything like it in my life! and its probably best i let the pictures and video do the “talking”

   

Cristian Christmas lights

We got back to the hotel around 6, all met up in the lobby at half past and headed over to Claim Jumper for dinner, Maria wasn't feeling too good so stayed in the room and relaxed for the night so it was just myself, Kami, Gil, Joe and Matt. We originally wanted to go to the nice Italian place called Maggianos however it was fully booked and nothing was available till after 9. Id never been to a Claim Jumper which i believe is a chain but we had a great night with some nice drinks and some good food.

     

Lots more pictures on the link below:

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Hotel key cards…..

I seem to have collected a some this last few weeks! More blog entries later on today, just been having fun and not much time for typing.

Los Angeles, Thursday night , Friday morning….

When driving back to the hotel every night from northern LA we would pass a sign for the Gyu-Kaku restaurant about 5 miles away from our hotel. Apparently is a good Japanese BBQ that Kami had used a few times while in Japan. I was game  for some different food tonight so we headed out there around 8pm. i was  bit hesitant that i was the customer yet i had to cook my own food on  a BBQ fire that was inbuilt into the table in front of me but hey it was  anew experience so i went with it.

The principle was this: You sat at a table and in the centre was a deep metal dish approx 18” in diameter inset into the wood table. Under the criss cross grate that was over the metal circle were red hot coals. The waiter brought you uncooked meat and vegetables and you cooked it yourself on the hot fire and then ate it!

The rice ready cooked     Pieces of beef on the BBQ                        

The idea was great but as with most things that you cook you had to get the timing right otherwise you had a plate of meet on the grill and you ended up waiting 5 minutes before you could eat it. it took a few tried to get it right but i got there in the end and Kami allowed me to cook my own food on it,lol There was Chicken, NY Strip beef, Fillet steak, and lots of other types of beef all marinated in different sauces. The good thing was it was all you could eat (well within 90 minutes of sitting at your table and only two repeat orders of each dish and only being allowed to re order a dish once you'd completely finished the first one!)

We tried most of the beef dishes but only had one chicken one, i was paranoid about not cooking it thoroughly and getting food poisoning for the last 2 weeks of the tour! I burned my hand on the damn thing a couple of times, dropped my chopsticks on the floor, and nearly dropped my napkin in the fire but apart form that i was pretty good at it!

Dessert was in the form of ice cream or something called Smores! i was imagining ordering the ice cream and them bringing me some milk and a pit of liquid Nitrogen to make my own in! now that would have been fun! they didn't though they brought me some green tea ice cream and Kami had the sesame seed flavour, whilst the green tea wasn't too bad the sesame was disgusting! Ice cream tasting of sesame seeds is just plain wrong!! its should be cookie dough or chocolate or strawberry!!  I was however looking forward to making and trying my first Smore.

       

We had 3 lots of them in total! don't think i could have eaten another thing! Was cool toasting the Marshmallows over the fire and then making the smores up but the best part was obviously eating them!

After  dinner we headed back to the hotel, Kami had some more work to do on here paper and i got an early night!

Flight out this morning was at 2pm so there wasn't any rush in getting up and packed. We spoke to Maria and Matt yesterday and would pick them up at their hotel at 11:30am then drive over to Long Beach airport where all four of us were booked on the same JetBlue flight up to Oakland for the show there. It was 10:30 when kami and i left the hotel and arrived at Marias and Matts place at 11. Loaded the car and headed out to the airport. I love Long Beach airport, there's like 4 gates and they are all in porta cabin type buildings. There's no lines at security its easy to get to, easy to park and so less hassle free than LAX! Due to the above we arrived a little early for our flight and had a two hour wait till departure. We had all checked in online and as we were only flying up for the night and then coming back the next morning we left all our cases in the car and only had carry on luggage with us.

Long Beach airport                            Getting to the gate                            Making the best of the spare time

   

Due to a couple of technical problems with the plane we were delayed 40 minutes, this led to a Long Island Iced Tea, a Petron tequila and a couple of beers for Maria and Matt! An hour and a half later we had arrived in Oakland!

     

We took the Days in Shuttle bus to the hotel which is about 3.4 mile away from the venue! Its now 6pm the night of the Oakland show, Maria, Kami, Matt and Eric are in the room next door drinking, smoking and carrying out general debauchery and I'm sat relaxing in the room. heading out for food in a minute before walking over to the show.

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Los Angeles, the last couple of days….

 

Wednesday,

Had a little lie in this morning, got up at 10am and showered. Kami had some work to do for her thesis paper that she has been doing for the last 12 months so i decided to go change the wheel on the rental car!

Ever since leaving Vegas i noticed the front right tyre was going down about twice a day, i was having to fill it with air every morning and every evening. I kinda put off changing the tyre but we have a long drive in a few days up to San Jose so thought id sort it out. The wheel in the trunk of the car is a space saver wheel so i jacked the car up and swapped the wheel over. Just as id finished and was about to load the flat tyre wheel into the trunk a guy came over and asked if  i need a hand. I looked across the street and he had walked from a a small garage on the corner of the street that dealt in used Porsches!  He looked at the type said give me a couple of hours and I'll have it fixed for you! he also said to just pull the car into his yard and he would change the space saver wheel back over when he was done! Again the English accent worked wonders and he was curious as to why i was there etc etc

I walked back to the hotel around the corner, by this time Kami was half way through her paper so i went and had a drink in the lounge down in the hotel.

An hour later Kami came down and we headed out for Lunch. We picked the car up off the Porsche guy and he charged us $20 for fixing the puncture and swapping the wheels back over which i didn't think was bad at all. We were driving up to Malibu and to go shopping in Santa Monica and to have dinner up there in the evening.

We stopped off at Chipotle for a few Tacos and some chips  for lunch (as we had missed breakfast) before continuing on to Malibu. I called Gina and told her we were going to Houston's in Santa Monica for dinner, one of my favourite places out here. Her, Maria and Matt were in Santa Monica and were going to see Venice beach and a couple of other places. we called in at the Krispy Kreme store in Santa Monica and had a couple of those before continuing on to Malibu Beach.

Yum yum,

 

I love Malibu beach, its just nice to walk down the  beach with the beautiful houses and the weather today was perfect. it was about 70` and there was no wind at all and not a cloud in the sky. We walked a while down the beach and then sat and watched the sun go down around 4:30.

Malibu Beach                              My reflection in the glasses on Kami    Sunset on Malibu beach

   

It was fun watching the pelican dive into the ocean after spotting fish and then coming up with them

Pelican diving

We drove back down to Santa Monica and walked up 3rd street promenade looking in a few shops on the way. Called Maria to see where they were and as luck would have it they were about a mile away from the restaurant. I’ve been to Houston's probably a dozen times and love the atmosphere and the food there however as we drove past earlier i noticed the name had changed to Hillstone. Hillstone appears to own the Houston's restaurants so it looks like they have just re branded it. All the chefs etc still had the Houston's uniforms on but the menu had changed a lot. Its well known for been a good steak and seafood house but they only had one steak on the menu!

We met up with Maria, Gina, and Matt and the five of us headed in and had a great meal! I had Fillet Steak with a loaded baked potato while Matt had what he described as a fantastic burger and all three girls had the racks of ribs! I've never seen them eat so much!!,lol

Kami and Maria and their ribs!            My potato and steak                          Matt and Gina

After dinner we walked the rest of 3rd street promenade, stopping along the way to look in shops, take pictures and eat some Pinkberry and Tutti Fruiti yogurt!! Gina, Mari and Matt headed to their car and we said our goodbyes, Kami and i did the same and we drove back down to Huntington beach for a relatively early night.

Christmas in Santa Monica                        Mari, the Beatles and Kami!            Matt getting busted!!

 

Thursday,

Had a lie in this morning, woke around 10am got up showered and looked at a few pictures from last night before going out for a late breakfast at ihop a couple of blocks from the hotel here in Huntington Beach. Weather the last couple of days has been great for the time of year, getting up to about 73 during the day but dropping down into the high 50’s after the suns gone down.

After ihop we walked down the street and all the way to the end of the Pier. It doesn't matter what the weather is like here in Ca there's always some surfers out in the water. They do all have wetsuits on so i guess that takes the edge of it but it must still be damn cold out there!!

     

We were both a little thirsty as didn't drink much in the ihop so went into the diner a the end of the pier for a drink, however it turned into a Vanilla black cherry milkshake that we split between us but we did have a glass of water each!

View from out table at the end of the pier    Vanilla black cherry shake, was awesome

It took us nearly an hour from walking on the pier to leaving, just watching the surfers,trying to catch the seagulls and watching the volleyball girls! (well Kami preferred the guys games)

Christmas on the pier in 70`               My volleyball game!                          Kamis volleyball game!!

It was 3pm when we left the pier and the sunset last night at 4:30 so we just walked up Huntington Beach until around 4pm and found a couple of rocks to sit on and watched the sun go down. Was a bit chillier than last night but there were a few clouds in the sky tonight which made for a lot better looking sunset.

Sunset at Huntington Beach

   

Walked back to the hotel where i am now, sat in the room chilling out and going out for dinner in a couple of hours time to Gyu-Kaku in Huntington Beach, a Japanese BBQ restaurant.

 

Album of pics from yesterday and today

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