Santa Monica

Sunday AA This morning we decided to sleep in and go to Ihop for breaky...We met at 10am and off we went it was just up the road in the Best Western....Today we are going to go to Santa Monica Beach and Pier....We snag rock star parking lol and head up to the pier.....Since its Sunday morning the traffic is light and it isnt crowded at all...it is hot hot hot 80 and its 11am...We walk along the pier and check out all the stalls Earl and I have a 3D picture taken...Guys are fishing and there are people on the beach...We go over to the amusement park and decide to all go on the ferris wheel.... It is big and we all get into the same cart, we are laughing ans a little nervous ,the first round up wasnt good but after that it was great...we went around five times got some great shots of santa Monica.....after this we decide Rick needs to go on the rollercoaster he has never been on one, this is just a little one so the boys go buy ticjets and Cheryl and I watch from below trying to get a good picture.....well they go around twice and Cheryl and I go over to the picture booth to see tere faces...I wish i coyld post the picture because it is priceless......First off the sat at the back and had to totally adjust the seatbelts ,then the bar was a tad snug, just as te went over the first hill Rick said off off off just like our Beni lol ....it was a first alright....Then we decided to go down to the beach and Cheryl and I wanted to put our feet in the water while Earl wanted to go for a swim.....It is 80(25) now and the sand is very hot the beach is quickly filling up...Rick is walking aling the boardwalk to the water while us three are struggling in the sand lol The water is cold and it is alot cooler at the water...Earl goes in for a quick swim hesays the waves are strong and full of sand....Cheryl and I get wet too...A fellow is on the beach giving out free geloto sovwe all have one....We take a walk down the beach then decide to head back to the truck.....We are going to go to the farmers market ...Traffic is still good till we get a block away......Wow the temperature is at 100 hoky shit it is hot hot.....We get out of the oversized vehicle ,rock star parkung again and go to the market...we walj around a bit but it is too hot so we go over to the grove and have a look over there...There is a plane in the sky it is writing LOVE that neat......Why arent the rest of these peope as hit as we are? We are going to head back to the hotel and cool off......We take a little drive around the head for Santa Monuca Blvd ....Our room is nice and cool so we settle in for a drink and Cheryl does sone laundry...We decide to go out for pizza for dinner and walk up three blocks to the New York Pizza and Pasta place.....There are police officers everywhere specially at the entrance wzys to the 405 as it has been closed all weekend for construction...The resturant isnt at all what we thought it is cafe style with sawvdust all over the floor.....The boys have a glass of wine and we order salad and puzza...It is grezt pizza and we all enjoy chatting with te young manager he is telling us about LA...Now we walk back to hotel for a quick night cap as we r on the road early tomorrow. We are starting our trip home and going to our last ball game in Oakland. They are playing the Rangers andfighting for a play off spot.......Nighty night all...till tomorrow

Here we are in LA

Saturday AA  This morning we had a bit of a sleep in up and met for breakfast at 9:30 in the lobby...Wasnt such a big area for breakfast corn flakes and then we are packed up and off down sunset strip to mingle with the stars....We park under the Kodak theater with the Spechts oversized vehicle again......only $5 more this time... and take the elevator up to the main floor......and just look around its awesome  we see Elmo, Monkey, Charlie Chaplin, Ewalk, Starwars, Micheal Jackson, and Shrek...Nana needs to get a picture with Elmo so Beni knows his Nana is friends with Elmo.....We go to starbucks and get a beverage then continue to walk down sunset its 30 out very very warm....We cross the road over to the shady side and Ricks chats up some tour guide and he gives us  half price tickets....well not quite half $25 instead od $40......It leaves in half an hour so we do some souvenier shopping its hot hot and not a lot of these stores have air conditioning either....Oh we are going to be traveling on an openroofed mini van...12 seater....So its hot hot and we have to squish  into these seats and touch each other lol....In we go nice I get to sit with Rick and Cheryl Earl is sitting with 2 Norweign girls... and we are off  to see the famous and glamorous celebrities mansions and homes....We see Johnny Depp, Madonna and her orange grove, Ozzy, The Beckhams, Dr Phils spanish style home......Lisa Marie's , Micheal Jacksons and his stuff is all still there after 3 years his car is in the open garage.... Lucille Balls former home and  Christina. Tom Cruise owns the whole street and is currently building a new one. We go up the hollywood hills in the blazing sun and Cheryl and I get out at visa point and see the Hollywood sign  and take some good shots....We see Lindsay Lohans place she seem to need arrows to show her how to get in and out....We see JLo's place, Rosemary Clooney, Whitney Houstons, Phil Collins, Sylvester Stallones unfinished  place and Sharon Stones....of course Rick has got beers in his pocket and earl is drinking from a paper bag....Earls girl friends are telling us about when they were at the bottom of Leanardo De Capri house and the guard came out with a gun the f bomb sounds cute with an accent lol We are off down Mulholand Drive  threw Bel Air , Melrose ave, Beverly hills and Rodeo drive...We cruise down sunset strip seeing the viper room, Roxy, Whiskey a go go ....We saw Brittanys resturant  where Belushi spent his last days ...Beverly Hills Hotel, Playboy Mansion , We saw Charlies place( jail) it was fun and intresting....We jump off early at the Elvis and Beatles star where all the musicians  are honoured.....Now we are walking back down sunset Oh Oh Cheryl and I saw Justin Timberline yep we sure did sitting on a bench......We didnt take a picture because we werent so sure....We are getting a tad hungry and the boys see a seafood buffet for $12.95 well omg it had every sea creature available to man unreal..... Cheryl had a stir fry personally cooked up for her with all the things she picked out.....I was definately recommend it....Now we are all stuffed and continue down the road for a bit then decide to head to Santa Monica west Hollywood area where our next hotel is for two nights......Earl is arguing with the gps once again this time its Earl 1 GPS 7......We are staying at Holiday inns and suitets on Santa Monica blvd..... Its not the hilton but its nice and clean.....Still so hot out we decide to go to the theater on the promanade deck and she ' trouble with the curve" it was a bit dicy getting there with a bit of a time crunch but we just make it......It was a really really good show... Good old Clint does it again  just when you think he's made his last movie.....We are heading out after the show and notice all kinds of things going on Its kinda like an open mall but there are little white lights in all the trees outside....Performers everywhere dancers, singers, guitar players the black dancers told everyone to clap even the white guys lol It had cooled down to about 70 (20) and it was 10 at night....We walked up and down the streets and watched everything.....Then we went back to the hotel for a night cap.. I finally did some laundry and we decided to view all our pictures from Cheryl, Earl and my camera's....So it was a late late night.....till tomorrow...

Last day in San Deigo

Thursday AA  This morning we slept in till 8 oclock.We meet for breakfast at 9 and walked over to the broken yolk cafe,the waitress there was awesome  and really helped us enjoy day and really helped us enjoy our day...She gave us some great tips...The cracked yolk was on Man vs food...The food is great and I bought a shirt there...Now we are going back to the hotel to get the truck.This is quite a feat to wqtch, Earl dodging the valets its kinda like a war movie with Earl sneaking around the underground parking lot on his belly ...All this to avoid the tip.He has figured out that if you leave threw the side or back doors yu can avoid the bell boys too..This time he is not so lucky and the valet has to be called in to get the truck....Now we are going to drive over to the old town san deigo, it is really neat and we pas threw little italy...apparently okd town used to be part of Mexico....We walked around until the boys spyed a $1 Beers but you know they cant have just one We wrote our names on an american dollar bill and Cheryl taped it to the wall. It was a neat place OHungrys. We bought some souviners and returned back to the truck..We had a bit of grief getting back to the Hilton but managed ok..Earl had to give it up to the valet this time lol Cheryl and I seemed to have miscalculated our days as we seem to have run out of under garments, guess the swanky hotels we r staying in have no laundry... so we go up five blicks to the Horton Plaza Center ...Hummm Nordstrum or Macys???? Macys wins out and we go buy some extras.. We check out the world market on the way back... We find the boys beached out at the pool on those double loungers. Earl said Greenpeace flew by but left them alone. We sat for a bit then returned to our rooms  to Padres up.. Now we are going to the Omni for happy hour. The Omni is a fancy smancy hotel the guy that built the ball park owns it so it caters to all the ball players, they have a private floor just of them for safety and privacy. He even buikt a private walk way to Petco Park. It cost over four million dollars, so we are going to have happy hour in the bar where they will stamp our tickets and we can cross over to the park...Dodgers and Padres tonight....It is a nice field 398   to center field , we take a walk around and find our seats, absolutely amazing seats best yet...first base 9 rows back......Rick is so excited as this time he is able to go right down to the field.......He manages to get himself a ball from one of the ushers and is told a ball player will show up in about half an hour to sign autographs.....So he sits his ass down and patuently waits chatting up everyone around him lol The blue man guy comes around so Rick gets a pic wuth him, kinds looks like he might have had a little accident.....lol  Wow its a ling walk down to the good seats.... Chase Headly shows up and Rick is waiting patiently he finally signs his ball.....The Dodgers are killing the Padres 8 to 1 Looks like they are going to toss some tshirts out..Rick nabs one he is having a good game isnt he....In the nineth we decide to head for the doors, this stadium has the bleachers in a graas area wuth a giant sand box and play ground at the bottom very cool then behind that is a grassy hill were you can sit. These tickets are affordable starting at $5  going to about $18... Its a beautiful night so we stroll back to the Hilton....Did I mention they sell hard stuff at the park and they have a wine store.....We had a night cap thought about having a hot tub bt it was close to midnight...So till tomorrow......

We are off to see the Dodgers

Friday AA This morning we are up early and on the road at 8:30 we are off to Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium via the coastal highway to check out all the beautiful california beaches.....We have breakfast just outside San Deigo at the local McDonalds the porridge is good here tooo.....Our first one is Laguana Beach its a nice place we drive threw then stop at the vista point, just lovely.....Next we go through Huntington Beach we werent intending to return there but Earl spyed a market on the sand by the pier so we pulled over and checked it out hot today 90 again......On the road again next we cruise threw Newport Beach stop for a starbucks take some pics....On to Sunset Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhatten Beach, Marina del Ray, we pass LAX seems to me have been on the road for a long time its almost two oclock I think our co pilot messed up it shouldnt take five hours to get to Venice beach???? anyways here we are at Venice Beach we park the car right on the street on a meter and head down to the beach...Wow I dont remember it like this stalls and little stores all along the beach...thousands of different people.....There is even a pot store it says the doctor is in......Earl gets a hot dog and a new outfit and we walk along the paths infront of the beach.....Muscle beach is set up there so Rick goes over to check it out....Well the meter is almost up so we head back to the car we want to get to Santa Monica Pier and the ball games at 7....Well seems like the pier is out of the question today because the traffic is mental it took us an hour and a half to get to the big 8 on sunset....its not the hilton but its a ten minute walk to Dodgers stadium...It accually is a twelve minute walk there this time up it is seriously all up hill....and 90 outside no shade....It has an entrance way like universal theater ......We had a fan picture taken ,what an awesome venue....I think this could be my favorite its an old school stadium, we walked all around and Rick bought us Margarita,s.....We stopped in the dodgers store, and took our seat on the second level right behind the plate....Overlooking the hollywood hills too cool....Jen Hirsh from American Idol sang the national anthem...play ball...Its Tommy Lasorta's 85 birthday today and they are honoring him, he is here.....Many if his players and team mates were there to play tribute to what an amazing man he was Don Rickles spoke too lol  We have good seats yet again we are in the second level right behind home plate, we meet three guys sitting in front of us locals who grew up here, they tell us todays ride should have taken 3 1/2 hours max lol Oh i forget when we were trying to enter the park you have to go to the access that is closest to your seat and they wont let you in any other one so we get there and Earl hands them our tickets well the guy looks at them looks at us laughs and calls his buddy over andsays look at this and his buddy is laughing too... We start to panic and Cheryl gives him hers and he says you too can go in but these are an Angels ticket and a padres ticket you should have seen Earls face he though he lost our tickets lol  Now we are sitting down and Earl decides he wants some peanuts so he calls the peanut guy over.....how much are the peanuts  he askes $6 he says Earl says thats bullshit i was just at angels stadium they were $4 the peanut guy tells Earl thats the price and sir we dont like that language in this park.....the guys we met cant help over hear all this and tell Earl that the peanut guy is Roger Owens he is a baseball legend he is 75 years old and has been selling peanuts for over 50 years...they fly him all over the US to do the world series and important games because he is the best....  He can toss it backwards,side ways he accually pitched for the dodgers way way back in Babe Ruth days...He is know as the Babe Ruth of peanuts selling lol lol Well Earl is besides himself now he has to find the guy and say sorry when he does find him Roger tells him no worrties Im just another guy lol I might have forgotten to mention that when ever Rick is chatting to people  they always seem to know he is a canadian.....he asks how did you know and they say "eh" next earl walks up saying Eh whats going on lol  Tony Orlando was there to sing Happy Birthday to Tommy along with the rest of the crowd...Eric from modern family is here too watching the game...Dodgers have great fans too Its the best seventh inning stretch ever...We sang it twice root root root for the Dodgers so cool......The poor canadian boy throwing had a sore neck dodgers win 8-0.....But thats not everything there is post game fireworks.......Really really cool theyn played two Frank sinatra songs Tommys favorite......They darkened the field, and allowed the fans on the grass on the diamond.... Just amazing nothing like the canadian fireworks  im speechless it was fantastic....Now we have the walk back to the hotel mostly downhill and not as bad an area that we were told...All is good we settle for a night cap and a discussion as to where to stay tomorrow and what to do...till tomorrow..

San Deigo here we come

• This morning we decide to have a later start as we were onlygoing for an hour and a half   drive to San Deigo...So we meet Spechts  at 9:30 for breakfast. Earl  and Rick loaded  the ,truck up  and we are on our way to San Deigo....Twelve lanes all the way....We passed San Juan Capistrano and arrive at the Hilton Gas Lamp quaters at about 11:30We decided to gostraight to the hotel try see if we could at least leave the truck there.Great news are rooms are ready ,the valet takes the truck and the bell boys take the luggage and we head to our rooms...High fives all around the rooms are great,we r in early,the ball park is two blocks away,liquor store across the street and is doesnt cost $75 to park the truck.....This is a nice hotel roof top pool with a hot tub surrounded by double sized loungers......good music is pioed through too..We get settled in look around and then head over to the Broken Yolk cafe...it has been on dumps,diners and dives...We meet a waitress there that gives us some great tips, the food is good too....Earl and Rick wont be eating the twelve egg omlette with fries beans and rice so we ordered off the menu....oh we shared an entree yes we all did lol.....Now we are goung to take a tour the old town trolley hop on hop off tour...We jumped on at the Marriot it was a 21/2 Hrs to do thewhole loop...We went to Horton Plaza,Gas lamp quarters,Coronada Island, Balloua Park and zoo, Little Itapy, old town market, san Deigo harbour,Seaport...It was good but ourbguide had marbles in her mouth...After thebtourvwe decide ti head to the Altitude bar it is located 23 stores on the roof top of the Marriit.It is overlooking Petco park.It has fire pits and comfy patio furniture,what a view the water,the huge bridge to Coronada.....the music is good....but the sun is hot hot so after a couple of drinks we head for some dinner...We decide to get the feel of the city and eat at the spagetti factorty right on the street, the food was good and people watching was good too.Cheryl and I check out a little store across the street while the boys go to the luquor store, we meet back at the rooms and decide to lounge around the lobby for a bit as the internet is free there..There are many chairs,couches,tv's lots of places to sit for awhile...Then we head for the hot tub and pool its a great night. We met a young guy 19 from the Marines chatted for a bit ...Now its off to bed...Till tomorrow.......

On our way to Long Beach

Just wanted to add a few things to Sundays blog....The girl that sang the national athem was from the Voice,Earl saw her later on in the game signing autographs ....It was a good game we all enjoyed it, it got exciting at the end....The giants blew a six game winning spree but clinched it the day before anyways. I found the field to be a tad dangerous as they have no net up, quite a few people get nailed one young lady right between the eyes...Now ps our days here are a bit mixed up as Tuesdays went up before Mondays so here we are Monday AA  This morning we were up really early as the boys have decided to go to Longbeach via the coast 1 all the way, now you might think that sounds great but we were scheduled to be in the car for 6 1/2 hrs this way will be 11hrs....So Earl is running around dodging the bell boys trying to load the truck and it seems like he has been driving down the taxi and bus lanes all the way threw SF...We headed to Twin Peaks this morning at 8am this has a spectacular view of all of SF which by the way apparently we has four earthquakes this morning...didnt feel a thing...another little bit of knowledge is its $800 per sq foot to rent or live in the downtown area..WOW eh...Anyways we are on to the Pacifica highway were off...Pampus grass everywhere growing wild....We stopped in Pacifica for a quick breakfast at a taco time breakfast burrittos , watching the surfers there must be at least 30 of them out here..Its awesome the waves are crashing in sun is shining.....We travel though Half Moon bay, then on to Santa Cruz... Tons of farmlands out here we stop at a local barn to buy some strawberrys' raspberrys, almonds, figs they were the best tasting strawberries i have ever tasted....We have the first moisture of our trip going threw Carmel by the Sea, it used to be Clints town i think...Next we go though Pebble beach, when we hit Big Sur the sun comes out again...You should see some of the homes on this coast unbelieveable mansions over hanging the water in the middle of no where....We pulled over and we couod see seals as far as the eyes could see some sleeping, some spooning and others playing and fighting..all beached apparently they dont smell so good...The roads up here are so narrow and windy and we have Mario Andretti at the wheel.....time for some real air I5 where r you....We arrived in San Luis Obispo around 3:30 and lunched at Carls jr, not good burgers although Rick seems to have enjoyed his pulled pork burger... They have a state prison here called a Mens Colony  that once housed Charles Mansen.....We pull into a picnic area that wants $5 to picnic here so we sneak in to pee and as Cheryl opens the door realizes its an outhouse filked with shit and flies, she decided to wait....'Now we are on the ventura highway heading threw Santa Barbara The roads and scenery are beautiful but this is just taking far to long...What a tiring day 12 hours in the car..Rick gets to drive in 12 lane traffic in the dark I think all our pakms were sweaty... We arrived at the Queen Mary just before 8...She is a neat old ship a queen in her day...The rooms are small the corridors narrow and apparently the ceiking low and Rick smashed his head on the exit sign...The floors are all uneven giving the elusion of sailing and the ship is haunted too...We went to the observation deck for a drink, the off to Chelseas chiwder house for a bowl of chowder..Micheal was our nice waiter thatbserved us and he even asked Cheryl which vodka she wanted grey goose of course...Our room is on the B deck no windows very dark at the back of the boat, although Rick says these king sized beds would be first class back in the day..Tomorrow we will tour the boat it has two resturants, two bars and a cafe and tea house..We eneded the night sitting outside on the promenade deck having a night cap, not a breeze on the water none of us had a sweater on either, beautiful view of long beach, a little embarrassing when the boys came walking down the deck carring the big blue cooler...But what an experience too cool...Till tomorrow.....

off to see the Angels

Tuesday AA We slept in this morning, it was so very dark in our rooms on the ship you couldn't see nothing....We met with Rick and Cheryl at 10am and went to the Bakery on the promenade deck...Muffins,cinnamon rolls and chocolate croissant..... We finished looking around the ship and packed up our luggage....We called the valet to get the luggage and the boys went outside to the parking lot to see a strong man contest going on out there...We took a drive over to the city of Long Beach gassed up and the on to Huntington Beach....We had a bit of trouble finding our destination the GPS was OK but the person giving her the information wasn't on the ball...We found our destination and parked in the public parking lot and took a stroll up main street....One block up the boys decided to hit the local $2 Budweiser tavern and they were gone...Cheryl and I walked up three blocks and browsed threw all the local shops, then met them they were chatting up a young lady bar tended ,she told them Canadians and Chinese were the worse tippers...lol....We continued onto the beach to Dukes for lunch, had a drink in the bar then sat waterfront for lunch....Rick and Cheryl behaved again and shared the entree, we should remember to follow their exsample... ..We walked right down to the water, the sand was soft but hot it was 90 in Orange County today...Cheryl and I walked right into the water the waves were crashing in, the surfer's were good here they managed to stay up for a few waves, Cheryl wrote in the sand but the water washed it all away....Now we are onto Anehiem to see the Angels.. The GPS said 17 minutes but with traffic it took 37. We arrived at the Quality Inn and suites and got our rooms unfortunately ours had some one eles luggage in it so we had to change rooms, the boys backed all the luggage on the trolley as there is no valet here and they gave us rooms with two beds so Earl and Cheryl are pushing this loaded cart all over the hotel and parking lot....Rick is getting antsy as he wants to see BP today....We got checked in and had a beer, changed our clothes and headed for the ten minute walk to the stadium...I wonder why they always lie to us? 20 minutes later we arrive at the stadium with plenty of time today...Its such a pretty stadium with fountains,grass,flowers and trees...We walked all around the stadium, stopped in the team store and got settled in our seats. Great seats again right beside home plate twenty rows back...It si a beautiful night, Valerie bertinelli is here...The food here is very affordable $4.50 for a beer and the same for a hit dog probably the best prices in baseball good job Angels people...We had to walk all the way around the stadium for the Heavenly Natchos, they were massive...The game was good close I thought the Mariners were going to pull it off there I was in an Angels shirt cheering for the Mariners....but they lost 5-4.....Now we have to make our way back to the hotel, there must have been over 125 of us at the light when someone said let's just go lol then the officer let us go and everyone started cheering ....Very friendly people here I don't know if I have mensioned it before but Rick is a chatty Cathy chatting with everyone lol...Back at the hotel we sit for a quick night cap then head off to bed....San Diego tomorrow...Till then.......