HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARRY!

Happy Birthday to Larry! This is a big one! This is also his second birthday during the pandemic.  Ugh! Will things ever go back to normal?

This year, we decided to take a short trip out to the desert to celebrate. We arrived yesterday. Today we will be cruising all the oddities in the tri-city area of Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and 29 Palms. On Thursday, we'll dip into Palm Springs to visit with friends and stop by the Palm Springs Art Museum.

This day belongs to you, sweet husband of mine. I'm so glad to have such an amazing person in my life! Thank you for always being there for me. May your special day bring you huge joy and true happiness! I'm thrilled to be celebrating you!

Celebrating During the Pandemic

This past year has been a year of togetherness for me and Larry. Luckily, we still get along beautifully! We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary yesterday, amid the rules of Covid-19. We couldn't do most of the things that we would have done, like travel, visit museums, go to the movies, attend an art show or other gathering. We managed to have a nice day though.

We started out the day with coffee for Larry and a Medicine Ball Beverage for me. The Medicine Ball at Starbucks consists of peach tea, citrus mint tea, steamed lemonade, honey and hot water. It's supposed to combat the flu, sniffles or any other virus! It was delicious. We drove over to the Original Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax. The Farmers Market is very L.A. noir during the rain. It's an open-air market with many covered areas. We ducked into an alcove to enjoy our hot beverages and watch the rain. After some produce shopping, we headed back home.

This would have been the time for a visit to the museum. Hopefully, museums, etc. will re-open soon! Instead, we watched our wedding video from 29 years ago! It's a VHS tape, but Larry still has a few VCRs hanging around the house, so he hooked it up and we had a few laughs. Ahhh! To be young, handsome and beautiful!

We were married at the L.A. City Hall, March 3, 1992. Larry's buddies from the Photo Department at his aerospace job took the video and photos of our big day.

The fountain just outside of City Hall

We rode up to the Tower at City Hall. The skyline of Los Angeles certainly has 

changed during the past few decades!

We decided to have tacos for lunch. We didn't want a huge feast, because we'd planned to go out to dinner. We ended up at Bee Taqueria on Adams Blvd., just east of Fairfax. It was recommended to us by our friend, Emiko. 

The MOST delicious carne asada and seafood tacos!

This is the second time we've eaten at Bee, always in the rain! This is an unusual place. The property houses a few other shops and business, mostly in shipping container-like buildings. Bee Taqueria has the MOST delicious gourmet tacos! We shared the seafood/shrimp taco and a carne asada taco on a blue-corn tortilla with guacamole. The rain had let up, so we dined alfresco. It was chilly, but invigorating.

We managed to do things around the house, knit, read, practice ukulele and catch the news on TV before heading over to Sawtelle Blvd./Japantown for dinner. We ate at Midoh on the second level of Sawtelle Place, this mini-mall that houses a market, sushi place, Daiso, mochi place and Karaoke. Our friend, Sherry recommended Midoh. We were the only patrons on the back patio this cold and rainy night. They had heaters, so it was comfortable. The food is home-style Japanese. It was really wonderful. We each had little dinner salads. Larry ordered the Udon Carbonera which is a fusion of Japanese and Italian food, with bacon, cream, egg, parmesan cheese, black pepper, and baby spinach. It was rich, creamy and decadent! I ordered the Nabeyaki Udon Hot Pot which is chicken broth with chicken, udon noodles, shrimp tempura and soft-boiled egg. It was warm, filling and comforting. For dessert we shared this parfait of strawberry fluff with chunks of lemon chocolate brownie on top! They have a marvelous dessert menu. We will definitely return to Midoh. The food and service were great.

Mixed Greens Salad

Udon Carbonara

Nabeyaki Udon Hot Pot

Dessert

Really, considering the world's circumstances, we managed to have a fine time celebrating our 29th anniversary! Next year, I hope we'll be in Palm Springs or Hawaii!

A Calming Obsession

Kaoru Kobayashi, "Master" from "Midnight Diner"

In these troubled times for our world, we watch a LOT of television to escape. One show that we have been watching is called "Midnight Diner. Tokyo Stories" on Netflix.   Each episode is 30 minutes. The show gives me a sense of peace and meditation. Master runs a diner from midnight until 7 am. Master is like a wise man, listening to his customers, speaking briefly. However, when Master speaks, it is always eloquent and filled with meaning. His customers range in age and profession. Often, they are night workers, coming off their shift for food and conversation. Master only has one thing on the menu, a pork and vegetable soup, plus beer and saki. However, he will cook anything his patrons desire, so long as he has the ingredients on hand.

Each episode is named for a dish. Often this dish has been swooned over by one episode's character. After the swooning, many times, others at the diner request the same dish.  At the end of each episode. One of the characters explains the recipe of this dish while Master demonstrates how to make it.

Butter Rice. My favorite recipe from the show. Yes, it's rice with butter, a few green onions and 3 drops of soy sauce. Delicious!

The characters often return to eat their favorite dish. Master listens to their troubles and serves them comforting food. I've noticed that almost every character says, "Thank you for the food," on their way out the door. 

The Ochazuke Sisters, called this because they all order ochazuke which is rice with green tea poured over, topped with different items like salmon, roe or pickled plum

Sometimes, the scene changes from the Diner and you are taken into the world of one or more of the characters. Eventually, everyone comes back to the diner.  The show is rather melancholy and noir and reminds me of the painting, "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper.  Like I said, we're obsessed.

The cast of characters can include prostitutes, trans-people, gang members, working folks, policemen, lawyers and more

"Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, 1942

"Midnight Diner" photos, courtesy of Netflix

Vintage Palm Springs, Our Vacation Spot

Ellen, Ken, Palm Springs, 1962

It was one of those cold, cloudy days in the winter in Palm Springs in 1962. It had been raining. We couldn't go swimming. Suddenly, the sun came out, but it still wasn't warm enough to don our bathing suits.

I remember the "car coat" I was wearing. It was red. So was the "pixie band" in my hair. My brother was reading a book. Dad snapped a photo with us squinting into the sun. 

We were staying at the Hillcrest Manor. My Dad was a contractor and had a door and wardrobe business at the time. He had supplied the remodeled Hillcrest Manor and another motel nearby, The Caribbean, with their doors and wardrobes. I guess the owner had a difficult time with payment, because in exchange, we had a weekend apartment in Palm Springs for about 3 or 4 years. We shared it with my Dad's business partner, so every other weekend we HAD to go to Palm Springs, rain or shine. This was one of those rainy weekends. 

Hillcrest Manor, Palm Springs

It wasn't easy getting to Palm Springs in those days. It took hours and hours. There weren't a lot of freeways. I vaguely remember going all the way south on La Brea Avenue until it turned into Hawthorne Blvd. I also remember stopping part-way in San Gabriel at a Mexican restaurant called El Poche Cafe for dinner. It was in an old adobe building, down the street from the San Gabriel Mission. There was a candle shop in the lobby. It must have taken about 4 hours to get to the desert.

The Hillcrest Manor was just off the main drag, Palm Canyon Drive. I remember walking to Louise's Pantry (originally Gordon's Luncheonette) and the A & W Rootbeer Stand, downtown, in the same courtyard as the Palm Springs Plaza Theater. If the weather was cold and we couldn't swim all day, we'd walk up and down Palm Canyon, looking in the shops. There were many of the same stores that we had in Los Angeles: Silverwood's, Desmond's, Robinson's, Saks 5th Avenue, Bullock's, Milton F. Kreiss Drugstore and lots of little resort-wear boutiques. 

Downtown Palm Springs

We also went on field trips near Palm Springs to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Agua Caliente Indian Canyon, Tahquitz Canyon, Hadley's Fruit Orchard and even all the way out to the Salton Sea. Dad liked arranging educational field trips for us. Mom liked shopping. 

I've continued taking trips out to the desert my whole life. Even though it's changed and grown, I still love it.

Have a great weekend!

Holiday Cards

CLICK ON CARDS TO SEE LARGE VERSION

In May 2019, we took a road trip and met some new friends

Each year, as a gift to our friends and family, Larry and I like to create a personalized  holiday card. We try to come up with some sort of current event that happened during the year. Sometimes, we just gather up some cool stuff in our house and have a photo shoot.

Together, we come up with a concept. I usually sketch out the idea and gather the photographic elements. Larry is the professional photographer, so he creates the card in Photoshop. 

Here are a few fun cards from past years:

2012, The ENDEAVOR spacecraft flew around town and The BIG ROCK was delivered to LACMA from the California  desert. We followed both through the streets of Los Angeles!

2014, Ukulele Obsession! We even created our own playlist for our upcoming "CD." Click on the picture to read the song titles!

2015. We snapped a photo of an old building on Santa Monica Blvd. and Van Ness in Hollywood and inserted our photo for an upcoming movie poster!

2017. A frantic year. We just looked around the house for all of the holiday stuff, gathered it and took a group shot!

2018. The devastating fires in California, especially Paradise, CA. Larry's family home was destroyed. A melancholy year, indeed. #CaliforniaStrong

My cousin, Myrna has saved ALL of our holiday cards since the early days...1990s. I must check out her collection and see what I'm missing.
Who knows what we'll come up with for next year. I must remember to keep track of events and places that we visit in 2020!  Happy Holidays to you!

Alpine Village

Field Trip Friday! Larry and I drove south to Torrance, to visit the Alpine Village. I had never been there, but had passed it on the freeway for decades. We wanted to visit just before the big Oktoberfest celebration to avoid the crowds. Alpine Village, a German-style compound with specialty shops, a restaurant and market, has been there since 1968. 

All of the compound's buildings are decorated in the quaint Bavarian, Gingerbread style. We walked around the shops. A few were open.

I am assuming that the shops and surrounding grounds would be busier on the weekends. Many of the shops were closed. The buildings could use a bit of paint and sprucing up. There are rumors that Alpine Village is slated for demolition and future development. This is another reason we wanted to visit, before it's all gone.

The German Market and Cafe were bustling. I LOVED the market! It was full of European delicacies that you cannot readily purchase in the standard grocery store. Many of the displays were painted with colorful folk themes. Charming!

Notice the painted flowers at the end of the aisle display

So many different varieties of delicious mustard!
 

Polish, Ukranian products

We decided to have lunch in the sit-down restaurant instead of the little cafe next to the market. The restaurant is where Oktoberfest is held. There is a huge dance floor and stage, surrounded by tables, booths and a big bar area. This place is set up for concerts. It's a wonderful venue. In addition to European bands for German festivals, the venue has held rock 'n roll, punk and other concerts. It would be perfect for a wedding!

The Stage and Dance Floor

Lunch was good. I had a chef salad with Black Forest ham and more. Larry had a bratwurst sandwich.

We wandered around the grounds a bit more after lunch, noticing the architectural details of the Village buildings.

This is a lovely respite from the big City. Visiting Alpine Village is like a little vacation. To help preserve this bit of Bavaria in the Southland, join the Facebook group, Friends of Alpine Village and sign the petition to save it from being demolished and developed into yet another boring apartment and mini-mall complex.

The Land of Giants

Mary Joe and The Coronade Heights "Paul Bunyan," Tucson, Arizona

Yes, Larry and I are obsessed with roadside signage of a certain era, especially "Muffler Men." We have plenty of these hunky fiber glass guys right here in Southern California (Chicken Boy is our favorite, of course).

Decades ago, Larry drove by a most curious collection of buckets on a flat piece of land just outside of Tucson, Arizona. He drove by again about 15 years ago, but both times he could not stop and explore. Last week, we finally stopped and took photos of the mysterious buckets surrounding this piece of property on the highway.

The Buckets, Eloy, Arizona

The Buckets were moved from Magic Mountain in Valencia, California for a proposed theme park. It never happened.  Read about it here. 

We saw the Muffler Man above, Mr. Coronado Heights, right in Tucson. I do love his strong jaw!

After our visit to Tucson and seeing the sights, along with many museums and the Kon Tiki Restaurant (awesome), we continued to Las Cruces New Mexico. We were very busy with the Las Cruces Uke Fest and sightseeing in Las Cruces. Upon our departure, Larry took one of the blue highways out of town and we came upon another Muffler Man at an RV dealership in Hatch, New Mexico (home of the famous Hatch chiles).

RV Salesman, Cowboy. Hatch, New Mexico

He's holding a mini-Winnebago. A "mini-Winnie"

Colonel Sanders was sitting on a bench at the back of the lot in the shade of the garage. He was not giant.

Less than one mile down the road, we came upon Sparky's Burgers & BBQ.  Sparky's is a veritable smorgasbord of roadside signage and statues. Both sides of the road have some great advertising statues, including Uncle Sam, Yogi Bear, Bob from the Big Boy Restaurant, The A & W family sits atop Sparky's building. There's this huge pig, a dinosaur, Robin Hood and more. Sparky's was quite busy, so only Larry peeked inside. He said there was even more advertising memorabilia inside!

Sparky's Burgers in Hatch, NM

The A&W Family

This is Sparky, holding a frosty freeze ice cream cone and a burger. The perfect lunch!

Uncle Sam, holding a famous Hatch chile

WOW! It was a BONANZA of roadside beauty! We talked about this for miles and miles, until we reached Scottsdale, Arizona.  That's another story!