Windy City Guest

I wont have the chance to post because I am getting a guest today, my cousin Brandon. I am excited, I love guests.

lull

Sorry about the lull in posts, last weekend was unbelievably hot and then I got unbelievably busy. I have a day off Friday, and hope to store up some posts. In the meantime I wanted to let you know that I saw the following:

Alfred Molina
Jeffery Jones-the Dad from Beetle juice
Natalie Portman

until friday.

In the meantime

While the amazing Mandu was is meetings I did have the chance to visit the fake purse ninjas in Chinatown, Matisse's early drawings at the SFMOMA, and lunch with a former bookclub member and to Ghirardelli Square to get Asher a trolley car full of chocolate.

Nice person alert: (I know that is a strange thing to say)
Someone at one of the chocolate stores gave me a 20% off coupon, because she couldn't use it and I thought that was nice.

So?

I guess you are all wondering about my new job. I love it!!

It was hard to adjust from the unemployed lifestyle to getting up at 5:40 a.m., but I think that it is worth getting up that early to be where I am.

The blog protocol for mentioning your job is that you should never mention it by name or give too many details. Quite famously people have been fired from their jobs due to blogs. Expect an email from me with more details.


Sorry I have to be so cryptic.

Birthday Part 1

After all of that walking we worked up a very big appetite. We celebrated my birthday at Thai restaurant that shares its name with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that way you know its healthy. oshathai



Mango sticky rice is nice, but not as nice as celebrating your birthday with family.

North Beach/Little Itly

After the almond cookies and cappuccinos at a cute little cafe we decided to take the walk up to Coit tower. Which everyone seemed to imply was really far, but you have to understand that people in California do not walk.

Here is a play by play of our Coit Tower adventure.

The entrance to Coit Tower is hidden in the North Beach neighborhoods.


You cannot tell but there are a lot of stairs



The top of telegraph hill



Golden Gate in the distance

Due to my intense fear of heights, I did not join Amanda at the top of the tower, but she took some great pictures.




Then we walked about 3 miles back to the hotel. We like walking

drop me a line

What is everybody up to? Summer is starting, what are your plans?

The Fisherman's Warf

We never had the time to make it to Alcatraz but here is a picture of Mandu looking at it.



Now it is my turn.



Fisherman's Warf may very well be San Francisco's most touristy spot, but hey we were tourists and wanted to check it out. Mostly because we had a hankering for some crab legs. Mandu and I are often at a loss with seafood places because throughout our lives we have both lived with people who do not like seafood or just find it plain scary. So we took one look at each other and went to the nearest bar offering crab by the pound. Here is a picture of us post crab legs and crab cakes.



We ended up watching a Deadliest Catch marathon that night, after eating sushi. I guess we had seafood on the brain and had to get it out of our systems before heading back to the arms of our non-seafood lovers.

I am betting mom is sad she missed that night.

But....

Before I get to that Happy Father's Day!!!!

Sister, sisters

I was so happy to hear that the Amazing Mandu would be venturing off to the Golden State for a Big Girl Business Trip. At that point I was kind of sick of the unemployment waiting game and decided to meet Mandu in San Francisco.

San Francisco! So much to do and see. It is only 7 miles across, but so jammed packed with things it was hard to decide what exactly we wanted to do. The next few posts will feature some of the things we did and had time for.

Get ready for more pictures!

D'oh

When you do not have a job, it is hard to remember those nice day off on Monday holidays and that is what happened to me this Memorial Day. My friend Judy and I had planned a visit to Universal Studios for a few months and I found out the day before that I was going. Surprise!

I love having company and being able to do all of that fun touristy stuff every once in a while.

Another surprise is that she is engaged. We had to get one last kiss with Matt Damon before it was official. I wish he looked happier about it.



I will be the Maid of Honor. I am excited. If anyone has Maid of Honor tips, let me know.

As many of you know part of the Universal Back lot burned down including a lot of what I saw on the Studio Tour. This happened exactly a week later.

the pools

I have already posted a picture of the Neptune Pool, but that is not the only pool at Hearst Castle. If it is possible the Neptune also isn't the best pool on the grounds.

This one is:

See the shiny tile. Its gold. I guess they couldn't find the more expensive stuff

This pool is hidden under the tennis court. I guess they were ashamed of it.

Casa Grande

This is the main house. I would never live here in a million years.

By the way

These statues are 3,500 years old from Egypt. (Not too shabby)

are the stars out tonight?

Just a break from the vacation posts.

I wanted to let you know that I saw Kanye West at the Grove last week at well as Soleil Moon Fyre. She is really very pretty in real life. Many of the celebs wear so much make up that when they are out and about getting groceries or whatever, they don't really look like themselves.

Casa Del Sol

Keep in mind that this is not the main house, but a guest house.

Even the ceilings are detailed to perfection

I think I might stay in town, these accommodations are terrible

Hearst Castle

Ever since seeing Citizen Kane in college, I have always been interested in seeing what Hearst Castle looked like.

Although it wasn't the reason we stayed in San Simeon, it was definitely something we wanted to do while we were there.

What the heck is Hearst Castle and Who was William Randolf Hearst?
To make a long story short he was a media tycoon and Hearst Castle was originally built so that people could be accommodated while camping. (Now that is my kind of camper) See information about him and the "projects" he built on the mountain. What I think is even more super cool is that after all of these architects turned him down it was finally a woman, there were not many woman architects those days, who built the castle. Read about her here.

Hearst had a very interesting life and surrounded himself with interesting people. Like Charlie Chaplin, Delores Del Rio, Cary Grant and Joan Crawford. And his very public relationship with Marion Davies, who is buried around the corner from me at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. On the tour we saw some silent home movies of Hearst and his guests.

I will give you a photo tour.

(Pictured above is the Neptune Pool. Just to give you an idea of how picky Hearst was, that pool was re-designed a few times and ripped out and re-designed at least a few more times)

Day 2

Day two was a jam packed day. First we started our day going to a vista point to see Seals. Here is a video, of the seals. They don't really do too much and it kind of looks like a seal massacre.

One thing I noticed about Northern California by the beach is that it is extremely windy. Please mute this.



After watching seals laying there we decided to get up and go and drive to Ragged Point, which is the gateway to Big Sur. Which is where the 1 runs teetering between the ocean and mountains, here are some pictures.




Now it is off to Hearst Castle.

Crazy!

My life has been a bit hectic lately. I have been preparing to start my new job next Monday. Yes you heard it right, I finally got a job. The one I wanted.

One of the most frustrating experiences in my life has now finally come to an end, and I hope that it is something I wont have to do again in a really long time.

Now back to the ocean, seals and San Simeon.

San Simeon

We chose to stay in San Simeon because of it's proximity to 3 places.

1) Big Sur
2) Hearst Castle- which I will inundate you with pictures later on
3) Wine country

San Simeon is a mere speck on the coast, but is quiet and cute. Mom and pop places abound and be careful, because everything closes, by 9:00-9:30 p.m. Which is strange to this city girl.

Our hotel The Orchid at San Simeon was super cute and reasonable and walking distance to the ocean. Here is an ocean video:

Note: It was really windy so mind your speakers.

Coffee Break

Pit Stop: Morro Bay

Morro Bay is this cute seaside town that looks like it landed on the wrong coast. It is most noted for this gigantic rock. I wish I could have said more, but we just stopped for coffee.

Today Is my birthday

Happy Birthday to me.

Blogger has this new feature that allows you to schedule posts ahead of time so even though I am out and about enjoying my birthday princess day a la Asher, you will still get posts like I am sitting in front of the computer.

Neat huh.

I don't know what we have planned yet, but I hope to blog about it later.

You've got to fight... for your right.... to polka!

Pitstop: Solvang

I have wanted to stop at Solvang since the ladies at my ex-work talked it up as a romantic getaway spot just on the edge of wine country. Solvang sits on the one side of the Santa Inez Valley, which is a great wine region that isn't as far away as Napa or Sonoma. Solvang was founded by Danish settlers who were escaping the harsh winters of the midwest ( I am there with you settlers)

The entire town is modeled after a Danish village windmills and all. Here is a picture of Asher doing a windmill impression. This town is very cute and does not have a single Olive Garden, Starbucks and McDonalds. Many restaurants offer smorgosbord, aebleskiver and wine tasting rooms. I didn't do any of those things because there was still a long drive ahead of us. In fact the title of this blog comes from a bumper sticker on the window of the one German restaurant in town called the Heidelberg Inn. I had the Heidel Burger.

Everyone should fight for their right to polka, I think that the world would be a much better place.

Here is a picture of me trying on shoes.

The Drive

So in effort to enjoy my last few weeks of unemployment. (I might possibly have had some good news from one place, maybe, possibly perhaps. I'll explain in person, it is kind of strange.) Asher and I took a vacation up north to San Simeon.

Traveling out of Los Angeles makes me realize how small the city is. You go from skyscrapers and traffic congestion to open prairies and traffic congestion. This was taken perhaps a half an hour north of Los Angeles.

back in the action

I have taken the time lately to enjoy my unemployed status by doing a little traveling and other fun stuff. Hence the break from blogging.
Before I begin my picture posts of my trips and different California locales, I want to give you my celebrity sitings as of late.

Bob Harper-Trainer for the Biggest Loser
Craig Ferguson- who is now the host of the Late Late show, but you might know him as the boss on the Drew Carey Show, or that cute movie Saving Grace.
Eve- a female rapper, who has a clothing line called Fetish. (Don't try to look that one up, you will be unpleasantly surprised.)

I could have seen the guys from Entourage last week because they were shooting in front of my apartment, but I was in San Francisco and I would rather see my sister than Adrian Grenier any day.

Now begins the picture posts.