"In his domestic administration my father had this system . . . to keep a journal and insert in it all occurrences of any note . . . A record very pleasant to look at when time begins to efface the memory of events, and very well suited to get us out of perplexity: When was such and such a thing begun? When completed? What retinues came? How long did they stay? Our trips, our absences; marriages; deaths; the receipt of happy or unhappy news . . . An ancient custom, which I think it would be good to revive, each man in each man's home. And I think I am a fool to have neglected it." (Montaigne, Book I, Essay 35 (publ. 1580))

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Laguna Beach, Santa Monica (August 2-6, 2012)

My delightful traveling companion.  Friday evening.
PJ and I first did a hotel stay-over in Laguna Beach in July 2010, and liked it well enough to make a return trip in 2011 (this latter trip coupled with a visit to EPG in Santa Monica).  This was a repeat of the 2011 trip.

Friday evening sunset from our hotel room's balcony.

Taken while wandering around Laguna Beach on Friday morning.
Similar/delightful experiences in Laguna Beach.  Mostly stuck with the same restaurants that we had enjoyed so much on prior trips; also had a fine lunch at Watermarc on Saturday.  Did a very long walking tour of some of the Laguna Beach neighborhoods on Friday morning; long beach walks (heading south) both evenings; Starbucks breakfast sitting on the bench overlooking the ocean at the main park; couldn't be nicer. We started getting reports from PJr/Nedda who were arriving in Paris.

Our regular breakfast spot - hard to beat.

EPG's homage' to Kerry.
Then onto Santa Monica.  EPG had identified a restaurant named "Ink" for Saturday night - this was a delight - we had five sharing dishes, seated at a corner of the bar (no reservations to be had), easy to see why the place is thriving.

Delightful breakfast at the local farmers' market on Sunday morning - I had a real peach for the first time in quite awhile, burrito and coffee = awesome.  Wandered around Rodeo Drive area; then to LA County Museum of Art - which was much enjoyable.  I'll probably post some of what we looked at over on the "review" website.  I think the most interesting area was the 1920s/30s German expressionism - after reading a bunch about this era over the last couple years, it had a whole new interest for me.  (UPDATE: LACMA information is now posted here.)

Late lunch at Umami burgers; a Racer5 IPA at some SF-themed bar (because Umami didn't have a liquor license); a bold attempt to visit the Griffith Observatory which was a fun ride but too crowded to really take advantage of; late dinner at Mercado something-or-other, another very wonderful sharing concept, this one with Italian food.

Madonna and child, times two.  LA County Museum of Art.

An unnerving lamppost forest at LACMA.
Monday arrived way too fast; breakfast at Starbucks and EPG off to work; we drive back after shopping some at the outlet mall (where I love to shop) and having a bite at Strand in downtown Phoenix.  PJ a delightful traveling companion, EPG a great host.

Nice.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)