LA Confidential

Well, my great adventure begins. But before I can kick the west coast dust off my feet a need to take a final trip to LA and spend 3 days in the valley. I was given what I consider a 21 gun salute before I left (a "Barney Gumble Greeting" by my good friend Bob), and then I was off.

The flight from Eugene to LA was uneventful. Flew down on a Embraer RJ135 ( a nice little Lear) courtesy of Delta. Thankfully I wasn't flying to SanFran, since all fights from Eugene were postponed at least 4 hours due to the insane northern California wildfires.

Touched down on time and was met by one of my closest friends Audrey (goggs) and her valiant steed "ladyboy".

The first day was pretty standard. Walked around Laguna Beach, stared at all the "beautiful people", and partook of local cuisine at oceanview establishments. The food... well, no comment. But they did keep our water glasses filled and the napkins were ironed.

The next day Goggs wanted to show me "The Wild Animal Park" northeast of San Diego, so off we went. Now I hate the whole Zoo mentality. I've been to too many parks where the animals are caged in tiny cells and their lives consisting of sleeping behind shaped rocks and trying to ignore the gawking crowds. However, Goggs said this would be a different experience altogether, so off we went.

After spending a hot afternoon at the park (it was in the low 90's - it was a dry heat), I came away pleased with the entire affair. The park was designed to try and keep the animals in a habitat as similar to being in the wild as possible. There were fences and moats, but no cages that I could see. There was even a huge savannah that allowed many different types of animals mix freely (not with the carnivores, damn). I would have like too see a cheetah let loose in there, that would makes things a bit more "sporty". Here are a few of the choicer shots I took while at the park.

Next it was off to Rancho Del Rio. I forget the name of the city, but it was close to the Animal park and extremely affluent. Hooked up with a good friend of ours Kim, and went out to dinner. We ended up in a little town on the coast called Encinitas (very nice). Kim suggested a little Italian place near the beach she heard about and off we went.




When we arrived I didn't expect much based on the outside. It looked like a rectangular shack with a little outdoor patio. HA. I was amazed. Although the indoor seating was basic italian stuff, the outside patio was quite nice. And the food... Damn good. I got a lamb dish that was perfect. To the left is a shot of Kim and Goggs, and below is the remains of a "Streets of Laredo" chocolate souffle.
The next day Goggs and I paid a surprise visit on my friend Christine. Christine was a friend of mine from back in the day. From topics ranging from "molded plastic" to "auto mechanics, the do's and don'ts", we've had some pretty good times. Since I hadn't seen (or talked) to Christine in at least 2-3 years, she was surprised to say the least.

After getting over the shock of my visit (when I drop in unannounced it's always a shock), we left for lunch. We went to Huntington Beach State Park and ate at a great little tiki bar\restaurant on the beach. We had to wait around 2 hours for a table, but that was allright. It gave us ample opportunity to sample some of their alcoholic concoctions at the outdoor tiki bar.

After getting my "swerve" on at the tiki bar and loading up on good beach food, it was back to Christine's place for some good ole fashioned seafood slurry. Lots of seafood, lots of wine, lots o trouble.

Around 9ish, I loaded up in Christine's car and it was off to LAX, for a red-eye flight to NYC.

to be continued...