Mexi-cali Vacation

I will just keep adding to this blogpost as interesting things occur in the next couple weeks on this fabulous West Coast vaca.

We arrived at John Wayne Airport (Orange County, CA) yesterday, Mon. June 20, 2011 around 3pm.  Connie, my mother-in-law picked us up from the airport.  We came to Park Newport where she lives in a nice little apartment on this gorgeous "Back Bay" as they call it.  Click HERE to see how awesome Park Newport is... they have everything in the way of amenities!  Tennis, putting greens, pools, gyms, stores, trails.  Connie's place has a nice view from her little 4th floor patio.  Below is a photo of the view this morning, but as you can see, the photo was taken before the morning "June Gloom" had burned off.  Don't worry, we got tons of sun today-- read on.

So after arriving yesterday, we got to Park Newport and the dedicated athletes (me NOT included) went for a quick swim in the pool.  You see, Connie and Otto are both training for swimming events (Otto- half Ironman tri, Connie- Sprint tri, I believe).  They swam some laps, I sat in a chair and enjoyed the crisp, cool air and Cali sun.  Yesterday, the sun was out and it was gorgeous when we arrived-- but that beautiful summer sun is accompanied in So. Cal with a nice mild temp.  So as I laid by the pool, I pointed out to Connie that I was not sweating! Such a pleasant welcome after leaving 100+ degrees in Tejas. After the pool visit, we quickly got ready to drive a bit north and east to see Otto's Nana for dinner.  This is his father's mother, who lives in Norwalk.  She has a quaint little house painted a lovely blue, which she has lived in since Otto's dad was a child.  It has this small back/side yard that I just love. The size is so cute.  I really like Nana's house.  We got there and I was able to meet for the first time, Cheryl (Otto's dad's cousin), George (Cheryl's dad / Otto's dad's uncle), and little Sebastian, a more distant, 8 year-old cousin.  We had a nice dinner on tables in the back yard.  We chatted and caught up.  Sebastian threw the frisbee over the wall into the other yard and since we ALSO wanted to see the backyard and pool, then we stood on chairs and peered over.  As I was way up there peeking, the big black lab woke up and saw me and started barking like crazu.  Next thing you know, the neighbor walks out, sees us being  creepers and nicely fetches the toy for us. Luckily we had an excuse for several of us to be acting very strange and suspicious!    The dinner and company was delightful.  I always enjoy meeting member's of Otto's family.  See pic below. 

I look as if I have a maternity shirt on-- I don't. Please excuse!

Now, I am very sleepy, so I'm going to skip writing about today and do it manana, after some rest.  There are great pics of beach time!!!

CONTINUED....
Ok, so last night I was falling asleep as writing, so now I'll be a better blogger.  The visit with Nana and fam on Monday night was very nice.   She served this Chinese Chicken Salad from Costco... cannot wait to look for it! It was so delicious.  So yesterday morning, we woke up at 7:30 or so and had coffee and breakfast overlooking the Back Bay view. It's definitely chilly here in morning and evenings.  But it's so nice because we sleep with windows and doors open.  The temp is perfect! Oh how I wish that was possible in Texas or Florida.  California--- +2000 points.   After breakfast, it was fitness time for Otto which made a perfect reason to make it fitness time for me.  He did a bike and run, and I drove Andree's Prius (love) to the nearby 24 Hour Fitness for a weightlift/step class-- how convenient.   All those So. Cal ladies are in such good shape, and do they not have jobs?? I guess not.  Er, maybe they're teachers-- hot ones at that. hhahah.  I didn't get lost back to Park Newport, thankfully. I got back and showered and waited for Otto to get back from leg 2, his run.  Working out during vacation?  Big step for me--- Margot +100 points!  Then we hit the road for the day. 

First stop was Otto's FAVORITE pizza place, The Pizza Bakery, in Newport.  Otto LOVES pizza--- so this tells you something.  I think it's partially nostalgia for him because he went there a lot as a teen, but the pizza deal, including all-you-can-eat Garlic knots is nothing to dismiss.  It's a nice large slice, with yummy crust, just crisp enough on the bottom.   When we came here last December for the Rose Bowl, the darn Pizza Bakery was closed on New Year's Eve.  Otto was not a happy camper. Often, that alone would cause him not to return to a place, but The Pizza Bakery can do no wrong :)  Luckily they were open... see below.

 

After stuffing ourselves with the delicious Italian fave, we drove past Otto's High School, Newport Harbor.  Just like the tv series Laguna Beach, people--- this is a NICE looking public high school.  It's very close to The Pizza Bakery, hence Otto's frequent school day visits.

At some point after leaving The Pizza Bakery, the "June Gloom" burned off and we were blessed with this , sunny, crisp, cool breeze, gorgeous California day!  As a vacation bonus for me, we headed over to Fashion Island.   This place is a female's heaven.  An open-air shopping destination with all the unique, high-end, aesthetically beautiful retail establishments you could ask for.  It's laid out impeccably--- you meander through little courtyards with gorgeous fountains, foliage and seating areas.  They all connect to become, well, an Island of fashion.   The stores are so amazing.  The window displays, perfectly designed to catch the typical sucker's eye.  (ME, even though I was in merchandising and marketing and know all the tricks)   We just went into a couple stores, but I really just enjoy walking around that place.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to make purchases too.. but as a retail gal, just seeing the new store names and fashions was fun.

We left Fashion Island and decided to ride the Auto Ferry over to Balboa Peninsula to go see if the Wedge was "going off".   If you don't understand that--- you should only be depressed that you aren't an avid beach bum.   Driving around Balboa Peninsula is a wonderful experience alone.  The beach cottages are adorably cute, perfectly proportioned and SO "The American Dream".  Below are a couple pics.

If I coldn't have a house right on the boardwalk, these are a few of my favorites.

 The Wedge is this well-known and bizarre wave break where a jetty juts out and causes this strange wave formation (that was not said in proper surf terms-- ya'll know I'm from Florida-- inferior to California in surf culture)  Otto put his DUCK FEET on and hopped in the FREEZING cold Pacific.  These waves are HUGE.  It's so fun to just sit on the  beach and watch people act fearless with these powerful walls of water.  It's hard in the below pictures to really grasp the size, but trust me, they were big.  Otto did some body surfing and I captured some great "Sports Action Mode" shots with my Sony camera (love).

And self-portrait since I'm not in many pics... hahaha

As we left The Wedge to head to 11th street beach to just sit on the beach and catch some rays, we ran  into Otto's old buddy, Lee.  The funny thing about this, is last summer, a year ago, as we were headed to the The Wedge to ... (complete my sentence) see if it was "going off", this dude on a scooter zoomed past us.  Otto immediately said "That was Lee".  He called him up and Lee turned around and chatted with us through the car window.  Lee loves The Wedge, but I still think it was so crazy that on both of the exact days and times we went to the Wedge, we saw Lee.   I see a pattern--- Lee goes to the Wedge every day at approximately the same time, I guess.  So yesterday, we chatted with Lee a bit.  Otto got caught up on the O.C. gossip and we headed to our next beach stop-- 11th Street.

At 11th street, we just plopped down, played a few rounds of thumb war (I won 1 out of about 8 games) and Otto went back in the water for round two.  I actually fell asleep on my back, catching some rays, and Otto came to wake me up for my 4:30 hair appointment at XO Salon.  We were meeting Connie, who had a 3:30 color appointment.  Selena, her stylist has this great little salon on Balboa Peninsula.  Totally chic, totally OC!   Selena is this blue-eyed, deep red haired, petite, cute lady.    She did a great job on my hair which had not been cut or colored since (cough) November!  She said my hair was in surprisingly good condition for having gone that long.  So I got a trim and she even did this nice curl style.

After my hair was done, Connie still had to be rinsed and dried.  Otto and I walked a few doors down to El Ranchito which (conveniently) hosts a Taco Tuesday event where you pay $5.00 to have all-you-can-eat tacos, rice, beans, chips, salsa, tostados... you get the point.  It's essentially a bar, with tables, and you get in line to be served your choice of shredded beef or chicken tacos with all the fixins.   But this food is actually very good!  These are 'real Mexican style' tacos, folks.  That price is unbelievable.  My favorite from the food line was the shredded beef taco.  Otto liked the hand-fried shell beef taco.   The funny thing about it was, that as we walked up to El Ranchito, I thought it looked very familiar!  Then I recalled partying there one night back in 2003 when I lived in the OC while doing my internship at Volcom in Costa Mesa!  Crazy.  We had a drink and food and then headed back to Park Newport to get jackets.  Otto and I were going to head to Surf City (a.k.a Huntington Beach) for Tuesday Surf City nights.  This happened to be a special one because Surf Champion and legend, Kelly Slater was going to be receiving an award and the "key to the city". 

el ranchito

When we arrived in downtown Huntington Beach (Surf City) it was 7:30pm.  The place was packed, but we were able to get a parking spot in a garage.  They had the streets closed and featured booths with artists, retailers, a farmer's market, restaurant samplings, music, sidewalk sales etc.  At the end of main street, towards the ocean, was a large stage where a reggae-esque band was playing music, overlooking the street fair.   People began dispersing and that's when I knew that I had missed my opportunity to see Kelly Slater receive the city's key.  Oh well.  Otto and I walked up and down, looking at all the vendors.  The farmer's market was really cool.  Any plant, fruit, veggie, jam, jelly or granola you could think of, beautifully displayed.  Otto purchased a couple things from the sidewalk sales of the surf shops.   We then, tackled the awful exit line in the parking garage.  Luckily, Otto spent some cash at the surf shop, so our parking ticket was validated and we didn't have to pay :)

 Surf city, USA



Tacos surely make your sweet tooth come out, which provided the perfect opportunity for us to drive back over to Balboa Peninsula and hit up Dad's.  Dad's is an ice cream/doughnut/cookie/frozen banana/Balboa bar shop.  It's been around since the 1960's apparently.  There's a walk-up window, always bustling with customers.  Balboa Bars are vanilla ice cream rectangles on a stick, hand dipped in molten chocolate and rolled in your favorite topping.  They sell them all over Balboa, but Dad's is the place to be.  They also sell chocolate dipped frozen bananas.  Three doors down is the rivaling Sugar n Spice.  They've been around since 1945!! Before DAD'S!  There is a big to-do about which is better.  Read this entertaining article which gives points for each establishment based on different categories.

Dad's Sign...  Makes you feel a little simian, eh?

I usually get the Balboa Bar or the Frozen Bananas, I mean, we're on Balboa for goodness sake. Otto always gets ice cream, his favorite-- Chocolate Peanut Butter.  So, I had already made up my mind that I was also going to get a scoop (or two) of ice cream instead of a Balboa Bar.  Otto walked in, looked in the ice cream freezer and sees NO chocolate peanut butter!  That was it--- he wasn't getting anything.  I still opted for ice cream-- I got a scoop of Pineapple Coconut chunk and a scoop of Mocha Almond Fudge.  It was delicious.  I loved the Pineapple Coconut.  I mean, can any other flavor be more perfect for an Orange County vacation???