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April 2017

They do walk among us! 1024 576 Mari Bickmore

They do walk among us!

(If you aren’t interested in hearing about Zion and hiking, please skip down to the third paragraph and start there…I promise you will be amused by the short story afterwards – well I hope you’ll be amused.

But really folks, hiking in Zion National Park is soooo beautiful!  My husband, daughter, her then almost 2-month-old baby, and I went hiking in Zion back in mid February.  Perfect, sunny weather for hiking…high 60s!  I’d be crazy to come here to  hike in the summer as I’d swelter and/or die of heat stroke.  Also, in this winter/spring time there are hardly any people here, so no crowding on the trails.  It’s got some green going on too, as opposed to the dry, tan plants due to summer drought.   We did have some gorgeous hikes though, Emerald Pools being one of them.  I got double points for carrying the baby (in a pack) on the way up!  We did encounter a man on our way down clinging to the side of the mountain whilst his wife was  urging him up.  The hike hadn’t even gotten bad yet.  I’m pretty sure she should have been urging him to go back down.   He surely wasn’t looking too good.  Luckily, the trail was wide enough at that point for us to pass.  This was the second leg of a three-location trip, and, unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to give us two days of hiking.  However, I will return…in the winter, unless we decide to do the narrows and for me to get wet it’s got to be hot.  In any event, this park is magnificent.  Here are a couple of videos I found for Angel’s Landing…so now I don’t know if I will go or not.   Just Look at This.  (If you aren’t interested in hearing more about the area, please skip down past the next paragraph…I promise you will be amused by the three short stories afterwards.)

I will have to say that the little town  of Springdale, which is directly adjacent to the entrance of Zion isn’t completely open in the winter.  The first night we were there we left for dinner at 7:00 and the place was just closed.  We ended up at Blondie’s Diner, which is a retro-feeling diner in an old house and was just steps from where we were staying.  All I can say is don’t get the fish and chips.  Maybe that was just an error on my part.  There are several businesses that are only open in season, so that’s a bummer.  However, we did eat at two really good places.  Oscar’s Cafe (Mexican) for lunch was great and King’s Landing for dinner was outstanding.  The stickie toffee at King’s Landing was divine!

So here’s the oddball story.  On a post I read on Facebook recently, there was a  9/11 Truther spouting some fun things.  Believe or not, I didn’t realize that those planes were holograms!  Wow!  That technology must be better than I thought to fool people who were right there on the ground watching!  I did mention that to him.  I also asked him about the people on the third plane who were calling their families.  Did you know that those calls were preprogrammed?  Wow again!   That was way back in 2001.   Start talking to total strangers!  You never know what great stories you might end up with.

They Walk Among Us!

A Perfect Day in L.A. 1024 768 Mari Bickmore

A Perfect Day in L.A.

Well, actually another perfect 10 days in LA.  It’s like deja vu there!  Sunny in the 70s everyday.  I was in the South Bay Area visiting my son and his family…mostly to see my AMAZING granddaughters.  No really…they are amazing.  So sweet and cute.  My older one told me one day that I was always in her heart and in her brain everyday.  That just rips your  heart out when you only get to see them every 3 or 4 months.  I got to take them and pick them up from school almost everyday too.  What a change from when you have your own children and sometimes you aren’t savvy enough to know that you GET to take them and pick them up from school as opposed to having to do that.   That older child would wave to me for quite some time when I left her in the morning, until she turned the corner and could no longer see me.  I would have stood there all day long to see that wave and that smile!  Just getting to go to their swim lessons, ballet lessons and violin lessons was a treat.  I even lucked out and was there for my youngest granddaughter’s field day at school!   I did an art project with them everyday and didn’t care about the mess.  Grandchildren are the best and being relaxed as a grandparent is such a release.

We always eat out far to much when I visit, but getting to try new restaurants is a great thing too.  Just a couple of good places in the area that I haven’t tried before:  Brio Coastal Grill at Del Amo Mall (tied for the best Shrimp and Grits I have ever had) and Mama Terano in Rolling Hills Estates (OMG – I had the special:  Veal Sweetbreads Linguine.  I’m telling you, you should call them and have them put you on a contact list for when they have this special again.  Not kidding.).  Those two are my standout restaurants.   Oh wait!  Shrimp By You in Torrance was a winner too!  We shared a Big pot with a whole lobster, shrimp, snow crab, crawfish, and clams (we substituted the mussels for crawfish).  Choice of sauces.  Really, really good; we ate the whole pot.   Hermosa Beach Fish Shop is always good:  Great fish tacos, but their Fish Shop Shrimp is outstanding.

HOWEVER, we went to Smorgasbord LA, which is like a food festival but there every weekend, and had a great time.  There are around 50 booths/trucks, a mix of both, with so many selections.  The first one was Smogasbord New York and that guy opened on here.  A venue for up and coming chefs.  I think I walked around it twice before even attempting to make a choice.  I’m sure so much of it was really good, but the absolute best thing there has to be the Ugly Drum Pastrami Sandwich!!!  I know, if you had said that to me I wouldn’t have believed you either…but it’s undeniably true.  I was standing in the line for a pork belly taco from Goa Taco (truly yummy), and this man started talking to me.  Said this taco we were about to partake of was really good, but that I had to try the pastrami sandwich.  His son, right on cue, walked up with said pastrami sandwich and the dad made him give me a bite of it.  Heaven.  I didn’t even have the taco yet and my plan  was to immediately go stand in another line for that heaven on a slice of homemade rye with a little mustard.   There were seven of us, so I had little bites of a few things, but none any better than these.

We did go home and try to fly a really, really big kite..but after all the wind we had that week the wind gods left and it didn’t get off the ground.  That was the day before I left.  I am pining for another bite of the pastrami!  But truly, I miss the girls more than the sandwich.  They are living it up in London this week for Spring Break and aren’t giving me a second thought…as it should be.

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