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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!

Our Sausalito Sojourn 1024 768 Mari Bickmore

Our Sausalito Sojourn

SUBTITLE:  Things you should never do

Just last October, my Texas Travel Buddies and my Norwegian daughter took a little trip to Sausalito.  May I just say that I LOVE Sausalito.  Always have, always will.  I would retire there if funds were not an issue.  By the way, I identify as a wealthy woman.  Will the government supply the funds to ease my identity crisis now that we are dealing so positively with these crises?  Or perhaps making an undocumented withdrawal from the bank would be looked upon favorably?  I’ll have to make enquiries.

In any event, what a lovely trip.  We rented accommodation from an AirBNB owner that had a fabulous view.  It was actually in Mill Valley–Suki’s Mountain Retreat.  I’ve driven all over Europe,  more than a few places I shouldn’t have driven, but that driveway that night scared me.  I didn’t know if the car was going to make it up such a sharp incline without rolling backwards.  Okay, not as scary as Paris in the afternoon when the sun is truly blinding you and you don’t know where you’re going, but fairly scary.  Anyway, it was an interesting place.  Kind of like staying at your grandmother’s if your grandmother had a fantastic view and fruit trees that you were allowed to pick from and bougainvillea dripping off the house.  Those oranges weren’t perhaps the best oranges I have ever tasted. They WERE the best oranges I have ever tasted.  And it was quite near Muir Woods which is a magical and wondrous place to take a hike/walk.

My first story about the trip falls in the category of:  THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO.   It was my friend Beverly’s Birthday and we went to a lovely place to eat, Buckeye Roadhouse. As you can see, they have wonderful food.  Seated next to us was a nice-looking family…mom, dad, son, daughter.  Somewhere along the way my friend whispers “can you hear what they’re saying?”   The conversation was really unbelievable.  Mom and dad proceeded to tell their children, In A Restaurant, that they were splitting up but that things were going to be wonderful!   They tried to make it sound like they would live in a perfect world now.  The daughter, around 8-10 years old, was crying and the 14-year-old boy was trying to keep a stiff upper lip.  THEN…get ready for it…they pull out a birthday card for the little girl!  No really…it was her BIRTHDAY.  Those chose to impart this bitter message in PUBLIC on her BIRTHDAY.  I see a lot of therapy in her future.  So I’m just telling you, this is something that you should never do.  What ever possessed them to think this was a good idea is beyond me.  It has just occurred to me that it was the little girl’s birthday and Beverly’s birthday.  Maybe I thought about it at the time but that’s a little foggy.  I’m not too foggy about the food…it’s a definite return again visit and that was a return visit itself.  The empty plate was the dessert..enough said.

My second story is much better.  Next morning we drove down our steep driveway (much easier on the way down) to spend the day in Sausalito–art galleries, cute shops, and lovely food spots.  Looking for a place to park we saw a young woman go to her car so we put our blinker on to wait for the spot…and waited…and waited.  My brave friend Beverly decided to very nicely ask her if she was leaving or not, so out she jumped.  Then they started talking…and talking.  I saw another spot just up the road slightly and took it.  Turns out the poor girl had just been dumped–and had a baby.  She was looking for God and had went to a church the night before and sat in the back but no one had approached her.  My friend had kind words and counsel and had come along at just the perfect time to a perfect stranger to be a shoulder to cry on and some help along theis journey we call life.  I cried, she cried.  Maybe you  had to be there, but it was truly inspirational.

My last story is just a series of disjointed events really.  Next day we went to San Francisco and had great tacos, but I don’t remember the name of the cafe.  We shopped around awhile but had to leave in time to get my Norwegian girl to the airport.  We got to our car in plenty of time to have her there a few hours before her flight, or at least we thought we did.   In two hours we went maybe 4-5 blocks.  Needless to say, we never even got out of the city in that direction, gave up and went back to our little house in the sky.  She is fairly sure her boss never believed that story.  But I’m here to tell you its true.  It was a week before she went home.  So she got to go with us to St. Helena the next day.   Oh, Bev got that genuine fox coat at a Buddhist Temple Rummage Sale for $5!

This is a seriously cute little town.  There is even a castle there…Castello di Amorosa.  Well here’s another little story.  We had just gotten out of our car here at the castle and there was a couple there who looked pretty serious, so we walked really slow so we could eavesdrop (just being honest).  He was proposing to her with a ring and flowers  and everything.  Oops!  She said no.  At least he didn’t do it on the screen at a hockey game!  Yet they stayed and walked around the grounds, but they looked so sad after that.   He did take the flowers and everything and put back in the car, probably so we wouldn’t have to look at them and stare.

On a brighter note!  I would highly recommend that you all visit Farmstead in town, on a warm day so that you can eat outside.  The food was oustanding.   I wish I had filmed us eating so that I could post it like a travel show.  You would be salivating and wishing you were there, kind of like I do when I watch “I’ll have what Phil’s Having.”  Why was there only one season?!?!  I plan to visit next month with a friend who is coming in from Ohio.  Perhaps I will film it then.

RIght now I’m in the D.C. area for  my daughter-in-law’s baptism and feel so blessed!  Planning on some Maryland Crabcakes.  Tata and Happy Trails!

Excuses 1024 768 Mari Bickmore

Excuses

Don’t you hate excuses!?!?!  Well I’ve got a list for you.  I haven’t posted in ages and ages, BUT I have been otherwise engaged.  Let’s start back in March.  I spent March and April living with a family with an illness.  That is not a complaint.  I love them more than I can say and it was a blessing for me to be able to do that.  I wish beyond wishes that the need hadn’t been there, but to be able share the time with them was priceless.  Towards the end of that stay, I got the call that I had been expecting for about a year.  I didn’t answer the number the first time it rang because I knew when that number came up what it was going to be.  My biological father had passed away.  We hadn’t been particularly close, but death as a way of changing your perspective on that.  In point of fact, we had been estranged for many years.  But that is a story for another day.  I did make the decision to leave where I was and attend the funeral in Houston.  Luckily, another family member was due to arrive very soon to stay where I had been.  During the time I was away from home, we found that we were going to take a new job and move from the Midwest to the West Coast, Northern California to be precise.  So began a series of trips to look at our new surroundings and shop for a home, and back to our home to pack my car and drive out leaving most of our possessions in a house that was for sale…a house that we had just finished building in July 2014…a house that I loved.  In all our searching, we never found a house that we loved in our new town, but we did buy a house.  We closed on a Monday and left that Friday for a 2-1/2 week vacation; a few days in Amsterdam and a 2-week cruise on Celebrity to Scandinavia and Russia, and a throw back to early June when I had a ____ year high school reunion back in Houston for a long weekend (great time, wonderful people)…and then in Vegas in late June to attend my nephew’s wedding (Joejoe Diggs), along with my daughter, Amanda, and her husband, Bradley.  I got to see my bestest niece and nephew and their Mom!  They are so great!  All that traveling, especially the cruise, have added an ugly 10 pounds that I have got to shed.  In any event, it’s been a very full year so far and not likely to let down.

We are now in the midst of a huge renovation to make that house we bought a house we will love.  The people who lived in this house for the past 13 years did not have the word “maintenance” in their vocabulary.  The air conditioner filter had about 1/2 inch of lint on them when we replaced them.  The spa leaks, which they did not disclose, so that will be an entry for another day.  There were a couple of other nondisclosed items, but they don’t make me as mad as the spa does.   We’ll see how than story pans out.  We are in the middle of painting all the cabinetry and walls and trim, etc.  We completely deconstructed a wall in the living and that is almost finished reconstructing.   Darned if I don’t have to leave in the middle of this to go to London for an interior design job.  This may be the only time in my entire life that I am not biting at the bit to leave for a trip like that, but being in the middle of this makes it difficult.  I’ll just end with a few before pictures and early reno pictures.  I can’t wait to get back to cooking and food pix!  Oh, and there is an election year coming up.  That should be fun!  And right now I won’t get started on the Muslim invasion that is taking place, forever changing the face of Europe negatively.  I’m glad I’ve been able to travel there prior to this, although it had been getting worse over these past few years due to a smaller version of the same thing.

This post seems like such a short one when I think of all the things that have happened this year!IMG_2640_2 IMG_2638_2 IMG_2609_2 IMG_2608_2 IMG_2607_2 IMG_2604 IMG_2603  IMG_0759_2 IMG_0757_2 IMG_0753 IMG_0751_2 IMG_0750_2 IMG_0749_2 IMG_0746_2 IMG_0745_2 IMG_0744_2 IMG_0743_2 IMG_0740_2 IMG_0739_2 IMG_0738_2 IMG_0737_2 IMG_0735_2 IMG_0731_2

In Search of the Perfect Fish Taco 1024 577 Mari Bickmore

In Search of the Perfect Fish Taco

IMG_0520I am here in Redondo Beach taking care of my grandbabies and figured while I was here I would continue my search for the perfect fish taco.  The weather has been glorious, albeit no rain when rain is much needed.  It has been great beach weather and cool nights.  Pretty perfect.

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I will preface my taco search by saying my favorite taco to date is just near the pier in Cozumel in an old restaurant with upstairs dining.  Cannot remember the name, but it can’t be hard to find.  The fish is actually fried inside the shell.  Different than anywhere else I’ve ever had one.  This search is for the perfect breaded, fried fish taco.  Maybe I will move onto grilled later in my life.  So for this post I am have two fairly bad tacos and one that I have now had three times and would go again, save for the fact that I need to try three different ones.  They are all located in the Redondo, Torrance, Lomita area.  (look at the end for regular rant on the plague that is Islam)

1.  Los Paisas Tacos Y Mariscos (or Los Paisas Mexican Grill):  This is a place that my son likes….but he never ordered the fish tacos.  He’s a burrito guy, so I guess if you want a burrito it is decent, but the salsa sucks too.  As far as the taco goes, the corn tortilla was tough.  No way around that.  A tough tortilla is hard to get over.  The fish was more like a large fish stick, maybe a decent quality fish stick, but a fish stick nonetheless.  Avoid this place for fish tacos.

2.  Alfredos on PCH in Lomita:  I read fairly decent reviews about this place, so my daughter and I thought we’d give it a try.  Chips are decent, salsa is just so-so.  My daughter had the taquitos and wasn’t at all impressed.  I had the fish tacos (duh).  They both came on large platters, so you get a lot of beans and rice (3 taquitos for her and 2 tacos for me).  The corn tortillas are pretty decent, but this fish was truly an old, pressed fish pieces kind of fish stick.  For me, practically inedible.  I let my granddaughter try it because kids like fishsticks, right?  Nope.  Just bad.  Service is super slow all around.  Just on a positive note, the fundido with chorizo was pretty darn good.

IMG_05823.  Baja California Fish Tacos in Lawndale:  Hands down the best of them all.  Not even a contest.  Very fresh corn tortillas and real fish that they batter and cook on the premises.  They have a great sauce and it is a good deal.  If you go on Wednesdays they have 1.05 fish taco day.  It was .99 cents but inflation you know, not to mention how popular they are becoming.  I had to circle the block three times last time I went to get a parking spot.  There is no ambience, but I guess it has it’s own kind of ….I just couldn’t write charm.  The ceviche was really good and I just like horchata.  I know…the high fructose corn syrup is a killer.  I try not to indulge very often.  Overall everything is very good and great prices.  Last time I got the combination of 1 shrimp taco and 1 fish tacos with rice, beans, and a drink for 6.99.  You can’t beat that, especially when the fish taco is the best on my list at the moment, barring the one in Cozumel and possibly one in Playa del Carmen.  IMG_0581

Kudos to the Mayor of Irving, Texas, for standing up to Sharia and Islam!  Just keeping up with Satan’s religion of Islam, in case you haven’t:  Below is a list  of a few things that his followers did this past week, not to mention ISIS or the threat of creeping Sharia in your neighborhood.

Islam’s Latest Contributions to Peace“Mohammed is God’s apostle.  Those who follow him are harsh
to the unbelievers but merciful to one another”  Quran 48:29

2015.03.21 (Afgoye, Somalia) – Islamists toss a grenade into a market, killing two bystanders.
2015.03.20 (Hassakeh, Syria) – Fifty Kurds celebrating their New Year are turned into paste by a suicide bomber.
2015.03.20 (Sanaa, Yemen) – A large number of children are among one-hundred and forty innocents eliminated by Sunni suicide bombers as they worshipped at two Shiite mosques.
2015.03.20 (Kathua, India) – Radical Muslims storm a police station and murder four people.
2015.03.19 (Giza, Egypt) – Two people go up in flames when suspected Ansar Beit Al Maqdis firebomb a youth center.
2015.03.18 (Shirqat, Iraq) – A man and his wife are executed by the caliphate for her not wearing a veil.
Eating my Way Through Vegas 318 159 Mari Bickmore

Eating my Way Through Vegas

“I stay out too late…got nothing in my brain. That’s what people say.” I can’t get that song out of my brain…it’s like I got this music in my mind saying “it’s gonna be alright.” Silly, right? Kind of perfect for Vegas though. Five days and four nights in Sin City! vegas pictureI am pretty sure you can cover the seven deadly sins in Vegas: Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. Think about it. Sad. But all that does make for some great people watching, if you are into that sort of thing. Just being away from winter weather and waking up every morning and thinking how glorious the perfect blue skies, sun and 75-degree weather must be some kind of sin.

I am definitely a high roller. I set aside $20 for gambling. Since $20 wouldn’t get me far at the Blackjack table with a $10 minimum, I was relegated to the one-armed bandits. I was up at $27 and cashed at at $24.75. I am thinking that gambling is not in my blood. HOWEVER, there is sooo much more in Vegas. The shopping is phenomenal. I have to think that just about any brand you need, crave or want is there. The Forum Shops, the Grand Canal Shoppes, Fashion Show Mall, Town Square, Shoppes at the Palazzo, Miracle Mile, Crystals at City Center, Doges Palace, Desert Passage, and others, not to mention the Premium Outlets. The premium outlets here have a good selection and some high end stores too. The only better one I’ve been to is Camarillo in California. Make sure you bring your walking shoes. If I’m going to “lose” any money in Vegas, it is going to be at one of these shrines to excess (or possibly to a shrine of gluttony). I’m pretty sure my daughter and I walked four or five miles a day in this quest.

Back to the gluttony notation: Vegas has to be one of the best places to eat ever. Many great chefs have restaurants here. There are just a very long list of fabulous places to eat and, admittedly, they are very pricey. You get what you pay for. Four nights in a row I overate, and not in a small way. Yet, I didn’t even think about not doing it. I mean, I knew it would be over quickly. Wagyu beef that you could practically cut with a fork, foie gras, lobster in mashed potatoes, lobster pie, bone marrow (my new favorite appetizer), beef wellington a la Gordon Ramsay, black truffled everything and desserts to die for. We ate at Mastro’s Ocean Club, Sage, Gordon Ramsay’s and Michael Mina. All of them are excellent. The Warm Butter Cake from Mastro’s was hands down my favorite dessert. Someone told me the Havana Dream Pie at Joe’s Stone Crab would make me spit out the butter cake, so I tried it for lunch and they were dead wrong. The dream pie was a tres leches cake, albeit a fantastic tres leches, it was no where near Mastro’s butter cake. Mastro’s bone marrow was the best, but their main course presentation left something to be desired.

bone marrow mastros
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Sage was overall a more than very nice dining experience, but nothing sticks out as the best of anything, although the ambience and food presentation was sensual.  Gordon Ramsay’s Wagyu American Filet was absolutely the best steak we had, although their sides were not. Someone told us to get the Sticky Toffee Pudding, sticky toffee cake ramsayso we did. While it was, indeed, very good, I’m still comparing to the butter cake. It reminded me a bit of a very good figgy pudding. Now for Michael Mina, OMG on the lobster pot pie!….and the foie gras….and the short rib ravioli….omg the butter was the best we had all trip and I always eat bread just so I can have the butter. lobster pie mina 2When I lose the weight from these four days, I will be ready to come back. I usually have to wait a whole year to dine like this again, but my nephew is getting married in Vegas in June. I had better start playing tennis five days a week!

If you’ve been to Vegas you know there are some amazing hotels lining the Strip, and probably some that aren’t on the Strip. Unfortunately, my hubs’ convention was at The Mirage, which isn’t the best hotel on the Strip. Next year we are staying somewhere else and he is taxiing to the show. I have decent list of hotels to choose from that I think are pretty fabulous: The Wynn, Cosmopolitan, Aria, Venetian or the Palazzo, but never again The Mirage. I wish I could tell you about some shows, but we didn’t see any on this trip. Our dining lasted late into the evening and after shopping all day for the girls and working all day for the hubs, we rolled ourselves into bed and crashed.

Let me know your favorite restaurants, shows and  hotels in Vegas so I can use that info next time I go!

New Year’s Eve: Goofy’s Kitchen At Disneyland 577 1024 Mari Bickmore

New Year’s Eve: Goofy’s Kitchen At Disneyland

IMG_20141231_114520_864Happy Belated New Year EVERYONE! I barely got used to writing 2014 and now we are into 2015 already. Believe me when I say the older you get, the faster the years go by. It’s like hitting that downward, steeper slope and things are just rushing by, so start enjoying every minute or at least filling them. Enough of that!

I stayed to visit with my son, my lovely daughter-in-law and those fabulous granddaughters after everyone else went home from Christmas. For New Year’s Eve they have a tradition of taking the girls to Goofy’s Kitchen at Disney, so I tagged along. They had to make reservations somewhat far in advance and we had an 11:40 a.m. time slot for brunch. As usual, Disney does the service right. Included in the price was valet parking for three hours. goofy1WeIMG_20141231_132446_794 started off with a family picture taken with Goofy in his “kitchen,” and no wait at all for seating after that. The wait staff are quite attentive…again, this is a Disney operation. They are very focused on the children, making conversation, commenting on how cute they are or their clothes/costumes. This is great, after all you are coming here for the kids.  And it’s not just for holiday!  You can have this experience any day of the year!

As this is a character dining experience, you will have a character coming by your table regularly for photo ops and occasionally they gather and parade throughout the restaurant twirling napkins, which everyone is encouraged to do along with them. goofy4-001The kids loved this. Our day had Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale (stop it—the chipmunks), and Minnie Mouse. goofy5Apparently, the cast rotates so you never know who is going to be there on any given day, except for Goofy. He is always in the kitchen. You cannot book ahead knowing which characters will be there, sometimes the princesses, sometimes Snow White, Captain Hook. All you are guaranteed is Disney! Reservations can be made at 714-781-3463.

Now for the buffet. As my son said to me when I took a bite of the bread pudding, “it’s all about the kids.” I am not saying it is bad, but if you’re a foodie, well…. To be fair, for this type of buffet it is fine. I have read on some other reviews that “it was fabulous.” That is not true either. It is a sizeable buffet, so you will certainly have enough food to eat, and there is a large selection of food that your children will eat. I guess they are known for the peanut butter and jelly pizza. Our munchkins did not want that, but they did have plenty to eat. There were eggs, sausage, bacon, eggs benedict, and they were making fresh omelets. They had little Mickey Mouse waffles and pancakes. There was also a lunch bar with teriyaki chicken, a creamy pasta, veggies. There was a pizza/mac&cheese station, a fruit station, a dessert station and ice cream. Definitely quantity. If you just wanted to eat well, your $39+tax (brunch on New Year’s Eve) could be spent on finer dining; however, remember, that is not why you are here. You are here for the amusement, laughter, and wonder that is Disney!

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After you are finished, there is Downtown Disney. I have never been here, but it is highly reminiscent of Universal CityWalk. After all, they are just outdoors malls, heavy on the Disney in this case. It is just past Christmas and what better time to be here than with all the holiday decorations! IMG_20141231_132510_040Who knew there was an Elsa and Anna store that has a hair salon for little ones that does glitter do’s and sells everything Frozen that you can imagine? I can remember the first time I went to Disneyland, driving from Texas when I was 10 years old. The feeling of the memory is totally wonder and amazement. The shopping they had at the time wasn’t all Disney products by a long shot, but was certainly equal to it in the eyes of the 10-year-old that I was. I came home with a Marie Antoinette doll that is packed in one of my boxes to this day. I just hope that my granddaughters have that same sensory experience and future memories of awe when they come here, but I have to wonder about that because they have so much more input than I ever imagined at that age.

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