How we did Fathers-day this year.
While sleeping in on Fathers-day is the norm for most I didn’t want to waste any of the day. So we got up only a little later than usual and were up and out the door.
Sharon had planned to take me to LA for the day and visit the Farmers Market, The Great Frog, and to get Tacos! So we had a quick breakfast and loaded up the car and headed north for my Fathers-day adventure in LA.
Our first stop was the famous LA Farmers Market. Luckily there was not a huge crowd here on Fathers-day as we were a little worried there might be. This being declared a special day by Sharon I decided to treat myself to a guilty pleasure that I only do 2-3 time a year and get donuts. I stopped at Bobs Donuts and asked what they had that was creme filled. My only option was a chocolate long john with Boston creme like filling. I was hopeful that it would be worth it when I was done, and it absolutely was. I haven’t had anything from a donut shop in years that was as delicious as that was. I think that I had an out of body experience. The only thing that could have made it better is if they had chocolate milk to go with it.
We spent a couple of hours just looking around at the shops and vendors. There are a few vendors of fruits and the like as you would expect to see at a farmers market on a weekend like the Little Italy Farmers Market we have close to us in San Diego. But mostly the places that exist here are static shops or restaurants that are more Bricks and Mortar. They do have a couple of places that you can sit down and have a beer that were really nice on a hot day like it was this Fathers-day weekend.
There is a taco shop in the LA Farmers Market is the Loteria Grill while they have tacos that are not bad the customer service is kind of lacking as well. Next time I will try another place to have a snack and see how the other restaurants are. We walked across to The Container Store that was on the other side of the parking lot and looked around in there for a bit as well. Then Sharon decided a beer was in order so we went and had one from Bar 326 then we were on with the rest of the day.
Next Stop The Great Frog for Fathers-day.
Our next stop of the day was The Great Frog in LA. This was the main event for my Fathers-day present. Sharon had been planning to get me the new Iron Maiden Eddie ring that is the second of 4 in a series. I was super excited when I found out and could hardly wait to go and see the ring that would be mine eventually. We got there and Sasha helped us like she did last time. We decided on the size the ring needed to be and got it put in the queue for sizing by the jeweler.
I got #39 of the series of the Iron Maiden Eddie ring based on the Piece of Mind art work collection. Now waiting for it to come in is as hard as it was waiting to see them for their Book of Souls tour this past April.
An unexpected detour
We ended up being ahead of schedule surprisingly enough so we decided to go on a self guided tour of Beverly Hills and Bel Aire. This turned out to be a pretty good idea as we got to see several places that are famous. Most of the houses are completely obscured by hedges that are 20+ feet tall and behind those there are walls to match. But there are a few that you can see from the road and they are nothing short of impressive.
But the most famous place that we found while we were driving around Bel Aire was none other than the infamous Playboy Mansion. While Hugh wasn’t home for us to swing in for a quick visit and a beer we thought that we’d just snap a couple of pictures and be on our way.
While on our Fathers-day self guided tour of Bel Aire we saw [of all things] a garage sale sign. So of course we had to go and see what would be at a garage sale of someone that could afford to live in the same neighborhood with people like Hugh Hefner, Clint Eastwood, Jennifer Anniston, Danny DeVito, and Shaquille O’neal. So we followed the signs and GPS directions to the address and pulled down a rather long and steep driveway. We parked and were greeted with a view that was truly impressive.
While we looked through the items for sale here we were offered margaritas in disposable plastic glasses. According to the wife her husband is an actor [and a South American heart throb] that was Latin American but raised in Wisconsin. While we did meet her husband [as he was making the margaritas] we are still not sure who he is as we didn’t recognize him. We looked through their items for sale and to our surprise it was the same stuff that you’d see in any other garage sale in middle class america, non-designer clothes, books, really old DVD’s [they had a huge collection of “I Love Lucy”], and just other miscellaneous stuff. We ended up getting a small tripod and a pair of diving gloves for Sharon. There was a complete scuba regulator set there that looked like it had been used a few times and never washed. It was tempting but then looking at it, it was obvious that it would need several hundred dollars of work to be serviceable again, so I passed.
Continuing Fathers-day we then headed to Chinatown in LA.
As it was approaching dinner time and I wanted to get Chinese for dinner as it’s another one of my guilty pleasures that I only do 1-2 times a year. We found a place to park that was close to Yang Chow as it was really highly ranked on Yelp.com. As we drove in to the area and were looking for parking we saw parking for $20, then around the corner for $10, then around the next corner $4. So we opted to park in the $4 lot which seemed like a great deal at the time, except that by the time we were done with dinner the attendant was gone and parking was free with plenty of open spots.
At dinner we opted for the signature dish called Slippery Shrimp, Lo Mein and rice. While it was good the shrimp seemed to simply be fried shrimp in Mae Ploy sweet and spicy pepper sauce. I will say that they were hand battered and fried to perfection though. After dinner we headed out to see what else was in Chinatown and as it turns out there was the Summer Nights celebration that just happened to be on Fathers-day weekend this year.
The celebration was rally neat to see all the cooking demonstrations going on as well as the other booths that were set up. But no Chinatown is complete without a statue of the master himself Bruce Lee. That’s how you know you’re in the epicenter of Chinatown.
It was amazing to use walk around a 4-6 block area and see all the artistic creations that people had come up with. The fountain was truly impressive as was the fruit carving. I had never seen a watermelon carved in to a rose before. But it was really impressive how the white of the rind was incorporated to fade into the red of the watermelon flesh.
On our way to explore Olivera street we found this incredibly ornate Chinese temple.
Just a short 10 minute walk away is the historic Olivera Street.
We took a short detour to Olivera street as Sharon hadn’t been there since she was very young. To her pleasant surprise the taco place where she used to get taquitos as a child is still there. Most of the vendors were closed down already which was surprising as it was still fairly early on a Saturday night.
The square at the end of Olivera street was also surprisingly empty for rather early on a Saturday evening for Fathers-day weekend.
After stopping here we decided to head home back to San Diego as it had been quite a busy day for us. This was a great Fathers-day weekend trip.
