Breakfast Babes
Before goign on to breakfast, just a quick note that the Westin Long Beach upon check=in (my official residence in Long Beach) did offer the Platinum ammenity on check-in. THanks William for the great training!
Newself got me and we headed over to one of the best breakfast places ever:
Babes (Thought I was talking about somethign R Rated, eh?)
It's a small restaurant aroudn Long Beach with teh nicest servers like Ona and terrific company. Newself goes there a lot and I was glad he introduced me to it a year ago.
Big, generous, and for some critics non nutritionally correct foods. I had the sunnyside up eggs, perfectly flat crispy bacon (the owner and chef cooks bacon with flatirons) and awesoem homemade bread with preserves made by Ona herself. I am not a breakfast person (I can barely get up at 1 on the morning for work) but this is worth getting up early for. If only for the welcoming service and sharing a cup of coffee with newself.
And they have
PEPSI too. Which newself teased me about.
An Old Tradition Renewed
Newself convinced me very easily months ago to go to Santa Maria and this great Ribs place called Jockos for my birthday celebration. (It took like 3 secs to convince me) So it was time to fly United to get to the town.
As we passed the endless security line at Terminal 1 (southwest, American West and US Airways) I told newself that now I know the news media exaggerates teh security lines sometimes: they all shoot that ONE LINE at LAX!
I had problems checking in becuase I could not use the Easy ticket machine and get my 500 miles. Newself with no status zipped thru easily.
After an agent nearby got me a ticket and waited the long line of security (soem sections were worse than others) we renewed our LAX Tradition of going to the President's Club to enjoy a Sam Adams (well Dave had a Becks) and talk of the good old days when he and Mr. Limo could get through security, meet my plane and welcome me with drinks.
Miss those days. Hope they can ease security just a bit so we can do that great tradition again. Those moments mean more than some upgrade.
United, Junior
We took the bus to the SkyWest/United express prop plane flight and even though we were early since everyone checked in on time the pilot decided to elave early.
The plane's an old Brasilla prop plane. I had exit row and was asked if I could handle it. The plane was probalby older than newself but in good condition.
Flight was fast. Like 35 minutes over soem of the most beautiful SO Cal beachfronts and mountainous scenery where grapes become wine I ever seen. The Perfectly clear day just added to a picture worthy trip. Normally I bring clouds and rain to So Cal. It was nice to have springtime for a change.
The FA was friendly enough but because of turbulance our service was bottled water and soem of the most unusual snacks I seen: Like Powerbars adn healthy bars. I settled for the Santa Claus shaped Biscoti cookies.
We got in a little early to a small airport that looked something out of a 19-40's movie (Or the airport at Key West.) Nice building though and we were greeted by a security person at the door.
Tish and Margaritas
MileCrazy decided to join us so he could celebrate my birthday. (Since I could not make his SFO football thing with the great
Rudi just before Christmas.) He was not waiting for us outside the gate so we hoped he was ok.
After I went to use the restroom came out and found newself and the bags gone. Could I have been abandoned at Santa Maria? NAH.
Heard MileCrazy yell from a downstairs bar in this mexican restaurant bar at the airport called "Pepper Santas (not the real name but remember the Pepper part!)
MileCrazy was enjoying a margarita. We joined in and Tish the bar manager (who like Bonnie had to tend as well as manager)
Tish makes some of the best margaritas around (on par with the Crown Room at MSY) and she made us feel welcome as I revealed my embarassing moment on the UA flight over, and the fact I did not have a coffee maker. But Tish said they are true buddies
I teased MileCrazy about being weeks away from winning several bets of steak dinner from him. One that I am watching is for my Jaqs to finish better in the season than his Saints (although so far he has the edge
)
Happy from a margarita we headed to our hotel.
No Heat, No Worries
The desk person at the Regency Santa Maria (a former Hilton) apologized that their heater was out so they knocked about half off the room rates. Nice surprise and unexpected.
The Regency was within Walking (or staggering if you were coming from Pepper Santas) from the airport. It looked like it was designed like an embassy suites, but was in the midst of remodeling (It was to become a Radisson in early 2002.)
After dropping the stuff off headed out to enjoy a night on the town in Santa Maria.
Next: A Meat Feast at Jockos
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 12-16-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 12-16-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 12-16-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 12-16-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 12-19-2001).]