Destination: Southern California

Donna and I recently returned from a trip to the Golden State, seeing our son Jack and his wife Erin in L.A., visiting Donna’s brother Mike and sister Barb in Newport Beach, and sightseeing in San Diego, which neither of us had ever visited. It was a wonderful, whirlwind trip.

Leg one: Mauled by Vicious Attack Dogs

Our first stop brought us to a hotel in Universal City, home to Universal Studios and a five-minute drive to Jack and Erin’s home in beautiful Toluca Lake, a village whose houses are framed with colorful, fragrant gardens and the main street is lined with restaurants, boutiques, and two icons: the original Bob’s Big Boy (home of the “original double deck hamburger”), and Paty’s, a casual diner that is bustling at all hours.

We met up with Jack and caught up on his various projects and pursuits (of which he always has several in the works). For protection, Jack and Erin have a trio of fierce attack animals that use their anteater tongues to lick their adversaries into submission. They typically operate as a pack to outnumber and overwhelm their foe. See the grizzly photo if you must.

After checking into our hotel, we met Jack and Erin for dinner at Margaritaville in Universal’s City Walk, an open-air mall of souvenir shops, themed restaurants and chain retailers. Oddly, at 7:45 pm the Jimmy Buffet-founded watering hole’s lights brightened as our waiter announced last call for drinks. What a swinging place! We went back to Jack and Erin’s for a nightcap and returned to the hotel for the night.

The next day we walked all over the neighborhood, then Ubered to gorgeous Santa Monica for dinner at Water Grill, a favorite spot of ours right on the ocean. All I will say about that is their wine cellar was deeply depleted when we left.

The next day we did some souvenir shopping at Universal before a dinner-and-a-show evening in Hollywood. We ate at Tao, a lavish Asian fusion restaurant, then strolled along the Walk of Fame stars to the legendary Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard just past Vine Street to see the premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The stunning art deco theater is steps away from where the Academy Awards were being presented the next night, and a long caravan of large flatbed trucks freighted with concrete barriers were waiting to block off access for the big event.
 

The play was fantastic – good acting and incredible effects, from shooting fire to terrifying flying dementors to characters magically transforming to other characters to a weird, logic-defying warping of the set that announced the various time-travels. If you get a chance to see the play about the adventures of the children of Harry and Draco, do it.

Leg two: Bums Crash Tony Country Club

We said our good-byes to Jack and Erin to mooch off Donna’s brother Mike, who had rented a place on the ocean in Newport Beach, an hour and a half south of L.A. From his apartment you can see the sun rise out of the ocean’s left side and set on the ocean’s right. Depending on the weather, you can see in the distance the jagged outline of Catalina Island beyond the Balboa Pier. 

The four of us did lots of walking in the ideal 60-degree weather. Expert tour guides Mike and Barb led us along the cement boardwalk of the Newport Beach Peninsula, to the Wedge at the eastern end of the peninsula that abuts the harbor entrance, to the Newport pier, and points in between. We took a ferry to Balboa Island, a lovely landmass with beautiful houses, restaurants. And frozen banana stands, all claiming to be the original (“There’s money in the banana stand,” if you are a fan of Arrested Development). 

One day we walked all through Crystal Cave State Park, with its eye-popping views of the ocean, then drove to nearby Pelican Hills Golf Club, perched high upon a hill dotted with luxury homes, to quench our thirst. The turnabout at the entrance was choked with Bentleys (so many Bentleys in Newport Beach), Cybertrucks, and Ferraris. There might as well have been a sign at the door: Rich people only. We self-parked our rented Honda Civic in the close-by garage and went in anyway.

The bar is handsome, with a high ceiling, floor-to-ceiling windows providing views of the emerald golf course, polished mahogany and marble, a Xanadu-esque fireplace that could neatly hold entire redwoods. We were dressed for hiking but the bartender behind the sumptuous bar didn’t seem to mind at all and welcomed us warmly. We enjoyed our well-earned beverages at a leisurely pace and then departed.

Mike and Barb are great companions and friends to me, and I am as close to them as if they were my siblings. So when the four of us are together we always have a good time.

Leg three: Tuna and Bananas

After three days it was time to head to our final destination, San Diego. We opted to take the scenic Pacific Coast Highway through Laguna Beach, Dana Point, and down to San Clemente (“I am not a crook”) before getting on I-5.

For decades I have wanted to visit San Diego and see the warships and fighter jets that the city is known for, and to stay at the famous Hotel Del Coronado. The iconic red-roofed turret above pristine beaches was a prominent graphic on marketing materials for conferences that I yearned to attend during my career, but an opportunity never came to pass (side note: my first business trip, as a cub reporter, was to a convention for the nascent cable TV industry, which was held at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach). This time, through the magic of Hilton points, we were able to swing a couple nights there.

The hotel is on what is called Coronado Island but is actually a peninsula; a small ribbon of land connects to the mainland far south of the city) in San Diego Bay. Besides the little-used road on the spit of connecting land, Coronado is accessible by a bridge high enough for all but the tallest warships – massive aircraft carriers – and by ferry.

On arrival we found the bar and waited for our room to be ready. The bar is on the lower level, where the inviting, turquoise pool is. If the air temperature had been 75 degrees instead of 60, it would have been sublime; as it was, it was only fantastic. We checked into our beautiful room and changed for dinner in the hotel’s main restaurant.

The next morning we took the Coronado ferry to the mainland’s cruise ship terminal and hopped on a boat for a two-hour tour of the bay. Adversaries of the USA would do well to take this tour; the amount of deadly force on display would likely deter hostile thoughts. Gunboats, aircraft carriers, and submarines by the dozens – and these are a small fraction of the fleet, most of which is in theater – sit menacingly along the coast for miles.

The sky, meanwhile, is dotted with helicopters, Sea Hawks and massive Sea Stallions, as thick as cicadas in summer, originating from Navy, Marines and Coast Guard bases. Of course, the other dominating thing is the F-18. You hear them before you see them, the sound like sustained crashing waves very close to you. Usually they travel in pairs and go streaking over the ocean, banking sideways in a graceful arc to go who knows where. And lots of the helicopter-fighter jet hybrid, vertical take-off and landing Osprey aircraft, too.

After the boat tour we walked around town toward the Gaslamp district and had a fine lunch before heading back to the ferry and the hotel. We dined at a wonderful restaurant on Coronado with a breathtaking view of the San Diego skyline before retiring.

It was an outstanding vacation. We got to see new things, see how people in a different part of the country live, see people we love, and create more memories we’ll share for many years.

San Diego fun facts!

The tour guide was very good. He showed us:

Fact #1: The Amadea, the 106-meter mega-yacht formerly owned by a Russian oligarch and seized by the U.S. government when Russia invaded Ukraine. It costs $750,000/month to maintain it at dock (a judge denied a U.S. request to sell the boat at auction).

Fact #2: The Coronado-San Diego bridge’s 90-degree curve and explained it (the U.S. government would only finance construction of bridges longer than two miles; a straight bridge would only have needed to be 1.5 miles long).

Fact #3: The Port of San Diego is the largest U.S. point of entry for bananas – a whopping 5 billion of the elongated yellow fruit a year! And back in the day, San Diego’s fishing fleet was one of the largest sources of tuna. Commercial fishing still exists there but is greatly diminished from its hayday.

 

Here are more photos from San Diego...