Bye Bye Birdees Travel Blog

Today is my birthday.  On the first day of my life, I did nothing.  I peered around at the folks who brought me into this world, and went to sleep.  With the exception of nursing, a change of diapers, and most likely people cooing and making comments about my birth I simply slept all day. For the past eight years, it has been a practice of mine to sleep as long as I can on my birthday and do nothing.  If I get up, I will start to piddle around the house, vacuum, work on a file or something that does not celebrate life.  I love the birthday wishes, the gifts, and special moments I spend with friends and family.  Yesterday, one of my friends treated me to the Renaissance Faire here in the  Bay Area.  I have one rule, on my birthday, don't call me.  I am sleeping in.  This is how I celebrate my life, this is what I want to do today. 

This week's journey was inspired on a trip homeward from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area.  The above was a pictures snapped from the window seat of Mt. Shasta, CA.  So we started a road trip on Highway 99/ California Interstate 5. A couple of highlights about Highway 99 -Hwy 99 shares its route with CA Instertate 5 -Hwy 99 is divided by  2 routes 99E & 99 W It ends in Ashland, Oregon Oregon is a controlled state, which means that alcohol bought sold through the government. The very last store just before the Oregon border is "All Star Liquors".  Though competition has tried to stake their flags nearby, they all seem to never last. "All Star Liquors" advertises -up to 70% savings  -Huge Selection Which makes the store very attractive to even the Oregon residents. The above picture notes that the highway is a Blue Star Memorial to pay tribute to the U.S. Armed Forces who served in World War II, started by the Council of State Garden Clubs after 1945. Th...

There is a reason why this particular Cheesecake Factory is always crowded.  It's setting is on the beach of the beautiful Marina del Rey  in Southern California.  It might be just because it's one of the oldest of a chain that provides a variety of scrumptious cheesecakes.   The location is small compared to the newer Cheesecake Factory restaurants.  For some reason the Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey has always been a favorite, for good food, indulgent libations, good friends, and hangout.  The prices are good, and the service is friendly.  It's been over 24 years since I had been to this location.   I don't think much has changed since the last time I had been here.  Maybe except that my kids are no longer kids.  I reminisce the times when they used to rush to playground adjacent to the restaurant.  On a pleasant sunny day, you can enjoy eating outdoors.   Then again there is the yummy cheesecakes that we have to save r...

City Walk in Hollywood is eclectic. It can be crowded anytime of the year.  Think of it as a great place to take a date. For the price of a parking ticket, City Walk has been attracting not only tourists but the locals from the surrounding areas Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale as a place to hang out.   It's more than place to walk, shop, and have dinner.  On a Saturday afternoon or evening it's common to see the local DJ spin a few tunes to include the Cupid Shuffle.  It's fun to watch families participate in the festivities are get in line and slide yourself.  Above the dancing area is a large big screen featuring music videos, which makes an outdoor dance club for everyone. The parking ticket offers a $5 discount at the movie theaters where you can see the latest film. This time around, my family and I went to see 3 D experience with Tarzan.  Expecting to take our seats put on our 3 D glasses, we entered the theater and saw the audience seated in reclining...

The thought of what if...? What if we knew that today's technology would bring back memories so real we could almost touch them all over again?   The other night I was watching a well known African American Classic "Cooley High."  I remembered when the movie first appeared in the theaters, the story of two friends,  one destined for glory and the other intelligent but living for the day.  For the teens of my generation, having lived in a big city in Los Angeles we related to their good times and their struggles.  Mostly, the story was about a memory written, documented and shared.  When one of the main characters was killed, we empathized, felt the pain, relived the memory with the author. Fortunately, in real life the main characters are still alive and well. Using today's technology, I wiki'd on my tablet Cooley High to see what happened to the actor who played Cochise (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs).  Like all things in movies, he went on to a...

Alberto's Tamales Don't you just love " Hole in the Walls"?   It was New Year's Eve 2015, I took the Pacific Surfliner to LA Union Station arriving @ 9:00 a.m.    My son Alex was already in Los Angeles visiting with his girlfriend's family.  Our plan was that he would meet me in Los Angeles and we would head to my parents home to spend the holiday with them. As  I hopped into his car, Alex asked if I was hungry and where I wanted to go. I had eaten on the train, but I wanted to get some good old East Los Angeles holiday tamales.  I said," Let's get some tamales."   Alex was lukewarm, but I googled Yelp and looked for closer locations near the train station and we were headed towards Mac Arthur Park. We started driving on Temple street where we saw a building with Tamales painted on the side. We had no idea whether it was good or not, we simply judged whether we should stop by the people walking out the door with bags of tamales in thei...

It's the holiday season.  So many things in our lives bring happy memories and joyous times.  I created the above memory box  in honor of our beloved A unt Mary .   A unt Mary wore the Christmas tree earrings every year as we celebrated a traditional Italian family gathering.  The pink fabric is a remnant of her favorite dress.  I placed a few pieces of her favorite jewelry that the family remembered her wearing.  It was a normal routine for Aunt Mary to make her daily rounds on the telephone to her circle of friends.  Many visits, we would walk in as she spoke in high pitched Italian to cousin Althea in the kitchen, phone at the crook of neck, standing with crutches, and preparing the meal for the day. The picture is an affectionate memory of A unt Mary chatting away. I made a few of these memory boxes for our family members as we celebrated her life 20 years ago. Each memory box, had similar items, a picture, a piece of fa...