DAY FOUR – 23 October 2014
This
morning there were no hard-boiled eggs at the hotel’s breakfast, so I just had
cereal and fruit, which I knew wasn’t going to last me. The protein bars
which I’d purchased were okay, but no substitute for the real thing. We
started heading eastward along Interstate 405 (also known as San Diego
Freeway). At one point we passed the John Wayne Airport
Our first
destination today was Irvine .
Evert pointed out the houses here were a bit on the expensive side, but if you
went on the other side of the mountains to the south (which were the San
Joaquin Hills), then the houses got really expensive, due to the proximity to Laguna Beach .
Didn’t really get to see much of the area, but of what I did, Irvine seemed to be okay. From there
were headed up Interstate 5 for stops in Orange
and Santa Ana .
During
the drive to the next area, I was able to use the phone to log on to
Southwest’s site and print my boarding pass for tomorrow. B4, baby!
When I’m travelling for personal stuff, and tend to have a layover, I’ll pay
the extra for the guaranteed “A” position. For business stuff, even
though it’s not my money, there’s no reason to do so because I’m getting direct
flights. Just as long as I can have my aisle seat (and not be in the “C”
group), I’m okay with what I get.
Evert and
I had talked about the difficulty of trying to pronounce the names of streets
and businesses, especially if it’s a nationality you’re not familiar
with. I commented the number of Dutch and Indian names where I grew up as
being a good example. When we arrived at Garden Grove , Evert said this will get more
difficult when you can’t even read the signs. Since this city has a heavy
Korean and Viet population, many of the marquees were written in Korean or Viet
characters. I guess if I needed directions, I could always ask for “Mumble-Mumble Street ,”
and hope for the best.
We ate
lunch at a Subway, only because it was close to our destination. And that
every other establishment in the plaza we stopped at didn’t have a sign in
English. We both talked about being adventurous on menus, but better to
do on a day we weren’t going to be in the car most of the day. We had rather
slow service, as it took nearly 20 minutes for the three employees to serve the
five people ahead of us. We weren’t on a tight time-table, but still move
with some speed during the lunch rush.
After
lunch, and our meeting in Garden Grove , we shot
over to see our contacts in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach .
Each of our visits included speaking to our contact at the dealership (usually
the Service Manager, and in many cases the General Manager as well), plus a
brief tour of the facility. These were very much a way for me to be
introduced to these locations, as I’m Evert’s right-hand-man now. Figured
this was the best way to make a good first impression if I showed up with
Evert, as opposed to appearing as some random guy showing up.
With the
last one of the day accomplished, and there was still day light left, it was
pretty close for Evert to bring me back to my hotel. Tonight was also an
opportunity for him to have dinner at a reasonable time with his wife.
When we cruised past Huntington
Beach High School
Following
Main Street
brought us to PCH, which we were able to take north. This gave a nice
opportunity to see Huntington Beach
in the daytime, which I didn’t have the chance to do before. I got to see
the area where the street fair was (on the September visit). Evert
pointed out a couple places I should check out when I can, like Duke’s Huntington Beach (which I’d visited the Malibu location). I mentioned just
going to the end of Huntington Beach Pier and back for the view would be nice.
Seeing
there weren’t too many clouds in the sky, I asked Evert if the Pacific Coast
gets the “green flash” like the Caribbean
areas do. He said because it’s a cooler current along the California coast (love
the alliteration), it doesn’t create the atmospheric conditions for that.
The trade-off is the way the waves come in, which contributed to the surfing
culture here. From seeing the long stretch of beach here, and the size of
some of the waves, I could understand why that became such a draw for the
area. It’s no different than the allure of the mountains or skiing where
I grew up.
Once
Evert dropped me off, I said a quick hello to Alex at the front desk, hurriedly
changed out of my suit into shorts and t-shirt, and booked across the
street. Okay, I crossed PCH at a stoplight because it was still rush
hour. But I had a chance to watch an actual sunset over the Pacific, and
I was going to take advantage of it. Once across PCH, I just had to walk
down a short block, and past a small residential street, in order to get to the
beach.
I did
step out to dunk my feet in the ocean for a few moments. I had my bathing
suit with me again this trip, and had debated taking a quick dip. But the
sun was going down quick, so it was more important to get my sunset shots.
As I
zoomed in on the sinking orb, I could see two ships which had departed port at Long Beach . There
was nothing else on the horizon. Of all the places those damn ships had
to be, they were perfectly in my line of sight. I walked a short distance
up and down the beach, but their distance from me meant no matter how much I
moved they’d be in my way. The only consultation was the ships were
moving out to sea (from my vantage point, to the left).
The sky
had a great orange quality about it, and I knew I wasn’t going to see the
“green flash” because of what Evert had told me. I did want to take a
series of shots to catch every bit of the sun disappearing over the
horizon. Some shots were close-ups (with the ships silhouetted), and
others were pulled-back establishing views.
The ships
did move enough that I was then able to see the sun between them. A few
quick shutter snaps later, and I had a nice sequence of the sun’s
descent. That was nice to finally see.
I
lingered a few more moments to enjoy the sight of the sky in twilight, but then
decided to head back. Food was something I wanted before too long, but I
wanted to make a quick exploration of the area too.
The
residential street close to the beach, which ran parallel to PCH, appeared to
be an inviting community. There was walking path, almost a long narrow
park, which went between the lanes of the residential street. A few
people were hanging out here, some walking their dogs, but they were very friendly.
Some of
the houses had pretty interesting designs too. I didn’t want to think
about what these might’ve cost to purchase, but many were nice to look
at. While I liked this one which resembled a castle…
…I also
thought this one was interesting because it reminded me of a church.
One thing
which was very nice in the park was the Friendship Garden
I
continued down the street heading south until I reached a light so I could
cross PCH back to the side my hotel was on. Just as a point of interest,
I crossed to get here at the first light north of my hotel, and came back on
the first light to the south. Yeah, there weren’t too many lights along
the area.
Back at
the hotel, I asked Alex if she wanted me to bring her back anything for dinner,
since she was going to be there until 11 pm. She thanked me for asking,
but declined. I let her know I was going to try another one of her
recommendations tonight. It was after dark now, so I walked up to the
light (where I crossed over to Sunset
Beach
There
were about six parking spaces next to the restaurant, so if anyone drove here
they’d have to fight for space on the street. Being a solo, I’ve found
it’s far easier to get into places, than when going to a place as a couple or a
group. Even when I looked this up on Urban Spoon, it said this was a
“seafood and steakhouse” place. I hoped it was more steak than what
Walt’s Wharf had to offer (which wasn’t much).
The
hostess let me know it would be a wait for me to be seated. When I
inquired as to how long said wait would be, she said she’d have to check on
that. Strange the hostess wouldn’t know that info. It was over ten
minutes later she came back, and let me know it would be an additional 25-30
minutes before I could get seated. Considering I wanted to get some work
down before the evening (as flying tomorrow meant I’d be out-of-pocket most of
the day), that was far longer than I wanted to wait. And the place didn’t
appear very crowded. Where the people ahead of me which would make the
seating take so long?
I decided
not to wait that long, and went across the street to a place which was also one
of Alex’s tips. I’d passed this early, and got a laugh about the Statue
of Liberty on the roof of the place. This was Schooner’s at Sunset.
It described itself as a “diner,” and there was a sailor-theme about the
area. I was able to be seated immediately, which was quite different than
Captain Jack’s. Schooner’s was decently packed in the bar area, but my
seat was placed in the rear dinning section. Even though I would’ve liked
to been around more people to observe, I was fine with where I was. The
couple in the booth next to me was macking pretty well, but I would’ve
preferred a different form of entertainment.
Looking
at the menu, this was very much an up-scale joint, and not the “diner” as it
pretended to be. The chicken masala I ordered was fabulous, although the
$5 side garden salad I ordered on a whim was less than stellar due to the
vinaigrette they served. My server noticed I hardly touched the salad,
and I commented that the flavor of the dressing wasn’t to my liking, and there
were no other alternatives. The manager ended up removing the cost of the
salad from my bill. I didn’t ask to have that done, because there was
nothing wrong with the way it was prepared, it was I didn’t care for how it
tasted. No fault of the establishment. But I thought they went the
extra distance in satisfying me as a consumer, especially when I wasn’t asking
for anything to be done. That earned the thumbs up from me. And
when I’m back in the area, this is a place I’d return to.
I walked
back to the hotel, and gave my report to Alex on how the tips turned out.
She’d given a couple other suggestions too, unfortunately I didn’t have time to
investigate them all (and that’s why I didn’t list them here). I knew
that Alex wouldn’t be there tomorrow morning when I checked out, and I let her
know that I enjoyed my interaction with her.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Garden Grove (CA):
http://www.ci.garden-grove.ca.us/
Costa Mesa (CA): http://www.costamesaca.gov/
“Green
Flash”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
Captain
Jack’s: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g33148-d467897-Reviews-Captain_Jack_s_Restaurant-Sunset_Beach_California.html
Schooner’s
at Sunset: http://www.schooneratsunset.com/
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