Dave's Travel Adventures: A Hunt for Lunch in Garden Grove (CA) -- January 2015

DAY TWO – 20 January 2015

The body got some sleep, but decided to wake me up at 6 am. 6 am Central Time. That’s 4 am local time. Some sleep, although not very restful was better than the insomnia I had going on the previous week. [And I’ll note here, that ended up being my sleeping pattern almost the entire week.] Since breakfast was onsite, I put on my sweat pants, sweat shirt, and hat, and went down to the dining area. It was the same stuff I had on the last visit. It was filing, but a little light on the protein. Since it was only one day, I could deal with it. Not getting ready so early in the morning means less I have to fight the morning rush, and it gives me the opportunity to people watch the other business travelers.

I did the opportunity to do a short walk around Riverside after breakfast because I wanted to get a picture of an actual California orange tree. These used to cover large areas around Riverside only a couple decades ago. I'd traveled through what remained of those lands back in October, and saw a lot of empty, dried-up fields. It was nice to see the tree today.

The last trip out, I was in constant text communication with someone back home, so I could make observations about what I was seeing, and get some feedback. Now, that level of contact was practically non-existent as I was concern for someone’s mental health after the traumatic events of the new year. The trip I did in October I felt alone at some places because I didn’t the connection with someone at home. This was worse, as it was wrapped in the anxiety of wondering if she was okay, and how her recovery was going. There was a lot of home stuff weighing on my mind, and I’d have to keep focused on job-related things in order to stay sane during the trip.

After getting cleaned up, finishing off the milkshake, and checking out of the hotel, I shot a few miles down the road to my dealer in Riverside. There was a new contact there which I got to spend some time with. And then the weird shit started happening to me. Set up in an office, I locked my computer as I went to get the password to access the dealer’s WiFi. When I came back, my password didn’t unlock my system at all. I needed to do a hard reboot on the laptop in order to get to the point to login again. At that point, I discovered my company passwords were no longer valid, and I was denied access to any company site. I could at least still access the documents on the laptop, and could successfully establish an internet connection (checked my Yahoo mail), but I was unable to get any work done. I spent over an hour on the phone with our IT guy, who was unable to figure out the concern.

By then it was getting close to 11 am, and there wasn’t any reason for me to stay at the dealer. I still needed to drive over to my other day’s target dealership, and might as well do that before the lunch rush begins. As I cruised westward along Route 91, yesterday’s sunny day had been replaced with an overcast haze. On prior trips when I breezed past Corona, I could look out the various mountains nearby. Now the overcast conditions made it difficult to see the Chino Hills, and other peaks. It felt like it wanted to rain, just without the moisture in the air. Once I got to Garden Grove, I went driving around the area close to my dealer for find a place for lunch. I was last over here when I rode with my District Representative (in October), so I knew this was the section where even the road signs were written in Korean or Vietnamese. I circled around and found the plaza where Evert and I had gotten the extremely slow service from Subway, and decided to check out a different restaurant in the plaza.

I went to an authentic Vietnamese noodle shop. I use the term “authentic” and I was the non-Viet in the entire place, and the only white guy. The chicken dish I got was very good. When it was time to pay for my lunch, I discovered this was a cash-only place. I’m glad I still had a $20 tucked into my wallet. I don’t usually carry much cash on me, and that was before I had an expense account.

The meeting at my dealership was short, as a large number of the staff were out for the day at the funeral of a fellow employee. It was a somber mood of those who were left, due to the sudden and accidental death of that person. I was able to meet my District Rep there, and went over what information I could with him, even though I had no access to any of my online reports. Once we covered what ground we needed to do, it was time to head on.

I’d done the drive to the Hampton Inn at Seal Beach a few times, so it felt like I was coming home. That’s one of nice things about staying at the same area, as I get to explore new places. I got checked into my hotel, and made another phone call to check-in on the home situation. Since there wasn’t anything else I could do at this point, it was time to head out for dinner. I was hungry, but I didn’t know what I wanted. Too many issues were weighing on the mind, so I tried to do what I could set them to the side.

I walked out to the end of the Seal Beach Pier, then up and down Main Street, as I scoped out places to try. I noted where I’d been previously. There’s oddly-shaped trees along the way which had been subject matter of my pictures before, and this time I first noticed the plaques which mentioned these were “Heritage Trees.” Nice to see these were dedicated to people, as opposed to being something randomly planted.

One shop I happened to stop in was called Sparkles By The Sea. It was a jewelry store, although none of the pieces were hand-made. I chatted with the nice owner (Alexis) for a few minutes, and she gave me a couple recommendations. She didn’t have any business cards, as the shop was recently opened. I’m not a jewelry person, and getting any thing right now wasn’t high on my list. The person I’d be buying them for wasn’t a big jewelry person to start with, and considering the recent situation wouldn’t be the most important thing on her mind. Still, it was nice just to chat with a local, because you learn little tidbits about an area doing that.

After one more trek along Main Street, I decided to return to The Hangout, as I had such a good experience there the last time. I went for something different on the menu, and opted for the meatloaf. That wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as I thought the dish I had last time was. The place was less-crowded too, so there wasn’t as much people watching to be done. I do have note my server, Sarah, was very good at checking on how my meal was, refilling my water glass, and stuff like that. Once I’d finished that, I shot back to the hotel to prepare for the next day’s visit. Being in a place like this wants to make me explore the area further, but when I’m on the company dime I have to make sure I work first, and then fit in what play I can.