2004-06-28 - 1:55 p.m.
Where is everybody?? Is blogging dead? Almost half of the people on my blog list have either gone on hiatus, have stopped blogging, or have disappeared. Is this a dying art? Is anybody reading this?? Hmmm......
2004-06-24 - 11:13 p.m.
So today, we were actually thrown out of a restaurant!
As you know, I travel everywhere with my cat. The cat carrier looks like an overnight bag, so I usually have no problem sneaking her into places, and we've been doing this for 15 years. She's been to Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, all over Route 66, the Oregon Coast, the Napa Valley......you name it, she's been there. Never had a problem.
When we drive between L.A. and San Francisco, there's a restaurant that we almost always stop at. I've been bringing the cat in with me for years (in her "overnight bag" of course). The manager sort of knows me, and is usually very friendly. But today, he threw us out! And he was rather stern and unpleasant about it!
The whole thing really caught me off guard. We had just sat down, I put the "overnight bag" behind the table, like I always do.....and within 2 seconds, the manager was asking me to leave:
"Excuse me....Excuse me, MISS! We do not allow animals on the premises AT ALL....you're going to have to leave RIGHT NOW. There are NO exceptions!"
I thought his attitude was a little over the top. Their hotel actually does allow pets (although this happened in the restaurant). It was in the 85 to 90 degree temperature range outside...and most places I've been to have been accommodating when it's hot out, because you can't leave your pet in the car. And it wasn't like I had a barking dog that was running all over the place.....I had a cat in a carrier that looked like luggage! Oy. I'm tempted to look up what health department rules apply to this, if any. I know that a lot of French restaurants, and some high end hotels actually cater to pets.
Anyway, that's my weird post for the day. But stay tuned....I'm sure I'll have some more festive posts in the days to come. Goodnight everyone!
comments??? (3 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2004-06-23 - 11:56 p.m.
Sometimes, it's a good thing when the bartender is on break.
There's this little place on Catalina Island....just across the street from the museum at the Casino building....it looks like a pop stand. There is no indoor seating, just a lot of plastic chairs and tables spread around outside, overlooking the harbour. You'd never think they'd even serve beer or wine, but they actually serve cocktails....sort of!
We saw the sign that said "Full Bar" when we were on our way to the museum, and immediately decided that it would be our next destination. But once we got inside the little pop stand, our hopes flagged. The teenager at the counter probably couldn't even spell "cocktail"....and she'd never heard of a martini. She told us we couldn't order a drink just then because the bartender was on break.....but we told her martinis were really easy, and she was game. If we could tell her what to do, she'd try make it!
So we tried to make it as easy as possible...first, start with some ice. So she got a large plastic cup (the kind you serve a pint of beer in) and started to fill it with ice. "Not too much ice," I said....."just a bit." Then she got the bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin and started pouring. "Should I fill it up?" she said. (Keep in mind that this is a really LARGE plastic cup.) I started to feel guilty, so I told her that half way would be fine. (But she would have just kept filling if we didn't stop her!) And for all that, she only charged $4.00 !
That's the place we're drinking from now on! (If only we didn't have to take a boat to get there!)
So anyway, Tuesday, we spent the day on Catalina, and it was amazingly fabulous....of course! We took a scary bus tour, rented a peddle boat (hard work, all that peddling!), walked the town, ate and drank at 3 different restaurants, and had 5 martinis....but we still didn't do/see it all. Must.Go.Back.!
And tomorrow we're headed back up north to San Francisco, and then on to Astoria.....so posting might be intermittent for a while, but stay tuned.......
comments??? (2 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course, you know, all of this is copy right protected. None of this information may be reproduced without my permission.