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The Grapevine

August 13, 2015

If you live in Southern California, you know about a stretch of road called the “Grapevine”. This post is more for my east coast friends who have never been west of the Mississippi. The section of road runs through the Angeles National Forest from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles to the acres of farmland in the California Central Valley. The road can be particularly nasty during winter months with ice and snow (but not so much of recent years). 

Often times we will stop at the town of Castaic for lunch. Castaic is the southern terminus of the Grapevine. Castaic is the last bit of civilization before we hit the Grapevine.

So we will be heading up through the Grapevine on our way to San Francisco for an OES reception on Saturday.

Here’s the map.

  
And while we’re on the subject here is in a blast from the past, Marvin Gaye singing “I Heard it though the Grapevine”

Listen and enjoy.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Music, Travel
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Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

July 29, 2015

Today is Wednesday. Typically on Wednesday we go to Bible study at Ocean View Baptist Church. Today, it was not to be. We started off a bit late because Mary had a rough night. Paula was trying to get her settled back into bed. She had been up most of the night with runs to the bathroom.

So we got on the road at about 9:58. It takes about 10 minutes for us to get down to 19th Street in San Pedro. So we get to 19th Street and find the street blocked off for a LA Water and Power crew replacing a power pole. We tried going around the block. Still no access to the parking lot. Oh well, let’s try plan B.

Paula wanted to drive by the harbor and so we headed in that direction. So we headed down 19th Street and turned left on to Meyler. So we are doing a little sight seeing. We come to the Richard Henry Dana Middle School on Meyler. A lot of places in San Pedro are named after Richard Henry Dana. Of course, this is one of the schools that Paula attended. So we find the front door open and we go inside. There are two tiled painting on either side of the entrance and Paula was wondering if they were still there. Indeed they are, though not quite what she remembered. Here are a couple of pictures.

  

The “Pilgrim” was the name of the first ship that Dana had sailed on from Massachusetts to California. Of course, you might remember that Dana was famous for writing his memoir “Two Years Before the Mast”. Paula both read it a few years ago during one of our trips to Pedro. It’s worth reading, here’s the Kindle link on Amazon. This is the link to the free version. There are several versions available. Most less than $5.

Here’s the thing. Richard Henry Dana didn’t care much for San Pedro. Once he got here he tried mightily to get back to Cambridge. Getting back to where he started was none to easy. He evenutally got on a ship heading that way and returned to Cambridge where he attended what became Harvard Law School. He ended up specializing in maritime law. He was truly the seaman’s friend. That probably was one of the reasons that he is immortalized in San Pedro. Here’s the link to the Wikipedia article.

So the morning wasn’t quite done yet. We headed up Meyler and stopped at “Joseph’s Bakery”. This is a fine little hole the wall in San Pedro. There wasn’t much left at 10:45 am. We bought a couple of croissants and some cookies and then headed for Starbuck’s for coffee. Not much to the place, but the baked goods are mighty tasty. They open at 5 am. Get there early if you want a good selection. Here’s the Yelp entry.

TTFN

Joe

Categories: California, San Pedro
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S.S. Lane Victory

June 26, 2015

2015-06-26 13.56.30Paula and I were feeling kind of bored this morning. We were all caught up on our errands. Nothing on our OES or Assistance League calendars. And, Mary didn’t have anything on her agenda. Seeing as we didn’t just want to just hang out. We decided to take a ride down to the harbor and take a tour of the SS Lane Victory. The Lane Victory was holding a grand celebration of the 70th anniversary of her launch at the end of WWII

The Lane Victory is one of only six remaining Victory class cargo ships built during WWII. There were over 5000 victory ships built during the war The Victory ship design was based on the earlier Liberty ship. The Victory ship had a larger engine and slighttly larger cargo capacity. Faster speed allowed them to better evade German U-Boats. Victory ships could do about 14-16 knots while Liberty ships only about 10 knots.
 We had a personal tour done by Art Morrison. .Mr Morrison is one of the few remaining veterans of the US Merchant Marine and served during WWII. He did pretty good for a 90 year old man going up and down the steep steps.

We started with a tour of crew quarters, then officers’ quarters then up to the bridge. There were a few modern devices add to the bridge (eg. ship-to-shore radio). Here’s the views from the bridge.

 
  
  

Then we headed down to the number 2 hold. The hold is set up as a mini-museum with four Jeeps, a steam engine, a torpedo and a mine plus a ton of other memorabilia.

  
  

Here are a few more outside views.

   
     Finally, we finished our tour with a hamburger, chips and a beer that was being served as part of the anniversary celebration.

Categories: Los Angeles, San Pedro
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School’s Out

June 4, 2015

So Mary was feeling dizzy again and decided not to do the Y. That meant that Paula and I could go shopping together. It’s sort of pitiful when you think of grocery shopping as date time. We didn’t need a lot of stuff, but it gave us a chance to go out together and get away from Mary for an hour or so.

So we arrive at Haggen’s (nee Albertson’s) at about 11:30 AM. We got in line at the Starbuck’s for our usual refreshment. Iced Coffee for me and  Iced Chai for Paula.  Our barista, Kim, knows what we usually order. She just asks me, Grande’ or Venti’ or as I prefer to call them medium or large. Large today.

So by the time we got through aisle 4, we see a hoard of tweens arrive from Dodson Jr. High. So you don’t want to be in the chip and soda aisle when the kids arrive. I saw a kid on a mission with a six pack of soda and a bag of chips running for the check-out. You never know they might run out of soda.

Then I saw the line for the Starbuck’s. As we left, the line was about 10-12 deep and growing. (normal queue is about 2-3 people) Good thing we got there when we did. I would not have been happy.

So I ask Paula, “Why’s school getting out so early?” Last day of school for the summer, she says. Oh, I get it. By now, every park bench and bit of curb was occupied by the tweens snacking on their purchases. Working on getting their sugar high.

We just got out of there in time.

Categories: San Pedro
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Mary

May 29, 2015

Today is Friday and that generally means an appointment for Mary at Rose’s Hair Salon in San Pedro. So I helped Mary walk down to the elevator and then into the Prius. She seems to always need someone holding her arm when she walks. The dizziness is not getting any better.

I took her to the YMCA on Tuesday. She did her time on the tread mill and exercise bike.

  
We will probably be going to Mariner’s night at LA Harbor Lodge tonight. That means that we don’t have to cook tonight.

Memory is gone. She still remembers our names, but she couldn’t remember our grandson Jonathan’s name or how old he is.

We keep on keeping on.

Categories: Family, Mary, San Pedro
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Mary

May 25, 2015

Time for another update on Mary. Overall, she is well, but she continues a long slow decline.

She survived our trip to Boston last week with the help of care givers from CarenetLA. We arrived at LAX on last Tuesday. We took Mary to Bible Study on Wednesday.

It seems that she is moving even slower than in the past. She seems to always need to hold on to one of us. She is suffering more and more with dizziness.

A couple of days ago I asked her what she would like for breakfast. She says I’d like a waffle. I told her no waffles to day. Choices were toast or cereal. If you want a waffle, you will need to get it at Gaffey Street Diner on Sunday. So we got her some frozen waffles to try. We’ll see how that goes.

Her memory is also fading. On Friday evening, we were eating dinner at our dining room table. Mary asks us if we were going anywhere on Saturday. We told her that Paula and I were going grocery shopping and that she had nothing on her schedule. The thing that was very odd, was that she asked the same question two more times over the next 30 minutes.

We took her with us to church on Sunday at Ocean View. She seemed to do well. We went out for brunch afterwards to one of our favorite spots, Gaffey Street Diner.
Last update, I promised pictures.

Here are a couple taken at Gaffey Street.

   
 

Categories: Family, San Pedro
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The Moving Wall

May 23, 2015

This morning, Paula and I visited an exhibit at Green Hills Cemetery called “The Moving Wall“. The Moving Wall is a half sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. It is intended for those do not have the resources and/or ability to visit the Memorial in Washington DC. It will be in Rancho Palos Verdes at Green Hills until May 25. Go to the web site to find out more about the Wall and the its schedule.

I have never visited the memorial in Washington. Visiting Washington is not high on my bucket list. So this is the next best thing. There were only a few people viewing the Moving Wall. I thought there would be more on Memorial Day weekend.

I can only imaging how the full size wall looks. I just looked at the number of names in awe. I never served in the Vietnam. During that time, I was getting pretty fed up with our leaders with respect to the lies that they were telling. Looking at the wall you get a feel about how big a number 58,000 is. And that it represents the brave men and women who died for a really, really bad idea.

The wall is sitting at the top of a hill at Green Hills, with a spectacular view of the Los Angeles harbor. What a shame that some of those service men and women are not here to enjoy the view.

For my friends in the LA area, drop by the Green Hills Cemetary to see the wall.

Here are some of my pictures.

   
   – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro
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Alleged Local News

March 16, 2015

Every once in a while, our local news stations does something that drives me crazy. (At least the stations that we generally watch, KTLA and KNBC).
 
 Both stations generally have helicopters with video cameras. Both stations love police chases. Both stations will drop all other coverage of events that are going on in the area and broadcast the chase. This happens all the time.
 
 I think this sort of thing started back in the 90’s with broadcast of the OJ Simpson chase.
 
 This past week such an event occurred. The choppers were hovering over the scene. The perp was out of the car and sitting on someone’s front porch with a gun. The LAPD SWAT team was engaged. Yellow tape was deployed. Black and White police cars were deployed blocking access to the streets. Must have been 20 black and whites plus all the SWAT vehicles. (Your tax dollars at work.)
 
 So what did the guy do? We don’t know. We never found out. KTLA broadcast the entire episode with only two breaks for commercials. If it weren’t for the fact the news was only an hour, the coverage would have lasted until the chopper ran out of gas.
 
 So no weather, no traffic, no sports (not that I give a whit about the Lakers). Just an hours worth of nothing. Of course the weather doesn’t change much every day. (warm and sunny). Once in a long while there might be some rain (couple of days a year.)
 
 Luckily it was recorded on our DVR. So I hit the FF button to do the entire broadcast in five minutes.
 
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Reviews
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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

February 20, 2015
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Entrance to the library/museum

Yesterday, Paula and I visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. The trip was organized by San Pedro Assistance League. We had a bus full of people make the hour and a half trip. This is my report. Simi Valley is located about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.

I am no particular fan of Ronald Reagan. There are those that would have him considered for sainthood. Not me. That being said, I still found the museum interesting. The museum covers the high points. You won’t see much about Iran Contra for example.

Our group of 40 something seniors were divided up into four groups and each group was assigned to our individual docent. I had trouble at times hearing partly because she couldn’t seem to speak loud enough and partly due to background noise.

There is also an app you can down either for iOS or Android. The app is sort of a self guided tour. Unfortunately, it is not free. ($2,99 I think).

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Bust of Ronald Reagan

There are plenty of statues of the former president. Here is one of them. There were many more. The library tried to cover the high points of the presidency.

There is a section on the white house along with a replica of the oval office as it was during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

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The “HMS Resolute” Desk

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Fireplace with portrait of George Washington.

 

 

There is an entire section dedicated to presidential travel. There is are many limousines. Some of the limousines belonged to other heads of state including Saddam Hussein, FDR, Eisenhower, Eva Peron to name a few. I’m not sure why all of the limos are there. There is an Air Force One and a Marine One helicopter. We were allowed to enter both aircraft but not allowed to take pictures. The Air Force One of Reagan’s time was a modified C130 (military version of the Boeing 707). It was pretty cramped inside. It’s no wonder that current Air Force One’s are based on Boeing 747’s. N27000 was in service until 2001 when it was replaced by the Boeing 747.

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Marine One

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Air Force One

Here are some of the pictures of the limo’s.

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Popemobile

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Eva Peron’s Ride

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FDR’s Limo

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Presidential Limo (License Plate “GIPPER”)

There was a big section on the Berlin wall and the diplomacy initiatives with the Soviet Union. Lots of pictures of Gorbachev and other world leaders of the era. There were some artifacts of the wall as well as replicas.

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Wall segment as seen from the east.

 

There are also sections covering First Lady Nancy Reagan along with some of her gowns. There is a section covering the assassination attempt in 1981. Our final stop for the day was the Reagan Library Cafe. They had some excellent split pea soup. Paula and I also split a piece of chocolate torte. Very tasty. That’s enough for now. If you want more you can Google Ronald Reagan Library. There is tons of stuff available online.

Categories: California, Travel
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LA Kings 2 – Boston Bruins 0

December 3, 2014

Last night Paula and I attended a hockey game between the LA Kings and Boston Bruins at the Staples Center in downtown LA.
 
 We got the tickets as part of an alumni get together event from Northeastern University. The event included a pregame get together in a conference room with other NU Alumni. We had a nice buffet dinner and snacks. Non-Alcoholic drinks were free. There was a cash bar with way over priced drinks ($6 for beer and $12 for mixed drink.
 
 We were greeted by Bill Woodman Director of the NU Fund.
 
 Once the pregame get together was done, we headed for our seats. The Staples Center is a huge place and is easy to get lost in it. Our seats were in the nose bleed section, one row down from the top. Here’s our view from our seats,
 


The Bruins seemed to not have any offense to speak of. They kept the game close but couldn’t get anything past the Kings’ Goalie. The score was 1-0 throughout most of the game. Kings added an empty netter late in the third period.
 
 What amused me was the amount of entertainment during timeouts and between periods. Halfway through each period a swarm of scantily clad lady ice crew skated out to fix up the ice. I should have brought my binoculars. You can buy a calendar with pictures of the LA Kings Ice Crew. Such a deal.
 
 Then there was the “Dance Cam”. A camera would spot light many fans up on the jumbotron while they showed all of their moves. Then there was one sad looking guy wearing a Bruins cap shown on the jumbotron who was loudly booed by the partisan crowd.
 
 They also had a gimmick where a fan could win a ride on the Zamboni between periods.
 
 Not only were the seats a long way from the action, but they were small and lacked any leg room. My right knee (the one where I had knee replacement surgery a few years ago.) was in constant pain from lack of room to stretch out. Luckily Paula had some ibuprofen for me.
 
 We had a fun time. Though I really hate driving into downtown LA at rush hour. My thanks to Bill and the rest of the Alumni Office back in Boston for making sure that we all received our tickets and had a good time. Here’s the pointer to the Facebook Page for NU Alumni.
 
 I’m looking forward to baseball season for an Angels-Red Sox game.
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: Boston, Los Angeles
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