Travel California: Cambria Pictures and Guest Journal Entries

(Zebra in the field behind us)

 We keep a Guest Book in our Cambria place. It's more of a Journal where guests can write or scribble or draw in it as they please.  I'm quoting  some entries. I'm also posting pictures taken at Cambria and North of San Simeon (where the seals are). The pictures above show the zebra of San Simeon in the field behind.

Travel Cambria California - Painting by Clarence Weiss

Things that Surround Me #3

We have an acrylic painting of a peacock on a barn-house by Clarence Weiss who does Plein Air Painting.

We had been admiring his work of local Cambria scenes at the Moonstone Grill. Finally we contacted him to look at his other paintings. We acquired this peacock, which is a depiction of a real peacock and barn in the area.

Whenever I see this painting all of Cambria and the surrounding area of the Central Coast of California come to life.

Travel: Walk in Marina del Rey, Venice, California

Sunday was a a perfect day for a walk at the Marina del Rey in Venice, California.

Spring is here!

Review: Keith & Margo's Murder Mystery Dinner #losangeles #entertainment

Cecilia, Andrew, Lauren, Swapna

We went to Keith and Margo's Murder Mystery Dinner at Matteo's in Westwood, Los Angeles.

I've read about such murder mystery dinners but had never attended one; this was my first one.

What happened at the dinner?

Los Angeles: It Rained in Southern California!

It might as well be a News Flash -- it rained last night through most of this morning! In Santa Monica, we had 1.74 inches of rain. Downtown Los Angeles had 1.70 inches. That's a lot of rain for us.

Southern California is in it's fourth consecutive year of drought and rain like this is welcome even though it causes floods and some havoc.

Reminiscing with the De Vries at Le Petit Cafe in Santa Monica, California

We had dinner with our friends, Carol and John De Vries, whom we have known for many years. Our sons went to school together and were/are good friends. Chris (our son) and Kevin (their son) had many escapades which we recounted over dinner.

The Grand Central Market of Los Angeles, California

We visited the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles which has been in continuous operation since 1917. It's been revamped in recent years and has become more gentrified. The high-energy place now attracts a huge crowd of people, some of them tourists, some office workers from the surrounding areas, and many other types of folk who were there for lunch or to shop for produce, meat, cheeses, and other food items.

Restaurant Review: Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica

We like the deli sandwiches at Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery at 1517 Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. I get their "Godmother" which has  Genoa Salami, Mortadella Cappacola, Ham and Prosciutto plus Provolone with a piquant dressing. They have other sandwiches or you can ask them to make what you want.

Labor Day Weekend in Cambria, California

For perhaps the seventh time, Lauren and I attended the Pinedorado Parade in Cambria, California. It was held yesterday, Saturday, this Labor Day Weekend. Our friend Doug is visiting and the three of us parked our chairs along the parade route with other viewers. To me the parade is quintessentially Americana - with everyone in town involved, from the nursery school children to pets, from the Grand Marshall to the Foreign Exchange Student, who is this year's Honorary Mayor.

This year there was a Trojan on a horse - was he really a USC representative? The Santa Monica Band was there, as usual; this consists of a dozen people who I'm guessing are all related. We always clap and cheer when they march by because of the Santa Monica connection. This year, Mozzi's Saloon had a lively float with a live band and saloon gals; Mozzi's has just opened. It used to be Camozzi's Saloon (open since the 1800s) but then the business closed and has now reopened as Mozzi's.

In past parades, a group of older ladies called the Daffodillies, clad in tights and frilly outfits used to do a dance routine, but after a couple of years they stopped. I've always wondered what happened to them.

Anyway, after all of that plus the Shriners and vintage cars, there is a carnival in the Veteran's Hall grounds. There are little kid rides and booths, and food like corn, pies, and barbecue with beans. The corn is usually very sweet and buttery. The barbecue lunch is piled on a paper plate and it looks messy and unappetizing.

They used to have a gambling parlor booth, but some men (including Lauren) started playing serious poker and the authorities got rid of the booth.

Labor Day Weekend and Thanksgiving weekends are times when Cambria is full of visitors and is in a festive mood.

I love Cambria. It has a population 5,000 and has great restaurants and shops. It has a slogan: Cambria, where the pines meet the sea.

Yesterday we saw 4 does sitting under some pines. And today, we saw a doe cross a street and go to some shrubs to eat the leaves. It wasn't even afraid of us.

I'm getting incoherent and will stop now. It must be because of the sea air and food and wine.

VISITING CAMBRIA, CENTRAL COAST CALIFORNIA

We're in Cambria, Central Coast California, near Hearst Castle. Cambria has a population of around 5,000. It's located on the coast and its slogan is appropriately: Cambra, Where the Pines Meet the Sea. It reminds me a little of Carmel, although I suspect Cambria is smaller than Carmel. Nice coastline with otters, seals, nice rolling hills with pines and there are deer, wild turkeys, other wild life roaming in the more rustic parts.

Cambria is a tourist place which boasts of nice shops and restaurants. My favorite restaurants are: Main Street Grill, where I usually order ribs, cheeseburgers, salmon sandwich, and veggie avocado sandwich. Sow's Ear Restaurant has nice Chicken Fried Steak; Brambles is for prime rib and other beef dishes; Linn's Binn has excellent olalieberry pie and their chicken pot pies are also good. Moonstone Beach has great Sunday Champagne brunch. Lauren likes their Eggs Benedict; I love Hangtown Fry with fried oysters. Another breakfast place is Creekside Garden.

Cambria is a great place for resting, taking walks, and it's also a nice base for fieldtrips to other parts of the Central Coast such as Montana de Oro near Los Osos, and San Luis Obispo which is 40 minutes away. Morro Bay is around 30 minutes away.

In the summer, Cambria is a favorite for surfers, swimmers and sun bathers. A favorite pasttime is to walk along Moonstone beach searching for moonstones, the opalescent milky white gemstones which are all over the place.

Fridays, Cambria has a farmer's market where you can buy fruit, vegetables, flowers, cheese, bread, dried fruit, etc.

No matter what time of year, I find it's always chilly at night, so bring a jacket.

REMEMBERING WHEN RAIN HAD GENDER

The rain in Southern California reminded me of rain in the Philippines. I don't know if the weather pattern has changed but when I was growing up the rainy season there was around June until October-November. It could rain daily for weeks at a time. If there was a typhoon, the rain and winds were horrific, so strong as to knock down huge trees and rip off galvanized roofing.

If the typhoon was strong, we got to stay home, so I actually have fond memories of typhoons. The memory is this: wind whipping leaves and branches outside, rain drumming on the roof, water, water falling down, and there I was in the house, warm and dry and reading a book. Now and then, if the typhoon wasn't too bad, and when I was older, my classmates and I would sneak off to see a movie - but only if the storm wasn't too bad. It truly was dangerous to be outside during a ferocious typhoon because electrical wires could sometimes be knocked down and live wires could be laying around exposed. The water would rise so that vehicles were half-submerged and traffic at a stand still. I recall having to wade through flooded streets in Manila. And since power outage was common, you had to stock up on candles, matches, and canned food. At this time, my mother made sure our drinking water was boiled to kill germs.

The first rainy season I experienced in California, I was surprised because Californians made a big fuss over what I thought was a drizzle. There Californians were, with raincoats and boots and umbrellas, and cars careening through the streets because of this itty-bitty rain. I remembered thinking that the rain in California didn't even have gender, whereas in the Philippines, rain could be male or female. Male rain came as small, steady raindrops that fell for a long period of time. Female rain came as large raindrops that came and went quickly. And we even had gay rain - the kind that we couldn't peg as male or female.

Once I was talking to an Irish about rain, and the person used quite a lot of adjectives describing rain. He used words like "lashing" and "cold" and "bitter" rain, and listening to him, I realized this person came from a place that also knew rain.

Right now, the rain in California is falling, and it's a good thing because of the drought we've had for years now.
~~~~
Picture of flooded Manila is a watercolor done by Trudl Zipper, from the book Manila 1944-45 As Trudl Saw It.

DIDI RIESE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Last night we stopped by Didi Riese for dessert. Didi Riese is in Westwood Village, near the Bruin Theater. The order lines are long, especially on a Friday night, but it's worth the wait. The cookies are fresh; you see them making them right there. Didi Riese has a variety of cookies (chocolate chip with walnuts; white chocoloate chip with macadamia, etc) but their chocolate chip cookies are famous. And their ice cream sandwich is also famous; it's made up of two cookies of your choice with a thick slab of ice cream in the middle.

Prices: 3 fairly large cookies for a dollar; a huge ice cream sandwich for $1.50; a dozen cookies for $3.75.

Yes - a real bargain, which accounts for the long - very long - order line.

So, what were we doing in Westwood Village last night? Lauren went to the UCLA Basketball game - apparently UCLA won by 50. I saw the movie, Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. It was good. Described as a legal thriller, the movie deals with a huge fertilizer corporation and a huge legal firm, and some people trying to get justice for the cancer and illnesses caused by the chemicals.

The movie held my attention although I note that some reviewers say the movie was slow. I didn't find it slow; I enjoyed it.

NEWS ARTICLE RE CHRISTOPHER BRAINARD, Santa Monica Daily Press

Judge temporarily blocks owner’s intentions to the relief of tenants
By Kevin Herrera
Santa Monica Daily Press Staff Writer
August 8, 2007

DOWNTOWN LA The embattled tenants of The Teriton apartments can breathe easy ... for now.

A federal judge believes tenants of the San Vicente Boulevard complex have enough evidence to move forward with a housing discrimination lawsuit against their landlord and has granted them a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking any attempts to evict them.

Central District Court Judge George Wu ruled Monday that there was a “probability of success” and that there may have been a violation of the Fair Housing Act when the apartments’ landlord, Or Khaim Hashalom, repeatedly informed tenants and city officials that it had plans to evict those living at The Teriton and replace them with Jewish refugees from the Middle East.

A representative from the alleged religious organization said it no longer has plans to house Jewish refugees at the North of Montana site, but rather low-income families of all backgrounds.

Tenants have been served with eviction notices under a state law allowing landlords to remove them when getting out of the rental business, and could have received unlawful detainers as early as Tuesday, according to Christopher Brainard, an attorney representing the tenants.

“This is big,” Brainard said. “This means that, for now, my clients don’t have to go anywhere. Or Khaim Hashalom had a right to commence unlawful detainer actions (Tuesday) and everyone would have been kicked out. But now, that is stopped.

“They can’t evict anyone until a further order of the court.”

Rosario Perry, the chief executive officer of Or Khaim Hashalom, could not be reached for comment. In a previous interview, however, Perry said the organization had no plans to file an unlawful detainer for at least two weeks after Aug. 7, as part of an agreement with City Hall, which was planning to ask for its own injunction.

Or Khaim Hashalom, which formed in January 2006, is being sued by both tenants and City Hall in federal and state court, respectively, for housing discrimination because of previous statements made by Or Khaim’s executive officers that they planned to demolish the since-landmarked structure and replace it with condos for sale to Jewish refugees persecuted in Iraq and Iran.

Teriton residents are asking the court to award compensatory damages in the amount of $5 million per tenant, as well as punitive damages and attorney fees, for the alleged discrimination based on the tenants’ race, national origin, religion and disability.

The City Attorney’s Office is requesting that the court order civil penalties be paid in the amount of $2,500 per violation for each day an infraction occurred. City Hall is also asking for additional civil penalties for each violation against a senior citizen, along with punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

Or Khaim has filed its own lawsuit against City Hall, challenging the Teriton’s landmark designation, which prevents them from demolishing the 28-unit apartment building, which was built in 1949 and designed by architect Stanford Kent.

The organization charges that the building does not meet the necessary criteriato be a landmark, and also that the landmark status creates an unfair financial hardship on a religious institution.

The lawsuits filed by City Hall and the Teriton tenants challenge Or Khaim Hashalom’s status as a religious institution.

The City Council approved the landmark status last month after finding that the low-rise structure, designed in the vernacular Modern/International style, was a rare representation of the somewhat luxury housing for the working class that became as emblematic of early 20th Century Los Angeles. The building is situated in a potential historic district known as the San Vicente Courtyard Apartment Historic District.

The building has been surveyed by City Hall three times in the last 25 years, and at first was deemed not significant on its own, but as part of an historic district, according to city staff reports.

However, during the last survey, the building was found to be individually significant because of a lack of such buildings in the area, and because little is known about the type of building and period of development in Santa Monica.

Judge Wu has ordered parties on both sides to return to court for a status conference later this month, Brainard said. Attorneys for Or Khaim told the court that they will file for reconsideration regarding the preliminary injunction.

Christie Savage, a former tenant of the Teriton who recently moved out due to fear of being evicted, leaving without a place to live, attended the hearing and was pleased with the judge’s decision. Still, she’s concerned about her former neighbors’ future.

“I couldn’t really understand all of what the judge was saying but it sounded like he wants more information, so that’s good,” Savage said. “But I feel like we are sort of on hold once again, waiting to see what happens.”

kevinh@smdp.com
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