Brooklyn Botanic Garden

I love this pic, especially being that I took it with my phone...

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Tuesday, Nov 8th. M ran the NYC marathon this past Sunday, ran it in 3hrs 25 minutes amongst the 45,000 other people participating he came in approximately 3,000th!

Jalama "Don't Call Me Geelama" Beach

This place rules. At the end of a 14 mile twisty country road, off of a remote Santa Barbara stretch of Highway 1, close to the town of Lompoc, CA, a 3 hr drive outside of Los Angeles, is Jamama Beach ('Halama' en Espanol) and its campsite. The campsite itself is basic with small slips either on the sand or just away from it. The beach just out front of the campground is memorably windy and chilly, with velvety soft sand laid out to frame small rustic stones that lay beneath. Small sand dunes with picnic tables, and a cafe that serves really (really) good burgers is about as built-up as this place gets.   

As far as it seems, there are no other roads other than the one that leads you to the Jalama Campground that could take you to this vast and virtually untouched piece of California coastline. It would take a walk at low tide to be able to experience the simple beauty of the spiraling colors in the rock formations or the tall cliffs high above, you can't just drive to a place like this. We walked 2 hours north along the sand the first day of our visit, and 2 hours south the second day only to find more and more bewildering beauty and less and less people.

We now undertand why Jalama Beach goers covet this area (or at least so says Yelp and Tripadvisor). And depending on which review you read online the regulars here are either rude or awesome. Maybe we got lucky because people seemed pretty friendly and laid back to us. One of the the guys who works at the little convenience store cracked some (pretty bad) jokes about the burgers being cooked there for 32 years and that they "must be well done now" (hardy, har, har). He also informed us about it being "Beer Heaven" at Jalama, and true it is. In fact, it wasn't a rare sight to see people walking around with their beers in hand or to hear the crack of a can in the wee early hours of say, 10AM. So we fit right in. 

Here's a pic of our awesome van with the beautiful rolling hills behind us (note no telephone wires or roads). This was our second trip in it... fun times...

If This Van's A-Rockin...

Don't come a knocking. Here is our 1985 V-Dub Vanagon Westfalia FULL camper than plans on taking us here and there and (hopefully) everywhere. So if you see this van parked in front of your house or in your driveway, we say, "Thanks!" because we will be looking for safe places to crash in it. See you at the beach, in the mountains, or on your block real soon! More to come!

Hangovers Part Two

We must be gluttons for punishment because despite efforts to stay home and relax we have managed to create more hangovers in the last couple weeks than we have in a while.

Most recently I joined Martyn for a trip up to Mammoth Mountain so he could get some snowboarding in and I could get a change of scenery. After a few runs on the mountain Martyn accompanied me in enjoying the sunny weather with margaritas at Gomez's, a dip in the local hot springs, and ending in overly posh snacks at Mammoth's Hive. Eventually we retired to our hotel with blurry memories of the day.

The next morning, feeling like death warmed over, while trying to ignore the self loathing pain in my skull, looking at the clock it was already 1PM and the weather outside was starting to turn. So after a quick soak in the brain-boiling hot tub at the hotel, we ended up at The Cellar Bar attached to the Alpenhof Lodge where we were staying. Awesome little dive bar that has a huge selection beer, but no liquor, which in our case was probably a good thing.

It was a quiet Tuesday night, 70 mph gusts of winds screamed outside and snow was beginning to pile up. It was a good night to pretend to be interested in the sports on the bar's TVs while we sipped our beer. However, due to improper nutrition and our hangover from the night before, we were craving some serious food, so naturally I drooled over a commercial for Wienerschitsel's corndogs. As I professed my love for corndogs of any shape or size, Martyn informs me that he has never experienced the pleasure of the American classic. He was surely missing out in a huge way. But unfortunately there isn't a Weinerschitsel in Mammoth so I was going to have to treat him to his first corndog at a later date. So instead we decided to pay our bill and seek out some other kind of food. But just then, as our tab was being printed, I noticed that all the way down at the end of the bar there was a guy dipping a huge, monstrous corddog into tiny little trays of mustard and ketchup. What are the chances!? This bar has no liquor but it has corndogs! Genius. Food of the gods...

The perfect ending to the weekend. Here is a pic of me feeding Martyn his first corn dog. Now he can say he has experienced the joys that only corndogs can bring.

Anywhere Planet Earth Universe 2010

I feel like I could be anywhere when I'm in this beautiful park that I'm so fortunate to have a short walk out my front door. Engulfed in one of the wealthies neighborhoods in America, Franklin Canyon Park is my new favorite find. A happy morning it is to spend it walking thru its trails on this Earth Day, and happy I am to have it in my backyard, no wealth needed.

Mobile Blogging!?

I'm a little baffled by this said "simple process," so this is another attempt to post a blog via my cell phone using MMS. So for testing purposes here is a pic of M from Halloween that is bound to make you smile.

National Margarita Day

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or is it paved with tattoos? Or is it paved with Tequila?! Not sure how you view it but our road to tacos y margaritas seems to start with tattoos.


It all started on a Monday morning, and being our usual day off we were lazing around the apartment watching, with mild interest, the Today show (not our usually scheduled program, I swear). And while contemplating how to spend our time before Martyn's tattoo appointment, the friendly and funny Kathy Lee Gifford informed us that is was National Margarita Day. This, of course, was NOT what we expected learn from the Today show, and there is no actual PROOF that it was indeed Nation Margarita Day (NMD), but it was all we needed to hear.

First matter of business was off to see Charlie at Spotlight. Charlie has been working on Martyn's tattoos for months now and as you can see there is no turning back now. This session Charlie sketched out an additional koi fish for the upper arm, something he is really good at, M seems really happy and I think is really fortunate to have found Charlie. His method involves a careful and thought out drawing-and-erasing session followed by more drawing-and-erasing. Then on to the pain, an unavoidable part.


Speaking of pain, during a recent home session of yoga bending and twisting I had hurt my back (again, and pretty bad) so our next trip to the bar stool at Loeteria Grill on Hollywood Blvd involved limping, moaning, and groaning, something I'm sure my loved ones are sick and tired of hearing from me. However since it was NMD, we had to soldier on. If you haven't been to Lotteria I recommend you do, they have pretty good Margaritas (though kinda spendy), and the tacos rule. They have a wide selection of Margies, from the most basic to fancy spiced citrus versions, all decent, all around. A wide selection of tacos too, all super delicious. The service is always great, really friendly staff and bartenders.


We had a great time and had a few Margies in honor of NMD, but my gimpy self was pretty achy from sitting so long so we had to call it short on National Margarita Day and head to safe ground = home. Until next time National Margarita Day...