Sacramento Bound.

Eventually our time in San Fran came to an end and we headed for Sacramento and the home of Linda and Karla. One of the great things about their house is its proximity to MORE STORES!! Target, Nordstrom's The Rack, and Ross Dress for Less are all pretty close by so we didn't even need the GPS to find them! Ha!

The deals at Nordstrom's were epic. They had the summer stuff down 50% to 75% and just to give you an example, I got a pair of Jones of New York capris that were reg. $70 for $12 and a beautiful bather that was $68 for $6.99!! Hello! The list goes on. At Target I got a few things for the girls and a nice sports bra I've been wanting and at Ross we found a few nice items for Fernando at excellent prices as well! Once we were all shopped out we hit "Le Bou" for those Vietnamese spring rolls with the peanut dipping sauce which is a fave of ours and then we went back home to chill for a bit.

Once again the evening plans were delightful! Linda's beau is a salvage diver and had given her a pantload of lobster tails. There was also a few tubs of the famous Pismo Beach clam chowder and a big slab of steak for the Char-b-que of which Karla and Linda own the Cadillac. My gall-bladder was quivering with anticipation.

Later in the evening Karla fired up her excellent metal fire-pit and got a suitable flame going. The weather was conducive to just a light sweater and so we took our libations out to the backyard while the chowder bubbled on the stove inside. Eventually the Q was ready to receive the meat and the tails and it wasn't long before we were all sitting down to a feast fit for Queens. Karla's daughter Xochitl had us laughing because she had been anticipating this dinner since the day before and her rapture over it all was pretty amusing.

The soup was served in hollowed out bread bowls and was definitely the best clam chowder I've ever tasted. The lobster tails were tender and flavourful and dipped in a bit of clarified butter just tasted like food from the gods. The whole meal was suberb and just added to the whole extravagant quality of the entire visit. I can't thank Karla and Linda enough and I just want them to know how much I appreciate their friendship. Viva California!!!!

Beach Balnket Babylon.

This is the 3rd installment.

The theater we were looking for is actually located on Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard; that's how long-running and famous the show is to San Fran. I had no idea what to expect but it was totally over-the-top entertainment as only a City like this could present.

The theater is historical and offers a really intimate setting with tables and chairs close to the actors and cute waiters wandering the aisles offering splits of champagne, wine or beer for your viewing comfort. I read the show had been in production for over 30 years and after seeing it i could see why! It¡s absolutely hilarious and I'm not going to be able to give you a great idea since taking photos was strictly prohibited, but at least I got a shot of the outside of the theater! Anywho...the premise of the show involved an adorable Snow White---who was referred to through-out the show as "Snow-Ho," "Snow-blower," and "Snow-slut," looking for her Prince and being sent to a long list of foreign destinations such as France where she met an extremely gay Louis XIV who tried in vain to explain to "Snow" why he would not be a suitable match. All the actors and actresses wore enormous wigs and/or hats and the singing was just incredible! They made Celine look like an amateur--no lie. The whole show was hilarious and included appearances by Hillary, Bill, Dick Cheany, Nancy Pelosi and many more-- (lots of hilarious rep. political jibes!) and then there was Elvis, the Beatles, Harry Potter, and the list goes on. Finally, the boys from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" decide "Snow" needs a make-over if she's ever going to find her man and when they do the big reveal she comes out looking exactly like Madonna when she wore that pink outfit with the pointy cones over her breasts and her hair in a tight pony-tail. Then she's suspended on a guy wire and starts flying all around the theater while belting out some hot new song. It was hilarious! The final number was just so incredible it pretty much defies description. Try to envision the actors all dressed as Xmas trees while the two leads come out in spectacular get-ups including headpieces at least 6 feet long. "Snow" has the City of San Fran on her head replete with an escalating skyscraper shooting upward while her "fairy godmother" had a complete Xmas scene on her head with an electric train chugging around the base of the tree. Amazing and the crowd loved it!!! It was a great finish to a wonderful night and it made me realize all the incredible diversions a City like San Fran has to offer. Major fodder for the memory bank!

Leaving A-16 after our pow wow with Pam.

A-16 Yak-fest 2007

This is the 2nd installment of the San Fran Glam sojourne.

Friday night was destined to be a memorable one since we had major plans in the works which included dinner at A-16, a reunion with Pam and tickets for a long-running theater production courtesy of Karla. It was over-the-top night and we were up for the ride.
We spent some quality time getting foxified and then --I've been dying to write this--hit the streets of San Francisco. Karla was Carl Malden and Linda was riding shotgun with her custom talking GPS which is truly a marvelous invention since we would surely be, well, lost without it! I was definitely along for the ride and basically kept my mouth shut-no small feat- and let the experts do the navigating.
A-16 was heaving with well-heeled 30-somethings as we rode the wave through the cacophany of conversation and clinking wine glasses to the back where we soon spied Pam looking as Pamish as ever in her stylish high-end fashions and blond coiff. There was a flurry of hugs and kisses which served to set the chinwag cogs in motion. We were off!
A-16 on Powell Street is known for its southern Italian fare so we started with salads of escarole, walnuts, olives and parmesan follwed by fabulous brick oven sausage pizzas and glasses of Merlot. Delicious! The yak-fest was proceeding beautifully when Pam stunned us all by gifting us with one of her gorgeously designed necklaces!! She just blew me away because the necklace she gifted me was one I had spied at her house last year and admired greatly for its chunks of turquoise and filigreed silver. Its truly a piece to be admired and I still can't believe she gave it to me!! Wow. Her generosity obviously knows no bounds.
Dinner wrapped up with some Blue Bottle coffee in a French press and two sublime desserts to be savoured slowly. It was a repast to remember and just reafirms what a great combination good food and good friends are.
Next stop? The Beach of course, as in Beach Blanket Babylon!

San Fran Glam!

Photos from the Shopping mecca of the West Coast.

San Fran Glam!

This was my second annual Christmas shopping trip to the fabulous city of San Francisco and I didn't think it could be better than last year---was I ever wrong!

First of all Linda got us the cushiest digs in the very heart of downtown--The Hotel Westin St. Francis which has all the amenities you could ever want and then some but don't move anything in the servibar since it's all computerized and the charges go direct to the bill if you even shift the M and M's!
It started with the valet parking and the plush lobby beautifully decorated with lots of glimmer and glamour in the form of beautiful people dressed in leather and fur sitting around sipping expensive wines and chatting on their iPhones and Blackberrys. We took the supersonic glass elevator to the 15th floor where we entered our den of delights and just soaked up all the excitement in the air. Just the thought of 4 days of shopping and eating was enough to cause my blood pressure to rise. Our room had a large flatscreen TV, two huge beds with Egyptian cotton sheets and down comforters all in white and a bathroom big enough to disco in with a double-headed shower with enough pressure to make it worth your while. But enough about the room!
When we walked out the revolving doors of our lobby, there was Union Square in all its glory. A guy in a cherry picker was decorating the 50 foot tall Spruce Christmas tree and there were several stately palm trees as well; rather an incongruous but delightful vision. To the right of us was Victoria's Secret, H and M, Urban outfitters, and much more. To the left was Macy's, Sak's and Bloomingdale's. Charge!!!!
The first dinner was at an exquisite Italian restaurant with a billowing fire and lots of Talavera tile and mirrors. Our waiter, Bruce, was just a hoot and full of vim and vigor, he was pretty impressed when after introducing the special, Baramundi, I guessed it was a fish from Australia. He asked me how I new that because it was sooo new to the City and I told him becuase I skinned more than a few down under which got his attention! Anyway, Karla and I both had the fetuccine with Dungeness crab since it was the start of crab season. Divine is an understatement. It was nirvana and the flavours just so right with the lemon peel and whatever else was in the sauce. It was to be the first of some VERY memorable meals!
All Friday was dedicated to shopping and it was incredible! We hit the discount and clearance racks since most of the stuff they were clearing was appropriate summer shoes and clothing for Vallarta. It was 75% off in some cases and we kept saying, "almost free today!" It got to the point where we actually had to go back to the hotel to unload and recoup from the shopping fun. That doesn't happen very often! Anyway, we literally shopped til we dropped and then it was relax, enjoy a cocktail in our ever so comfy room and then shower and glam up for dinner at A-16. I'll have to save that all for the next blog. Too much fun!