Note: These photos came from my cell phone camera. There may be other pictures posted later.

Any questions, just ask. Besides Petra and me, you might even notice a couple pictures of our friends Mama O and Liz. Take a look! Leave a comment if you want, I’ll be waiting….

Seattle/Bumbershoot 2011 photos

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Monday September 5

Last day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival and the routine is familiar. A bit of food in the room and then we took the monorail over to the festival. Once there, we snacked at the hospitality room and pondered the myriad of possibilities for the day. At one of the booths we watched a song or two by Lemolo, which I didn’t really like. It was very low-key female vocal but much too low-key. Today we had decided to see some comedy too, not just music. Our VIP passes got us to the front of all the comedy lines so we wanted to take advantage of that. The comedy show we went to had a short funny introduction by Baron somebody (I think), didn’t catch the last name. But the main show was two fairly well-known comedians, Amy Shumer and Eugene Mirman. Seriously, Amy was so funny I barely stopped laughing for her whole set. Politically incorrect. Yep. Funny? Hilarious! And Mr. Mirman was very funny too. Great show. After that, we watched a four-person panel discussion about being vegan, featuring the Black Metal Vegan Chef. He is so cool, check out his videos on YouTube. The panel was humorous at times and informative.

Petra headed out to see more comedy, including some she really liked (Hari Kandaboly, Kyle Kinane) and one guy that she didn’t like (Anthony Jeselnik). I went into the basement stage (aka “the pit”) to see Eisley, a family band (three sisters up front, plus a brother and cousin) who do alternative rock but with hooks and really nice harmonies. They were very good and I stayed for the whole set. Afterward I bought their newest CD and they signed it for me and chatted with me for a minute or two. Awesome! (side note, I saw this band again a few days ago in Sacramento, you can read about that here). We hooked back up at the hospitality area. Larry and Robin had been there earlier and offered to save us some seats (thanks!) in the Mainstage for the evenings blue-eyed soul double bill. First up was Fitz and the Tantrums, a newer band who had a minor hit with “Moneygrabber”. They were entertaining if not exactly innovative. It was soulful rock that was good but, like I said, felt awful familiar and didn’t challenge the listener at all. Still, the audience was on their feet and loving it! Next up (and I would use the same compliments and criticisms) were veteran rockers Hall and Oates. Yes, that Hall and Oates. They have had a ton of hits and ran through most of them. They put on a good show and did just what people expected. There was not one new song and nothing that hadn’t been heard before. But they have their stuff down and put on a very entertaining show. And that was it, Bumbershoot 2011 was over. Sigh. How many days until next year?

Tuesday September 6

We had today free before we had to fly home tomorrow so we took the chance to see more of Seattle. We took a free bus down to near the Seattle Ferry docks and caught a ferry boat (I’m on a boat! - watch at your own risk) to nearby Bainbridge Island. There are plenty of shops and stuff there so we looked around a bit then had lunch at Emmy’s VegeHouse, an all vegan asian mini-restaurant. It was delicious! The we looked around a bit more and found Doc’s Marina Grill, a nice and friendly place with a big patio area looking out on the harbor. We had a drink and relaxed for a bit there. Then we took the ferry back to the mainland, what a pleasant ride. We caught a bus up to the Capitol Hill area, in search of dinner at the Sage Cafe, another vegan place but with sandwich and burger type selections. Good stuff again. We bussed back but stopped at Everyday Music, a big record store, and Elliot Bay Books, a huge place too. Then a bus back to the hotel. After that day, we went up to the eleventh floor Cloud Room for a glass of wine or two. Not a bad day, huh?

Wednesday September 7

The last day. And this makes stevenology sad. Sigh. So we packed our luggage. Sigh. But it was NOT over! We walked over to Cyber-Dog for an awesome vegetarian dog with plenty of toppings. I love this place! The owner (Tatiana) actually left us in charge of the place when she went to move and park her car. If you go to Seattle then GO THERE. Even if you are not vegetarian, you will like it. Then we checked out of the hotel, caught the light rail to the airport, had a margarita with some chips and salsa at the airport, and then flew Southwest (my favorite airline) back to Sacramento. That wraps it up for 2011. See you in 2012, Seattle! Wait for me!

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Saturday September 3

Mid-morning we took the convenient monorail over to the Seattle Center, the site of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Today was the first day of this amazing event. Doors opened at 11:00 but we got there at about 10:30 and they let us in early! I took that as a good omen. We got our Starbucks pass, allowing us free coffee drinks for the entire festival. Can’t argue with that. Then we went to the VIP hospitality lounge for some food to get us started for the day. They were determined to provide vegetarian and even some vegan options too. We checked our schedules for the day and decided to start with a new stage this year (EMP Level 3) where Seattle’s Tomten was playing. They had won a competition to get a performing slot and were pretty good. Indie-type rock with a little more to the songs than some. Oh, and in case I forget, all three days of the festival we ate some festival food too. Eating is fun! But back to the music. The next act we saw was at the Main Stage (moved indoors this year), 90s act The Presidents of the USA. We watched about half of their set and they are still doing what they have always done. Of course they did their hit “Lump” and a bunch of others. Meanwhile, we realized that with our VIP passes we got some free drink tickets, so we went to one of the beer gardens and had a beer (or in Petra’s case, a glass of wine). At a nearby stage P.S. I Love You was playing but we didn’t hear anything that made us want to stick around. Not with so many other options. What are there, 12-15 stages?

Oh, plus the small “secret” stage that VIP passes get you into, or you can win tickets like Larry and Robin had done. We saw Vetiver in there next. They were good if not memorable.  Pleasant at least. Next up in the secret stage was Trombone Shorty and his band. The music was basic funk and blues, but he was very charismatic and talented and it ended up being a great show. Then we went back to the Level 3 stage to see Pickwick. There were hundreds of people in line for this act, people obviously knew something we didn’t. Luckily our passes got us up to the front of the line and we got in. And the show was really good! It was blue-eyed soul but well done and the band had really made their sound tight. After that, I watched part of a set by Little Dragon, which was kind of electronic with a woman singer. For a couple songs it was interesting but got less so. Petra had left to see the “real” (non-secret) set by Trombone Shorty and soon enough I went over there too. He was good again but not quite as good as the earlier show IMHO. After that was Mavis Staples, and for her we watched the whole set. She is great and has been for, what, 50-60 years since the Staples Singers days. She’s a mix of gospel, political, pop, funk, and soul. This makes twice I’ve seen her live and both times she  delivered the goods. After all of that, we all went back to our hotel room to talk about the day and to strategize over who to see the next day.

Sunday September 4

Day two of the festival. Once again we had a little food in the room and then took the monorail to the festival. We catch it a few blocks from the hotel, it takes about 90 seconds, and we get out right at the festival grounds. So convenient! First thing, we got our free Starbucks drinks. Then the hospitality lounge and a snack there too. First up, in the small “secret” stage, was Mad Rad, a blend of hiphop, electronic, and rock, and some energetic cool weirdness thrown in too. This was a really good set. We chose the “secret” stage again for Tennis (the band, not the sport). This was a decent set by the three-piece, but the guitar was too loud. The woman’s keyboards and vocals were lost a lot of the time. So it ended up being loud guitar mostly. And we were in the center of the second row (our spot for all the small stage shows), so it wasn’t that we were sitting in the wrong place. It was just mixed badly. After that, at one of the booths there was a 4-song mini-set by Allen Stone, a white, long-haired, shaggy guy who sang like a long time soul crooner. He did NOT look like he sounded! Petra liked him a lot and made a note to see his full set later. While waiting for another act a bit later, we heard a few songs by the Jim Jones Review. It was sloppy, punky, and nothing special at all. But we were waiting for Pickwick to play the small stage. We had seen their full set yesterday and liked it so much we wanted to see them in the small stage too. And they were very good again!

Of course there was plenty of food today too, don’t ever doubt that.  Then I went to see an all-female band called Warpaint, who ended up being good. I watched for a while and then ran into Mama O and Liz and talked for a couple minutes. Meanwhile Petra was seeing Allen Stone’s full set and loving it. We met back up in the hospitality lounge for more food and then back out into the festival. After a couple minutes of Toro Y Moi, we both decided that was enough of that. Then we watched some of the set by The Kills, a man/woman duo that has a noisy, bluesy minimal rock sound. It was good but it was late and we headed back to the hotel room. The rest of the gang came by and we strategized about the next day and which artists to see then…

To be continued. Day three and more coming soon…

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We just got back from our annual trek to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (and more). I’ll post some pictures soon, but in the meantime here is a short synopsis of what we did. Enjoy, and maybe we’ll see you there next year…

Wednesday August 31

We flew to Seattle (Southwest Airlines) and arrived in the afternoon. Seattle has a great light rail train system that took us from the airport (nowhere near the actual city) all the way up to three blocks from our hotel. For just a few bucks! We checked in at The Camlin and then walked about five blokcs or so to the nearby Whole Foods Market, to get some supplies. You know, chips, salsa, cereal, fruit, soy milk, bottled water, wine, just the necessities. We lugged all that back to the hotel and then we were truly ready for anything. Well, pretty much. But we were hungry too! We were walking the block or so to Cyber-Dogs, a great vegetarian hot dog place, when we bumped into a couple of our fellow Sacramento friends, Mama O and Liz. We chatted a bit on the street (sidewalk actually) and then went to Cyber-Dogs for our meal (menu). This place gives you a lot of food, not just a measly hot dog. Next it was back to the room to plan out the event of the next couple days. Yes, I love Seattle!

Thursday September 1

We had some food in the room before heading out for the day, to the Seattle Center area. First stop was the Experience Music Project, a great music museum that we try to visit every year. New this year was a very comprehensive Nirvana exhibit, and the neighboring Science Fiction Museum (part of EMP, same admission gets you into both) has a really nice Avatar exhibit. Then we went to the Bamboo Garden vegetarian food nearby. A combination plate was a fine choice, though any of the hundreds of things on the menu would have been ok since it is all vegetarian (mostly vegan actually). Sufficiently stuffed, we walked down the street to Silver Platters, a good record, CD, and video store. Of course we found some music we needed. Of course Next we headed back over to the Seattle Center and picked up our VIP passes for the upcoming Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. The VIP passes cost more but they give you a lot of benefits that make the festival a much better and easier experience.

As we left there we met up with more of our group that had traveled from Sacramento, Larry and Robin. The four of us walked over to the Visual Arts preview. This was a sneak preview of the visual arts exhibits for the festival. One room had “Bumber By Number”, a huge paint-by-number that wrapped around three walls. Anyone could paint in a few spaces so that by the end of the festival it would be all done. So Petra and I did just that. One other quirk was that the paints were actually chalk-like things that looked like vegetables. Yeah. Art! Another room had “The Magic Show” which had objects as art, with emphasis on illusion. There was more, but you get the idea. We took the monorail back to the condo room and then the four of us went to see a Major League Baseball game! The Seattle Mariners to be specific.  We had excellent seats in the first row behind the visitor’s dugout. It was a lot of fun and I got friendly with the mascot, a very energetic moose. Well, not THAT friendly but he was next to me a bunch of times. After the game we went back to the condo but headed up to the 11th (top) floor “Cloud Room” to relax with a couple beverages and to talk about the day and also the one to come next.

Friday September 2

Today’s destination was the University District and the four of us bussed it over there. We checked out a vegan store (Sidecar for Pigs Peace) and then had lunch at the Wayward Vegan Cafe. Man, was this a good meal. Serious. We walked around the district a bit and popped into a few stores here and there. Larry and Robin headed back to town but Petra and I stayed there a bit longer, including a visit to Half Price Books, where we (of course) found more to bring home. Not a big surprise. Next, we bussed it back to the hotel and the took the monorail to the Seattle Center area. We stopped in at Easy Street Records and of course found more music that we needed. Yes, needed. A quick stop at the supermarket formerly known as Larry’s, and then we lined up for the evening’s entertainment. It was a film preview of the Seattle International Film Festival. The film festival is part of the Bumbershoot festival, but we were able to see six short films the night before it for free! These short films are always interesting. One of them had actually won the short film Academy Award. By the it was getting late and we all went back to the hotel room to strategize. No I don’t mean to talk, drink, laugh, and wonder who to see at the first day of Bumbershoot tomorrow. Ok, ok, that is exactly what we all did. Six great minds in one room. And after that we got some sleep.

To be continued…

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Note: These photos came from three different cameras: a real digital camera and two different cell-phone cameras. So, they may not be exactly totally in order. Still fun though…

Any questions, just ask. Besides Petra and me, you might even notice a couple pictures of our friend Mama O and members of her posse too. Take a look! Leave a comment if you want, I’ll be waiting….

Seattle/Bumbershoot 2010 photos

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Sunday September 5

Day three of the festival and I am loving it! No surprise there. Same routine, we took the monorail to the Bumbershoot Festival and grabbed a snack at the hospitality area. Our first show to see was David Bazan at the KEXP secret lounge. While we waited, we heard a few songs from a nearby stage by The Tripwires which were ok but nothing special. Then we went in to see David. He’s the former singer-songwriter behind Pedro The Lion, now with a new band. We were really close up to see and hear his new songs mixed with PTL songs too. Good stuff. After that, Petra wanted to see Art Corps Presents so she went to that. I wandered a different direction to see a couple songs by Crash Kings, who I didn’t really like too much, and then The Redwood Plan at the cool Sky Church venue. They were quite a bit better. I also watched part of David Bazan’s “real” (public) set and then part of regional act Slender Means. David was good again. I like his literate and smart lyrics and the songs are catchy too.

I met back up with Petra to chat and have some food, then she headed out to a modern dance show, the 605 Collective, and I watched some of Motion City Soundtrack, a recently popular band whose first song was fast and loud but the ones after that got better. I watched about four or five songs then Petra and I met back up and went into the Main Stage to see Hole. Yes, Courtney Love’s band, back together with her and some new members. Everyone was expecting her to be a total train wreck, after all the crazy things she’s been in the papers for. But amazingly enough, she looked great and sounded good too. No train wreck, just a really entertaining show. And afterwards she walked along the rail and shook hands with people, including both of us! Wow! Then it was time for the day’s headliner Weezer. Thousands of people filled the venue and it seemed like everyone there was singing along with every lyric from every song! I have to say that Weezer was great! I didn’t realize they had so many hits but I recognized almost all the songs and they were all good. The singer and leader, Rivers Cuomo, was all over the stage and off too. He came within about 5-6 feet of us at one point and then at another point he came right next to Petra, who was next to me. She touched his arm, that’s how close he was. And the crowd was wild! People were crowd surfing left and right. We thought we were out of that area since we were on the side, on the rail. But since we kept seeing people crowd-surfing very close to us, we wondered if we were really out. And then a person was passed right over us. I helped pass him and kept him from falling onto Petra (or me). Wow, craziness! But it was all fine and fun. And Weezer was a high point of the Festival.

Then it was back to the hotel to study the schedule for tomorrow and to get some sleep.

Monday September 6

Day three of the Festival. Last day, I wish it would last forever!  Anyway, it was off on the monorail to the Festival. We had a “secret stage” show to start the day (after some food of course), featuring New York band Ra Ra Riot. We had great seats and we both liked them quite a bit. Next up  was a comedy show featuring Tig Nataro, Marc Mahon, and Doug Benson. All three were funny, this was a good show. Then we headed back to the secret stage for a show by The Thermals. We had never heard them before but they were pretty good. Kind of a punk-pop threesome, catchy but not overly smooth. After that we watched a few songs by a twosome called Lay Low, but it was v-e-r-y low-key and we both lost interest fast. More food, that will fix anything! Then back for our last secret stage show, featuring the 80′s band The English Beat. They still had the leader and main singer and did most of their hits from that period. Good stuff if mostly nostalgic. I would have liked at least a couple new songs.

Then it was time for Jenny and Johnnie. I liked Jenny Lewis’ work with Rilo Kiley and also her solo stuff, but this new material didn’t do much for me. A few songs were enough. After that, Petra went to see the Axis Dance Company and I checked out a few songs from Surfer Blood on another stage. Not bad but I wandered over to yet another stage to see Wild Orchid Children. Noisy but good and they didn’t sound like everyone else. Then we watched part of The Thermal’s “real” set. Did I mention that it rained off and on today? We had to pull out our bumbershoots   And that was it for the 201o Festival. We’ll be back for the 2011 version, you can bet on it!!

Tuesday September 7

We took the light rail to the airport to catch the plane home. There was a two hour plane delay but we made it. I’m already ready to go back to Seattle…

BTW, we bought some new CDs because of bands we saw this year at Bumbershoot: The Raveonettes, Ra Ra Riot, Bob Schneider, and Hole. We will probably be getting more Weezer one of these days too.

Pictures from the trip coming soon. Why not leave me a comment?

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Friday September 3

And a happy birthday to the daughter too. We started the day, as with the past few, by having a light breakfast in the room. Then we were outta there, to walk a few blocks to the monorail station. We took the two-minute train to the Seattle Center, because it was the day before the Bumbershoot Music and Arts festival. The day before? So what, you say? Ha. Yeah. Well, they open up the visual art exhibits a day early (for one thing), so we got a great chance to check all the art a day early before all the crowds were there. And it was totally great, just like every year. After a while of this we finished and then picked up our Bumbershoot Gold Passes. Yep, we bought some VIP treatment but not the Platinum. That takes the big money!

Art, gold passes, monorail, wow doesn’t that make you hungry? Well it did us! A few blocks away was Pacliacci Pizza so we stopped by for a slice. We actually had a two-for-one coupon from last year and they honored it no problem. The pizza was pretty good too. Then it was across the street to Easy Street Records. We shopped quite a while and found some CDs that we absolutely positively needed wanted. Same old story for us! After, we took the monorail back to the hotel so we could drop off the CDs, passes, and other stuff.

Then back to the Seattle Center to check out the preparations for the next day’s start of the Festival. Almost here, after all this waiting! We hung out at the International Fountain for a bit, which is always great, and then it was time for the Film Festival preview. As part of the Bumbershoot Festival there is a Film Festival and if you RSVP early enough you get to go to the free preview on Friday night. We saw about six or so short films, maybe ninety minutes or so total. These are always interesting, sometimes strange and sometimes funny and sometimes touching. But always fun to see.

By then we were hungry again. Lucky for us, a couple blocks away was the Bamboo Garden, a totally vegetarian restaurant with hundreds of items on the menu. As a long-time vegetarian, it’s often frustrating to go to a restaurant and only have one or two choices. But not here. We can eat anything. And so we did. And then we were full. We caught the monorail back to the hotel and started studying the schedule for the next day’s opening of the Festival. There are some 15 or so stages and venues all going at the same time for about 12 hours each day, so you have to make some hard choices. But it’s all good. So we got a little sleep, with visions of Bumbershoots dancing in our heads.

Saturday September 4

Festival. Day one. No need for breakfast yet, we took the monorail to the Seattle Center and went in the through the Gold Pass entrance. First we grabbed a couple comedy passes for the day. You can get passes for one comedy show each day, and/or else you can stand in line hoping that there is room. We tend to like a sure thing. Got it. And there was this too: we had also RSVP’d quickly a while back for the KEXP “secret Bumbershoot lounge” and managed to get tickets to six shows there! This is another stage at the festival but not one that too many people get to go to. It’s small and intimate, maybe a hundred and fifty or so people, maybe even less. So we picked up our tickets to those shows, which we saw at various times on all three Festival days. More about these shows later. We ate some food in the Gold/Platinum hospitality area then went to the Starbucks lounge. Why? Well, Starbucks allowed people to RSVP early (sound like a familiar theme?) for a pass that would get you into their free lounge all three days and while there you get free Starbucks drinks. Anything they had was free. Hard to argue with that, huh?

For the first actual event of the festival, Petra wanted to see a dance performance called Ricochet so she went there. I went to a different stage and saw an LA band, The Submarines. They had a catchy “indie” sound and I watched most of their set. Walking around after, I caught a couple songs by Idiot Pilot, who I didn’t like at all (screamo and not interesting) and Star Anna (Americana, with a nice voice, but the songs didn’t hold my interest). So I met back up with Petra and we went to our day’s comedy show, It was called “Never Not Funny” and it was amusing. Not gut-busting laughter but still good. Then we headed to our first show in the “secret stage”. It was The Ravonettes, a band from Denmark. I had liked a Christmas song by them and now this show did not disappoint at all. They were really good in a short set. They were playing a longer set at a non-secret stage later in the day, but this short set was a really nice taste of their music. Their mixture of psych guitar and smooth male/female vocals was great and we both liked them a lot.

Next we went to the Main Stage to see the second half of the set by The Decemberists. I like this band a lot and they sounded really good live too. Then we walked to a different stage and saw most of a set by Bob Schneider. Neither of us had heard much about him but he was good, Petra liked him quite a bit and I enjoyed the set too. We tried to see current buzz band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes but got there after they started and the crowd was just too big. Of course, we were eating here and there during the day too, in case you were wondering about that. After all it is a festival with great food and the hospitality lounge had snacks and food all day too. Next it was back to the main stage for a few songs by Neko Case, who we had seen there a few years ago too. She has a nice voice but we were actually getting a good spot for the day’s headliner Bob Dylan. You might have heard of him, hahaha. He’s a legend and I really like his 60s and 70s stuff but had never seen him live. Well, now I have. And I don’t need to do that again. I heard people say he was great that night but IMHO he was certainly not. His band was good but he spat out the songs and growled the lyrics so that almost no words were understandable and the songs were reworked to be almost unrecognizable. It was a major disappointment and we left halfway through. That was plenty. Seriously, his lyrics and songs are his claim to fame, but those things weren’t around that night so we headed out to see someone different. Petra and our friend Mama O went to see Ozamatli and I went to see the rest of the evening set by The Raveonettes. Sure, Dylan was a disappointment to all of us, but the rest of the day was great! Day one was a big success for us! And so we headed back to the hotel to look at the schedule for tomorrow’s day two and to get some sleep.

More about days two and three soon…

Pictures coming soon too…

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You can and should read all about about the trip here to get the rest of the story, then be sure to check out the pictures (two pages worth) here on the photo page. Click on the first small photo to see the larger image and then you can either click through them, or use the arrow keys, or watch the slide show. Be sure to look at both pages too! Have fun and leave me a comment afterwards!!

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Well, to start off, I’m full and happy after a lunch at Curry Corner. It’s a great Indian Food lunch buffet here in the Natomas area. All you can eat and all gooooood.

Last night we saw an advance screening of a new movie, City Island (web site, more info, even more info). It’s a very funny comedy with heart. We were laughing out loud and so was everyone else in the theater. Great writing, brisk pace, and funny! Go see it!

And let’s be sure to add some April birthday wishes for my sister Steph, my ex-sister-in-law Connie, and our friend Jared (the big 30).

And talking about Jared, he just started up a food-related blog over at JaredEatsWorld. Go visit and tell him stevenology sent you!

Last Friday night we went to see the Sacramento Rivercats baseball game. It was fun, always is, but they lost. They choked at the end. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

OK, faithful readers, what do you think of all THAT?

Friday March 19

It’s a long drive to Indio. With a stop for brunch and a couple pit stops, it took about ten hours of driving. Petra actually drove the whole way, though I did my part, helping out by taking a nap. We had a pretty good brunch in Kettleman City on the way and made it to our destination in Indio in time for dinner with Petra’s parents, who were staying about a mile or less away. We talked and visited a while then she and I made it back to our condo and called it a day. Which it was.

Saturday March 20

We went on this trip to relax and have some downtime. But we still wanted to see

and do a few things. Plus, you gotta eat or you’ll die!! So, well rested, we went out for brunch to a mexican restaurant that Petra’s co-worker had recommended. The vegetarian choices were slim but of course we found some things. Then, totally stuffed full and happy, we went to get some groceries to take back to the condo for the week. After that we walked over to the pool for some rest and relaxation. Later on, we drove over to the mexican market for a few more supplies. We also checked out a local flea market but there wasn’t much to see there. When we came back we went for a bike ride, right around sunset. The ride was nice and the sunset was very pretty. We came back and wanted to chill at the condo so we played a game of “Beatles Monopoly”. It was all fun and relaxing and all of this made for a nice day.

Sunday March 21

We had some leftover mexican food from yesterday’s brunch, so we turned it into today’s brunch. Twice the tasty treat! Today’s destination was the street fair at the College Of The Desert. We wandered around and shopped for a while, finding a few small items. Not enough, though, so we went to few nearby thrift stores. Tell me this is not a classic find: I found a record called “Music To Eat Pizza By” and it is performed by 23 accordian players! And they had it in mono OR stereo! For only a dollar each! I bought the stereo version along with a hard to find Groucho Marx record for a few bucks. Score!! Anyway, our friends Larry and Robin were due to come spend the rest of the week with us and right about this time they called , saying that were getting close. So we headed back to the condo and met them there. Of course we had to visit a bit. Then we headed out the a delicious dinner at nearby Ciro’s. The manicotti I had was really, really good. Stuffed again after we ate we went back to the mexican market. We got some fresh-made corn tortillas and a few other items. Larry was on a mission to find some mole sauce and they had lots of different kinds and brands. Then we headed back to the condo to visit the rest of the evening.

Monday March 22

We had a very leisurely morning and then went to hang around the pool. The water was warm and Petra loved swimming in it. In the later part of the afternoon, we all went to some nearby thrift stores to shop and explored a little, and of course by then we were all hungry. We went to a mexican restaurant nearby that we had visited last year, called La Pinata, where they have the big “Margarita Country” sign. We each had a big dinner and some margaritas. Life is good. Then back to the condo to hang out the rest of the evening.

Tuesday March 23

Today’s destination was the town and artists community of Idyllwild, nearly 6000 feet up in the nearby mountains. A friend of Larry and Robin’s had moved there and invited us all up for lunch and to visit. They fed us and then gave us a tour of and arts school there, along with some art galleries. On the way back, we stumbled across a large public art “farm”. Not sure if that is a good term but there were a few acres of public art to explore. So we did. As we got close to Palm Desert, we noticed the high-end Imago Gallery that we had visited last year. The awesome Chihuly glass piece was in the tower and we did a quick visit to see some expensive and cool art. Seriously, $140,000 for a painting? We didn’t buy anything  but it was nice to look at. Before we headed back down the one-eleven to Indio, we remembered a great vegetarian restaurant that we visited last year, Native Foods, so we went went there and had another good dinner. Everything in the place is vegan but you’d never know it. The menu has tons of stuff and everything we tried was good. On the way back we stipped at the grocery store and got some ice cream for desert. Yow! Are we having fun yet?

Wednesday March 24

Larry and Robin spent most of the day at nearby Joshua Tree State Park on a hike, while Petra and I opted for lounging around the pool. We also went to a store called The Alley and looked around a bit. All four of us went to Petra’s parent’s nearby rental house and they made us a really good dinner. We visited there the rest of the evening.

Thursday March 25

We had a light snack at the condo to get us started and then went to nearby Cathedral City. Our destination was the Imax theater. We saw the super-large screen, 3-d version of Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland“. It was very impressive. The visuals were awesome and it was delightfully weird but sweet at the same time. Then we headed to Palm Springs for a few things planned later in the evening. But first was lunch at a different location of Native Foods. It was great too. Wish there was one in Sacramento! Then it was time to visit the Palm Springs Art Museum. Admission is free on Thursday afternoons so we took advantage of that. It’s a really nice gallery, check it out if you get down there. After that was the Villagefest, a big street festival with lots of booths and local merchants. After that, we were hungry again so we went to an Italian place near the condo called The Naked Noodle. It was good too. Then back to the condo to call it a day.

Friday March 26

It was time to leave Indio. We had a great week! Technically, we were spending tonight in Hollywood, on the way back home, so the vacation wasn’t over yet. We gassed up the car at Costco and said goodbye to Indio (adios, Indio) and drove to Los Angeles. We stopped on the way at a Shakey’s Pizza for lunch. Funny thing, that pizza chain started in our town of Sacramento but all the ones here have closed down. The hyperactive, yelling kids in the next booth put a damper on it but what the heck. We got to Hollywood in the afternoon and checked into out hotel. We had some free time so we took a wark down Sunset Boulevard, grabbed a coffee drink, and checked out the area. It got to be dinner time and we had already decided to visit a place we had been to once before on a visit, Toi “Rockin’ Thai” Food. The place is funky, open until 4AM, with rock posters decorating the walls everywhere. Then we headed to our actual destination, Club Largo, where we went to see Jon Brion. He’s a very talented musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, etc. We’d seen him years ago at a Bumbershoot Festival and were really impressed. He uses electronics to record himself doing pieces of a song and then “looping’ them together to sound like a full rock/pop band. You have to see it to see how great he is at it. Oh, he can also just stand the with guitar and sing/play too. He did that on a couple originals and a great cover of the Kinks classic “Waterloo Sunset”. He did a noise-fest version of The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” that was a nicely shaped wall of electro-pop. And then there was the marimba and loops version of The Cars “Just What I Needed”. Great stuff. There were also original songs from his solo CD and some of the soundtrack songs he’s done too. Great show, very impressive. There was an after-show announced in the nearby “Little Room” (about 60 people) and we got in line for that. We were way back in line but when I went up to ask the guy at the door, he suggested that we come back the next night. I said “we’ll be 500 miles away then”. He looked concerned and told us to stand “over there”. A little later he came over and let us in, he gave us the last two seats in the place. Sweet!! This show was totally different. Jon had a bunch of friends with him and he let them do a lot of the show, but still playing and singing with them. This was more folk and even bluegrass. Very different from the main show, but still entertaining and the musicians were really talented. How fortunate that we were able to see both shows!

Saturday March 27

It was the day to head home, but we weren’t quite finished yet. We had brunch at the nearby the Hollywood Mel’s Diner (it was OK), and then went to the world’s biggest independent record store, Amobea Music. They have an unbelievable selection of new and used CDs, records, memorabilia, and other music items. It’s a huge place, they even have maps of the store if you need them, but the staff is helpful too. It’s so big it would take a day (or more) to look at everything. But we did spend a few hours and did some dollar damage, finding some rare things, some very good bargains, and some other stuff too. I’ll list that stuff in a diffent post when I get some time. But after all that time in the record store, we were finally ready to hit the road and go back home. And that’s just what we did…

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