TTT: Ojai California!

Back in October, when I took my break and went home (why is it the place you are from will always be home-even when you have lived more of your life away from it)…

Where was I?

Oh yes. After two days in LA, a day and a half in San Diego, two days in Camarillo/Oxnard/Ventura, I was finally able to spend my last day with my other sister. The one who lives in Ventura, started me blogging back in the day, and now has a cool photo/recipe gig every Saturday and Sunday at WeYuMe.

Sis and I have similar tastes in music, in wine, and, most especially, in enjoying a road trip.

She asked me where I wanted to go and I said Ojai. For one reason or another, I have not been back to Ojai since long before I moved to Hawaii (1982).

My best friend from childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood went to a cool private school in Ojai for high school. I missed her when we went off to separate schools, but had the perk of going up to Ojai with her on weekends. I remember everyone offering organic food (including the fun brownies- “hey man, it’s organic”), we went square dancing (but we were dressed like surfer/hippie/organic girls), and everyone ended up at Matilija Hot Springs. Midnight. Beautiful moon. Cool night air and natural hot springs. Ah, youth.

These days Ojai seemed to me an eclectic blend of organic food gone nouveau, art, and high end shops for LA folks up for a drive. Lots of beautiful California land, avocado and olive groves, and (my favorite), open roads.

Come along…

After a road song of a California morning in Ventura, we headed to a place in Ojai that Sis knew I would love. An organic market and restaurant, The Farmer and the Cook.

Huevos Rancheros was my breakfast. Check out that Ojai avocado! Home made tortillas with scrambled eggs, the awesome avo, pico de gallo, and guajillo sauce on the side. If it had been lunch, I would have gone for the grilled squash blossom quesadilla.


Tummies full, a walk is in order. Here is the place where you will find the trendier shops and the LA crowd up and about with their spending mula.

I did like this shop. Had I spending money myself, I so would have bought something here. African imports with the coolest beaded jewelry.

Next, sis took me off the main road to a place she's been dying to show me for years - Bart's Books - The World's Largest Outdoor Bookstore. I could so live there. It's an old house, with outdoor patios and little rooms and places to sit all over. Mostly hardback books and all used. Amazing. We sat in the sun. Then we sat in the shade. We read some, skimmed some, browsed some. After collecting a stack of ten or more, I narrowed it down to one. I bought a Joan Didion book. A favorite author of both my sister and I.


We had to share our table with the handsome guy with the green eyes. Tough day.



We left Ojai and went up through upper Ojai where Sis took me out to the olive groves.

Looking back down on upper Ojai as we head to Santa Paula.

A rare glimpse of yours truly.....

Got a favorite place you went to sometime this year? Link on up!

TTT: Ohio Anyone?

I found an old friend on Facebook. Michael Miller. He and I worked together in a restaurant in the 80's. Then he became the room mate of my two best friends.

Oh, the fun back then. The dinner parties and bottles of wine... The beach days.

Later, he moved to Lanikai beach and we had get togethers over there. One time we all rented kayaks and paddled out to the Mokes. Had a picnic.

Wonderful, adventurous, fun-filled days. Before careers and families and mortgages....

Mike is also a wonderful craftsman and artist. He used to collect beach glass and make amazing earrings and beach glass mosaics to hang in the window.

Mike moved to Maui years ago and managed an art gallery over there. Then, sometime ago, he moved back to Ohio to help care for his aging parents.

I've never been to Ohio, but two of my long time blog buds live there.

Jan from the Sushi Bar. She is wise, wise-mouthed, witty, and a wonderful cook who knows more about food and sustainability than anyone else I know. She is also about to come out with a cookbook - how awesome is that?

Kristin Hoffman. An adorable twenty something and most excellent writer. Also, I think, the very first blogger I ever left a comment on.

Both of these lovely ladies have contributed to TTT before.

Mike has a consignment store in Tipp City. Crossroad Consignments, which you can also find on Facebook.

If you travel in his neck of the woods, please go pay him and his store a visit!

Tipp City, Ohio

Mike says wonderful things about Tipp City....

Got Travel? A favorite haunt by your home? Link a post on up.

Oh! Just realized this post will go up on Thanksgiving. A most Happy Thanksgiving to all. One thing I am most grateful for is the world of blog and all the friendships I have made out here.

TTT: Ventura County

When I said in a previous post that my trip home was amazingly perfect, I wasn't even using hyperbole (one of my fave literary devices).

My mom was well - physically, mentally, and emotionally. She has not only adjusted to living in assisted living, she has thrived.

Thank-you God.

The day that my younger sister and her husband met up with me (all the way from Florida), and the three of us took Mom out for the day played out to be what might be tallied as one of the best days of my year.

Come along and I'll show you how to have a great day in Ventura County - featuring our family's favorite haunts.
On the Ventura County line of the PCH is Neptune's Net. It has been there forever as far as I know. Back in the day it was quite the dive, but has been updated and the menu looked awesome. We even were tempted to eat there, but had just had In and Out burgers, fries, and shakes; so we only went in for beers and iced teas for a picnic.

Neptune's Net is also a favorite stop for the bikers on a weekend and then you would find more like 40 or 50 bikes outside. We were there on a weekday so you only get two cool bikes in the photo.


We had to pass Sycamore Canyon to head to Neptune's Net for the cold ones, and while we were driving down PCH, a school of dolphins were swimming parallel to us.

Beautiful, clear, no winds, fall day.

Frolicking dolphins.

Auspicious, yes?
This Sycamore Canyon day park is where our mobile home park used to be in the late 60's and early 70's. That's grannie and my little sis there. My sister does not blog nor even use facebook, and when I asked her if it was OK if I put her photo up here, she said, "blog away!"

Behind Mom and Sis is the old clubhouse. The rangers use it now and it is a bit run down, but it used to be the center of the park, both physically and socially. The upstairs was a party room for the adults, but the manager let my friends and I have sleepovers up there sometimes.

Good times.

After a couple beers and a picnic, you can take a nice walk on our little beach. That's Castle Rock down there and my friends and I climbed all over it like indigenous crabs back in the day.


Between the rocks the waves rush in and flow back out to the ocean. Like rapids. We used to jump off the rocks and let ourselves get flushed out to sea. Again and again.

I would never have let my kids do anything half that dangerous, but we were not watched quite as over protectively back in those days.

After a few hours at Sycamore Park, head on up the coast to Oxnard. You will be following my old school bus route.

Out at the beach in Oxnard, right on the marina, I recommend you head on over to the Whale's Tail. I used to hang out there with my BFF and I am pretty sure it was with a fake ID. That's how long ago it was.

It is still a happening happy hour spot.

Here's sis showing off our "cucumber Bloody Marys." Sis used to work as a bartender at the Whale's Tail in the '80's. I was already living in Hawaii.

After happy hour head straight into Oxnard itself to Cabo's for some of the most real deal Mexican food to be had. I am ready to leave my computer right now and go make myself something to eat just thinking about our dinner that night.

When you walk into Cabo's there is a woman making hand made tortillas right there in the center of the restaurant.

Oh. My. God.

Best tortillas ever.

Can you tell we have MEH Mexican food over here? I was so ready for this meal.

Cabo's also does the best table side guacamole I've ever had. My BIL was talking about it all day.

Some beers, some chips (also made from their home made tortillas)....



We had tacos to die for. I was too busy inhaling them to get a photo for you all. My favorite is the Taco Dorados de Picadillo. It is pork, beef, and potato; all cooked down together and served in a crispy, fresh, hand-made minutes before tortilla.

We also ordered the Carne Asada and Carnitas tacos, which are served in soft tortillas with cilantro, onion, and lime.

Then we all shared so we could have one of each.

Cabo also does a Bloody Mary with cocktail shrimp inside. Which we also ate too fast to take photos.

There you have it. Ventura County a la Pseudo.

Got a favorite haunt where you live? Where you grew up? Link on up!

TTT: Critical Mass

Forces aligned, openings materialized, and a trip off the rock came into full view and was created.

In other words, after four long years away, I am returning to my homeland over the October Intercession.

My second (side) job is blossoming with promise and I had an opportunity to expand my business with this trip. It seems meant to be as things fell into place quite easily.

I have not seem my mom since the insanity of summer 2010. Those of you who have been here awhile know what I am talking about.

So I thought I'd pay her a visit. The death of a dear friend last week reminded me of the fragility of life. Despite the craziness that is my mom, it was time.

Ying and Yang.

Work and family.

It's all sorting out. Or not. Either way, it will be what it will be.

Critical Mass (Preponderance of the Great)

In an atom, when CRITICAL MASS is reached, it is a time when several heavy particles are occupying the same space, thereby creating extraordinary events and catastrophic chain reactions. In much the same way, the current situation is becoming weighted with a great many considerations. There are numerous decisions pending, the air is full of ideas with all their ensuing multifarious possibilities, and the ponderous affairs of the people around you are pushing into the foreground. All of it is important, serious, and meaningful, and all of it is coming to a head right now.

The I Ching Workbook

Travel tip? Not so much. After my trip to LA, I am sure I'll have tips to share. Meanwhile, feel free to link on up.

TTT: Zumba, Marinas, and Volcanoes

Except for hiking, walking, and ocean sports; I haven't exercised in twenty years.

However, of late, Daughter has been poking me to go to her Zumba class. So I did.

It's at an outdoor pavillion, overlooking the marina, with Koko Crater in the background.

As the boats leave the marina, the people on board dance and wave and shout ZUMBA at us.

Jen, Zumba instructor extraordinaire, has the energy of a tiger.

Best part of all about being outdoors with the great view? No mirrors.

Before it zooms in close, check out the view...



If you are vacationing this side of the Pacific Pond, come check it out. Right around the corner is Hanauma Bay, where you can go snorkeling and cool off.

Got a fun place you go to near home? Far away? Link on up.

Sunset Surfing

On the East Shore of Oahu is a cliff side community that looks out on Maunalua Bay.

Portlock.

Don't forget you can click on any photo to see it enlarged.

It's one of my, "if I ever could buy a house ANYWHERE, it might be here" dreams.

Homes start around $2,000,000 and go upwards to the sky. This photo isn't one I took, it's from a real estate ad...

However.

Anyone can go to China Walls. A little beach access between the million dollar mansions.

We went one afternoon last week to watch the big swell from Tahiti.

That's Diamond Head in the background...

Ah.

I'm late, but if you want to link up a cool little spot in your neck of the woods, please do.

SC + TTT + Late = Too busy to Blog

When Jen said the spin topic this week was language, possible spins wove through my head all week.

Should I write about my love for foul language, (more so in writing than speech) and how newly invented words like Jan's Fuck-ton make my day and inspire me to write?

How about the doctoral student in my graduate rhetoric class, with her salt and pepper bob and grannie glasses, thrilling me to no end when she dryly gave a filibuster in class one day on the origin of the word fuck and how the upper-class British back in the day relegated the word into something bad and dirty to keep the classes distinct?

Should I write about how much I loved the book Bee Season and the whole idea of a mystical experience coming from the sounds that syllables make?

And, then. There is the enormous topic of home language versus Standard English and the place (or not) of home dialects in a classroom. This is a huge conversation in Hawaii, where pidgin English is the home language for most of its children.

It is inappropriate to tell children that their home language is "low" or "stupid," as in doing so it is equivalent to telling them that their parents and grandparents, their aunties and uncles - that all the people they love are stupid.

However.

If Standard English is not taught to these same kids, if they do not learn how to become bi-dialectical, how to code switch, how to discern where and when each language is appropriate; if pidgin is allowed to be the only language in the classroom, then the teacher is allowing a gate to be shut. Teaching them Standard English while respecting their home language allows them to pass through this gate into other worlds. It would not be fair to send these kids off to college and life thinking they will never need Standard English.

I could go on and on with this subject. It's a huge deal here. I could give examples of both ends of this debate or argue for my middle ground philosophy.

But I found this on YouTube and this girl says it so much better.



I hope you watched it all the way to the end, but if you did not, take this line with you today:

"Isn't that the meaning of life (or language) to understand one another

'mo bettah?"

For more spins, head on over to Jen at Sprite's Keeper.

If you wanted to link a travel post yesterday and noticed I wasn't around, go ahead and link up today!

TTT: Where ya going?

Back in the day, as in my day, meaning the 1970’s (not the 1600’s as my students seem to think as when I was playing classical music while they worked one day I had a student who asked me if the music was from my “era…”).

Where was I?

Oh, yeah. Back in the day we used to say this:

Where you going?

Crazy. Wanna come with?

Anyways.

Today. Was. Surreal.

Incident number one.

Waiting for my daughter to pick me up from work and drop me at an appointment. She is late. I decide to take deep breaths and relax versus worry or get edgy. I am sitting on a bench under a gorgeous, humongous tree and starting to notice the little things. A bird, A breeze. A cloud floating by.

BAM!!! A fucking black bumble bee kamakazies like a rocket into my forehead. Not just anywhere on my forehead, but smack dab bull’s eye center on my third eye.




How not zen is that?

So then I’m sitting there wondering if the Universe is sending me a message to pay attention and stop zoning out. Perhaps it is a sign that my daughter is late because she’s been in an accident.

I see myself spinning off into a world of worry and pull myself in. It’s just a stupid fucking idiot bee.

So I go back into relax mode.

Incident number two.

I’m almost relaxed when I see a car slowing down. But it’s not the cute little car of Daughter’s. It’s a bright metallic SUV with dark tinted windows. The passenger window rolls down and a full out tita barks out the window, “You fucking getting in the car or what? I haven’t got all fucking day asshole.”

Seriously?

As far as I can see, I am the only one outside and part of my mind wonders if there is any way in hell my daughter sent scary ghetto woman to pick me up.

Maybe I should have been nicer to Daughter of late.

Then I hear someone behind me, “HEY! I had to go to the bathroom.”

A big blalah of a guy comes from two buildings behind me. Not sure what he is doing on campus at 3 PM, but he’s the type who pulls his white T-shirt up over his beer belly to cool it off.

Nice.

Incident number 3.

Daughter drops me off at my appointment. With my therapist. Which I started a few months ago when I thought the unbloggable was sure to overwhelm.

But since I don’t write about the unbloggable I guess I haven’t mentioned my therapist.

I walk into the office and go up to the receptionist’s desk to make my co-payment.

Hi. Psuedo here for 4 PM.

Ah, Dorothy?

Ah, no. Pseudo. Last Name. 4 PM

Oh, here. Christie, right?

Are you fucking kidding me? Do I look so looney tunes that I don’t even know my name?

Meanwhile, I am thinking that that is exactly what the people in the waiting room are thinking of me.

Then, it turns out I don’t have an appointment. Not for this week. The receptionist explains that she only has one week in her front desk version of all the doctor’s appointments.

I tell her to call me after she talks to my doctor and to let me know when my appointment is.

I call Daughter to come around and get me.

Waiting.

My phone rings and the receptionist calls me back and tells me that they are going to ask my doctor if she can’t take me since I’m there.

Now I don’t know if she said that because she made a mistake and I actually did have an appointment and she is trying to cover her ass.

Or if she thinks I need to come in…

I go every other week and although I swear it was two weeks ago that I went last, I cannot help but wonder if the last week has been such a busy hell storm that it just felt like two weeks.

I tell the receptionist I will wait for my appointed time thank-you very much. I want to go home.

Want to link up? Apparently I am being very generous with the term "travel" today.

TTT: Everybody's gone surfing....

Today's Travel post (yes, I'm trying to get back in the Thursday habit), takes you to Honolulu's own Ala Moana Shopping Center. We did a tour of the surf stores there this summer when we took the boy shopping for his birthday.

What? You're surprised we have surf stores here?

In the Mainland, you folks probably call these flip flops or something else. While you are in Hawaii remember to call them slippers. Here Daughter is playing host to a rack of high end stuff.


If I was spending money on myself that day I might have bought these:
However, one thing I love about living over here is that it is perfectly acceptable to wear rubber slippers just about anywhere. Don't judge me that I am not a shoe person.


I took these photos especially for Captain Dumbass. I actually thought about buying him the T-shirt "zombies love nerds," but we were shopping for Teen Boy after all and we were on a teachers-got-a-pay-cut budget. Weirdly, Teen Boy would not give up a birthday T for a blogger friend of his mom's. I assumed as I actually did not ask him.

Cool art peice in the back of a store. Hubs knew who this was but I forgot already.

A better blogger would have taken a photo of each store's sign before she went in, then organized this post accordingly.




This next store is HIC, or Hawaiian Island Creations. Their board shaper is Eric Arakawa and these boards are moving around on a conveyor belt like a Disney Ride.

And the awesome longboards...



Got Travel? A favorite haunt in your neck of the woods? Link on up....

TTT: Traveling While Cruising

I've actually taken a load of photos for Traveling Thursdays this summer.

But.

The effort of going through them, selecting, etc.

Has got me skipping posting on Thursdays the last two weeks.

I do have a tip though.

While cruising in a beach chair on a lazy day, make sure you recline and do some cloud watching like you did when you were a kid. It's very relaxing.

And you might just see a flying horse if you're lucky.

Got a tip for how to feel like you are on vacation even when you stay home? An actual trip? Any and all posts in the general genre of living life like a beach are welcome.

TTT: Love, Aloha, and Weddings....

Today's travel tip? If you are planning a wedding, think about getting married in Hawaii.



You can play this in the background for mood music. Hawaiian Wedding Song is played at many of the weddings I have gone to over here. This video is from Youtube, not the wedding this post is about, but you get the idea. Right?

I went to a wedding last week at the Hau Terrace at the Halekulani Hotel. It is a gorgeous venue; the room looks right out at the ocean and Diamond Head.

There is a patio outside and this is where the couple was married, then we had cocktails and pupus while we watched the sunset and beach goers. Meanwhile, the wedding party had their photos taken.

Pretty awesome.

Standing by our little cocktail table, this was our view.....


Around sunset, the sailboats come back. Just imagine a slight breeze, Hawaiian music playing, the smell of flowers and ocean in the air... And the Mai Tai's at the Halekulani are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.


Looking back at the Hau Terrace, you can not only see the patio, but two of my favorite people in the world. I've known these ladies since 1982.


That's the bride with her mama and her aunties. We all worked with her mom at Bobby McGees in the 1980's. This is what cocktail waitresses grow into. Except for the bride of course. She is a Harvard grad and her mom and dad are rightfully proud of her.

The wedding was the most magical wedding I have ever been to. A beautiful ceremony outside, followed by cocktails and pupus. As we were ushered inside to our tables, the room was lit with the rose colored lens of the sunset. The tables and flowers were elegant, the food at the buffet was to die for.... Everything was perfect. I wish I had a video of the bride dancing hula for her new husband. Then you would know what I mean.

You see those first two women to the right of the bride? That's Pam and Susan and they are event managers and were responsible for helping mom, dad, and the bride pull off this amazing wedding. Susan is the owner of Aloha Wedding Planners and Pam has worked for her a long time. If you want the best event managers for your Hawaii wedding, give them a call and tell them Psuedo sent you.

The bride and groom were adorable. Such wonderful young people. They both made me cry when they hit the podium and gave their thankful speeches.

Mama and Bride

The happy wedding party

Got a travel post? A wedding post? Best place to go in your part of the world? Mr. Linky, take us away!