Space part 2

One of the things I love about California (besides the fact I'm not freezing my bottom off) is space. There is so much of it! I love being in or near a big city and yet able to see wide open horizons. I took a few shots of our journey to go sleighing in fluffy mountaintop snow. I'll need to ask D how we got there as I have a bad sense of direction and need to pay careful attention to be able to tell. I know we were on the freeway for about an hour in total. I remember a 10 and a 15 and some strange rock formations (see above) but that's about it.

Can you see the snow cap in the distance?

We went in a convoy of two cars. D scoffed at me for using the word "convoy". He used to lead convoys in the army and insisted this was not a convoy. I explained that two vehicles and above make a convoy. We are still in a disagreement on this point!

D's car has a sunroof. It was tinted and so everything looks grey. Cirrus clouds! Wahoo! Remember that from school?

Oh boy will I miss the wide open roads and blue skies.

The Pike, Long Beach

We went to the Yardhouse for a leisurely beer and snack by the waters. To D's delight, we discovered the beer tasters which was perfect for us to have a little try of everything.

The tasters came in two fixed sets, the white beers and the darker beers. Being a fan of Blue Moon and Hoegaaden (sp? I'm blogging from my phone) we chose the white. They came in six little helpings which look like they're about a third of a pint each. Perfect for two people. It became apparent that every white beer except one had a fruit as one of their ingredients. My favorite was the classic whitbeer without the hints if fruit. It's a shame that D threw away the list of beer names. I can only remember the beers by their fruit - apricot, tangerine, cherry, strawberry and blueberry. The flavored were subtle and the beers were definitely not sweet like the famous fruli ales. That worked well for me as I don't like sweet drinks (I dislike dessert wines or liquors like kahlua or midori.

I ordered a plate of yardhouse's sliders. This came with a side of very thin sliced fries and a pickle. They were sooo good washed down with cold beer!

Breakfast at Coco's

You've got to love a place where cake is an acceptable form of breakfast. We went for breakfast (it was almost lunchtime) at Coco's in Norwalk. D's breakfast combo cane with this coffee cake, which contrary to my expectations, didn't contain any coffee. It was a spiced pumpkin cake so I have to assume that the word coffee cake makes reference to the fact that you have this with coffee. Is that right? It was moist and rich, and came with whipped butter on the side. Seriously, American breakfast places put butter on everything! French toast, pancakes, crepes... I'm sure my eggs were cooked in butter.

I have my coffee black but was interested to know what these little cups of creamer taste like. I don't know what half and half or French vanilla is so I opened one of each to try. Half n half is sooooo creamy. I can't believe it goes into coffee. I expect a layer of fat to be floating on top of your cup of Joe if one of these go in. The French vanilla. Hmmm...where do I start. First of all I didn't expect this to be sweet but boy was it SWEET. it was pure corn syrup with artificial vanilla flavoring. Like the half n half, it was also very creamy. I think I'll pass on these but I'm glad I know what they taste like now.

If the helmet was white

I could be a Stig lookalike. I persuaded D to let me ride on his Kawasaki Ninja as opposed to taking the car. We kept bumping helmets at starts and breaks. Is that normal? What can a pillion rider do to avoid this?

A visit to IHOP

I think it stands for International House of Pancakes. Two eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and hash brown potatoes with a side of pancakes and 5 types of syrup. This is why I'm fat! A quick note about the bacon in America: it's always cooked to a crisp, compared to the more chewy, meaty bacon in the UK. I can't decide which one I like better. All I can say is I'm glad to be going home soon to my treadmill.

Space

Wide open spaces, snow capped mountains in the horizon, sunny skies and four lane roads. I will miss you. California you are wonderfully made by our Creator.

A Salvadorean Christmas dinner

Not a turkey or brussel sprout in sight! The cylindrical thing is a chicken tamale which is really hard work to make but so delicious! D's mom wrapped masa around flavourful chicken shreds and cassava. This is done in a leaf and foil to form the cylindrical shape, stacked one on top of the other in a giant pot and boiled. D's Tia (aunt) made the rice and potato salad, both bursting with flavour and his mom also made the beef stew. I've never had any of these before but they were so good sprinkled with lots of cilantro and hot sauce.