Manhattan Beach

Rounding out our California trip was a stay at Michelle's aunt and uncle in Manhattan Beach. We purposely didn't plan too much so that we could take in the beach:


go for a bike ride up to Marina del Rey:


And a little shopping and eating at The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, that I had talked about last year on our visit there.

What was interesting about this time was that I bought the coolest action figure ever at a toy store called the Puzzle Zoo:


'Nuff said. I will be the envy of all the nerd kids on my block. Worship me. I almost bought this following set just for the reaction that I would get from Scott. It's basically all his favorite people: Lenin, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Ghandi, Mao Zedung. Sorry, Scott, no Von Mises action figures.

Farmer's Market

Our California adventures continued on Friday with a visit to The Farmer's Market. It's been around since the 30's and is a popular place to see Hollywood types shopping or eating lunch. We had pretty slim pickin's when we were there on Friday, just a couple of D-List actors - that curly-haired guy from The Bob Newhart Show, the unfortunately named Peter Bonerz (I'm sure he wasn't picked on as a kid):


and "The Mechanic" from Fight Club, Holt McCallany (also on the show Heroes), most memorable to me for the line:

MECHANIC --- "In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name."

JACK --- "No -- !"

MECHANIC --- "His name is Robert Paulson."

But we had a nice lunch, jambalaya from The Gumbo Pot and a decadent brownie from local favorite Dupars.

Disneyland

Our California trip started out with a visit to Disneyland:


This was the first time that we actually stayed at a hotel near Disneyland. We stayed the night before and after. It made it very nice as we could walk to Disneyland and didn't have to rush.

We had a blast, had great weather and Alex was able to go on a lot of rides that he was too young to go on 3 years ago. Favorites of Alex included Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, an interactive ride:


and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, a ride where you actually get in subs.

After a full day, just by accident, Michelle came upon a sandwich, the Monte Cristo, that we'd never had before at a little diner next to our hotel. It's ham, turkey and swiss on bread dipped in egg batter, deep fried and then covered with preserves. Obviously it's a heart attack on a plate and doesn't sound like it would be good but it's fantastic. It's origins are sketchy but the sandwich appears to have been popularized in LA and specifically at Disneyland.