Glad This Year is Over

 I’m sitting here quietly waiting for the end of the disaster that is the year 2020 to be finally over.

My son has headed home, my daughter and her husband are off in their part of the house, the wife is sitting in the living room, asleep with Star Trek Next Generation on the TV.

There are less than 30 minutes of 2020 left. Looking back, it’s been a terrible year. We lost my mom, my dad and two brothers-in-laws (none to covid). My only remaining brother-in-law is fighting off some form of cancer (they haven’t really figured out what exactly is wrong, but he requires two hospital visits a week).

We had a big travel year planned. We were going to go to Vancouver for our anniversary, take a Panama Canal cruise in May, finally go back to Hawaii (after meeting and marrying there 36 years ago). 

19 year old me when we lived in Hawaii

When things started going wonky, we scheduled a trip to Europe. Obviously, none of that happened.

We did manage a short trip to Zion National Park, but that didn’t give us much to write about for the remainder of the year.

A photo from our trip to Zion National Park

Still, I sit here at the end of the worst year of my 60 years, and I do still have hope for the future.

I don’t know what is going to happen in the near term, but I have hope that we can start to travel again in 2021.

We had rescheduled our Hawaii trip for just after my birthday but have put it off again (has more to do with construction on the house than any medical concerns).

We do have a trip to Europe planned for the spring, we’re waiting to see how that works out.

A photo of Stonehenge taken during our 2019 trip to England

The big trip for 2021 is taking the family to Walt Disney World in the fall.

We have been planning this trip for five years. Let’s hope it works out.

Photo from our 2018 trip to Disneyworld during the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 

Hopefully, we can get back to traveling, get back to experiencing the dining options in airports and distant locations and sharing that with you.

Until then, Happy New Year.

Eating Zion - The Switchback Grill

We have planned several trips for this year, all of our plans have ended up on the Covid scrap heap. 

I finally decided that we needed a road trip. So I planned a trip to Zion National Park, a mere 500 mile drive from the house. 

Our first night we went to the Switchback Grill. We didn’t have a reservation, which turned out to be a bit of an issue. 

We were fortunate and the maître d' managed to get us a table. The couple that arrived just after us wasn’t so lucky. 

I ordered the bacon  wrapped Meatloaf  Napoleon made with veal, buffalo and pork grilled and roasted tomatoes served with house mashed potatoes and thyme pan gravy.

Meatloaf Napoleon

I have to say it was good enough that we planned to make a reservation and return before we left for home. 

Dining Out (side)

So, I’m sitting here listening to the smooth stylings of the Electric Light Orchestra’s “Face the Music” album.

The music reminds me of my high school days. I was a big ELO fan. I bought every album I could find, finally ending up with a pretty complete collection. I could never find their second album, but I did score a couple of import albums and a really nice box set. I still have the vinyl disks.

The late 70’s and early 80’s was a good time to be young and independent. Ronald Reagan took the White House; the Soviet Union was falling apart, and I lived in Hawaii.

I was a Soldier stationed at a Navy base on the island of Oahu, and yes, I was a US Army Soldier on a US Navy base. It made for an interesting dynamic, but that is a story for another time.

Back when I was a young Soldier in Hawaii

The best part of being at Barbers Point Naval Air Station, was the day they sent a young sergeant to fix a rotor blade on my CH-47 Helicopter.  

I asked her to go to lunch and some 37 years later, we are still together.

I was a long-distance runner, a certified scuba diver, incredibly bad surfer, and all round out-door kind of guy.

Together, we enjoyed bowling, shooting sports, hiking and especially dining out.

We would wander into Waikiki as often as we could, we had some favorite hangouts, but we were always willing to give a new place a try.

Times have changed, especially in 2020.

Dining out is something of a challenge here in sunny Southern California. We still can’t dine in at most restaurants, but we can dine in tents in the parking lots of local eateries. The issue is we live in the mighty Mojave Desert, where it’s hotter than hell in the daytime.

We did manage to go to the local Outback Steak House the other day for an early dinner. It was a fairly moderate day, little wind and decent temperatures.

The food was good, the service was ok, but I can’t wait to be able to dine inside again.

The Steak and Lobster Tail at Outback

This week we head out to Zion National Park in Utah. I understand that once we leave the boundaries of the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia we may have a bit more freedom.

I can’t wait to see what happens. Oh yeah, “One Summer Dream” is playing right now. A good sign.

 

 

Finally Eating Out Again (For An Instant)

I miss dining out.

I miss leaving the house, driving across town, and sitting down for a good meal. No matter how good a cook you are, I just feel like a professionally prepared meal is better.

The Governor of California’s rule against indoor dining is starting to really get under my skin.

It’s bad enough that I have been forced to cancel our trip to Vancouver, our Panama Canal cruise and now our Hawaiian vacation, but we can’t even go out to eat.

We’ve tried bringing food home, but by the time it gets transported the ½ hour from our favorite restaurant, it’s cold and usually a bit soggy.

The last time I sat down and ate in a restaurant was Feb 29^th. But that was fast food.

My last trip to a real sit-down restaurant was the Japanese place near my house on Feb 15^th.

There was a brief bright spot when for a couple of weeks, we could eat indoors, but that joy was fleeting, as Governor Dipstick reimposed the dining ban.

Me being happy to dine-in last June, before dining was banned again.

During that brief pause of the insanity, we managed to snag a table at the Yardhouse Restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga.

The Yardhouse is known for their amazing selection of beers, which you can get in a yard-glass.

Even with the paired down menu they offered, I was just happy to eat out again.

A simple bacon cheeseburger with truffle fries. 

The town I live in has started to certify restaurants for in house dining, I can’t wait for a few more of the places near home qualify

The Humble Hot Dog

It’s day 18 of the Stay-at-Home order.

Oddly, I don’t find that I’m missing driving the 150 miles a day to and from my “normal” job. And I don’t think I’ve spent this much time with my wife since we were both in the US Army and worked in the same unit. That would be about 35 years ago.

This week has been a little rough, it’s been raining for the last five days. Now if you live in Seattle, WA. that would be a normal week, however if you reside in the middle of the mighty Mojave Desert, it’s a bit unusual. To put it simply, it sucks.

I’ve binge watched some TV, got to re-watch the movie “Yesterday” (I saw it on the plane to the UK, loved it, I highly recommend it).

After improving my tan using exposure to the electric glow of computer/video screens, I even picked up an actual book. You know, those old-fashioned things with pages that you physically turn to continue reading. And to boot, they’re radiation free.

For some reason (maybe hunger caused by the unprecedented and unnecessary depletion of foodstuffs from the local store), I picked up my copy of “The Hamburger” by Josh Ozersky, my favorite food writer.

In his definitive tome of the history of the simple meat sandwich, he disperses with popular myths, delves deep into history and gives us a thorough understanding of how ground beef on a bun became the defining cuisine of America.

Ozersky briefly mentions the other contender for the fast food heart of America, the humble hot dog.

Josh dismisses the hot dog, as well as the Philly Cheese steak, the Dagwood and the Ruben as mere afterthoughts in the march of American fast food hierarchy.

Walt Disney World has a pretty acceptable burger when we visited in 2015 

I would never think to disagree with the ultimate meat oracle, but  I have my own thoughts about the “All American” hot dog, which I’ll share in the next couple of posts (hint one – it’s not American).