CAROL'S BIRTHDAY DINNER/TRIP (PART 1)

When we were travelling in the motor home one of the places that Carol really enjoyed was San Diego and especially the Hotel Dell Coronado ("The Del"). So to really surprise her and make it a very special birthday I planned a weekend in San Diego with us staying at the Del.

We flew to LA and drove to San Diego arriving the day before her birthday. We got there early enough to do some touring and just enjoying the local area.

Here we are en route to LA.

Here is Carol in front of the Del and on Orange Avenue.






















Since Carol's \birthday was not until the next day, we planned to go to nice restaurant then rather than today. For dinner we had a light dinner at a Burger joint that must have been very popular based on the line at the place for  dinner. The burgers were really good.

Of course we had to have a glass of wine at pool side during the afternoon also. The entire place is great to just sit around a people watch!!

The hotel was built in 1888 and one of the items that caught Carol's eye was the Otis elevator. I was over 100 years old and was even operated by an elevator operator. You don't see that anymore. It has been upgraded and they do not have the operating handle anymore but use buttons. However the doors are still of the old variety and opened and closed by the operator.

 







The hotel's main restaurant was not open on Carol's birthday so I researched the area and picked Vigilucci's because it had 4 veal dishes on the menu and Carol loves veal!! Here we are out in front of the restaurant. We had dinner on the patio and listened to the piano player serenading us!!

CAROL'S BIRTHDAY DINNER/TRIP (PART 2)

Since it was Carol's birthday dinner the restaurant even provided a birthday "cake". It was really a creme boules!! That is a whole lot better than plain ole' birthday cake!!

Prior to Carol's dinner,after having breakfast on the patio of the Del, facing the Pacific Ocean, we went for a short stroll on Orange Avenue. Weather here was really nice as the early morning temperatures were about 66 F and very dry. We even slept with the window open at night! Since we had the day to tour, we took a trolley tour but only got off at one stop, Old Town. This is where San Diego actually began. There were plenty of Mexican places so we had to stop and have a margarita and some chips and salsa!! We didn't want to spoil dinner.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove to LA, had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that had really good Mexican food. Since we were departing the area early in the morning we stayed close to the airport.
Now I am trying to think of how I can top this birthday for Carol. It will be a challenge!!

JIM'S BIG EIGHT O BIRTHDAY

Holly Smokes, it has been over a year since I posted anything on this site. Shame in me!!

But since I celebrated my EIGHTIETH birthday this weekend, I felt I should get back posting some our activities, and we really do have a lot of them!! I do not post what we are going to do but rather what we have DONE. (Too many crazies out there)

To celebrate my birthday we took the motor home and went to Tampa area and camped at Lazy Days for the weekend.  Got there on Thursday and that evening went to one our favorites, Happy Hour at  Fleming's Steak House. Good prices and and a very nice hamburger at half the cost as in the dining room. We usually go to the Fleming's in Sarasota but Tampa was closer of course.

Rain was coming down all weekend so we had to stay in a lot. As of Monday Tampa is having significant flooding in the area but we were lucky and did not have any problems with it.

Friday night we went to the local Brandon Elks thinking we were going to get to do some dining and dancing. We got the dining, but the music was not appropriate for dancing. We also found it strange that no one was even trying to dance. We left early and commented on the lack of dancers and the gal we talked to said they don't dance much there!!

I think that Carol's highlight of the weekend was finding an HSN outlet store in Brandon!!! We did find a great deal there for those thin style hangers and I needed a lot of them.

Saturday was Jim's birthday and we had reservations to go to the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City. It is a Spanish/Cuban restaurant and highly reputed. We have been to one of their "branches" in Sarasota's St. Armand's Circle but this location has been here since 1905. The tile work outside and inside the restaurant is quite beautiful. In addition to dinner we arranged to watch the Flamenco show. Our seats were right on edge of the stage floor so we had no trouble seeing the show!! We had to wait a while to get seated and here is a picture of Carol patiently waiting. Notice the tile work!

The show and the meals were both excellent. Carol had a veal entree and I had a bacon wrapped filet and naturally we brought some of each home,

We left Lazy Days on Sunday morning, in the rain naturally, and drove to Gibsontown, on the way home,  to get a fill up of diesel in the mnotorhome at $2.429 per gallon. That is a real bargain and since I had to put 90 gallons in, I saved a lot from normal prices. A full tank of diesel is my "hurricane Insurance". If a hurricane comes our way, I can go 1200 miles on a tank of fuel to get out of it's way!!!

So, smooth sailing to all of our friends. Jim and Carol

RV Trip - Stop 1 - Savannah

This post and the next 6 are a diary of our recent trip up north for a number of reasons. We were gone for a total of 25 days and drove the motor home a total of 3426 miles. We made 6 significant stops and if you don't have anything better to do for a while you can visit all 6 posts to see how these "old timers" are spending our golden years and our money!!!!

We were originally going to depart North Port on AUG 4 but Jim found out The Lady Chablis was going to be in Savannah on AUG 3. Lady Chablis was one of the main characters in the book and movie " Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", by John Berand. If you have not seen or read the book it is a true story about a murder in Savannah. Very good book and movie.

So we got to Savannah, had a pleasant dinner and went to the show to see Lady Chablis emcee the show at Club One, where the show is a number of cross dressers!! Yes, it is a gay bar and show!!! I did not have a good camera with me but I did get a picture of Lady Chablis on my cell phone.

Even though picture is not high quality you can see Chablis is a good looking slender person.  Carol would have really liked to have several of the gowns worn by Chablis. Chablis' name prior to her current one was FRANK. Yes "she" is a guy but you would never know while dressed!!

RV Trip - Stop 2 - Norfolk VA

Our trip north involved many stops the second being Norfolk, VA. We had been there earlier in the year evaluating it as a location for the Hazelwood reunion in 2015. Jim served on the Hazelwood for 3 years. This time we were evaluating 4 hotels as the possible reunion location. We were surprised and pleased that we got  invitations to spend a night in each of the 4 hotels. In that way we got to properly evaluate each of them.
One of the tours we did not get on during our visit earlier this year was a harbor tour and dinner on the Spirit of Norfolk. The convention bureau made arrangements for a complimentary tour on that boat. It was great and I am sure we will include it in our reunion.
The meal was superb and they had a DJ to make the tour even more fun. Since we were about to celebrate Carol's birthday I even got us a bottle of champagne rather than just a glass.

As you can see, you get to see the ships up close and the captain gives an excellent description of each as we go by them If you ever go to Norfolk don't miss this tour.
When we finished our 4 nights in Norfolk, we left early in the morning and drove 11 1/2 hors to get to the Troy, NY area.

RV Trip - Stop 3 - Mini Phi Kap Reunion

Our trip North had many purposes and one of the most enjoyable was a gathering of Phi Kappa fraternity brothers in in Lake George, NY. There were 6 brothers attending, Don Nojaim, Joe Internacola, Dick Veltri, Dick Pratt, Jim Julian and the sparkplug for the "reunion, Vice Alescio.

Our group went to a daytime dinner and play and then to Buco de Peppo the next day for an early dinner prior to going to a show at the Proctor Theater in Schenectady. Both shows were excellent except the excessive loudness at the Proctor. It was a show similar to Circu de Leis(?).

Here is a series of photos taken at Buco de Peppo of the group, minus the photographer, Jim.

Prior to Carol and Jim going to Lake George, we stopped at Latham (Troy, NY) to visit Carol's family cemetery and to take in some our favorite local area foods. It was Carol's birthday so went to the Red Front in Troy where we used to go on dates over 56 years ago. The pizza was just as good now as it was back then  and this picture shows Carol with a SMALL pizza. I don't think the table would hold a large pizza!!

We also stopped at Ted's Fish Fry twice before leaving the area as those fish sandwiches are the BEST!

RV Trip - Stop 4 - Trafford and Pirate Ballgame

Jim lived in Trafford, PA his first 18 years of life and then went to college for 3 1/2 years and the Navy for 3 years. After the Navy there was only one year he lived in Trafford. When we went back for the Peduzzi's birthdays (next post) we drove around every street in town to see the changes that have been made. There are many improvements and there is still much of the "old town" remaining.

Here is the senior high rise that now rests between Brinton and Cavitt Avenues. McBride's Market used to be on this site on Cavitt and Matesick's Store was on Brinton. I am sure if Jim had looked at the list of residents in the high rise he would have seen that some his classmates now live there!

The old borough building is in process of being removed. Even the steps that ran up the hill that were adjacent to it have been closed for years. The new borough building and Fire department is a showcase building visible as you enter Trafford coming across the bridge.

  You are also greeted by a large mural painted on the rear walls of buildings on Cavitt Avenue.

The real showcase improvement is the war memorial park on Edgewood at 5th, overlooking Trafford.  It has 5 monuments for the wars since WW1 up to and including the current War on Terror. Memorial benches are also in the park.

So there a lot of improvements to Trafford and the entire town should be thankful they have a great Mayor in Rey Peduzzi. 

We also found improvements in the Pirate PNC Stadium. The last Pirate home game Jim saw was in Forbes Field and PNC Stadium is a wonderful stadium.

One on our "must" stops in the Trafford area is Delallo's Italian Store on Rt 30 in Jeanette. If you can't find the Italian food you want in this store, it is not made!! Just look at the olive display!!

 

Naturally when we left Trafford we had a good supply of my favorites, Sandwich size pepperoni, Hot sausage and other goodies.