Carl’s Journey

The 4th Annual “A Brunch in November” will be on Saturday, November 21, 2009. This is a fundraiser for HATCH. Please RSVP by November 13, 2009 at info@carlsjourney.com

Desert Storm

On Saturday,  August 1, 2009, my friends and I took my big Lincoln Town Car, Goldie Han, for a joy ride across the southernmost West United States. We had packed poor Goldie to the max.  The giant trunk was left with not an inch of space and the back seat was filled from the floor to the roof on the right side.  Thank goodness the left side of the backseat was roomy enough for one large man.

We stopped in El Paso on this first night and experienced a cool front.  It rained on and off from the time we passed San Antonio to the time we reached El Paso. The ten hour plus trip was nice and cool and at one point, the temperature dipped down to seventy-five degrees.  This was a big contrast to Houston which had been suffering a heat wave all summer long.

The Ginormous Missile

South of Tucson is the Titan II Missile Museum. Gary had wanted us to visit this place before we arrived in Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Being the party pooper that I am, I did not want to go and tried to get out of it at every chance I could.  I am happy to say that Gary won.  We had a great time visiting this place.  The guided tour started with a short movie about the largest nuclear warheads ever built.  From the media room, everyone puts on a hard hat and was escorted out to the hot missile silo area.  After a short tour of the aboveground structure, we walked (elevator available) down to the missile silo.  The reason for the hard hat is that the inside of the silo is very low and if you are above five feet eleven, you have a great chance of bumping your head.  The tour ended inside the missile control room.  From the look of the tour group, this is not something women would enjoy.  Most of the people here were men and a few unfortunate girlfriends.

Baby Got Camelback

On our second night of our road trip, we stopped in Scottsdale, AZ and stayed at the Double Tree Scottsdale Resort near Camelback Mountain.  This beautiful hotel is on North Scottsdale Street and is about fifteen minutes from Phoenix.  The price we paid for this place was $58 total (tax included) via Priceline.com.  The only annoying detail about this place was that once we entered our room, the cell phones did not work.  Since Gary and I are both internet business people, this was a small problem.  We could not use our cell phones to go online to take care of business.

We met one of Lewis’ friends,  Charles Harker, a wonderful artist who resides in Phoenix and Mexico.  Please visit www.charlesharker.com to view his Mexican influenced work. Charles started a Spanish-speaking group for Phoenix gringos years ago, and it still meets.  The four of us ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant, Via Delosantos, before we called it a night.

Lewis had explored the resort and told me it has a well landscaped swimming pool and that it was a shame  none of us used it.  He continued to mention the pool as if El Dorado had been almost within his reach.  We went to eat at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Da Vang, before heading out to Los Angeles on Monday morning.  This big hole in the wall has one of the most diversed clientelle.  Strange how one of the most undecorated, barren places can have the best food. 

I See Stars

For our three nights in Los Angeles, we stayed at the Hollywood Heights Hotel.  We got this boutique hotel for a total (tax included) of $76 a night.  The hotel is cute but small and borders between 2 1/2 stars to 3 stars.  It is only one block from the famous Hollywood Bowl and two blocks from the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  On our first night, we walked along Hollywood Blvd and had dinner at the famous Mel’s Diner.  It may be famous and have a lot of history, but the food is just awful.

I must confess that I eat a turkey dinner at least once a month.  On this night, I ordered a turkey dinner and it was worse than a microwaved Swanson’s Dinner. Everything else that Gary and Lewis ate were just a big nothing since I don’t remember what they ate.

The Art of Love

Lewis and I dragged Gary on the Metro bus and rode it from Hollywood Blvd to LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts.  Located on Wilshire Blvd, this behemoth compound is next to the famous Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.  We arrived to LACMA at 11 AM only to find out that the door does not open until noon.  So we walked to the tar pits and were delighted when we discovered that it was free on this Tuesday morning.  After a one hour visit at the tar pit, we started our tour of LACMA.  First was the “special” Korean exhibit, “Your Bright Future.”  I am going to be brutally honest here.  What I saw in this exhibit was not art, but expressions ranging from handwritten notes about sweatshop workers with live artists in animal costumes posing like stuffed animals to video images used to convey messages.  It was thought provoking, but it was not art.  One of the pieces displayed was a crate on a warehouse type floor. If this is art, then my extremely cluttered house is a priceless masterpiece.

We then headed to the Japanese art exhibit building.  This curvacious building that houses silk paintings from Japan is a piece of art itself.  As I walked along the curved walkway that leads me to each floor, I took much time to view these rare silk paintings.

Big In Japan

Around 2 PM, we took the bus to downtown and walked a long 7 blocks to Little Tokyo, one of my favorite places beside the Grand Central Market in the downtown area.  We walked past the Grand Central Market on the way to Little Tokyo.We ate a late lunch at a small and inexpensive Japanese restaurant and walked one block over to Pinkberry, my favorite frozen yogurt shop in the world. 

Little Saigon

We spent our last full day visiting Little Saigon in Santa Ana on Bolsa Avenue.  The three of us ate at Banh Cuon Tay Ho, a restaurant specializing in Vietnamese rice rolled dumplings.  My ancestor came from North Vietnam and this is one of the most famous dishes from North Vietnam so I am very aware of how this dish is supposed to taste.  The dough was too thick and there was no “bug juice.”  When I say bug juice, I mean the infamous ca cuong condiment, an extract from the water beetle, ca cuong, which lives in the lakes and ponds of North Vietnam.  Small drops of this condiment are used in the popular “nuoc cham”/fish sauce.  Eating banh cuon without this condiment, is like eating a corn dog without mustard, a rueben sandwich without Russian dressing, a pesto sauce without basil.

We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway for a while before getting on the freeway and going back to our hotel room for a short break before meeting my two friends who live in Los Angeles.

A Big Girl on the Swish Alps

My two friends live in a beautiful house on a hill in the Silver Lake area.  To many, West Hollywood may be the gay mecca for gay men in the Los Angeles area, but all the locals know that Silver Lake is where it’s at.  Also known as the Swish Alps, Silver Lake is a beautiful gay community about 15 minutes east of downtown LA.  It is also ethnically diverse. Being Vietnamese, I noticed that there were some Vietnamese restaurants that are now opened in this area.

It was almost impossible to park my beloved car, Goldie Han, on the small hilly street that my friends live on.  After several painful minutes, I abandoned my car and let Gary take over and in a few minutes, Gary managed to park the big lady. Lewis, Gary, Vernon, Jeffrey and I dined on grilled chicken and veggies which Vernon and Jeffrey grilled for us. They got the recipe from the internet the night before.  We dined outdoor on the  patio that overlooks the city.  It was beautiful and relaxing spending times with friends this night with a shining yellow moon sitting pretty in the clear night sky.  The only scary moment happened when one of us (I shall not give name) slipped and broke a plant and knocked down a Tiki torch as he tried to walk up the uneven hilly steps.

The Cold Side of Sin City

On Thursday, August 6, 2009, we drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.  I have been to Vegas three times during the summer and it is usually 110 degrees in the day time and about 99 degrees at night.  This night, the temperature dipped down to 75 degrees at midnight and it was windy and chilly.

My sister, Mimi and her husband, Ken, flew in from Houston and met up with us three.  My cousin, Dr. Ana was already in Vegas for a conference and extended her stay to be with us. A friend, flew in from California and joined our entourage.

Most of us went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. The show was very good and the set and effect were spectacular.  However, the ending was changed to a happy Hollywood type ending.  Cousin Ana skipped the show and spent her day hanging out at the pool at Harrah’s, our hotel/casino. 

My cousin, Victor and his girlfriend, Florence, arrived on Friday and completed our entourage which included Gary’s sister and mother and Lewis’ friend, Gary W. who lives in Las Vegas.

The Big Fish

On Friday night, Cousin Ana invited all of us to a wonderful dinner at Bartolotta, one of the nicest and priciest restaurant in Las Vegas.  The Italian eatery is located inside the Wynn Casino and has indoor and outdoor dining areas.  They sat us at a big square table outside next to a beautiful modern looking pond.  The outdoor area was cooled by an airconditioned system.  The meal was good.  I had the best gnocchi pasta and the best ravioli ever.  The fish were fresh (flown in daily) and very expensive.  Thank you Dr. Ana for treating us to such a memorable meal.

Like Water for Chocolate

After a dinner, ten of us went to see the show, Le Reve.  It was spectacular; however, O remains my favorite show in Vegas. This show is like a scaled down version of Cirque du Soleil’s O.  The round water filled stage came alive with performers swimming and flying in and out of the water.  It was nonstop action but Gary G did tell me that he could have done without some of the interpreting dance pieces.

Buddha Is In The House

We spend Saturday eating.  Gary and I treated our group to a great brunch at Paris, Las Vegas’s buffet restaurant, Le Village Buffet.  This night belonged to TAO.  This restaurant/bar/night club has to be one of the busiest, most crowded places in Vegas.  I made reservation for 11 people a month ahead and had to guarantee payment for all 11 people if I cancelled less than 24 hours before dinner time.  Inside the restaurant sits a ginormous (enormous for the proper folks) statue of Buddha overlooking the diners as they feast on an Asian fusion menu.  The food was very good, but not spectacular.  We shared dishes from sushi to steak to vegan dishes (Dr. Ana is a vegetarian.) We went dutch on this one and I can say that even though TAO was pricey, it was not even near the level of Bartolotta.

After dinner, we walked along the strip to Serendipity 3 restaurant for dessert.  I don’t care for the ice cream here, but the frozen hot chocolate was one of the most delicious, addictive things I ever had (Oprah served it to all her audience on one show.)  I had to swallow a triple dosage of lactose pills to enjoy the giant sized shake.

Sunday Farewell

Cousin Ana, Victor and Florence left for the comfort of Oakland on Sunday and the remaining crew went to eat dinner at a wonderful Mexican restaurant inside the Palazzo Hotel.  Dos Caminos serves the best guacamole I ever had in any Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant.  Gary’s sister and mother treated all of us this night and the  food was incredible.  The only item we had that was not up to par was Gary’s roasted suckling pig.  The cochinita pibil was overcooked and ended up too dry.  The rest of the dishes were spectacular. The short ribs with a tamarind sauce was hearty and tasty while the roasted sea bass was very good.  Ken’s mini filet mignon wrapped bacon was his favorite dish of the entire trip.

The Long Road Home

On Monday, August 10, we headed home.  My sister and her husband flew back to Houston and Gary, Lewis and I started our road trip back.  On the way to Phoenix, we stopped at Hoover Dam and enjoyed a quick but deadly hot time on the dam.  I did not think we would make it back to our car without dying yet we were out in the heat for no more than 15 minutes.

We used Priceline and were able to stay at the Double Tree Camelback Resort again.  We met with Lewis’s friend, artist, Charles Harker, at Da Vang restaurant and enjoyed a light dinner.  Charles and Lewis stopped by a Mexican market to buy some dessert and brought them back to our hotel room. 

Lewis and I woke up early Tuesday morning to explore the beautiful pool that Lewis likes.  I returned to start packing big Goldie Han for the trip back to El Paso.  Lewis remained and received a sort of apology from an attendant skimming the pool, explaining that he would have finished earlier, but a previous task had taken too long.  Lewis gathered he had been mistaken for the kind of wealthy person who does not want servants underfoot.

The Long Long Road

We stayed overnight in El Paso on Tuesday and the drove the remaining 750 miles home on Wednesday.  I had driven most of the way home and by Wednesday evening while we stopped for dinner in San Antonio, the evil twin in me surfaced and pulled a Serena Williams (I love you Serena) on Gary while I was looking for the big restaurant, Mi Tierra.  After eating a terrible meal at Mi Tierra, I realized that this restaurant is popular because it is popular.  The food has always been disapointing and it was horrible compared to the wonderful meals at Dos Caminos.

Gary and I were exhausted when we dropped Lewis off and then managed to lock ourselves out of our house at 2 AM while we were bringing in two weeks worth of luggage.  I took a screwdriver from a toolbox in my car, (YEAH I CAN BE BUTCH!) and managed to unlock my door!!!  If I can unlock my door with a simple screwdriver, anyone can!  We rested for three weeks and then it was Southern Decadence in New Orleans. 

Carl Han