Back to the Beach

I hadn't been to the beach yet this year, until last week. On my birthday 10 years ago, I'd taken the family to see Toy Story on the beach in Long Beach. For some reason, I'd happened on the post where I'd mentioned it, and wondered if they were still doing it.

They are!!! I asked surrogate if he would be available, but he had to work. Hit up a couple of younger's other friends, and they were up for it, so we went.

Got there early enough that we'd be able to stake out a spot before the movie started, and got to enjoy the sunset!!!

And the movie that was playing??? The Breakfast Club!!! My wife and I have watched it probably over 50 times, I think she'd made younger watch it, but the friends hadn't seen it. The girl liked it, the guy was off at the bathrooms for the end and didn't like it as much.

It was a good way to spend the evening, and get back to the beach!!! They're doing it for several more nights this summer, and there's a good chance we'll head back again!!! Of the upcoming movies, Lost Boys is one I'd be up to see again, and A League of Their Own will be shown. I haven't seen that, and it's supposed to be good, so I might be up for that as well.

Going Back Backstage

As previously mentioned, on last year's vacation, we took the Casino backstage tour again. The first time we'd taken the tour was on our 2013 vacation. Once again, here's a remix picture of the outside as a line drawing!!!

I likely could have made a post about just the tour on the previous trip, but never did. I remember our guide on that particular tour was a girl named Porsche that my wife really liked. The closest I did was the years later tale of the Chime Tower post, which I first heard on that particular tour.

As outside, so is it inside!!! A beautiful building, with fine construction. The ground floor houses the theater, which is a work of art. It is also nearly acoustically perfect, and on the tour it was mentioned that it was measured to use the same geometry for some other auditorium, possibly Carnegie Hall or maybe Radio City Music Hall.

Murals adorn the walls, and the ceiling is adorned with gold leaf.

Centered at the top of the stage is a depiction of Botticelli's Venus, our guide noted that the designer had depicted her as a redhead!!!

The construction was right around the time of the transition from silent movies to the talkies, so naturally an organ was included. It's being worked on currently.

Our tour guide had pointed out from the theater the private suite of William Wrigley Jr., but noted that he generally preferred to be out mingling with the guests. This is the view from his suite.

This was also during the big band era, and there were several posters of bands that had preformed there.

The projection room featured several generations of projectors, from arc light projectors to digital projectors. This was our tour guide, I don't remember his name, but it might have been Tom. He did a great job. The wall behind him has several people that have signed their names. Most of them, he said, you probably don't know, but prominently in the middle was the signature of Stan Lee!!!

There were displays with several vintage pictures of the area, and construction of the Casino, as well as the original structure that was there.

On the top floor, the world's largest round dance floor!!! Something new that they're doing now, they've re-purposed it as a skating rink!!! There's a spinning ordainment in the middle of the ceiling that Surrogate wanted to get underneath and take a picture of. There weren't too many people skating up there, and I told him he probably could just stride out there like he was supposed to be there, lay down and get his picture and no one would give him any trouble!!!

The tour finished up on the outside promenade. Our guide was fielding any questions, and I asked him if he was familiar with the story of the Chime Tower, and why the ramps were no longer carpeted. He wasn't, and I was able to relate the story as I had been told on our previous tour.

After the tour was over, we worked our way down to the next level where the restrooms are located. They had this nice bar area, where they had a video playing about the old days of Avalon and the Casino.

And as teased in the previous post, the selfie in the restroom mirror!!!

Remix Review

I've been using the photos remix tool quite a bit. The younger says I'm a Facebook mom with it, that's fair. I figured I'd do another “instant” post with some of the pictures from the past year re imagined.

To start off, I took the picture of the Simian Button Man from the cover artwork of Down at Flathead, from the literary stack post. Looks like it changed 'em into a rodent Button Man!!! I enjoyed the read, but it felt like it lost the thread and found other threads. When we were on Catalina, I asked a few of the locals if they knew the author, I wanted to ask him what happened to the moon buggy!!!

I'd made mention of having gifted a stuffed Alan to a friend, who now has it on her shelf next to a plastic Perry the Platypus. Since platypuses are already a strange mix, remixing the picture made him into a duck!!! And Alan looks a bit like a dinosaur.

On the same post, I'd shared the X-ray of my broken metatarsal. It got the break fairly accurate, but I'm missing my second toe!!! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since I broke it, it's mostly fine now!!!

I'd made a post from a couple of events, the belated Valentine's Day dinner, and our trip to a Kings game. From the first, I took the picture of my wife with her chocolate malt, and it changed her into a Disney mom!!!

I took the picture my wife took of me doing the re creation of the burrito and quesadilla attacking pictures, and... well, it took it from a side view to a front view, and less of an attack on the food!!! Also, now that I think about it, kind of made me into a Disney dad!!!

And, the selfie of us in the stands at the Kings arena...

And Bailey waving the Kings flag!!! I'd done it as a claymation look, too, and it changed him into a human!!!

I did a lot of car stuff this year. Most of it was on the Studebaker and Kutcher. The main thing that I accomplished with Zonker is to get her to pass smog!!! At some point in there, I'd decided that I didn't have nearly enough pictures of Zonker with the top down, so I took some time on a sunny afternoon and drove over to a local park and took a few shots. As always, the drawing look of remixing the picture yielded a nice result!!!

Another shot, it made it into a hard top!!! As far as I've been able to tell, only the Pontiac sibling came as a hard top. There have been a couple of companies that have done hard top conversions, but you know what??? I don't think I'd want it as a hard top!!!

Had the engine rebuild and swap done on Scruffy, as well as replacing the battery and getting some junkyard parts (including that very cool instrument panel!!!) for her. More on the engine swap to follow...

Another thing that I did a good amount of this year was going to the beach!!! I had been thinking of going there today, for New Years, but it was drizzly most of the morning. Anyway, I did another line drawing of the composite picture I'd done of the younger and friend at Horny Corner, and it came out pretty good!!!

Did a second of the same picture in the claymation style, and it came out funny!!! Looks like they're buried in the sand!!! To be fair, the original was only from the waist up.

Did the picture I took at Grill 'em All of Surrogate giving his sister the side eye. Not bad. Funny, it put a boat in the background with an umbrella instead of a sail!!!

And a shot of the sunset at Santa Monica beach as a painting!!!

And the inheritance of the Studebaker... has ended up taking up a good amount of my time!!! I have yet to finish the intended upgrades to the fuel system, and once I do hopefully it will be fairly roadworthy!!! Remix made it into a cartoon!!!

And in the drawing style, it came out great!!! Also got the Falcon in the picture!!!

The Gaslight Anthem and Counting Crows concert was a great show!!! The drawing of Adam came out great...

The claymation look rendering of the same picture, not so much!!!

I love the way this picture of the Casino from Descanso beach came out in something of an art deco style!!! This is actually an older picture, because we never made it over to Descanso beach this year. I had done a drawing style of a picture I took from the ocean side, and it came out pretty good. Then I did the same picture in the claymation style, and it came out looking not the same... it showed the front side, with a sign on the top, “Avalon Casino”.

I love the way the picture I took of Surrogate making breakfast came out!!!

Not shared, but one of the pictures I took while we were on the Casino Tour was of one of the restrooms. It looked very period correct, and upscale from what you see today. If I ever do manage to do a full post on that, it may be included, but for now, here's a selfie of us in the mirror, remixed as a drawing!!!

And the picture from when we bought our hats in 16-bit!!!

And from the ridge tour we went on...

And Sid!!! Can't forget the world's greatest cat!!! Here's how he'd look in his tube in 16-bit!!!

The picture I took of the guys in their Halloween costumes came out looking great, they look considerably more menacing in the remix!!!

When I had the engine swapped, I'd asked the guy to hold onto the engine he took out (which, if you're keeping track, was the one that originally was in 3). I'd not followed up with him afterwards, and had figured he'd probably recycled it by now, but he called me about a week ago about it. I asked him if he could break it down and give it a cleaning, and I'd pick it up. This Monday I picked it up, and it's much easier to move around when it's in pieces!!! As predicted, the crankshaft is scored, but he says it'll clean up no problem. Anyway, I stored the block, head, and crankshaft in a basement corner and took a picture before I put the box of covers and internals on the top, and remix came up with an interesting take!!!

And that time that Sidney was curled up in the trash can!!!

From our trip to the fondue place on our anniversary, I actually had AI modify the picture. I asked it to change the pot to a cauldron full of a questionable green liquid, and put a hooded cloak on me!!!

Keeping in the same theme, I took another picture from years ago, our crow friend on the iron chair, and it remixed it to be quite Halloween-ey!!

Back to Avalon

Another vacation to Catalina!!! It was going to be a near repeat of last year's vacation. I rented the same house, and we were going to bring along surrogate son again. However, in the week leading up to the vacation, my wife had been having a lot of sciatica back pain. We always take along a wheel chair and roll her around, so I didn't think it would be a problem. The night before we were going to head out, she says she's decided that she isn't going to go. I wasn't crazy about it, because then we'd be leaving her home alone, but I relented. We'd already had a friend who was going to be coming over to feed the cat, so we told them they didn't have to do that, but please drop in and see how my wife is doing!!!

I'd made mention of Antonio's on the waterfront having had reduced it's menu and shortened it's hours previously on posts about our other travels there. Last year, they'd re opened it as Pier 24, with the menu and hours both improved to where they had been, albeit with different items on the menu. Surrogate son really liked the waitress there, and wanted to contact her again, but I digress. Anyway, they've added artwork with buffalo people on them on the outside walls. I took a picture of this one, and sent it to my wife with the message, “This could have been us!!!”

While we were heading back from swimming on the first day, I saw Pier 24 has a trivia night the next evening, so I asked for details. They said to show up at 6:30 and join in, first prize is a $50 gift certificate, and second is a $15 gift certificate. I told them they could just put my name on the $50 certificate now!!! We came back for it, and ended up taking 3rd place. Surrogate was a great help getting several answers I had a blind spot on.

Oh, and the waitress that surrogate liked from last time was nowhere to be seen.

The first day we were there, surrogate made me buy us cowboy hats!!! We wore them off and on in varying combinations throughout the week. We'd worn them out to Buffalo Nickel one night, and surrogate was wandering out towards the ocean while younger and I were using the restroom, and he heard another patron talking about how there are a bunch of people wearing cowboy hats!!!

The first evening surrogate went out to wander the streets while wearing his hat, and happened by a club that was playing country music, so he stopped in. They were doing line dancing, and he got in on it!!! Afterwards, an older lady offered to buy him a drink!!! He replied that he doesn't drink, and he's married!!!

Last year I'd gotten the message that our room was ready right as we arrived. When we got there this time, I hadn't gotten anything yet so I tried calling the agency. The check in time is 3 PM, so there was time still, but we had all our luggage and would have liked to have been able to deposit it. Anyway, they confirmed it wasn't ready yet, but they'd let me know as soon as it was. I had the idea that it may still be being cleaned, so I left the guys with the gear, and walked over to Green Palace Jr. to see if there was anyone there, and checked to see if it was locked. It was locked, and no one was there. The agency was on the way back, a couple blocks over, so I stopped in to see if we could leave our stuff there. They said no, but most restaurants would hold your luggage if you were dining there. We had already been planning on going to the Bluewater Grill, and dining on the waterfront, so I was heading back, when I got the message the house was ready. We took our luggage and dropped it off. Last time we were there, the table seemed shorter, and only had three chairs, one of them quite wobbly. There were four chairs this time, and the table was longer, with room for all four chairs. Upon looking at last year's pictures, it's the same table, only it was sideways before!!! Got a mirror selfie!!!

I think this may have been the night we went to the Buffalo Nickel, when we got back I had the idea to get a picture of myself on the balcony!!! Yee haw!!!

The first morning that we were there, we went out to the pier to rent stand up paddle boards, something we didn't do last time. At this point, I should mention that the trip over was rougher than usual. Part way over, I used the restroom, and with the rolling in an enclosed area, I got a little queasy, so once I exited I did several minutes of the classic “focus on the horizon” remedy, and felt better.

I wasn't even thinking about that, but when we got out to our paddle boards and into the harbor, I was reminded. I tried to get standing up, and fell off. Surrogate was the last of us to get launched, and he fell off, too. He was working on getting back on, with not much success. After a couple of minutes, a lifeguard swam over, and took him back to the float and put him in a kayak instead. We all paddled to the other side of the pier, and he fell out of the kayak. After a couple of minutes of trying to recover, the same lifeguard swam over, and he gave up for the day, and was just swimming in the swim area.

I managed to get standing, and was doing a bit of paddling around, but it was something of a challenge with the heightened surge. Not long after, younger said he was feeling nauseous from the motion, and we called it. Also happened that, for some reason, the four sided clock at the end of the pier was out of commission, so we would have had difficulty determining when our hour rental was up. To compound matters, they were working on the chime tower that day too, and it wasn't sounding at the proper time, so we couldn't even use that.

The lifeguard was a petite fit little thing, and surrogate liked her, too. I'd thanked her after each rescue, and after the second one I told her she should be cast in the reboot of Baywatch!!! The night before we were leaving, he made up a note to leave for her, and the next day took it over to the lifeguard station, and she was there, so he was able to give it directly to her. She has not been in contact, but he took the shot.

Tried to get a picture of the moon over the mountains. Didn't come out as good as it looked in person.

A couple of the things that I've done previously and wanted to do again were the Casino tour and the inland tour. As previously mentioned, they're not really doing the inland tour anymore. We went on the Casino tour, and it was as cool as I'd remembered.

Finally got my own picture of the ramps in the side wings that were mentioned in the Chime Tower story!!!

I consider this to be the prize winner of my pictures this time, taken from one of the windows overlooking the harbor from near the top of the Casino!!! I might make a second post with more just about the tour.

After we went on the tour, since we were already on that side of Avalon, we hiked up to the chime tower. I'd noticed they'd added a board to the top with the “100” on it, it's the 100th anniversary of the chime tower!!! We went the same way we've always gone, up the stairs, and came back down on streets. They had a crew out there working on it, and the workings on the inside are freshly painted, and the wood parts have been re finished and varnished, so it's looking good!!!

Surrogate was not a fan of the hike. It's a good amount of altitude gained!!!

And our picture while were were at Buffalo Nickel, right by the buffalo!!! Yee haw!!!

Surrogate made a great breakfast one day, fish and eggs. We brought the Binding of Isaac: 4 Souls card game, but as far as I recall it only was played twice. We all played one night, then the boys were playing against each other the next morning, and younger was close to winning, and surrogate managed to take the game in a fashion that the younger did not like!!! Last time we'd played the weird Cityville version of Monopoly, but I noticed a battered box at the bottom of the stack that turned out to be regular Monopoly, and we played once, which I won, mostly by monopolizing the slum properties. Surrogate had nearly run out of cash, younger had some good properties and was doing OK, but I had the most cash when we'd had enough. Vindication!!!

Since they're no longer doing the inland tour, there were a couple of others that we could have taken. One was a buffalo watch tour, and the other was to the near end of the island and up along the ridge, both in modified Hummers. The latter had mention of the possibility of sighting buffalo, and I figured if there's a chance, most tour guides will try to make it happen, so that's the one we went on. It was pretty cool, and I got a lot of great pictures, so I may make a post for it, too!!!

Our tour guide and driver was an Apache native named Bear, and he was great, and very entertaining.

I've not mentioned, but we have another native friend, who was in attendance of both of the youngers' most recent birthdays, who is named Wolf, so interesting that we now know two natives with classic native animal names. He's the guy on the end of the couch in the Death Row Records black beanie in the Bold and Brash clip.

It's good to be alive!!!