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Los Angeles, CA
Bad Air Day in L.A.
One thing that struck David when he visited Los Angeles last week was the thick haze of pollution that hovered over the city. It’s hard to believe the air wasn’t noxious but D said he felt just fine. His eyes weren’t itchy and he didn’t have any breathing problems.
Quinault, WA
1. Spend a night at the Lake Quinault Lodge. Lounge by the lake. Swim in the heated indoor pool. Have a drink on the deck overlooking the lawn and lake. Curl up by the fireplace. Keep your shoes on though; other guests don’t need to see your feet or worn-out socks. And stay awake. Nobody wants to see you sliding off the couch with your mouth open.
2. Take a cheesy photo at the base of the world’s largest Sitka Spruce tree, which measures some 19 inches across and is 191 feet tall. The tree is about a mile from the Lake Quinault Lodge.
3. Hike one of the trails. Tour the Quinault Valley.
4. Take a scenic drive through the rain forest. Look out for waterfalls and moss-covered trees. Just turn back when the road turns to gravel.
5. Drive to the coast from Moclips (quaint beach town) to Ocean Shores (cheesy beach town).
Lake Quinault
Lake Quinault Lodge
We came so close to staying in Ocean Shores, Wash. I planned on reserving a beach cabin in the south and spending our long weekend exploring the beaches along the northern and southern shores. I was pleased with my itinerary, but I wasn’t getting great feedback on Ocean Shores from my friends in Washington who were regular visitors to the Olympic Peninsula. The beach is fine, my friend Madge mentioned, but the town is sooooo tacky. What’s more, it’s hard to find a decent place to eat.
Yet the hotel prices in Ocean Shores were among the most expensive along that stretch of Washington coastline. Who wants to pay a premium to stay in a tacky place with what my friends described as dreadful, overpriced dining options? I can do tacky. But I can’t do tacky at high-end prices, especially not when we had better and more economical options nearby. And who wants to spend a fortune on awful food at a greasy spoon? I have certainly spent enough time circling touristy places for dinner, only to end up wasting a small fortune on food unforgettably-bad food.
We decided at the last minute to stay at the Lake Quinault Lodge, which sits on the south shore of Lake Quinault, rather than on the Pacific Ocean. This meant changing our itinerary around a bit, but the north shore was just a short drive away. We were still able to drive to Ocean Shores and some of the more charming beach towns along the coast.
The lodge turned out to be a great place to stay, and far more charming than any of the other hotel options I was considering along the coast. It has a charming, rustic feel to it, with brawny furniture, and noisy pipes and radiators cranking away like the pipes in my apartment in New York. The lodge restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in an elegant dining room overlooking the lawn and the pristine lake. Dining options in the area are limited so we were glad to have somewhere on the premises with a selection of decent culinary choices. Menu items aren’t cheap, though, and the prices add up quickly.
Our room did not have a television but we didn’t miss that. We brought our PC and watched a DVD at the end of the first night to wind down. Some rooms have fireplaces. It sounds cozy but we didn’t see ourselves lighting a fire in the room with Tiggy. The lodge also offers lots of rainy-day options, including a spacious lounge with a fireplace, a heated indoor pool and sauna, and puzzles and games. I’m not sure whose idea it was to make a piano available to guests in the lounge, which was right below our room.
Olympic National Rain Forest – Quinault
Barri Gotic: Barcelona’s Medieval Quarter
Juju and her family live and work near the Cathedral and the Santa Maria del Mar church in the old part of the city. The ground floor of her family’s apartment building dates back to the fifteenth century. Some of the upper floors were either added or rebuilt centuries later.
One afternoon, we met up with Juju and her dog to pick up her sons from school. From the Cathedral, we followed the maze of narrow streets from behind Jaume to the school at Placa Sant Felip Neri. The square in front of the school that served as a playground was bursting with energy. The younger kids get out early and swarm the playground while waiting, with their parents, for older siblings to get out of school.
I read that Gaudi, the famous Catalan architect who designed the Sagrada Familia, was a student here. But not all of the school’s history is glamorous: during the Spanish Civil War, for instance, it was bombed accidentally and children who had taken refuge inside were killed. The wall plaque and the damaged facade serve as reminders of the unfortunate event.
AC Barcelona
We stayed at the AC Barcelona Hotel, located about a block away from the Mediterranean and across the street from a shopping center. The hotel is about 15 minutes outside the bustling city center so the streets are quieter and more livable. We weren’t woken up in the middle of the night by Friday and Saturday night partygoers returning home, for instance. Our travel partner who stayed in a hotel near La Rambla and the old Cathedral, spent sleepless nights both weekends we were in the city.
The décor is ultra modern and Zen, with lots of glass, dark brown wood and green marble, and clean, straight lines in the artwork and architecture. The look is cold and impersonal and won’t appeal to everyone but it’s coherent and gives the hotel a distinctive look and feel.
The rooftop terrace on the 13th floor has a pool and nice sea and city views. Time permitting, we would have loved to take advantage of the other hotel amenities on the top floor, such as the sauna and steam room, whirlpools and gym.
The rooms were comfortable with lots of amenities, including good-quality toiletries, slippers and plush bathrobes and comfortable single beds. Our room faced the sea, and got unbearably warm in the daytime. We had to sleep with the windows open. I wonder what it must be like on a torrid summer afternoon.
Wireless Internet connection was so expensive and slow that it wasn’t worth paying for more than 24 hours. What’s more, our room lacked a clock of any sort, or an iron, which I thought was strange in a hotel that catered to business travelers. It also lacked a safe, which would have been useful for storing our passports, tickets and valuables. At least the mini bar was free.
La Boqueria
La Boqueria is the famous covered marketplace in Barcelona that dates back centuries. It’s how our old neighborhood marketplace in the 10th arrondissement, Le Marche Saint Quentin, should have felt: alive.
The place was teeming with tourists and serious shoppers alike. We walked alongside the other shoppers, moving from stall to stall, watching pork butchers selling the largest selection of ham and pork products I had ever seen; fishmongers slicing up big fish; and green grocers arranging heads of lettuce and vibrantly colored fruits.
I discovered that La Boqueria is also a great place to grab a quick bite. I was surprised to see bars inside the market selling beverages, tapas and paella-like dishes. What’s more, vendors sell seafood – like tiny shrimp – steamed ready to eat, and sliced produce like mangoes and watermelon with a little fork so you can eat on the go or sample something new.
A Few Things I Learned in Barcelona
I had made some interesting discoveries in Barcelona this month. Culture shock? Far from it. Just interesting observations and nice surprises:
- No pepper shakers in restaurants. Just about everywhere we ate, salt shakers stood on tabletops, looking lonely without their pepper mates. This probably has something to do with the food being sufficiently seasoned.
- Freshly-squeezed orange juice is ubiquitous. I ordered fresh juice for breakfast, at bakeries and even at the airport.
- Pay per toothpick for tapas. Diners at tapas bars sample different finger foods, or amuse-bouches as David called them, then pay by the amount of toothpicks they are left holding on to at the end of the meal. No wonder you see so many toothpicks carpeting the bar floors.
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Pa Amb Tomaquet – or tomato-rubbed bread – is simple and delicious. Slice a baguette, slice a tomato, rub the sliced tomato across the baguette, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper.
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There’s a big difference between the castanets that professionals use and the cheapy ones that are marketed as souvenirs.
Not another Picasso Museum!
David booked the reservations for our trip to Barcelona this November and now I’m challenging myself with preparing the itinerary for once we hit the ground. My goal is to come up with fun activities that we can enjoy with a three-year-old as well experiences that are truly unique to Barcelona and that will make our trip worthwhile.
Thus far, I have only come up with a list of things we won’t be doing.
There will be no long walks down tourist promenades admiring trinket shops; gazing at human statues dressed in silver robes posing on crates; buying trinkets or sitting to have my portrait painted. We had our fill in San Francisco.
There will be no mad hunt for the best tapas/paella plates/chorizo slices/mussels/vino tinto in town. There will be no gastronomic feast and no late-night meals. I’m sure one of our lunch menus will include at least one aforementioned culinary item and I’m sure at least one experience will be enjoyable. We’ll have to settle for that.
There will be no retail frenzy. We won’t not be discount shopping in chain stores like H&M and Gap; we won’t be browsing in multiple souvenir shops, designer boutiques or in fancy galleries.
There will be no dinner or narrated boat cruises.
This is beginning to sound like an exciting trip.
V, A, A, T and D family blog 