All Roads Lead To…..Tacoma???

In a previous blog, I wrote about my growing disdain for fireworks. Not all fireworks. Just the ones that produce extremely loud noises at the most inopportune times. Such as a series of M-80 dynamite sticks that detonate at 5 minute intervals from midnight to 3am at the school playground next to our house.

So we thought, “why fight it?” and decided to head to some nearby downtown area for a couple of days to sit it out and hope we wouldn’t return to a smoldering pile of ashes that was once our house. Going to Tacoma (or "Ta-Compton" as our son says) to avoid gunshot-like noise seems counter intuitive at first glance but we figured every city has something good to see and we’d never given Tacoma a fair shake despite living an hour and a half away.

We stayed at The Hotel Murano (Murano is a Venetian island that’s well known for its glass art). Tripadvisor.com rated it the number one hotel in Tacoma and we were able to get it for a good rate. It’s recently been remodeled and is adorned with glass sculptures. Glass art is everywhere in Tacoma, no doubt inspired by native son, the well known Dale Chihuly.

An artful glass canopy: sorta kinda like being undersea
Pacific Avenue, just west of the Tacoma Dome, is the happening place in town (at least for a couple of late 40-somethings anyhow). On a four block stretch, you'll find The Museum of Glass, Museum of Washington State History and Union Station. There are also some quaint coffeehouses, bookstores and restaurants including The Harmon Brewing Company. We hit the Harmon for lunch upon arrival and were disappointed that they were out of their India Pale Ale (IPA). Not to worry. Not only did they have a perfectly (and lightly) carbonated Extra Special Bitter (ESB), it was on sale for just $1 for a 10 ounce glass. Needless to say, we had more than one to wash down our lunches.

After checking out some sites and a rest at the hotel it was on to another brewpub for dinner, Engine House #9. This place has been around a long time and we remembered visiting 20 years ago before they were actually making their own brew. We ordered IPAs to go with dinner and were underwhelmed. They were average at best with a slightly grainy taste. The chicken soft taco I had, however, was exquisite.

The Harmon Brewing Company: best beer in Tacoma

The next day, July 4th, we headed north 15 miles to Auburn and Emerald Downs racetrack. Enough said here. The horses weren’t in a charitable mood (at least from my perspective anyway) and we ended up making a $50 “donation” to the track. The rest of the waning Independence Day hours were spent rounding up some fast food chow mein and watching a local fireworks display from the hotel room window.

And when we drove back home we were amazed to see our house. Just as we had left it and not burned to the ground.
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Mt. Rainier on a clear day from Emerald Downs

I Was a Middle-Aged Radio Station Intern

It was time to pay up. Several weeks ago, at an exhibition bowling tournament in Lynnwood, I was throttled in a head-to-head bet I made with the sponsor’s host, KRKO radio’s Jeff “The Fish” Aaron. As it turned out, spotting him 45 pins a game (or whatever it was) wasn’t the most brilliant move I’ve ever made. Despite the fact that he was using a bowling ball that was quite literally falling apart, he demonstrated an ability to record strikes no matter how hideous things looked on the pin deck. But in all honesty, I have only myself to blame after posting what was probably the worst 3-game set I’ve tallied in several years.

What did it cost me? Six hours of being his whipping-boy and unpaid intern for his sports and “whatever the hell else he feels like talking about” show 3 to 6 With the Fish. Although I’d never lose a match deliberately, I knew that this was at least a task that would be interesting to me. Back in the olden days of college at CWU in Ellensburg WA, I had a weekly gig on the campus radio station, KCAT. We’re talking vinyl records, carts (kind of like 8-track tapes), and short circuiting soundboards. Those days are long gone with digital everything in these times.

Here are some highlights (and lowlights) of the day:

12:10 pm: I arrive at the lobby of the station in downtown Everett. The Fish is hustling out the door to attend a press conference at Comcast Arena. The Everett Silvertips hockey team hired a new coach and they were unveiling him for the media. I tag along.

12:42 pm: The Silvertips owner talks about what a great place Everett is and proceeds to congratulate Boeing on its upcoming test flight of the 787 Dreamliner. Oops. Apparently he didn’t get the memo stating that Boeing scrapped the flight several hours earlier.
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The Fish's workspace: reminds me of my kid's bedroom

1:22 pm: We make it back to the station. Fish immediately puts me to work writing trivia questions for an appearance he has later that night. He loves the work I did on U.S. State trivia, but throws up on my effort for Wimbledon trivia calling it “boring” and sending me back for more research.

1:53 pm: Melene, the station’s general sales manager, spots me walking around the office and thinks I’m an intruder. She offers me some bottled water, hoping I’m not there to rob the place.

2:28 pm: I continue to write trivia questions and do some research on celebrity birthdays for the week. Former Washington Husky and NFL kicker Chuck Nelson drops by the cubicle area to say hi to the Fish. Seems like a nice guy. The three of us spend a few minutes talking about obscure former pro kickers and how much their names sound like those of terrorists.

2:37 pm: The Fish asks me to make 20 copies of trivia answer forms for that night’s contestants. Two minutes go by and I’ve completely forgotten this, misplacing the originals in the process.
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Josh, the producer of the show doing his thing

3:03 pm: I’m still working on my assignment as the show starts. Given the big hockey news of the day, Fish is in studio right away for a live interview with the new coach, Craig Hartsburg, instead of the usual tomfoolery that ensues during the first half hour.

3:20 pm: After the first segment, the Fish is spotted outside the studio hugging an attractive young lady. A groupie?!?! I think nothing of it and take a couple of pictures of Fish and the new coach for the station a few minutes later.

3:26 pm: I go into the adjacent studio with Josh, the producer of the show, put on the headphones and belly-up to the mike. It turns out that the young lady is someone who is in a tavern dart league with Fish and is introduced to the listening audience only as The Dart Queen.

3:31 pm: Fish introduces me and asks me if I’d like to give The Dart Queen a massage. Knowing that my wife, BowlingWidow, is listening I skillfully dodge the question.
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Maury (left) and The Fish in between segments
3:48 pm: Time for ace salesman Maury "Movies with Maury" Eskenazi to do his thing. He reviews the new Jack Black film "Day One" and "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. Maury is disappointed by "Day One" but likes "The Proposal" much to the disgust of the Fish who is clearly not a fan of Sandra Bullock.

4:15 pm: I go back to working on all things trivial while the Fish interviews a meth addict turned mixed martial arts star named Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm. Probably just as well that I missed it since I have no interest whatsoever in that particular form of entertainment. In between tasks I chat with Ronna in the sales department and give her the photos I took earlier for download onto Fish's website.

5:10 pm: The Fish makes a point of telling his audience that I screwed up my one day internship by failing to make copies when he asked (see 2:37 pm entry) and compares my work to the rest of the deadbeat student interns that he has to deal with. I base my excuse on age-related deterioration of brain cells.

5:23 pm: I finally get to read my “factoid” on the air, defined for this purpose as a short sports fact designed to impress people at parties and get them to say “gee, I didn’t know that.” It’s a requirement for all of his interns. Mine was:

During a one month time frame in 1965, Jack Nicklaus won the Masters, Willie Shoemaker rode the winner of the Kentucky Derby, the Boston Celtics won the NBA title and the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.

Twenty-one years later, in 1986, history repeated itself as Nicklaus won the Masters at age 46, Shoemaker rode Ferdinand into the winners circle at the Kentucky Derby, and the Celtics and the Canadiens both won titles again.

BowlingJoe and The Fish: November 2005 at Husky Stadium

5:25 pm: Neither Fish or Producer Josh can think of anything insulting to say about the factoid as they do for most of their interns. I consider this a victory.

5:30 pm: We say our on air goodbyes. I point out that I’ll have a shot at redemption at his next bowling tournament. He responds with a terse “don’t count on it.” Game on, Fish!

5:33 pm: The remainder of the show is on tape. Fish sneaks out of the studio to get ready for trivia night. I head for home, glad that I was able to end my career as a middle-aged radio station intern on my own terms. Without getting fired.

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3-6 With the Fish can be heard Monday through Friday from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm (no kidding?) on KRKO AM 1380 from Everett, WA.

San Francisco - Day 4 (5/29/09)

Our final morning in San Francisco, after a quick bagel and coffee breakfast, was spent touring and roaming around Chinatown. At around 1.7 square miles it’s the largest (and also the oldest) Chinatown outside of Asia.

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Frank Jang: Chinatown Tour Guide Extraordinaire
We decided to be a part of a walking and eating tour for a few hours that was organized by a company called Wok Wiz. A strange name for a tour company but they really delivered. Our tour guide (and we were fortunate to be a part of a small tour of eight) was Frank Jang. He gave us some great background and historical information regarding Chinatown that framed the experience for us. Although he now lives in nearby San Mateo, Frank grew up right smack in the middle of Chinatown and also conveyed some very interesting personal stories about his childhood and how the district has changed (as well as stayed the same) over the years.

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Getting ready for the tea cupping at Red Blossom Teas
One thing that was nice about the tour is that we didn’t hurriedly go through the area but instead stopped for several minutes to learn more about the place we happened to be visiting. This was true for a Chinese art dealer, a fortune cookie factory, an herbalist, an acupuncturist, a barber, a grocer, and a tea retailer. There were probably others, I just can’t recall.

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The tour concluded at the Four Seas Restaurant on Grant Avenue for dim sum. This restaurant may or may not have been our choice had it not been a part of the tour. It was certainly decent and we had plenty of the usual things: dumplings, pot stickers, rice noodles, chow fun. And, by request, they even served a plate of chicken feet for me. Tasty, but not much meat.

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A Little Bit of Shopping in Chinatown
After the tour proper, we ventured around on our own for a couple of hours of shopping and looking around. We picked up some ginger candy and a Christmas ornament, as well as some very good oolong tea which we shipped home.

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Grace Cathedral From California Street

Chinatown was more than worth spending several hours at, and with our flight home just around the corner we hopped the California Street Cable Car for a quick visit to Grace Cathedral. This amazingly large city block-sized building was founded in 1849, the year of the California Gold Rush. In addition to regularly scheduled services, a lot of other events take place there as well. While we were there, for example, there was a jazz group setting up for a concert later that night. And several years ago, my friend Dave Nachmanoff performed a concert with Al Stewart that I happen to own on DVD.

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Stained Glass Inside of Grace Cathedral
We headed back to the hotel to pick up our things and take BART back to the airport, tired but happy that we had seen and done just about as much as possible in just a little over three days. We could have easily spent three more and stayed busy.

I’ll close with some thoughts about the city in case anyone will be visiting for the first time:

• Pack warm clothes. Even on a nice day it gets cold at night. I never did change into my shorts or thong (well…except for that time in the Castro District but that’s another blog for another day).

• Use the BART and Muni systems as much as possible (Cable Cars are part of the Muni system, too). And spend the three bucks on the Muni system map. Cars have their place in most of California but don’t bother with them unless you’re heading to wine country or something.

• Fisherman’s Wharf is just another trendy area. And they don’t make Ghirardelli chocolate there anymore. And while I’m on this topic, skip Haight-Ashbury unless you have a burning desire to see where the Grateful Dead lived for a couple of years (710 Ashbury St.)

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• San Francisco has hills. Lots of them. And lots of stairs. Bring good shoes.

• Must see: Alcatraz Island, Chinatown, North Beach (Italian) Neighborhood, Coit Tower (including the stair walk), and the Golden Gate Bridge. And if you’re a baseball fan and it’s spring or summer, AT&T Park.

• Shop around for good air and hotel rates (Entertainment Books, Travelocity, hotels.com, etc.). Our hotel, for example, was around one-third of the going rate when economic times are good.

• The restaurants are generally amazing. To fine tune your choices, consult some good websites with reviews by real people like you and me, such as yelp.com and chowhound.com.

• We found the people in San Francisco (with the exception of one surly bus driver) to be very helpful. More than once, someone asked if they could help us find somewhere even when we simply LOOKED like we needed an answer.

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One Last Ride!

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San Francisco - Day 3 (5/28/09)

The Golden Gate Bridge & The Fog: San Francisco's Dynamic Duo

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On Thursday morning we took a Muni bus to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, ground zero of the Summer of Love, in an effort to “make the scene”. That was all fine and good, but nobody told us we were around 40 years too late.

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A Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Scene

Other than the unique shoe stores, head shops and other memorabilia places, I’m afraid that the only scene to be made there is at the Ben and Jerry’s or the mega-huge CD store called Amoeba. We did, however, manage to land a nice breakfast at a place called The Pork Store Café on Haight Street that used to in fact be a pork store.

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BowlingJoe: Too Late to Make the Scene

We walked a few blocks west and entered Golden Gate Park. This park is huge. Over 1000 acres huge. Our focus would be on the serene Japanese Tea Garden. At least it was serene until the busloads of elementary school students arrived. The garden includes a pagoda, some nice landscaping, scenic bridges and trails. A nice way to spend and hour and a half (provided you can avoid the throngs of 6th graders).

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A Scene From The Japanese Tea Garden

Next up was our most physical challenge as we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Well….we walked to where the land was directly below us in Marin County anyway, and that was a good enough 4 mile trek for us. It’s an impressive old structure (we happened to be walking on it on the 72nd anniversary of its debut) and it’s darned breezy and noisy with all of the traffic whizzing by. We were surprised by the volume of people and bicyclists from all over the world who were with us on an unassuming Thursday afternoon.

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Just Before the Bridge Crossing

After conquering the Golden Gate, we got on a bus to take us back into town. Or at least that was the plan anyway. The driver must have been having a bad day because she was clearly moving in the opposite direction as we were initially told. After a quick exit we got on the correct streetcar to take us back to the hotel.

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The Ferry Building Market Place

Dinner time. BowlingWidow tracked down a place at The Ferry Building Marketplace on the water near the Embarcadero Center. We were too early to go to the restaurant proper of the Vietnamese place called The Slanted Door, but they offered a take-out option with the same food at a place around the corner called “Out the Door”. And it was of exemplary quality as we sat at their small counter and enjoyed it. The spring rolls were fresh and the combination of vegetables, meat and ginger dipping sauce was perfect. The 5-spice chicken with vermicelli noodles was a delicious main course.

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Out the Door: Top Notch Vietnamese Take Out

Chinatown tomorrow!

San Francisco - Day 2 (5/27/09)

The Rock: Alcatraz Island

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I watched the movie “The Rock” a few weeks ago in anticipation of our half-day excursion to Alcatraz Island. In one of the opening scenes, a rogue U.S. military officer and his subjects seize modern day Alcatraz, slamming shut the prison bars on a group of unsuspecting tourists and taking them hostage. Needless to say, I was hoping they wouldn’t be filming the sequel while we were there.
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BowlingJoe in jail where he belongs
We woke up on Wednesday and headed to breakfast at one of the oldest places to eat in San Francisco, Sears Fine Food (circa 1938). After last night’s pizza it was best to take on something tame like oatmeal. Sears was okay and somewhat pricey as we thought they put a premium on their longevity.

Alcatraz Island was a worthwhile and historically significant destination despite the fact that we were shuffled into a couple of different queues starting 45 minutes or so before boarding the ferry that would take us there. I won’t attempt to give any history lessons here but a couple of things struck us about the self guided tour we took with the headphones: First, those prison cells were really small and sparse. And if you’re someone who is insistent upon privacy in the bathroom, well…..forget it. Second, it really must have messed with the prisoners’ minds knowing that freedom was a couple of miles away and they could see (and even hear) it.
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Never pass up a chance for an In-N-Out Burger
Walking around Alcatraz can work up an appetite. And since it was lunch time, we headed into and past the chic, pricey Fisherman’s Wharf restaurants (if you have limited time in San Francisco and skip The Wharf, you’re not missing much) and on to In-N-Out Burger. For our money this is the best hamburger-fries combination fast food in the country. We try to visit at least once when we’re on the road in the Southwest. The burgers are fresh and tasty, while the fries were potatoes that morning.

After lunch we put ourselves on a bus to the Coit Tower, a structure built in 1933 atop Telegraph Hill. There are some terrific views of the city from the hill and even better ones from the top of the tower. Unfortunately we never got there. The elevator was broken and there were a couple of guys from Otis Elevators attempting to fix it. It occurred to me that I may have just discovered another legitimate definition of coitus interruptus. So we ended up biding our time taking in the depression-era fresco murals on the ground floor of the tower.
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SF city view from Telegraph Hill
Instead of taking a bus down the hill, we stumbled upon a faster and far more interesting way to travel: The Filbert Stairs. They’re steep, many blocks long; they go through vegetation, past residences and are a lot of fun – to go down. I need oxygen by just thinking about how tough the going would be if we were punishing ourselves by going up them.
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One of the fresco murals at Coit Tower
After a much needed hour rest at the hotel, we took a Muni train to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and headed to the nearby 21st Amendment Brewery for an ale prior to checking out the stadium digs. We circumnavigated the stadium before actually going in and found it to be a pleasant walk, particularly on the other side of the right field fence, strolling along the water at what’s known as “McCovey Cove”. The Cove is a popular splash landing spot for home runs and long foul balls and attracts the attention of kayakers and other boaters with fish nets during games.
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A steep section of the daunting Filbert Stairs
AT&T Park is clearly on the upper tier of the new baseball stadiums, although I’d rank it slightly lower than our own Safeco Field, mainly due to the fact that you can see the game at the Safe from pretty much anywhere along the first level concourses. The food, however, is better and more diverse than what you can get at Seattle’s ballpark (it is San Francisco after all). BowlingWidow went with the tried and true garlic fries and sausage dog with veggies combo. I went with the chicken and rice Cha Cha Bowl from former Giant Orlando Cepeda’s eatery past centerfield. Very good stuff. Orlando even had the good sense to have an optional habanero sauce to go with it.
If you go to a game and it’s at night, make sure you dress accordingly as it gets really cold, a fairly common theme throughout the city. Oh, yeah….the Giants beat the Atlanta Braves by a score of 6-3 as ex-Mariner (and isn’t everyone an ex-Mariner?) Randy Johnson won his 299th career game.
Top: AT&T Park
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Center: Orlando's - Home of the Cha Cha Bowl
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Below: Giant glove and Coke bottle from behind the right field wall

San Francisco - Day One (5/26/09)

“Attention passengers”, the voice of the airport concourse public address system said. “Today’s flight to San Francisco is being delayed, as a screw and bracket assembly is required to repair a window on the flight deck.” Great. We’re all being held hostage by a parts kit that probably cost $1.29 to manufacture. I won’t publicly say the name of the airline in question, instead choosing simply to say that it rhymes with “Malaska”.

Two hours later, a little after 2:00 pm, we were out of the gate and on our way to start a three-day whirlwind tour of San Francisco. In retrospect, I guess that if we avoided a cockpit catastrophe at 30,000 feet because of a leaky window it was worth a couple of hours and a few turns of a screwdriver.

The Galleria Park: great hotel, great location
Fortunately the remainder of the flight was smooth and uneventful. We made our way to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) terminal at the San Francisco Airport for a half-hour ($5.35) ride to the downtown Montgomery Street Station. A word about BART: They’re frequent, they’re fast and they’re cheap (at least until the transit authorities raise fares to try and get out of the financial mess that every place in California is in). We really wish that Seattle would have gotten the hint in the 70s and 80s and been proactive enough to have done something like this. Imagine an elliptical route from Everett to Tacoma that goes around Lake Washington...

The first order of business at Montgomery Station was to purchase a couple of three-day Muni (local bus/train passes) for $18 each and a $3 detailed map. The map is well worth having even if you think you know where you’re going. The Muni system is excellent but along with it comes a lot of detail and the map is a must have.

Our hotel, The Galleria Park, was located an easy block and a half from the station. It was particularly easy because we only brought carry-on luggage with us. The Galleria Park is in a perfect location, in the Financial District at 191 Sutter Street. It’s an older property but has been recently updated, is clean, and the staff was awesome. And it was a bargain as we used our Entertainment Book to land a rate that was less than $100 a night. The only knock? The rooms are quite small as they tend to be in older hotels, but for us it was an extremely minor point.

The brick oven in action at Tommaso's
We walked in a northwest direction along Kearny Street and found the San Francisco Brewing Company. This is a fairly small brewpub that looked like it was frequented by mostly locals. The India Pale Ales we ordered were thirst quenching but didn’t quite have the same hop levels and body that we’ve grown accustomed to at home.

It was on to dinner. We were looking for a reasonably priced Italian restaurant that was in the good graces of the locals and served excellent pizza. Prior to leaving, we searched yelp.com for such a dining establishment and we found it in Tommaso’s in the North Beach part of town. We shared a Caesar salad (average at best) but were more than rewarded with one of the best brick oven pizzas we’ve ever had. Simply topped with sauce, cheese, basil, oregano and garlic, we ate it all and had a happy walk back to the hotel to call it a night in anticipation of the trip to Alcatraz Island the next morning.

Day two coming up...

BowlingWidow in front of the restaurant after dinner

It Ain't Easy Bein' Cheesy

Okay, so maybe I stole the title line from that famous feline philosopher, Chester Cheetah. But unlike Chester I'm not hawking Cheetos. This was better. Way better.

It was a nice Sunday afternoon and we were able to get most of our outdoor chores done yesterday before and after watching what was a great Preakness horse race on TV. As BowlingWidow was quick to point out, a "girl" horse won that particular race for the first time in 85 years.

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A scene from one of the many tasting lines at the Cheese Festival

This weekend was the annual Seattle Cheese Festival at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. It's a tradition that has only been going on for a few years but we hadn't been there yet so we jumped at an impromptu chance to show up.

If we learned one thing today it's that cheese is very popular. Particularly when they're giving out free samples. There must have been 50 cheese makers there, ranging in size from Tillamook to the tiny Samish Bay Cheese Company in Bow, WA. And they came from as far away as the state of New York (Yancey's, from which we bought some really tasty extra sharp cheddar).

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Some favorites: we couldn't stop ourselves from buying them

I can't begin to rattle off all of the different types of cheeses but they were all there: Gouda, Dubliner, Gorganzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Asiago and so on. There were cheeses with Merlot in them as well as one with a wasabi/horseradish combination.

After sampling around 25 cheeses each and purchasing a few of our favorites, we concluded the afternoon with a pint of ale at the nearby Pike Place Brewery.

Yeah, it was a pretty good day.