Category: Travel
Back in early March, J. and I went down to Marina del Rey –the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles — for another working vacation. He’d be working, I’d be taking another (much needed) vacation, complete with personal training, long walks to the beach and along the beach, and some spa time. It was our anniversary (eight years!) and we thought we’d do something a little special.
That was the plan.
…wherein our hero abandons his family for a weekend of culture.
This is opening weekend for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and as I’ve done for … er, 3 years now?.. I’m heading down as a member of the press to take in every play. Yes, in the internet age literally anyone can be a member of the press. Unlike last year, where the season was choc-a-bloc with let’s-call-them fan favorites (Hamlet! Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! Pride and Prejudice!), this year’s season .. well, isn’t. This doesn’t mean that I expect the plays to be any less engaging, it’s more that I’m still very much a theater neophyte so I don’t know what I’m getting myself into.
The four plays I’m seeing are:
…wherein our hero tells you what a difference a year makes.
Baby's First Trade Show
In February of 2010, a look at my work calendar would have revealed a weekly meeting with a company executive (whose exact title is cause for internecine war, so I’ll leave it be), the monthly staff meeting, and not much else. I’d meet with the owner of the company on an ad hoc basis, and otherwise go about my business; that business being the reading of gigantic amounts of news stories and press releases looking for situations where my company might find work. In June of 2010, said company owner spoke in Atlanta at a conference concerning the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On a lark, we put together a few banners and a fancy new brochure and I went along to exhibit trade-show style.
Well.
That seemed to go pretty well; I met a lot of attorneys who do work that we’d be useful in, and also ran into attorneys that we already sort of knew. Turns out this second thing is really important, because short-term memory is apparently being bred out of humanity so we need to be reminded of the existence of others on a regular basis. In any case, going to that one little conference led to me going to a great big conference in Vancouver, B.C. in July. At that conference, I met a bunch of other lawyers, and came up with a gigantic business idea, and generated some actual business… you may see where this is going. I went to a couple more conferences in 2010, and they all followed the same pattern: meet a few attorneys, refresh the memory of a few other attorneys, bring in some business for the firm.
Today we leave, but not till this evening.
Its been a great trip. We didn’t do as much as we thought we would — no sightseeing, for example — but didn’t stay in our hotel the whole time either.
Last night we were invited to a business dinner with some folks that John has been talking with since he started going to conventions. They have been giving him great advice about what to do and where to go . . . and last night we got into a serious discussion about potential business alignments that seemed pretty exciting. It wasn’t exactly the romantic evening I vaguely thought we might have, but John did buy me a red rose from a street seller. :-)
Monday saw us having a lot of seafood. We had lunch at Grillfish — just a few blocks down from our hotel. It was recommended to us by the concierge as a ‘casual dining’ option. At $30/plate I don’t agree with the casual descriptor. But the food was very good and the wine-by-the-glass list excellent. We shared a plate of tender calamari, lightly (very lightly!) breaded and cooked just through. Delicious, but needed a touch of lemon and salt to really stand out. Then John had a good Ceasar Salad. For our main, I enjoyed my grilled red snapper. It was done perfectly, and the fish was very fresh. The side of corn on the cob was clearly out of season, however, and really could have been a number of other vegetables. John had a really good surf and turf– superb grilled shrimp with a nice cut of filet mignon.
We sat by the pool (finally) for awhile afterwards, in the shade and read and watched the beautiful people. At sunset we returned to our room and changed for dinner at Blue Door Fish at the Delano Hotel.
The Delano Hotel is a gorgeous Art Deco piece, that has been updated for a modern sensibility. The lobby is a unique indoor/outdoor environment, ending in a bar and opening onto the restaurant terrace. Blue Door Fish is incredibly detailed with Art Deco sensibility. The tall walls are velvet and linen, with silver floor lamps, and a judicious use of crystal on tables to reflect the light exquisitely. (It reminded us both of Joel Rubuchon.) Here’s a link to a pic: http://www.delano-hotel.com/en-us/#/explore/?id=/delano-miami-blue-door-fish/. Our table was the two-top to the right of that silver and glass candle collection in the center of the room.
The food was lovely. I started with Cravocat — lump crab meat with avocado, surrounded by a red pepper coulis. It was very tasty, but a little creamier than I expected, and so rich I couldn’t finish it. John had scallops and told me they were incredible. Cooked through, but still tender, drizzled with a brown butter sauce on a puree of butternut squash. We thought it was like having spring and fall in one dish. For my main, I had the Homard Banana – roasted maine lobster, caramelized banana with a brown butter, cilantro-lime sauce. John had the shrimp — a Piedmontese risotto which means it came in a saffron-based bouillabaisse sauce. Although I thought my sauce was too rich and heavy, the sweetness of the lobster was intensified and the entire dish was incredible. John’s shrimp was also incredible. We both agreed that it was the most perfect risotto we’d ever had.
Yesterday’s lunch was off-site again: we went to Jerry’s Famous Deli, just down the street. http://www.jerrysfamousdeli.com/cgi-bin/cNc/showPage.plx?db=jerrysmenu&pid=35:Miami. Established in 1978, but feeling more like 1928, Jerry’s is a 24-hour diner in the best sense. Full bar, ice cream shop, and serious deli. I had a pastrami on pumpernickel, a sandwich I haven’t had since I left New York. It was sooooo good! No condiments, just a lot (!!!!) of meat, sliced paper thin, on good bread. Perfect. And seriously the best pastrami I’ve ever had — even in New York. John had a meatball hero, and tells me it was delicious. A good balance of sauce and cheese on golf ball-sized meat in a plain sliced french roll.
We had a nice walk after that, and some quiet time in the room. I’d been out in the sun that morning, just for an hour, but I didn’t use sunscreen and I’m burned. Bright pink. Doesn’t hurt (thank goodness), but it doesn’t look great.
Dinner was at Prime 112, apparently one of the hottest restaurants in Miami. I found it ‘ok’. (We were with a group, on someone else’s tab.)No appetizers, we all ordered steak, except one swordfish. We had sauteed spinach, hash browns, and onion rings as our sides. We sat outside because it was quieter, but it was still very noisy. My filet was good. Just good, not great. The spinach was a bit overdone, and the has browns over-salt and butter-ed. The onion rings were ridiculously good. I found the service to be exceptionally slow, and the restaurant layout poorly-designed. The desserts were huge — cheesecake, a snicker’s pie, chocolate cookies, and creme brulee with peppermint brownies. Everyone raved about them, but none were finished. Too much food.
Today we’re having a nice breakfast (together!) and then a stroll on the beach, I think. We need to check out by 12:30, and then it’ll be lunch and head for the airport. I’m really glad I came, and I’m looking forward to future visits.
John and I are having a great time in Miami.
Oh, you want details?
Ok. Its 74* and it was a gorgeous, sunny morning. (It’s partly cloudy now, but we’ll be indoors for the rest of the day so it doesn’t matter.) We arrived Friday evening and John is working at a convention of Trial Lawyers. Its a working vacation — he works, and I’m on vacation. :-)
We’re at the Loew’s South Beach, which is very centrally located. Yesterday we went out in the afternoon and walked Lincoln Road, a planned pedestrian mall that is a hub of shopping and dining. It was very interesting — great for people watching. There were a lot of beautiful people, but not ‘the’ beautiful people, if you know what I mean, walking around. Many ethnic backgrounds and mixes, and they were lovely to behold.
We sat down at AltaMar, just a block past the western edge of the mall right as they opened at 5pm. John started with a cocktail from the bar (“I don’t drink, but I like a good cocktail. I prefer sweet and herbal to sour and bitter. Other than that, surprise me.”) and I had a glass of California sauvignon blanc. We had a grilled octopus on a bed of farro with choizo and chopped heirloom tomato (me) and a salad of bufalo mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes in a shallot vinaigrette. We didn’t share, but each thought we had a winner. Our main (I switched to an Argentinia malbec) was a duck leg confit (accompanied by sauteed chard and onion jam) and rock shrimp with pappardelle pasta, snow peas, and fresh asparagus. It was incredibly good. Both of them. For dessert John had a milk chocolate peanut butter semi freddo that was perfect: sweet, but not overly so, and exquisitely smooth.
It was a great start to our trip.
Today we went for brunch at the Ritz Carlton, which is just a block away. From 11am to 3:30pm every Sunday, the Ritz does brunch the way it should be: decadent, delicious, and dangerous for your diet. I started with cold gulf shrimp in a sherry vinaigrette, crab claws, fresh blueberries and fresh raspberries. The seafood was perfect: tender and sweetly flavorful, the berries perfectly ripe (such a treat in February!). John had a made to order omelet and fresh strawberries. He then tried the ebi (shrimp sushi) and we each tried a small plate of braised short rib over mushroom risotto. It was not warm enough, but the flavors were superb: deep and rich and intense. I went for a made to order omelet (done perfectly) with a couple of slices of artisan bread (raisin and walnut in whole grain) and John tried some of the cheeses and cured meats. We finished with a handful of desserts: cookies, mouse, lemon tartlet, and a snickers cheesecake. Just little bites, and most were overly sweet. I’d recommend the lemon tartlet and the chocolate ‘pie’ martini. (I meant it when I said decadent, by the way. We skipped the fresh berry pancakes, the tenderloin carving station, the caviar station, and the other 10 desserts. Bloody mary’s and vodka shots were on the house. And the mimosas were endless.) This was an expensive, but for the variety and the time we spent there, and the fact that it was 2 meals worth, ameliorates the cost.
Now John is back to work (an hour long meeting) and then we’re going to go work out for an hour . . . then . . . SUPER BOWL!!!!
Tomorrow we’ll be doing some sightseeing, and Tuesday, too. I’ll report again then.