Our hairy experience at Solare

Last weekend's weather was beautiful, clear, sunny, and warm.  A perfect day to have lunch with the lovely Kirbie...

Liberty Station was our destination that day and we were hoping to not just have lunch, but perhaps check out a festival on site that same day...

Day 5 - From Scratch

I am just posting these in Geologic time, aren't it?  I hope it doesn't take me a year like my Canada posts!

After last night's "hairy" experience, we hoped for something better for breakfast. My godparents took us to another one of their favorite places (favorite meaning a place where there were a lot of "senior citizens") in Carmel, From Scratch, which is located in a shopping complex curiously named The Barnyard.

There goes my white Ninong wearing his golf cap and his Pebble Beach Hawaiian shirt...

It's that "casual old man" style. My dad dresses similarly. Some sort of printed Aloha shirt (like Tommy Bahama) and shorts. At least he's not wearing black socks with sandals and Jorts (jean shorts) pulled up past his nipples.

Le Normandie

Dinner was at one of their favorite spots in Pacific Grove. It was housed in this big building complex that sold antiques.
On the bottom floor of the Holman building was Le Normandie, a French restaurant owned by a French couple.

Geoyuck...

Last week, TC and I took the my sis and her kids to lunch at Luigi's in North Park. The kids wanted to see the "wierd meat" at Ranch 99. Pork uterus. Pork Bung. Beef Pizzle. You know, that kinda stuff.

Oh yeah, and Geoduck Clams! These used to be within reach but now they are in this tank that's off limits to customers and you have to ask a worker to get them for you. When they used to be on the floor, we used to have fun using the tongs to make the water squirt out of them!  

Just look at these things, especially the one on the left!   I KNOW, HUH!!!!!

Plus, if you're perverted like me, these clams are rife with comic material.

But alas, kids were present so through a very Herculean effort, I bit my tongue (I wanted to say "clammed up" but that's lame, eh) and kept silent.

Instead, the kids took turns tormenting poking the blue crabs. My sister had me open up the plastic bag while she picked up the writhing and angry crustaceans and pointed them in my direction. Them crabs sure were feisty!

Chula Vista Nature Center

After Zorba's, we headed over to the Chula Vista Nature Center. I'd heard rumors that they were going to close, budget cuts, crappy economy, etc...Turns out they are still open. But at a price. As mentioned previously, they raised their admissions prices big time. It's still a nice place to visit and bring your kid(s). And even if you don't have a kid, but you like nature and shit, this is a cool place to go...

Leopard shark:

Some sort of shrimp - There's Bert looking at it wishing he could throw that thing on the barbie! Mmm, meaty!

Sea slug:

Some sort of snake (forgot what kind). If I spoke Parselmouth like Harry Potter, I'd release this snake and make him go after my enemies. But I don't have any enemies. At least that I know of...heh heh.

Big old hairy tarantula

I thought these were pretty cacti:

Ooh, here's a closeup of the flowers:

Sting rays (with stingers removed; the inhumanity!):

One of the workers feeding the sharks and fish. He later went to the stingray pool and fed those too. Feeding time is 3 pm.

He had quite the audience - enthralled little kids and their parents watching as he threw chunks of fish into the tank...

Here's something you don't see everyday. These were previously frozen dead rats (or large mice?); they are used to feed the birds of prey, which is a separate exhibit.

Awww, look at their little tails! Look at the blood seeping out of its nose. We were lucky enough to watch this "feeding".

Here's a bald eagle ripping one of those mice apart. It tore off the skin neatly and started crunching the bones. Niiiice!

A long time ago before we got married, Bert worked for a company where one of the perks was a behind the scenes VIP tour of the San Diego Zoo. We got to see the zookeepers feed the animals and we learned that the mice were frozen and thawed out before feeding them to the vultures or whatever else eats mice. We saw the freezers filled with zip lock bags stuffed with frozen mice. I was the only one taking photos of that.  People were looking at me disapprovingly as if it was sacrilegious to be taking photos of dead animals. I didn't care - fk those tightasses!  As you can see, my habit's haven't changed!