Panels Comic Book Coffee Bar, Oceanside

Last stop of our North County Coffee Crawl...

was within walking distance from the bakery...

This place is new, as in just opened in August new...

D's bday crawl - G&B + Blue Bottle @ The Bradbury + the Last Bookstore

After our Breakfast Part 1,2 and 3 at the Trifecta in Tustin...

(4th Ave exit from the 101)

we headed into DTLA...

Green Apple Books & Music

Right across the street from Toy Boat Dessert Cafe was an eye catching mural featuring books...

The green awning said it all..

so of course, we had to take a quick peek...

Philippine Expressions Bookshop + First Thursday Art Walk, downtown San Pedro

Next door to Pinta Dos..

was Philippine Expressions bookshop...

Originally based as a mailorder bookshop in Rancho Palos Verdes...

Mysterious Galaxy

A month or so ago, Bert and I were exploring Balboa Interntional Market (you MUST try their vast selection of Turkish Delight, no lie)..

and wanted to stop by one of San Diego's premier independent bookstores, Mysterious Galaxy...

Maxwell's House of Books and the La Mesa Antique Mall

I was glad I was able to come back here with my gal pals to check out this particular bookstore.

When Bert, TC and I visited a few weeks ago, we paid Maxwell's House of Books a short visit...

Hawthorn Coffee, Nomad Donuts & Verbatim Books revisits with MFH

Across the street from Antique Row Cafe is one of my favorite coffee shops...

I hadn't been back since Valentine's and it was time for a revisit...

Return to Soda & Swine & Verbatim Books

It's been nearly three years since I'd been here...

Bert was craving meatballs so this was the perfect place to go...

Verbatim Books, trio of drinks from Caffe Calabria + TC's plants

After our "mini dinner" at Encontro, we were about to head to Dark Horse Coffee around the corner when I saw this...

Bert and I spied this toward the end of last year but it hadn't yet opened. This time, it looked "fully operational"...

En route to Normal Heights with commentary

It looks like all the crying and screaming by the South Park denizens did  not prevent Target Express from taking over the old Gala Foods

I wonder what it's like inside...

Return to the Last Bookstore

The $5 lot we parked in had many advantages...

One, it was cheap and two, it was close by to many places we wanted to check out in DTLA...

Places that are now closed plus dinner & a movie! Little Star Pizza & "Episode IV: A New Hope"

As we left Oakland and headed towards Berkeley,

we could see Sather Tower in the distance...

Coupon fail + bargain finds & donuts for Astroboi from Mary's Donuts

Before my planned dinner date with Astroboi...I headed over to Santee to utilize a birthday freebie here...

Unfortunately, because I got there around 4 pm...

Nomad Donuts once again plus the Bookstore cats...

We weren't sure where we were going to have lunch this day. I just knew I wanted to go here first...

With our trusty cooler, TC and I made our selections...

Lestat's Coffee House, Normal Heights

I'd almost forgotten about this post when we were in Normal Heights a few months ago...

I think the original place we wanted to go to was either too busy or we weren't feeling it, so we decided to make our way to Adams Avenue...

Christmas books Part 3 - The Golden Books

See the Pez with the green "body"?  That's the newest Christmas Pez.

 I like it so much better than the previous elf (not shown) which looks a bit on the creepy side. This one is more cute. Plus he's green!  Some of the Pez dispensers have candy in them, but I don't really eat the candy. To be honest, I don't know how old some of it is, so yeah, that would be gross to ingest it. But I digress, this post is about books....

Christmas Books Part 1 - "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

You know it's Christmas time when you see these in Seafood City...

Red wax covered imported Edam cheese. Yes, Just like the "bola bola" cheese heralds the Christmas season, so begins the Christmas traditions in our household...

The Cupcake Store and The Friendly Used Book Store

Before heading out, we walked the short distance from Kaffee Meiste over to the other side of the strip mall where these two businesses reside...

I was actually planning on just going to the cupcake place...

but was tempted by the rolling carts filled with used books and movies (yes, on VHS and yes we still have a VHS player, ha ha!)....

Grinds Vines and Automobilia Cafe plus BookSmart

Now we were heading north on the 101...

As mentioned in the previous post, it was pretty $#%@ hot...

so I thought a stop at the next town would be nice so we could get some cold drinks...

Farewell to Patricia Justiniani McReynolds

When we heard the sad news last weekend that Patricia McReynolds had died, I couldn't believe it...

She was always at the Filipino American community events I attended. It was hard to believe that a vivacious lady such as Patricia was now gone...