Lobsters in LA

I love lobster rolls. I seem to have a harder time finding them here in the Northwest, but in LA there are several roaming lobster trucks, so when I went to visit for Christmas week I requested that I try one. The Lobsta Truck was on holiday, so based on previous experience of my siblings and location from where we were staying, our next choice was Cousins Maine Lobster. It was parked right next to another food truck, Let’s Roll It, that takes various Japanese dishes and then substitutes cooked meat from other cultures instead- we looked longingly at inari pouches with lobster and a lobster maki roll, but did not get distracted. We were here for lobster rolls, and then off to a second lunch destination.

My brother and I got the Connecticut Lobster Roll, which has fresh warm Maine lobster served on toasted New England style roll and touched with melted butter and lemon. The fact that it is a New England style roll is critical. My mom went with the Maine Crab roll that uses Maine Jonah crab in the same roll brushed with butter and dressed with mayo. At first she was using a fork to just eat the crab meat and I was totally not going to let her throw away that roll- I would eat it plain- but then she discovered that it was really good bread and ate it all herself after all. One of my bucket list trips is to go to Maine and just eat lobster rolls all week.

Cousins Lobster Truck Cousins Lobster Truck

They have a cute little ironing board where you can wrap up your leftovers in foil if you’d like, but that’s silly. You will not have any leftovers. You will devour this sandwich in mere minutes, mmmming the whole time from the toasted but soft sweet buttery roll and the generous lobster meat.

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Cousins also has a restaurant in Pasadena, which then offers additional menu options if you don’t have the flexibility to stalk down the latest location of their truck.

Actually, this was quite a lobster day. First, after all that sweet lobster had melted in my mouth, on the way to lunch stop #2 I had the lobster ice cream.

Cousins Lobster Truck lobster ice cream

And, later that evening, the family went off to eat the specialty house lobster at Newport Seafood Restaurant.

Newport Seafood Restaurant Chinese lobster

I don’t think there is ever too much lobster. Having it whole where you need to free that tender lobster meat from the shell is not something I really enjoy- I prefer lobster tails and lobster rolls and let’s say, lobster that is added to a dish (such as the Risotto Con Aragosta I had at Michaels on Naples).

I was so happy with my dinner at Michaels- my lobster risotto was decadent but not too creamy, and I also go to share 1/3 of the  Bistecca Per Due special they had, a really tasty 32 ounce prime rib eye roast with my brother which they carved table-side for us. Even though it was a chilly 40 degrees or so, sitting on their upstairs patio was no problem at all because they had covered it with a tent and had plenty of heat lamps, a roaring fireplace, a saxophone player playing at the bar, so sophisticated  it didn’t even seem like we were outside. If I hadn’t been with my siblings, I would have never gotten to experience this elegant meal- and it was one of my top two meals of the week (the other being Cousins which was delicious but not really elegant as we were eating standing on the street). Great picks J!

Michaels on Naples lobster risotto Michaels on Naples Bistecca Per Due Michaels on Naples Bistecca Per Due

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Christmas Holiday Decorations at Disneyland

Oo As noted per my last post, I was at California Adventure Park and Disneyland with the family for Christmas Eve. My sister is an annual passholder so she is able to guide us everywhere and tell us the priority of where to go and what to do- thanks so much to our activities coordinator J!

The decorations in Disneyland included this gigantically tall tree full of huge ornaments that were in a red and green and gold theme. And, check out the awesome caramel apples they offer, which include some special decorated ones for the holidays. I admit I have this problem where I don’t usually eat fruit unless it is all cut up (who knows if there is a bug inside- I’ve seen a spider inside a strawberry before!), so I did not have any interest in purchasing one, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the artistry here. Also, these apples are humongous, they are as big as two of my fists together, and probably weigh a lot. I’m not sure how you can even eat these with just teeth!

Disneyland Christmas holiday decorations Disneyland Christmas holiday decorations apples

For the holiday season, Disney changed the Haunted Mansion to be themed towards Nightmare Before Christmas, including a room that smells like gingerbread, mmm. You can FastPass this attraction, and so we grabbed one and then waited in line for 20 minutes, got through, and then rode it again 20 minutes later after we got out. Just outside the mansion not only were there the characters of Jack and Sally posing for photos, but they had a little kiosk selling Nightmare Before Christmas themed items, one of which was an adorable little plushie of what looked like puppy Zero. It was in the hands of a small child with his family who were looking at it, and it was the only one I saw at the kiosk but I thought it might be uncouth to grab it. It was seriously adorable though.

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And, it is totally worth waiting in line for It’s a Small World because what they do with this attraction for Christmas is a-ma-zing. No Fast Pass, but the line keeps moving to make you feel like you are making progress, it is fun people-watching as the line is outside so you can see all the passerbys (versus other attractions where the line goes into the attraction area more) and the clock opens up outside every 15 minutes for you to watch and there’s interesting manicured shrubbery in squares and animal shapes as well (my favorite was a lion shrub!). Inside for the holidays, they mix the normal It’s A Small World song with a variety of Christmas songs and really up the amount of all the eye candy of all the decorations. Hearing the singing of joyful children around the world in anticipation of the holiday is really heart-warming.

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Didn’t I saw, a-mazing!!!!!?? The decorations in It’s a Small World! Holiday edition really are incredible, there’s so much going on you don’t really know where to look because there is something everywhere. You may even want to ride this twice so you can find all the Disney and Pixar characters interspersed throughout.

Both the attractions above are must-sees for December visits because of their holiday transformations, yes, definitely go even if you’ve seen the regular, non-holiday incarnations before. Each are 15 minutes long and are higher capacity rides so are worth the wait and while waiting the line keeps moving. And, walking along Main Street towards Sleeping Beauty’s castle was spectacular that evening. We missed the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks spectacular at Disneyland because we had chosen the World of Color show at California Adventureland instead, thinking we would leave the parks after that since we had a full day arriving when the parks opened, but some other family members suddenly had a boost of endurance  and wanted to continue at California Adventureland. My sister and I ended up returning to Disneyland around 10:30ish so that I could see the castle  and we awwed at seeing various toon characters like Chip and Dale and Mickey and Minnie in their pjs.

Besides the blue traffic cone for soda that I purchased from Carsland, the only other souvenir I purchased was a “Glow with the Show” Mickey Ears hat. These hats have ears that light up and coordinates with the evening shows at Disneyland and California Adventure Park and which I left for her to “borrow” on her other visits next year. Again, thanks for all the planning J. I volunteered Oregon for next year, but it looks like it’ll be on the schedule for 2014.

I wonder what I’ll do next Christmas… I thought Christmas in Hawaii was wondrous and probably couldn’t be beat, but a Christmas Eve in Disney was just as extraordinary, and it was magical.

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Christmas Holiday Decorations in California Adventure Park

Some photos from when I was there with the family for Christmas Eve. It really was a great day to visit- the earlier part of the day before lunch was rainy and overcast which probably kept the crowds at bay that you might expect during holiday time when all the kids are off school. It was a very low key day where we didn’t feel a need to rush around to ride everything or see everything- we Fast Passed Radiator Springs Racers and the World of Color, and then relaxed checking out a few attractions when we saw the line was less than 30 minutes, like Toy Story Mania, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, and Heimlich’s Chew Chew train. Shut up, I love that ride, I always ride it. I don’t care that everyone else are parents holding infants and toddlers. As it got darker and the lights turned on and sparkled and you could see and hear happy children everywhere all day and every employee was polite and helpful and cheerful and everywhere was clean, so it was a great atmosphere.

We started out in California Adventure Park before we hopped over to Disneyland for the afternoon, so this is the first set.

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I was really impressed by Carsland, they really made it look just like in the movie, including feeling the charm. Look at the details even with the flowers! Then, when it was lit up in the night it was so sparkly- the website for Carsland actually captures quite a bit of it. One of my goals was to visit Carsland and eat at the Cozy Cone Motel, where they offer various food items in cones, such as chili con queso, a chili in a bread cone topped with fritos, or chicken verde, and even in the morning they have breakfast specials of a Bacon Scramble Cone and Verde Scramble cone that includes scrambled eggs (you can read more cone offerings at the Disney Food Blog). The beverages come in cones, and they had a special blue one for the holidays in addition to the orange traffic cone one. You can also check out that they have various drinks to match the characters in Cars Land.

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And, the backdrop for the Radiator Springs Racers ride is lovely, and really look just like the rocks are natural- I can easily imagine this being in Arizona which is the inspiration.

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Manhattan Beach, California

Some images from what’s around town…

Ok, maybe the latter is less “around town” and more that I stopped at Manhattan Beach Creamery and ordered 3 scoops, one each of Maple Bacon Crunch, Red Velvet, and Butter Pecan.

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Dusk to Twilight at Manhattan Beach

I wanted to share some photos of dusk to twilight on Christmas Day, December 25 2012. Just taken with my camera phone, a Samsung Galaxy S II. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day, filled with fond memories to look back upon. I spent my Christmas Eve in Disneyland and California Adventure Park surrounding by childhood and the laughter of happy people and sparkling and  twinkling of lots of festive lights, including a water/light show and Sleeping Beauty’s castle. My Christmas day was a day of family cooking and eating, very relaxing, including a beautiful walk along the beach by Manhattan Beach pier and watching the colors of the sky change and the peacefulness you see below as Christmas Day turned into Christmas evening.

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