Pickled Eggs, Pirate Pete and Donkey's in Laguna and Newport Beach
May 10th, 2010, 09:32 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 76
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pickled Eggs, Pirate Pete and Donkey's in Laguna and Newport Beach
Every once in a while, Allegiant Air has some really cheap direct flights from my hometown of Wichita to Phoenix, Vegas and L.A. My gf (Katy) and I caught a direct flight to L.A. for $50 per person ($80 after taxes and fees). The flight was planned to leave Wichita at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 22nd and scheduled to leave L.A. for our return at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 25th. So, we only had to take one day off of work.
We used priceline.com to bid $65/night for our hotel in the Newport Beach region and
http://www.radissonnewportbeach.com/index.html accepted our bid. We chose the area of town we wanted to stay at based on two premises:
1. We've both been visited the Santa Monica area before and we wanted to see the Newport/Laguna area
2. Katy is a huge Disney fan and wanted to spend a day there, so we wanted to be somewhat close.
THURSDAY - To start our trip, our flight was delayed about two hours, so we killed time by watching the NFL draft at the only restaurant in the Wichita airport. Katy enjoyed a couple "Sex on the Beach" martinis at $12/piece (most expensive drinks on the trip - at the ICT airport - who knew?!)
Anyways, we arrived later than we expected, and by the time we served Katy's mandatory stop at In-and-Out, it was 1:00 a.m. at check-in and we were too tired to go exploring.
FRIDAY - We woke up around 8 a.m. and headed to the Rooster Cafe (http://www.eatatrooster.com/) in Costa Mesa, for breakfast (my favorite meal of the day). This place was recommended to us by one of Katy's friends who lives in the area. Yelp.com had good reviews and after our experience, we recommend as well. The sun was shining, so we sat outside - Katy with her mexican hot chocolate and me with my coffee. I had the Huevos Rancheros and Katy had the Two Egg Breakfast. Hit the spot!
With our bellies happy, we jumped in our rental and headed towards PCH 1. We didn't have a plan for where we wanted to stop, but knew we wanted to drive down the coast to Laguna and relax at a beach that suited our eye. The drive was gorgeous and relaxing. Traffic wasn't too bad since it was mid-morning on a Friday. After a while, I decided to just pick a street and turn right and go exploring. Looking back now at Google maps, it was a neighborhood right next to Pelican Hill Golf Club. We got some great photos here and got back on PCH 1. A little further down the road, I pulled into another neighborhood and we found a public access route to the beach in between some houses. It was just south of Crescent Bay. Another spot for some great photos. We got back on PCH 1 and headed south, finally stopping to relax at Aliso Beach County Park. The beach was extremely clean, with good waves and great scenery.
After playing on the beach for a few hours, we headed back to Balboa Island in Newport for lunch at the Crab Cooker. We were less than impressed. On our way to the Crab Cooker we saw a bar with outdoor TV's that looked like a good spot for a happy hour drink and update on the draft. We stopped in and made friends with a local guy who was drinking with a buddy that was in town visiting from Minneapolis. We followed them to Sharkeez, where we sat outside and had a few more cocktails. The atmosphere was really cool and you could see the beach. While there, Katy made friends a few girls who talked her into some jell-o shots and helping them out with a fish-bowl of alcohol. Katy still has the multi-colored donkey souvenir that came with the fish-bowl. The newly formed drinking group headed to Mutt Lynch's (another cool bar I recommend on the beach). This is where I realized Katy was a gone-er and our plan of meeting her friend in West Hollywood that night went out the window. I ended the night eating sushi by myself at Sushi Zen. The food was fantastic and they had a little TV at the bar with the NBA playoffs on. I was in heaven.
SATURDAY - Katy got rested up for her big day at Disneyland (she's a connesuir of Disney parks). She even had a friend fly in from D.C. to go with her because I refused to spend one out of my two days in L.A. at a theme park (especially when the Yankees are in town). She had a great time (with great weather as usual) and even saw Ron Howard. I dropped her off around 11 a.m. and headed to the Yankees/Angels game. I got tickets and a parking pass from a scalper for $25. The enjoyed the stadium and food (decent for a ballpark). Who knows where my seat was, because I never went there. They let you stand wherever you want, so I parked myself right even with the second to third baseline about 25 rows up along the walkway. The Yankees killed!
After the game I headed back to Newport Beach to relax and walk along the boardwalk. I grabbed an Italian sub (nothing to brag about) and watched the sun set. Then i saddled up to the bar at Blackie's By the Sea (along the boardwalk). The Lakers were playing and they had cheap beer on tap. It was the perfect place to kill time while Katy was watching the fireworks at Disney. I met a self-proclaimed folk hero by the name of Pirate Pete. He gave me his business card and his web-site is pretty legit. He is a really good artist. He was entertaining along with the other locals. We got to talkin about the pickled eggs behind the bar and before I knew it, the bartender had one in front of me with a yellow pepper telling me it was "on the house". I've never in my life, but I was about six pints deep and downed the pepper and pickled egg. Sooooo goood! I bought two rounds for my new buddies.
SUNDAY - Katy and I woke up around 9 and headed back to Balboa Island for some breakfast at the Newport Pier. We decided to try Charlie's Chili, where Katy went with the chili omlette and I had french toast. Both were huge plates and delicious. We could have split her omlette and still not finished it. We hung out on the beach a little more before heading for the airport.
If you have any questions, feel free to post and I'll try to get back on here later this week to reply. Hope you enjoyed my report.
You can find pics from our trip here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php...83&id=46101010
We used priceline.com to bid $65/night for our hotel in the Newport Beach region and
http://www.radissonnewportbeach.com/index.html accepted our bid. We chose the area of town we wanted to stay at based on two premises:
1. We've both been visited the Santa Monica area before and we wanted to see the Newport/Laguna area
2. Katy is a huge Disney fan and wanted to spend a day there, so we wanted to be somewhat close.
THURSDAY - To start our trip, our flight was delayed about two hours, so we killed time by watching the NFL draft at the only restaurant in the Wichita airport. Katy enjoyed a couple "Sex on the Beach" martinis at $12/piece (most expensive drinks on the trip - at the ICT airport - who knew?!)
Anyways, we arrived later than we expected, and by the time we served Katy's mandatory stop at In-and-Out, it was 1:00 a.m. at check-in and we were too tired to go exploring.
FRIDAY - We woke up around 8 a.m. and headed to the Rooster Cafe (http://www.eatatrooster.com/) in Costa Mesa, for breakfast (my favorite meal of the day). This place was recommended to us by one of Katy's friends who lives in the area. Yelp.com had good reviews and after our experience, we recommend as well. The sun was shining, so we sat outside - Katy with her mexican hot chocolate and me with my coffee. I had the Huevos Rancheros and Katy had the Two Egg Breakfast. Hit the spot!
With our bellies happy, we jumped in our rental and headed towards PCH 1. We didn't have a plan for where we wanted to stop, but knew we wanted to drive down the coast to Laguna and relax at a beach that suited our eye. The drive was gorgeous and relaxing. Traffic wasn't too bad since it was mid-morning on a Friday. After a while, I decided to just pick a street and turn right and go exploring. Looking back now at Google maps, it was a neighborhood right next to Pelican Hill Golf Club. We got some great photos here and got back on PCH 1. A little further down the road, I pulled into another neighborhood and we found a public access route to the beach in between some houses. It was just south of Crescent Bay. Another spot for some great photos. We got back on PCH 1 and headed south, finally stopping to relax at Aliso Beach County Park. The beach was extremely clean, with good waves and great scenery.
After playing on the beach for a few hours, we headed back to Balboa Island in Newport for lunch at the Crab Cooker. We were less than impressed. On our way to the Crab Cooker we saw a bar with outdoor TV's that looked like a good spot for a happy hour drink and update on the draft. We stopped in and made friends with a local guy who was drinking with a buddy that was in town visiting from Minneapolis. We followed them to Sharkeez, where we sat outside and had a few more cocktails. The atmosphere was really cool and you could see the beach. While there, Katy made friends a few girls who talked her into some jell-o shots and helping them out with a fish-bowl of alcohol. Katy still has the multi-colored donkey souvenir that came with the fish-bowl. The newly formed drinking group headed to Mutt Lynch's (another cool bar I recommend on the beach). This is where I realized Katy was a gone-er and our plan of meeting her friend in West Hollywood that night went out the window. I ended the night eating sushi by myself at Sushi Zen. The food was fantastic and they had a little TV at the bar with the NBA playoffs on. I was in heaven.
SATURDAY - Katy got rested up for her big day at Disneyland (she's a connesuir of Disney parks). She even had a friend fly in from D.C. to go with her because I refused to spend one out of my two days in L.A. at a theme park (especially when the Yankees are in town). She had a great time (with great weather as usual) and even saw Ron Howard. I dropped her off around 11 a.m. and headed to the Yankees/Angels game. I got tickets and a parking pass from a scalper for $25. The enjoyed the stadium and food (decent for a ballpark). Who knows where my seat was, because I never went there. They let you stand wherever you want, so I parked myself right even with the second to third baseline about 25 rows up along the walkway. The Yankees killed!
After the game I headed back to Newport Beach to relax and walk along the boardwalk. I grabbed an Italian sub (nothing to brag about) and watched the sun set. Then i saddled up to the bar at Blackie's By the Sea (along the boardwalk). The Lakers were playing and they had cheap beer on tap. It was the perfect place to kill time while Katy was watching the fireworks at Disney. I met a self-proclaimed folk hero by the name of Pirate Pete. He gave me his business card and his web-site is pretty legit. He is a really good artist. He was entertaining along with the other locals. We got to talkin about the pickled eggs behind the bar and before I knew it, the bartender had one in front of me with a yellow pepper telling me it was "on the house". I've never in my life, but I was about six pints deep and downed the pepper and pickled egg. Sooooo goood! I bought two rounds for my new buddies.
SUNDAY - Katy and I woke up around 9 and headed back to Balboa Island for some breakfast at the Newport Pier. We decided to try Charlie's Chili, where Katy went with the chili omlette and I had french toast. Both were huge plates and delicious. We could have split her omlette and still not finished it. We hung out on the beach a little more before heading for the airport.
If you have any questions, feel free to post and I'll try to get back on here later this week to reply. Hope you enjoyed my report.
You can find pics from our trip here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php...83&id=46101010
May 10th, 2010, 10:08 AM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Katy's trip report addendum:
The cheap fares from Allegiant are great, but from what I understand these delays are common. I had $12 cosmos at the airport and even Justin's beer was outrageously expensive. I expected the plane to be bare bones, but I wasn't expecting to be in the last row of an MD-87. No seat recline and giant engine outside the window, lovely. Oh and they even charge for water. Wow.
Since we carried on, LAX was easy. There were only two counter agents at Alamo and quite a long line. They had easy check in kiosks...that didn't work. They also had a car shortage- a guy who walked out with us who rented a compact ended up with a minivan.
We headed straight to In 'N Out on Supelveda and got there about 12:45. It was quite the cast of characters at that time of night. I got the Animal Style combo but couldn't convince Justin to get it.
It was about 2:30 before we made it to the hotel. The night clerk moved at the pace of molasses. The hotel was okay, I definitely would never pay more than $65. It was clean, but outdated. I had heard good things about Radisson and expected it to be more like a lower level Westin. It's sort of oddly located on a corner and not easy to get into the parking lot.
I like how Justin said "we woke up about 8 a.m." Justin woke up about 7:30 and I finally gave in around 8. So much for the relaxing part of vacation. Rooster Cafe was great. Not a huge fan of Mexican hot chocolate, but a great way to wake up.
Laguna was phenomenal. I was expecting nice houses and beach but I wasn't expecting how gorgeously landscaped EVERYTHING was. Not just homes, but community areas, hills on the road side, everything. I would definitely come back for a relaxing weekend and stay at one of the Laguna hotels.
I have to say I don't like clam chowder and I liked the clam chowder at the Crab Cooker so that probably doesn't say good things about it. The salmon was standard, nothing exciting.
Thanks for calling me out on my happy hour adventure. In my defense, we had been in the sun all day and I hadn't had that much to eat. Sharkeez and Mutt Lynch's were really fun though. They were PACKED when we went back on Saturday night- line out the door and around the corner packed.
Ah, Disney. I got there about noon and my friend and I started in California Adventure. The food and wine festival was going on and it was a pretty cool deal. There were several wine tasting booths in the park and for $10 you got 4 pretty good sized samples of wines from a particular region. They also had a demo kitchen set up for some paid events that looked pretty neat.
It was hard to accomplish a lot in CA and Disneyland because of the last of FastPass attractions (only 9 total I believe). Lines for Fantasyland rides were pushing 50 minutes so we skipped those. We did end up waiting about 40 for Matterhorn.
We ate at the Blue Bayou (inside Pirates of the Caribbean)- ambiance and food were amazing as expected. I had forgotten there was no alcohol in Disneyland though. Takes a little away from the steak when you're drinking soda with it.
The fireworks were spectacular and I'm excited to see the new CA water/lights show when it opens.
Since I got called out on my shenangians, I'm going to call Justin out on his. Justin had told me he was at Blackie's with some guy named Pirate Pete (I could only imagine). I got there about 11:45 and no Justin. He tends to wander to I was concerned about what this pirate had done with him. Eventually I found him over by Woody's (and had to show him where it was the next day). He said Woody's was really cool- more of an actual dance club than any of the other places. We met Pirate Pete (who showed me his Disneyland Season Pass) and had a couple drinks before heading back to the hotel around 1:30.
For the record, I was packed and ready to go before Justin on Sunday.
The omlette was insane.And really kind of intimidating. Apparently Charlie's has the best bloody mary's on the beach, but we didn't get to try them.
We had the worst service EVER at a sports bar in the terminal. Cold (expensive) sandwiches, terrible service, lack of communication and lack of hustle.
Flight home was much better, but I would have still liked some free water
The cheap fares from Allegiant are great, but from what I understand these delays are common. I had $12 cosmos at the airport and even Justin's beer was outrageously expensive. I expected the plane to be bare bones, but I wasn't expecting to be in the last row of an MD-87. No seat recline and giant engine outside the window, lovely. Oh and they even charge for water. Wow.
Since we carried on, LAX was easy. There were only two counter agents at Alamo and quite a long line. They had easy check in kiosks...that didn't work. They also had a car shortage- a guy who walked out with us who rented a compact ended up with a minivan.
We headed straight to In 'N Out on Supelveda and got there about 12:45. It was quite the cast of characters at that time of night. I got the Animal Style combo but couldn't convince Justin to get it.
It was about 2:30 before we made it to the hotel. The night clerk moved at the pace of molasses. The hotel was okay, I definitely would never pay more than $65. It was clean, but outdated. I had heard good things about Radisson and expected it to be more like a lower level Westin. It's sort of oddly located on a corner and not easy to get into the parking lot.
I like how Justin said "we woke up about 8 a.m." Justin woke up about 7:30 and I finally gave in around 8. So much for the relaxing part of vacation. Rooster Cafe was great. Not a huge fan of Mexican hot chocolate, but a great way to wake up.
Laguna was phenomenal. I was expecting nice houses and beach but I wasn't expecting how gorgeously landscaped EVERYTHING was. Not just homes, but community areas, hills on the road side, everything. I would definitely come back for a relaxing weekend and stay at one of the Laguna hotels.
I have to say I don't like clam chowder and I liked the clam chowder at the Crab Cooker so that probably doesn't say good things about it. The salmon was standard, nothing exciting.
Thanks for calling me out on my happy hour adventure. In my defense, we had been in the sun all day and I hadn't had that much to eat. Sharkeez and Mutt Lynch's were really fun though. They were PACKED when we went back on Saturday night- line out the door and around the corner packed.
Ah, Disney. I got there about noon and my friend and I started in California Adventure. The food and wine festival was going on and it was a pretty cool deal. There were several wine tasting booths in the park and for $10 you got 4 pretty good sized samples of wines from a particular region. They also had a demo kitchen set up for some paid events that looked pretty neat.
It was hard to accomplish a lot in CA and Disneyland because of the last of FastPass attractions (only 9 total I believe). Lines for Fantasyland rides were pushing 50 minutes so we skipped those. We did end up waiting about 40 for Matterhorn.
We ate at the Blue Bayou (inside Pirates of the Caribbean)- ambiance and food were amazing as expected. I had forgotten there was no alcohol in Disneyland though. Takes a little away from the steak when you're drinking soda with it.
The fireworks were spectacular and I'm excited to see the new CA water/lights show when it opens.
Since I got called out on my shenangians, I'm going to call Justin out on his. Justin had told me he was at Blackie's with some guy named Pirate Pete (I could only imagine). I got there about 11:45 and no Justin. He tends to wander to I was concerned about what this pirate had done with him. Eventually I found him over by Woody's (and had to show him where it was the next day). He said Woody's was really cool- more of an actual dance club than any of the other places. We met Pirate Pete (who showed me his Disneyland Season Pass) and had a couple drinks before heading back to the hotel around 1:30.
For the record, I was packed and ready to go before Justin on Sunday.
The omlette was insane.And really kind of intimidating. Apparently Charlie's has the best bloody mary's on the beach, but we didn't get to try them.
We had the worst service EVER at a sports bar in the terminal. Cold (expensive) sandwiches, terrible service, lack of communication and lack of hustle.
Flight home was much better, but I would have still liked some free water
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
bradshawgirl1
United States
5
Nov 24th, 2016 05:28 AM
