Last Trip Update
OK, boys and girls, sorry for the delay in the posts here. We took a ride up to Riverside yesterday afternoon to take a few shots of the Mission Inn and the trip took much, much longer than we anticipated. Add that to the fact that work took a little longer -- stupid work, gettin' in the way -- and it was a late evening. Sorry, but I fell asleep about halfway through this post and I'm just now getting back to it.
Thems the breaks, folks.
But now that I am back, I can let you all in on a few more nice stops. Obviously, this won't do you much good if you're flying in for the game and then jetting right back out, but if you're planning on hanging around through the weekend or if you have plans to return, here are some decent stops for you.
First, the Mission Inn.
It's a very, very nice hotel in Riverside, which is about 40 miles or so north of Irvine/Newport Beach. The Inn is a remarkable place with a ton of history -- which I'll go into shortly. It's also the center of Riverside's downtown area. Several bars and restaurants in that area, including a couple of very nice restaurants inside the hotel.
Our main reason for going was that my dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Riverside -- the since-significantly downsized March Air Force Base -- and he was housed at the Mission Inn. This would have been back in the 1960s. He worked as a VIP driver during his time here, chauffeuring the bigwigs back and forth between the base and primarily LAX. His 21st birthday party was held at the hotel.
I know you don't care much about the personal part of that, but it is a very nice place with quite a bit of history. It was built in the late 1800s by an engineer. It
started as a 12-room, adobe-style building, but after the engineer died, his son, Frank Miller, took over the property and started to build. Some of the most architects in the world designed one piece or another of the property and it grew into the structure you see pictured above.
Miller was apparently a rather odd little dude. He kept changing the scale of the work in order to make his height-challenged sister feel better, so there are very small corridors and narrow hallways in some sections. Not to mention the (deep breath here) exterior arcades, a medieval-style clock, a five-story rotunda, innumerable patios and windows, castle towers, minarets, a Cloister Wing (with Catacombs), flying buttresses, Mediterranean domes and a pedestrian skybridge among many other features. There are also over $5 million worth of artifacts inside the hotel that Miller gathered during his travels, including rare stained glass windows in the chapel and a bell from 1274.
So, see, now you've got a place to go and check out if you're ever in Riverside. Hey, the Osbournes (that would be Ozzie and the gang) did so not too long ago, so it can't too bad, right?
Huntington Beach
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This was our only other touristy stop this week. It's a short drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (that's the PCH to us locals) from Newport Beach. The fine folks in Huntington (I didn't bother to tell them they were misspelling it) built themselves a pier a while back and allowed Ruby to put one of her diners on the end of it.
We strolled along it and the little shopping area. We watched as a street performer hammered objects into his head (never once thinking, "Hey, we should record this with some sort of magic picture machine.") and another street guy passed out dollar bills to people for answering trivia questions correctly. (I don't know. That's just what he did.)
.jpg)
We had lunch at a nice little pizza chain called BJ's. It was good -- a little different, but good. We also watched a few volleyball games and a whole buncha dudes surfing. There must have been 50 surfers on each side of the pier. And nice waves. Mrs. Kimberly got these couple of shots that you see to the left and right (she's good). The pelican was a big star on the pier. Don't know why, really. Just a pelican.
Welp, that's it for the travel and sightseeing (ie, fun stuff). All that's left is the game.
Remember
There are tailgate gathering in Parking Lot H and K tomorrow evening. Have fun.
Thems the breaks, folks.
But now that I am back, I can let you all in on a few more nice stops. Obviously, this won't do you much good if you're flying in for the game and then jetting right back out, but if you're planning on hanging around through the weekend or if you have plans to return, here are some decent stops for you.
First, the Mission Inn.
It's a very, very nice hotel in Riverside, which is about 40 miles or so north of Irvine/Newport Beach. The Inn is a remarkable place with a ton of history -- which I'll go into shortly. It's also the center of Riverside's downtown area. Several bars and restaurants in that area, including a couple of very nice restaurants inside the hotel.
Our main reason for going was that my dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Riverside -- the since-significantly downsized March Air Force Base -- and he was housed at the Mission Inn. This would have been back in the 1960s. He worked as a VIP driver during his time here, chauffeuring the bigwigs back and forth between the base and primarily LAX. His 21st birthday party was held at the hotel.
I know you don't care much about the personal part of that, but it is a very nice place with quite a bit of history. It was built in the late 1800s by an engineer. It
started as a 12-room, adobe-style building, but after the engineer died, his son, Frank Miller, took over the property and started to build. Some of the most architects in the world designed one piece or another of the property and it grew into the structure you see pictured above.Miller was apparently a rather odd little dude. He kept changing the scale of the work in order to make his height-challenged sister feel better, so there are very small corridors and narrow hallways in some sections. Not to mention the (deep breath here) exterior arcades, a medieval-style clock, a five-story rotunda, innumerable patios and windows, castle towers, minarets, a Cloister Wing (with Catacombs), flying buttresses, Mediterranean domes and a pedestrian skybridge among many other features. There are also over $5 million worth of artifacts inside the hotel that Miller gathered during his travels, including rare stained glass windows in the chapel and a bell from 1274.
So, see, now you've got a place to go and check out if you're ever in Riverside. Hey, the Osbournes (that would be Ozzie and the gang) did so not too long ago, so it can't too bad, right?
Huntington Beach
.jpg)
This was our only other touristy stop this week. It's a short drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (that's the PCH to us locals) from Newport Beach. The fine folks in Huntington (I didn't bother to tell them they were misspelling it) built themselves a pier a while back and allowed Ruby to put one of her diners on the end of it.We strolled along it and the little shopping area. We watched as a street performer hammered objects into his head (never once thinking, "Hey, we should record this with some sort of magic picture machine.") and another street guy passed out dollar bills to people for answering trivia questions correctly. (I don't know. That's just what he did.)
.jpg)
We had lunch at a nice little pizza chain called BJ's. It was good -- a little different, but good. We also watched a few volleyball games and a whole buncha dudes surfing. There must have been 50 surfers on each side of the pier. And nice waves. Mrs. Kimberly got these couple of shots that you see to the left and right (she's good). The pelican was a big star on the pier. Don't know why, really. Just a pelican.
Welp, that's it for the travel and sightseeing (ie, fun stuff). All that's left is the game.
Remember
There are tailgate gathering in Parking Lot H and K tomorrow evening. Have fun.
posted by Josh_Moon at
9:56 PM
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