A Troll Tried To Pop My Vacation Fantasy Bubble...

Yes, it's true. My bubble was popped when a thoughtful and considerate *anonymous* commenter informed me that Huey Lewis was, alas, in dear old Scotland, playing the links. That, of course, completely cancels out that particular *celebrity sighting* on our first evening out in Santa Monica, while dining at The Lobster on Santa Monica Pier. Okay. He/She was a spoilsport and completely stuck a sharp pin into my cozy little fantasy bubble. Meanie. I'm glad I'm not like that. I prefer to make people happy, but I guess it really does take all kinds, huh? I just cannot imagine doing or saying something like that and raining on someone's parade. However, I have heard of these things called airplanes that can transport someone between two destinations in amazingly short time. But, whatever.



Once we arrived at the Burbank airport and drove to the hotel in Santa Monica, we knew this trip was going to be a totally different experience than last time. However, we should have flown into LAX, which would have been so much closer. Unfortunately, I'm scared to death of LAX for some insane reason. Our hotel was *on the beach* which means you're like a block away from the huge beach at the Boardwalk at Santa Monica. Our room was very nice and well appointed, so we were happy there. I loved that they had robes for you... definitely not your typical Holiday Inn. The pool was nice enough, but it was getting too cold at night to allow daytime swimming, unless you're in the middle of hot flashing. Thankfully, I wasn't... for once.

We were starving upon arrival so we walked around the corner to Ivy-At-The-Shore, which I told you about in my last post. Totally wonderful. I think we both had the fried soft shell crab and it was as good as it gets. We had devoured every little morsel before I thought to take a picture. Duh.


Once we were finished with our late lunch, we drove into West Hollywood to meet up with SD at her office (cubicle, really) and meet a few of the folks she works with. Then, we followed her to her apartment (which we had not seen) and it's really cute. These three girls are all so savvy and their apartment reflects that. After that, we didn't use the car again until we went to Disneyland



That night, we dined at The Lobster which is located on the street side edge of the Santa Monica Pier and has fabulous views of the ocean, so we walked from the hotel. Their wait service and their food was impeccable. I had the lobster tail *house specialty* (which I forgot to take a picture of while in my star gazing mode) while Mr. Snoots and SD had the whole steamed lobster. SD's roommate had the Lobster and Manila Clam Chowder, which looked divine. And of course, they served delicious martinis. The martinis may or may have not had anything to do with my two celebrity sightings at The Lobster. Frankly, I can't say, for sure.









I think I've finally decided that it wasn't Helen Mirren that I saw. This picture should explain why. However, she and her husband have lived in the Hollywood Hills since 1986, so it made perfect sense at first. Go ahead and click on it. You know you want to... Wait a minute! Now that I look again, I think it really was her that I saw.




When I saw Jennifer Anniston, I said, "Honey, look! It's Jennifer Anniston!" Mr. Snooty's reply was, "Who's that?" Yes. It's true. She doesn't star in any 1940's or 1950's western flicks with Roy Rogers or Audie Murphy and I don't think she's ever been on the food network, so why would he know who she is? Obviously, no celebrity sighting validation there either.



The best part about Santa Monica is that you can walk everywhere and hopefully kill a few thousand fat cells or knock off a significant amount of calories consumed, in the process. I loved not having to get in the car every time we had to make a reservation. As much as I ate while there, I actually lost three pounds on the trip. Woot! Woot!


Anyhoo, we put Mr. Snoots to bed after dinner and then the girls and I walked to The Ivy for after dinner cognacs, which was fun. They had lovely little vases of fresh roses at every table in the bar and restaurant. By then, the girls had to put me to bed. I was a tired puppy after so much excitement in one day, for an *old phart*.



The next morning, Mr. Snoots and I found a lovely little breakfast spot on the Third Street Promenade called Jinky's, which we really liked, so we walked there several mornings in a row. I loved their Eggs Benedict and fresh fruit that much. We were also able to sit outside and *people watch*, which was a real hoot, trust me.







We met SD for lunch at a place called Blue Plate Oysterette, which is just down from The Ivy. We sat at the bar (or lunch counter) because the place was packed and were we ever thrilled that we did! We were able to watch the entire kitchen staff as they skillfully did their jobs, which was really quite exciting. The owner was there to oversee things and you could see that there was an amicable rapport among the staff. We started out with FRESH British Columbian oysters called Fanny Bay oysters, which were tiny and delicious, just how I like them, especially with the freshly grated horseradish. I had the Fish and Chips for my entree, made from scratch, and it was heavenly. Mr. Snoots had the Mussels in Garlic Sauce and SD had their delectable fish tacos. They also had a lovely selection of tap and bottled beers.



Also, our waitress was absolutely adorable and one of the best servers we've ever had. Wait staff in Santa Monica is as good as it gets, literally everywhere. It's probably the most competitive field out there, besides the TV or movie industry









Afterward,  we walked down to the Santa Monica Pier and looked around. SD took a picture of me in front of Bubba Gump's, where you can slide into Forest Gump's fake shoes while sitting next to his suitcase and box of chocolates. Do you see where my purse is? I actually got up and walked off without it. For maybe 40 seconds. When I turned around to go back, a nice man and his son were looking in my direction, holding my purse. Whew! Disaster avoided.








The whole Santa Monica Pier is very touristy so we didn't last too long. I did find a straw hat there that I really liked, so I bought it to wear to Disneyland. I actually made it home with the hat still in tact.

To Be Continued....

I Sneaked In A Quick Trip To Groomer's In San Antonio... My Bad?

Yes, it's true. I didn't even unpack from the Austin trip. I just threw my bags back into the car and raced off to San Antonio (just a quick 11 hours round trip) to go to Groomer's for fresh fish. I wasn't disappointed. I totally scored!


We now have fresh shrimp, fresh salmon, sushi grade tuna, flounder, and Red Snapper, to last us at least until Spring.


While in San Antonio, I stayed with my good, good friend, as always. Oddly enough, they had not been able to do their turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, so they did it the following Sunday. I arrived the next day and was richly rewarded with oodles and gobs of leftovers. Yes, I was in total Hog Heaven. Then, to add to my joy, my friend gave me some of her fabulous crawfish dressing and some of her shrimp dressing, both of which are to die for. She had made up a ton of the stuff and it was already frozen. I nearly fainted with delight. So far, I know we're having crawfish dressing for Christmas Dinner. Beyond that, it's a mystery.



So, we arose at the crack of dawn on Tuesday, since we knew that Groomer's opens at 7:00 AM. We finally arrived there by 8:00 AM and watched as our various goodies were prepared by the Groomer's staff. So, we're standing there watching through the windows and I decide to take a few pictures. At that moment, the owner turns to me and says "Are you Snooty?" I was completely blown away by his question but was able to recover in time to say "Ummm... yes." I wasn't quite sure if this was a good question or a bad one.

As it turned out, he had found my previous post about Groomer's by doing a Google search when looking for something else entirely. Then, a new Snooty Fan was born. Is that a hoot or what? He was also sweet enough to throw in a couple of flounder filets for free. Okay, I did spend $151.00 already and the flounder was an afterthought, so he caved. I do love that place!

We weren't able to get any fresh oysters because one of his best customers had been in the day before and bought something like all 4,000 of the oysters they'd had, that were already shucked. Damn! I'd like to be a guest at that party, right? I didn't feel like shucking them personally, so I passed on the oysters. This Time.




The Groomer's guy was just preparing my fresh tuna...

















Then, I had to have some fresh salmon....









Then, they carefully packed all of my goodies into what they refer to as a *cooler*, then loaded it into the car for me. We went back to my friends' house, I packed up my things, and was on the road by 10:00 AM and was home by 3:30 PM.





Lovely Red Snapper....







Lovely Heads-On Shrimp....






If you lived in West Texas you would fully understand why seafood, especially FRESH seafood, is worth an 11 hour round trip drive. Some may call me crazy but I know better....

Fish Monger's Thursday At Groomer's in San Antonio...

On Thursday, we were up and out the door by 10:00 AM, headed to meet up with a couple of other friends. Once we hooked up with them, we all headed to Mama's Cafe, where we had great Mexcian food for lunch along with, of course, Margaritas. I wasn't quite awake, so I didn't remember to get any pictures. Oh well, it wasn't that exciting at Mama's, but it was very good.


The next item on our agenda was Fish. Yes, I said Fish. It took a while for us to find this place, but it is a wholesale fresh fish market called Groomer's Seafood. The actual address is 9801 Mc Cullough Ave. somewhere near the airport. We got lost several times before we finally located it.



Once we arrived at our destination, we went down a long hall, then turned down another long hall, then through the door at the end. I was beginning to wonder if we were going for an illegal abortion or to a seafood market.


When we walked through the last door, I felt as if I had just entered Mecca or Nirvana or Heaven. There is an area where customers wait and watch their fish come in and be cut up to your specified size. They have fresh seafood flown in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are something like 15 to 20 employees, most of whom are working hard cutting up at least a dozen or more kinds of fish, behind the windows you see in the pictures. This is where the best restaurants in San Antonio come to get their fish for the next few days.



You look at the list of what they have, then the owner calls your name and you begin telling him how much you want of what, while he writes it down. Being a wholesaler, you have to buy everything in increments of a pound (as if you would want any less than that) from them. Deciding what you want and how much is another thing I think I'd get better at with more time. I brought an ice chest with me, but they also pack up your order in ice, inside an insulated box. Luckily, it was the perfect size for fitting into my rolling ice chest. I stopped at an HEB next, and bought some dry ice, which lasted me until I got home.

The most exciting part was being able to watch the guy cut up the tuna that would provide me with my 6 two inch thick steaks. That was a first for me and I enjoyed every last minute. I also bought a pound of HUGE heads-on shrimp, a pound of the next size smaller cleaned shrimp, one pound of freshly shucked oysters, and a pound of fresh salmon filet. I told the owner I was going to blog about his place, but he didn't offer me any further discount than the others received. Oh well. I had to try, didn't I?

My friends bought an enormous bag of oysters that must have weighed in at 60 pounds, along with a flounder, some shrimp and some crawfish. They called a group of friends to come over that night for the oysters, so it was a party. They also bought some baby octopus (or is that octopi?) and made an octopus salad, which I wouldn't have touched with a 50 foot pole. Yes, that's right. I had to draw the line at the baby octopi. It looked disgusting and I knew I'd hurl if I even let them pass my lips. I knew it would be like chewing on a big fat rubber band with legs. Ewww. Again, Ewww.


Anyway, my friends did what they called "Pop The Oysters" on the outdoor grill, which I'd never before witnessed. As each batch was done, they were shucked & left in the half shell. Then, there were four different sauces that we used for toppings. There was a Rockefeller spinach topping, a drawn butter with garlic topping, a cream based topping, and the Octopus Salad topping (which I passed on). It was insane, but scrumpdillyicious. I had to fight my way into the kitchen to claim mine, as I wasn't about to miss out on this. I think there were around 60 oysters shucked in total. When we were done with that, we had boiled shrimp that was absolutely the most wonderful shrimp I've ever had, with drawn butter, cocktail sauce, or tartar sauce.

On Friday, we slept late then went to have a light lunch at a place called El Generales. We ordered their special Margaritas that have an extra shot of Patron tequila floating in a plastic tube. These are flat out the best Margs I've ever laid witness to and we each had several. Good thing it was close to their house. We got a bit looped and did not need to be driving.

Anyway, we ordered Nachos, then ate our choice of lunch entrees. It was delicioso and by the time we left, we were all as stuffed as Thanksgiving turkeys. However, we didn't leave before I got my pictures for the blog. Why are all of my friends beginning to tire of my blogging? I can't imagine...

Saturday morning I got up, said m farewells and made the long five hour trip home. I stopped by the outdoor Mexican Market just outside Boerne but didn't find anything I wanted this time. So, I'm once again back in the safety of my home....