Superstork 2017

Laguna Beach Getaway!

Feb 2 to 4

Our dear friend Jan Lord opened a solo art show at Townley Gallery in Laguna Beach on Thursday evening, February 2!

What a great excuse to spend a couple days at one of Orange County's best little beach towns! We booked a room at the Hotel Laguna and checked in at three. It was about a one hour/50 mile trip from our home in Encinitas.

The Hotel Laguna

The Hotel was built back in the Dark Ages and hasn't changed much. This is our room and we did have an ocean view out that window.

This is our bathroom complete with the original fixtures and lead pipes. Well I don't know about lead pipes but isn't that what they used during the Dark Ages? The Hotel is in  a great location so we decided to stick it out. It turned out OK.

Directly across the street we found Tommy Bahama's! It was time for an attitude adjustment!

Look who showed up!

Greg, Kelly, Bev, Nelly, AJ, Marcia, Josie and Skip!

Pick your favorite group photo by our server

Meanwhile, out on the street....

After a couple inspirational beverages, we made our way around the corner to the gallery. 

Jan is the second from the right and her artwork is on the walls.

I needed to photograph the photographer.

Josie, Marcia and Patsy

Just one of Jan's great works, this one inspired by her recent trip to the Big Apple. You can get an idea of the scale if you look at the photo above this one.

John made all the wood panels that Jan used for her creations.

This woman bought all Jan's paintings. Just kidding. I don't remember her name.

That is Jan's son, Ian, waving at me. I think he must have been saying good-bye because that's it for my gallery photos.

We went out to get a bite to eat and later ended up at "The Cliff" where there was a really good band and a lot of people out having a good time.

Here is me having a good time

Here is the drummer/vocals guy and other people having a good time.

The band was set up just outside the bar from which this photo and the previous one were taken. It was a fun evening and Jan's show was a great success!

We woke up Friday to a dreary, rainy day. This is looking south on PCH. That's Tommy Bahama's on the opposite corner.

This is "The Greeter", or a statue of him. Yes I remember actually seeing him back in the 80's when we lived in the OC.

We actually had breakfast outside even though it was a little chilly. This was our view.

This is our heater and Bloody Mary's. We needed both.

I'm guessing the brick mason was a little high when this was built. Who needs a level? And his buddy the roofer agreed.

"I'm running low on actual bricks! Pass up some rocks, seashells, anything at all.

I think he did the sidewalk too.

A little color on a cloudy day...

A view of our hotel from where we started the evening.

It was called "Big Fish"

Many of the houses in Laguna cascade down the surrounding hillsides. Sometimes, when it rains a lot, they actually do cascade down the hillsides.

We had a nice experience at Broadway, sitting at the bar and having a couple apps.

We were just down the bar from the food prep area.

Looking the other direction, the cooks were working hard!

We didn't get to meet Amar, but we had fun.

Saturday morning didn't look any more promising than Friday.

We walked north along the beach for a while.

Nice sculpture, not a very good photo of it.

Well that's it for Laguna Beach for now. Laguna is a very nice, eclectic, artsy, foodie, beach town. Tommy Bahama's aside, there are very few chain restaurants and stores (unlike Santa Barbara which is nothing but). Yeah, it's touristy, but in a good way. We had fun!