Big Sweet Tooth

I Live on TOP of the Ocean, but do I Really SEE the Ocean?

 God Bless Water....

Every day, I head to work or come home from work and am confronted by the majesty of the ocean. I live on top of it, for the love.

But, not until I gaze at a picture like this (shot from the deck of Casa de Mita in Mexico) do I realize what I'm missing in the ocean. I don't have to peer and poke about. Nor do I have to monitor high and low tide. Who am I looking for, or better yet - who the hell am I avoiding?

I just know that water connects us. Connects me. Brings all the people I love closer to my being - because guess what, they wanna be near water as well. See it, touch it, listen to it, watch it rise and lower.

At Casa de Mita, though - I just became the ocean. The waves crashing lulled me to sleep and also awoke me from my death-grip slumber. It soothed me. It was my company at night when I dined alone with a bottle of champagne. It kept me locked down late night into a spy thriller and also made me feel alive when the sun rose and the fish started frying up at the small palapas down the way.

The ocean can take over ones soul. Like the drop of a hat. Done and done....

I Think What We All Need Right Now is a Top Shelf Margarita

Lined with some kickin' chile salt...

And, if I had my way, it would be slurped down on the deck of Casa de Mita - while watching the waves crash and the sun slowly sink into the Pacific.  This tiny boutique hotel just north of Puerto Vallarta (down a long dirt road in Punta de Mita to be exact) stole my heart when I went down there a few weeks ago.  So much so, that I'm gonna need to dedicate my next few posts to it. 

Let's travel together the rest of this week and escape for a minute.  I know I need it.  Til manana...

 

Mexico - How Much Time You Got...

Mexico is dope...even if it is just for 72 hours.

My word, where the hell do I even begin.  Still been in NJ working on this show, but we did a quick wrap out and I hit up a new spot in Mexico for about 72 hours.  Costa Careyes.  I was so bloody tired, I barely snapped a shot (and I even got myself a new super-sonic camera).  It was all I could do to pull out the iphone and take a quickie.

Not that there wasn't beauty.  It was maddeningly lush.  So super rich and green and lush.  Fly into PV.  Drinks cervezas immediately in prep for windy 3 hour car ride south of the city.  Stop and have shrimp with butter (my dish of the trip).  Load up on more cerveza.  Get to hotel and drink silly and sleep and sleep.  Wake up to the most insane view (pix later), and a kayaking trip around the cove.  Just gotta make it around that big rock!  Cut up my toe, got tossed about trying to land on a rocky beach.  Had to ride the kayak like a surfboard to get back into the big blue sea.  Drank more.  Ate til I passed out.  Next day - kayaked around the bend to the palapa-covered restaurant that had no power (so they had to close at 7 pm), sans shoes.  Rode right up onto shore, plowed through pescado ceviche, shrimp con mantaquilla, coconut shrimp, more beer, tequila, micheladas.  Then waltzed right back out to the kayak, hopped in and hit it back around the bend.  Laid into a pass-out-style massage, swam in the massive pool, drank a hundred pina coladas and mojitos, attempted to make my way through an 800 page thriller, slugged back tequila shots, spent a little time in a hammock on the front deck of my killer room (with own private plunge pool), gazed at a trillion stars, drank some more.  Just a dream trip - all planned in about 2.2 seconds. 

Woke up and headed on out.  2 beers on the way.  Holla, Mexico.  That's kinda how you need to roll down south.  I still have a great time even if I am too tired to snap a photo. 

PS - Tanner than ever)

Seals Do Indeed Scream While Having Sex.

Yup - when seals make love, the woman screams.  I watched on - fascinated at this tragic/epic undertaking on the way back from SF.  Once the two are done with the deed, the chick pulls a straight pass out - and I mean DOES NOT MOVE, and the dude - he scurries over to the ocean  for a quick rinse off.  

Just like normal people do I guess.  Gal - she lays there a bit traumatized, and the guys on to the next thing - fresh and clean as a daisy.  We are all one.

What's More Interesting? Food or Scenery Pix?

What's the better picture?  Food or scenery?  I love the waves crashing all mighty and wild.  But, I'm a one-shot Charlie on those shots.  Click.  Yup, got it.  What's next to eat?  Ice cream?  Fish 'n chips with tangy malt vinegar?  Steaming clam chowder with hundreds of oyster crackers sprinkled on top?  I can snap dozens of photos of food and it never loses its appeal.  Close up on the cracked pepper.  Get tight on the oyster cracker.  Just one tong of the fork.  I love macro.

I was so sick from shoving down food on the way down Highway 1, I did the only thing I could do.  I ended it all with a bag of Funyuns.  Could be the best thing I'd eaten all day.  All they hype (thanks yelp.com) on the rest of the food was just above average.  Funyuns however...those spun me for a loop.

San Fran - A City Quickly Remembered.

People save their entire lives to rock certain trips.  Coastal cruise up the 1, for instance.  But, when you reside in Cali - well, these trips are as easy as hopping in the truck and hittin' the road.  The destination was San Francisco, a place I've always said I'd call home if I wanted to live the city life.  

Funny how one persons SF can be so different that my San Fran.  To me, it's meandering sailboats, the incredibly fresh sushi and sake at Atami (my forever perfect sushi joint), mist rising from crab pots and containers of giant crabs, mimosas at Zazie (along with shotgunning a spicy bloody mary at the chill bar next door), and brave/ass machiato's from Cafe Francisco.  That's all I really need from the city to be satisfied.

It was a quickie trip and more impressive than the clean little city itself was the 14 hour ride back to LA.  So much like Baja it hurts.  Did all the things you're supposed to do on excursions like these - chowed on fish 'n chips (Rated Top 5 in the country by Coastal Living), wolfed down a bowl of creamy clam chowder, munched on somehow-warm ice cream, saw the hilarious seals lining the beach near Hearst Castle (ever seen seals make love?)...and just looped and rolled all the way down the painfully beautiful coast. 

Now I've done it.  Next up has to be Catalina.

 

The Best Little Motel in Tucson- La Siesta

I'm not too keen on regular Joe-blow type hotels.  But, I do love, love, love quirky little motels.  Like La Siesta Motel down in Tucson.  The cutest rooms all tricked out in different styles.  Zen, Country, etc...

When I showed up on X-mas night, they had my lights on, the heater blasting and Thank God, a nice glass of red wine on the wait for me.  Now, who does that?  Free coffee in the AM - all strong and delicious - they recycle, the sweetheart who runs the place hires from the Tucson deaf community...I mean, it's like giving back in a whole new way.

It's def. more expensive than the other motels that flank it, but none of them are even near as adorable, homey or friendly.  I could plop down here and write a novel. No need to go anywhere ever again...except out to the pool to watch the shooting stars at night.

My fave room is the Zen room.  I mean, what motel rocks it like that?

A Bird and The Pacific

Here I was on my way to the tip of the Marina del Rey pier and I lazily strolled past a bird just gazing away across the Pacific.  Exactly what I was on my way to do.  Whipped out my iphone and off he went. The picture turned out better than if I'd gotten his mug in it.  Just a nothing but wings and a full take off to distant lands (Santa Monica pier, I'm sure).  

All that said, I'm finally back from the mess of New Jersey and life is finally straightening back out. My poor shambled, sloppy, sassy life is on the ups once again and I can't wait for the new year.  Plus, can't be happier to get back onto the Tooth and really assess what the hell is shaking down in 2010.

Salut to birds, wings, water and faraway places.

 

Jet-lag, Southern Belles: Louisville, and The Counter

Finally made it home to LA and have the most god-awful, head-pounding case of jet-lag ever.   Feelin' as wild as this cutie looks.  Hope tomorrow brings a new bout of MST energy so I can resume my posts properly.  I do so miss ranting and raving about all that inspires me on a daily basis.  Today, my inspiration came from the insane veggie burger with gobs of cheese and mayo that The Counter churns out.  As well as the Marina del Rey library, which I just wandered into.  It's got a badass Nautical wing, with every sailing book in the world right around the corner from me.  Talk about lucky-duck.

And, in the meantime, the show that I just spent 8 hysterical months of my life working on (I wrapped the day before I left for Indo) is set to premeire on SoapNet on May 21st at 10PM (EST).  It's called "Southern Belles:  Louisville", and it's fo sho an addictive little docu-drama.  Check it. 

Isla Mujeres...I Finally Made it~

You know what the scary thing about this picture is?  It's 100% real...and I was just there less than 24 hours ago.  Yep, you got it, I just returned from Isla Mujeres, Mexico...one of my new favorite places in the world.  Though I was only gone for a few days, I have a dozen stories to tell, a thousand photos to share and a million and one reasons why I wanna go back.  Starting with the snorkeling...NEVER have I been snorkeling in such crystal clear waters and within seconds had hundreds of rainbow colored fish surrounding me, enveloping me, flirting with me so close to my face...what an unbelievable experience.  For $4 bucks you can hit up Garrafon (right next door to the actual Garrafon Park) and see all sorts of little creatures.  Totally blew my mind and what a way to spend a day.  I'll follow up some more on the entire trip all this week in my ode to Isla Mujeres.  Stay tuned, por favor~