We had a pretty busy weekend here, with lots of our typical activities. On Saturday, I did my weekly long morning run, and we took in two new movies, The Invention of Lying — a funny idea, but not enough to sustain an entire film — and A Serious Man, which was a terrific, well-observed, and hilarious addition to the Coen canon.
On Sunday, I started off with another run, and then we headed up to Eaton Canyon, north of Pasadena, one of the few parts of the Angeles National Forest that’s open after the Station Fire. We were heading on one of the trails in our 60 Hikes book, but we sort of ended up going in a different direction, mostly uphill in a series of switchbacks. The view down into the San Gabriel Valley was great, and we enjoyed the cool morning air. We saw no mountain lions.
A few more pictures from the hike here.
We headed into Alhambra for lunch at the Jonathan Gold-hyped 101 Noodle Express, where I had the beef roll, about which he says the following:
But mostly, the cafe is home to the Shandong-style beef roll, a massive, bronzed construction that commands its platter like two El Tepeyac burritos laid side by side – brawny Chinese pancakes rolled around slivers of stewed beef and seasoned with a sprinkling of chopped scallion tops and fresh cilantro.
And it was good. It was good that day, and also yesterday for lunch, and today for lunch.
After lunch, we walked around a neighborhood filled with Craftsman homes in order to work up an appetite for our next legendary Alhambra establishment, Fosselman’s, recently named the “Best Place in the World to Drink a Milkshake” by the Guardian. On our way there, we spotted this great sign combination:
We entered the hallowed halls of Fosselman’s, home to ninety years of ice cream tradition, and ordered our shakes – mocha almond fudge and espresso for me, mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream for Aimee – and watched them be made. My flavor choice was a little odd – I think I was thrown off by all the choices – but it turned out well. I have to say, having actively, consciously consumed milkshakes for decades now, it was one of the thickest, tastiest, and overall best shakes I’ve ever had. Too bad (or thank goodness) it’s so far away from us, but it’ll certainly be a must-do activity for any ice cream aficionados who come to visit in the future.
We got home in time to catch the exciting end of the Broncos-Patriots game, from the third quarter through overtime, and the unlikely, undefeated Broncos’ victory in their ugly throwback uniforms. From there, it was on to Game Three of the Yankees-Twins division series, which was a close game but ended the way the previous two had, with a sure-handed victory by the Yankees which I listened to on my way to the Toy Story / Toy Story 2 3-D double feature (got all that?). As if I needed something else to do that day…but it was supposedly closing this week, so I had to go that night if I wanted to catch it. And it was well worth it, great fun to see the films in the theater again, and with a typically tasteful 3-D rendering that made things feel a little deeper, rather than gimmicky. Nicely done.
