A long weekend in southern California

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Where should we go for our long Easter weekend? We talked about going to San Diego. Then we looked at Sedona which would be an easy drive away from Grand Canyon. Then I found out that Po would be in southern California for Easter. So a decision was made - let’s fly to Orange County and spend our long weekend with Po, Anne and Jimmy.

We flew through Phoenix and arrived at Orange County airport on time. It’s easy to see why Southwest Airlines has grown so fast in the last decade. No hassles, no assigned seating, no elaborate penalties for changing your schedule, no cash on board. It’s a pretty easy way to fly once you get used to this Group A or B or C boarding process. Of course, there are still so many passengers who are confused about this consecutive number boarding pass rule. It is a simple concept … if you have boarding pass number A20, you stand behind the one with boarding pass number A19 and A21 should be behind you. Consecutive numbering system! But I always see someone in group B wanting to board with group A or someone with boarding pass number A50 trying to board behind A18. I am convinced that a lot of them understands the process but wants to see if he (or she) can get away with it. It will then be up to the gate agent to enforce the rule.

Lauren and I drove to Irvine after we picked up our rental car to meet up with Po, Anne and Jimmy. Then we all went together to Kitayama Restaurant in Newport Beach for dinner. Apparently Anne made a reservation already and we were taken by the hostess to a private Japanese style dining room with tatami style seating. I was a little concerned - sitting cross legged for the whole dinner? That would require lots of flexibility. I am sure Lauren has that flexibility. But me?? After we took off our shoes at the entry door - Japanese style - I checked the bottom of the table and was relieved to see a big hole. Whew! This is westernized tatami style seating where our legs can actually stretch underneath the dining table.

Our private dining room had a view of a small Japanese courtyard and the sushi bar/restaurant on the other side of the garden. Without anyone around us, we could talk and laugh as loud as we wanted to and we wouldn’t be bothering anyone. We ordered a pitcher of beer and that was as wild as we would get the entire night.

The meal was wonderful - I ordered shabu shabu and probably shouldn’t have done that because it required a bit of work to get a mouthful. But it was probably the healthier option! My inexperienced showed up when I had to scoop up cooked Japanese udon noodles into my own bowl … they were so slippery and impossible to get a good grip using chopsticks. Anne finally came to my rescue and managed to easily do the job that I was struggling to complete for the last 2-3 minutes.

Done with dinner, Lauren and I had to find our hotel. I brought along a Garmin GPS with me, realizing that we might be driving all over southern California. I entered our hotel address already before dinner and so all I had to do was follow the direction given by the GPS. And it didn’t take long for us to find out a potential problem with our direction. I think GPS is programmed to find the fastest route to its destination. In our case, the fastest route was through a toll road! By the time I made the turn, it was too late to turn back. I was entering State Route 73 - a toll road - with cars immediately behind me. I looked at Lauren “do we have change?” And of course, her response was “how much?” Neither one of us knew.

When we finally saw our exit, I was relieved to see that there were no other cars there. But then I also realized there was no toll booth attendant - just an automated toll booth. The sign indicated that the toll was $1.75. Lauren searched both our wallets and yes, we did NOT have exact change. My mind was racing … trying to figure out what to do. And then I saw it! There was a change machine next to the automated toll gate. How smart was that? Good thing - it certainly prevented me from getting a ticket! I wonder what the penalty is for skipping a toll booth in California.

After another few minutes of driving around a neighborhood, we finally arrived at the Resort at Pelican Hill. Some resort! The lobby was huge and we were the only 2 guests there. And this was a holiday weekend? The girl at the Reception Desk checked us in expeditiously and explained the layout of the hotel. That was when we realized that this was not a typical hotel layout. We had to get back into our car and drove around the corner to a gated entryway. We showed our newly acquired pass to the security guard and he opened up the gate. The resort bungalows, including the swimming pool and restaurant, were behind the gate. It felt as if we were returning home - not entering a hotel. I parked the car across the street from our bungalow, opened up our door and found a surprise!

On the table in the middle of our room, we found a bottle of chilled champagne in a bucket. A card placed next to it welcomed us to Pelican Hill. Nice touch! No wonder I received an email to find out our arrival time. The champagne certainly didn’t look like it had been placed there all day long. There was no hesitation … I opened up the bottle and celebrated with Lauren as we started unpacking.

The great thing about the setup of Pelican Hill is the fact that it is so quiet - nobody above us and no hall way outside our door. No elevators and no traffic. Our room was large and the high ceiling made it feel even larger. A fireplace was located right in the middle of the room. There was a sitting area and the coffee table had magazines and books (about golf) on top of it. The large flat screen TV was hooked up to a Bose surround sound system. Impressive! And yet I had never heard of the Resort at Pelican Hill before this trip.


April 10, 2009

We got up early and the first thing I did was to open up the wooden shutter doors. We had a small outdoor terrace with 2 chaise lounge chairs and a small round table with an umbrella. But that was not the best part … to our right was the lobby of the hotel, in front of us was the golf course and to our left was the Pacific Ocean. What a magnificent view. Plants and flowers decorated the area around the terrace.
We had room service for breakfast (breakfast was included and we could have it delivered or we could walk to the restaurant). Lauren had her oatmeal while I ordered a large omelette. Weren’t we on vacation? Surely I could splurge on my calorie intake during a vacation, right? In addition, I was going to play golf in the morning and I was not sure whether we would be walking or not.

Po and I had a 10:00am tee time at Pelican Hill Ocean South Course. Lauren and I drove out half hour early to make sure we could find the golf pro shop with ample time. It was less than 5 minutes away - we had no problem finding it. It was a great day for golf … partially cloudy and slightly cool. Hope the weather would hold up since rain was in the forecast. I was told at the pro shop that the Ocean South Course was just reopened today after some renovation. So the green was not perfect and we would be charged the twilight fee instead of the regular green fee. Hmm … couldn’t complain there.

Po and Anne came a little bit later. While Po and I prepared to go to the driving range, Anne decided to take Lauren and showed her the area. We were then given the key to the cart (good - we were not walking after all!) and introduced us to our caddie, Joel. Apparently, this was all part of the green fee.

Pelican Hill Ocean South Course, a par 70, 6580 yards course was designed by Tom Fazio and was opened in 1991. Surprisingly, I found out that both courses at Pelican Hill are public courses. Our caddie told us that the hotel itself was opened in November 2008. That certainly explained why everything looked so new.
We picked a great day for golf. We had an open course - nobody in front and nobody behind us. Just Po and I, plus Joel, enjoying a nice southern California morning. I normally called it a “green meeting”. Yes, it was partially a business trip. But how could anyone complain about having a business "green meeting"? The course took us to the Newport Coast plateau with a dramatic view of the Pacific down to the shores of the Pacific (I hooked one ball way left and donated it to the sea goddess). Along the way, we were surrounded by multi-million dollar homes (or estates) that dotted the Pacific Ocean coastline.

I didn’t play that bad considering I hadn’t played much at all in the last 12 months. Joel helped a lot - he was able to locate our balls (my eye sight was not the greatest!). And I was sure he helped our lie a number of times too. The important part was that we had a great time.

By the time we finished, it was around 1:30pm. We walked over to Pelican Grill, the restaurant adjacent to the Pro Shop. Po called his wife and found out that the girls were not that far away from Pelican Hill - but they ate already. So we ordered our lunch while we waited for our wives.

It was very obvious that the management of Pelican Hill took great effort in creating a certain atmosphere at the resort. The staff uniform seems to be straight out of Italy - very chic. The servers at Pelican Grill, both male and female, seem to be fresh out of their Hollywood screen test. They were all gorgeous. Where did they find these people?

I ordered an appetizer platter - 3 mini Kobe burgers. They were great! Anne and Lauren finally came and joined us. They spent the morning at a fish market in Newport Beach and then they walked along the shores of Laguna Beach. It was a good - and short - his and hers morning schedule.

After Po and Anne left, Lauren and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the grounds of the resort. Not far from our bungalow was the Coliseum Pool, a large circular pool 136 feet in diameter. The front half of the pool had a 2-level terraced seating with private cabanas. I was shocked to see that there was a TV inside each cabana. The back half of the pool opened up with a spectacular view of the golf course and the ocean. There were several children playing inside the pool and a few adults enjoying the warm sun.

Moving uphill, we walked past the back side of the lobby and arrived at a beautiful garden setting - with a Rotunda at the edge of a plateau. The well manicured oval lawn in front of the Rotunda was being set up for a wedding. Resort staff was busy lining up chairs facing the Rotunda while a woman was bringing and setting up white flowers all around. The view from the Rotunda was priceless … it was like the edge of an infinity pool with unblocked vista of the western sky bordered by the Pacific Ocean. Good wedding setting (even though I still like mine better).

We walked up the stairs and arrived at a courtyard with a hall on both sides. A band was setting up inside one of the halls - Mar Vista Ballroom. What an appropriate name for the ballroom! Lauren and I quickly walked away from the area. It was so busy and we did not want to be on the way. But we thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely stroll. It was such a beautiful resort setting.

Back in our room, we needed to get ready for our long journey for dinner. I still keep in touch with a lot of my elementary school friends. Thanks to Google, I was able to locate some long lost friends from back home and met some new ones. We planned to have dinner in Arcadia with a friend from my elementary school days. We never met before but we attended the same school. So we had been chatting via email for the last year or so.

With GPS in hand, we left early - hoping that we would not see any rain on the way. Well, this being southern California, it was not rain that we ran into. It was traffic! Not too far out of Newport Coast, traffic started crawling on the freeway. Good thing we left early. Minutes later, I saw a big stadium to the left of the freeway. The traffic jam started and ended at the exit to the stadium - it was the Angels’ baseball stadium. In fact, it was the first game for the Angels after one of their young pitchers, Nick Adenhart, was tragically killed by a drunk driver the night he pitched his best game. How sad! No wonder fans were pouring into the stadium.

Traffic was smooth afterwards and we were able to reach Din Tai Fung Restaurant in Arcadia without a problem. The GPS certainly helped. I went to the original Din Tai Fung restaurant in Taipei before and was pleasantly surprised to find a branch restaurant in California. The restaurant specializes in steamed dumplings. You could see a bunch of people behind a glass wrapping these dumplings one by one. It was the same set up in Taipei … walked into the restaurant and witnessed the handmade dumplings before getting seated.

Hahan came with his family and we were seated not long afterwards. It was our first meeting but it seemed like I was seeing a long lost friend. We definitely had a few things in common - early childhood in Asia followed by college education in USA. So it was easy for us to relate to each other immediately. We tried to squeeze in as much as we could in a short period of time. But we were certain that we would find the opportunity to see each other again.

The drive back to Newport Coast felt a lot longer. Maybe it was because it was night time already. With a full stomach, I just wanted to get home as fast as possible. Being in California, I was driving 75 mph or over and I felt like I was driving 45 mph - cars were still passing me left and right. What was the speed limit anyhow? At least I knew my way back better this time and avoided the toll road.

What a fun and relaxing day! A little golf, a nice leisurely walk with my wife, good food, great friends. What else could I ask for? Looking forward to tomorrow ...

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Photos

Kitayama Restaurant
First night dinner in Newport Beach

Nice surprise
Chilled champagne accompanied by a welcome card

Golf at Pelican Hill
Ocean South Course, par 3

Pelican Hill golf
Great view of the Pacific Ocean behind us

Pelican Hill golf
Hole number 18, par 4

Resort at Pelican Hill
Actual lemon tree around the swimming pool

Coliseum Pool
With terraced seating halfway around it

Afternoon stroll
Beautiful resort ground

The Rotunda
Wedding party being set up

Resort at Pelican Hill
From the small courtyard outside Mar Vista Ballroom

View from the lobby
With the golf course and the Pacific Ocean in front

Pelican Hill view
Enjoying the afternoon ocean breeze

Dinner at Din Tai Fung
With Hahan and his family