Seeing Southern CA for the Second Time - Day 1

As you may have noticed on Facebook, earlier this month, Chris and I were lucky enough to host my Mom for her second visit to our new digs in Long Beach.  Although she's visited San Francisco a few times, this was just her second trip to our neck of the woods (and points even further south, as you'll see), hence the title of these posts.  Here we go!

Last time Mom visited, she flew in and out through LAX, which is really a level of the underworld brought topside.  Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity to fly in and out of LAX, and you're not a famous person (which if you are, how did you even find this blog?  Feel free to send me a few bucks, why don't ya?), just don't.  Thankfully, by the time this visit rolled around, Southwest started offering more and more flights between the east coast and our cute little Long Beach Airport, conveniently located only 2 miles from our house.  Mom landed on a Wednesday afternoon, and I was able to finish up work early for the day to pick her up.

Since it was lunchtime for me, and she could use a bit more food (to build on the random bites she had during her layover in Vegas), we headed to downtown Bixby Knolls, the shopping/dining area about one mile south of our house (according to some of the snootier people we've met here, our house is technically "Bixby Knolls-adjacent"  Whatever, dude.  Wikipedia says we're in the neighborhood).  We parked the truck and first stopped by the library (to swap out some books) and then headed to the Bake and Broil, a nearby eatery, as Mom was craving a good salad.  When we couldn't get a seat there (it was packed to the gills - at 1pm - on a Wednesday!), we strolled a bit further uptown to Bella Pizza, our favorite gourmet pizza place in the area.

Out strolling Bixby Knolls!

What we normally get at the Bake and Broil -

yes, they are as delicious as they look.

Time for pizza - Bella Pizza!

At Bella, we split a small pizza and medium salad, and we even had leftovers to bring home for Chris later (of the salad - the pizza was polished off, mainly by me).  After a leisurely stroll back to the truck, stopping for window shopping at one of the newer stores in the area, it was time to head to the house, where Mom settled in and said hi to her one remaining Olsen granddog (so sad!), and we all took naps while waiting for Chris to come home from work.  

Eventually, he made it home and after he returned from a short run (triathlon training waits for no man or visiting family member), Mom and I headed out on foot toward downtown BK again, strolling to Dutch's Brewhouse, our first stop for the night.  Chris met us there with the car, so we wouldn't have to make the journey home later on foot in the chilly evening hours.

Dutch's - obviously not my picture.

They've made several improvements since this was taken.

We really love Dutch's!  Jayson, the owner, and his wife opened the Brewhouse almost a year ago, and while their main draw is the brew your own beer system they feature in the front window, they also have tons of good stuff on tap as well as delicious brick oven pizzas.  We started off with some pints (including Shiner Bock for Mom, which she loved - Jayson always keep Shiner Bock on tap at Dutch's - my kind of place) and a pizza to serve as an appetizer of sorts.  After finishing up at Dutch's, it was on to the Smog City tap counter at Steelcraft.

At Steelcraft - also, obviously, not my photo.

Smog City is there on the left,

and in red, you can also see Waffle Love.

The venue also has a pizza joint, a burger place,

a ramen stand, shaved ice, AND gourmet chocolates.

No wonder it's always ridiculously crowded.

We shared some Smog City beers and a chicken waffle creation from Waffle Love (so.good.), and then it was onto our last stop of the evening at potentially our very most favorite BK business, the Long Beach Creamery.

The case full of awesomeness at the Creamery.

The Creamery has been open for a few years now, and my understanding is that it started through a KickStarter campaign.  Huzzah, crowd funding!  They're fantastic, and we're long standing members of their loyalty program.  After that, everyone was full and tired, so we headed home, ready for bed. 

On the next blog, Mom and I head for Hollywood!

Later!

Amy