Category ArchiveEverywhere Once |

You’re Not Worthy

by Brian on March 8, 2013 in California, Food & Drink, Travel, United States

It takes a stone arrogant bastard of a brewery to, just 15 months after tapping its first keg, release a new beer and brand it Arrogant Bastard Ale. Even more so to market it with copy like this:

This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. . . If you don’t like it, keep it to yourself – we don’t want to hear from any sniveling yellow-swill-drinking wimps ‘cause Arrogant Bastard wasn’t made for you.”

Slightly over a decade later, those arrogant bastards of Stone Brewing were named “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by Beer Advocate Magazine. Shortly thereafter founder Greg Koch received knighthood from the Belgian Brewers Federation. Arrogance, for sure, but apparently also with the sack (or should we now say squirely sword) to back it up.

USS Midway

by Brian on March 6, 2013 in California, Travel, United States

Commissioned just after the end of World War II, the USS Midway claimed bragging rights as the largest ship in the world for roughly a decade. Its 47 years of duty also makes it the longest serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century.

California Wildflowers

by Brian on March 4, 2013 in California, United States

For a couple of northeasterners who’ve spent their entire lives in a place where the saying “April showers bring May flowers” is considered a universal truth, seeing wildflowers pop all over southern California through February and into March is a real treat.

Park City

by Shannon on February 25, 2013 in California, Travel, United States

“Balboa Park, San Diego’s great…cultural and recreational asset has gone to war along with the nation,” reported a newspaper on December 12, 1941, five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some buildings on the park’s grounds were requisitioned for military use during World War II, including the one housing the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA). Paintings and other works were removed to make way for an operating room and beds for wounded soldiers when the grandiose edifice was transformed into a makeshift hospital.

After fulfilling its wartime mission, the building reverted to its original purpose as a destination for art enthusiasts. Opened to the public in 1926, the SDMA is one of the draws at Balboa Park, which packs more cultural punch in its 1,200 acres than do most entire towns.

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

by Brian on February 22, 2013 in California, Travel, United States

500 years ago nobody wanted the stretch of land known today as California. No Europeans, anyway. For hundreds of years the Spanish knew of the area but didn’t care to settle there. It wasn’t until King Carlos III learned that Russian seal hunters were operating on the Pacific Coast that he felt compelled to claim for Spain what it had never previously desired.