Paradoxical Entity

Today begins my summer vacation with a couple of pals. This trip’s theme was mine: to check out the California Wine Country to compliment my wine education.  The plan is to fly into San Francisco and take day trips out to the Napa and Sonoma Regions, probably one day each.  One of my friend’s sister lives in San Fran, so we’ll hang with her or she’ll hang with us for the other days. She was going to try to finagle some tickets for us to a ball game too. 

Right away, my plans went awry.  We scheduled an early morning flight so that we could arrive in San Francisco around noonish so we’d still have a day to do something.  I got to my seat on the plane, it was the last set all the way in the back by the lavatories and flight attendents.  While the flight looked packed, all through the boarding, no one came for the other 2 seats next to me.  I thought I lucked out and could stretch out and sleep all the way.  Then a flight attendent led two little girls over. 

Apparently they were flying out to San Francisco by themselves.  They told me that they were going to stay with their grandparents for the summer.  The two kids were asian and, I guess, pre-teens, but their English was very good.  They didn’t even use any of the usual TV-inspired urban slang at all.  In addition, they were very nonchalant about traveling on their own.  Obviously this wasn’t the first time.  I was impressed by their sophistication.

They were nice girls, very personable.  But too active.  I had decided not to sleep before the flight since I’d have to leave for the airport early.  I didn’t want to oversleep or worst, try too hard to sleep and the feel like crap when I’m forced to wake up just as I do fall asleep.  I ended up babysitting the two girls.  I showed them how to use the LCD entertainment screen on the backs of the seats, I helped them with their headphones, and then they started to sing along with the music from the entertainment system.  They didn’t sound bad, but geez, they were fairly loud.  Anyway, I got no sleep.

I’ve just returned from a business meeting at Riverside, CA.  We stayed and had our meeting at the Mission Inn Hotel in downtown Riverside. The first thing that struck me about the area is that it is dead. There were hardly any people around. There were hardly any vehicular traffic! Seriously, Riverside brought to mind one of those ’70s post-apocalyptic movies where only zombies roamed the world.

The immediate neighborhood included the Riverside Convention Center along with several museums and historical sites. There was also a large Marriott hotel and what looked to be medium sized office buildings.  All of which would give one the expectation of a hustling and bustling area full of workers and tourists, and the locals to cater to them.  Nope. 

The nearby shops were small and seemed to be predominantly antique stores. The eateries were little mom & pop affairs. I guess it was just as well because I don’t know how they could have enough shoppers to support anything more. There were quite a few vacant buildings.  The Riverside Chamber of Commerce needs to get on the ball.

As for the Mission Inn, it was an impressive sight. The many architectural styles and the maze-like paths through and about the hotel made it a fun place to explore. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to see all the art pieces scattered around it.  Here are some photos to intrigue you.