Tuesday, November 3, 2026
It was Election Day in the United States, a momentous opportunity for change amid the chaos created daily by Our Glorious Leader.
Having deposited our ballot via the early voting method a couple of weeks ago, there was nothing for us to do but wait until the election results were announced in the evening by the David Muir news team on ABC TV.
GOD, I HOPE SO!
Thus, we embarked on yet another day of sightseeing with our honored guest Julien Urgenti visiting from the magical city of Lyon, France.
We took the Pacific Coast Highway south to the city of Santa Monica.
Julien wanted to see the famed
Santa Monica Pier
The pier's iconic sign, depicted here during pier construction. The real sign has been taken down for needed cleaning and repair.
A most interesting building
greeted us once we were on the pier
It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach!
Santa Monica is the terminus of "America's
Highway" Route 66 that starts in Chicago
and celebrates its Centennial this year
I bet an condo in those buildings
costs a pretty penny
As if we still used pennies in America.
The Santa Monica Pier's
signature Ferris Wheel
It was closed until Noon today.
According to this, Santa Monica is
a Southwest facing beach
I wonder if Jacob knows about
this small aquarium at the foot
of the pier?
Pier visit over, we ambled over to Santa Monica's once happening Third Street Promenade.
Dinosauers were . . .
. . . all around us
Well, the paleontological rich La Brea Tar Pits are not that far away.
While this clock tower surveils
all of the Promenade area . . .
. . . there really is not much to
surveil anymore
Due to our nation's economic problems and the growth on internet buying, about 25% of the brick and mortar stores on the Promenade are empty. Instead of the vibrancy that was once the hallmark of the Promenade, we found a quiet, empty street scene.
Disappointing.
Back in Laurie's Blueberry II, we drove a few minutes farther South to another tourist destination.
Venice, California's famous Beach
"Like a dream I remember
from an easier time . . ."
The Venice Beach Boardwalk
was also not busy today
But it still contained an interesting, eclectic array of people, sights and businesses.
My goodness, those are
500 Lbs. dumbbells!
The gym at Venice's Muscle Beach
was uncrowded so . . .
. . . Julien jumped in to due a few
maintenance reps
There are lots of cool murals in Venice
Pick-up basketball games are a
staple of the Venice Beach life style
Graffitied monolith
The skateboard park always
draws a large crowd
By the way, he stuck this landing.
A Sicilian based coffee shop drew
my attention while Julien explored
Dreaming of one day owning a
Vespa while sipping my iced latte
I had to wonder what the rental
cost of one of these Suites might be
This sums up life on the Boardwalk
Be careful, Zoltar will steal your
soul if you are not paying attention
St. Mark, The Patron Saint of Venice
I knew that he was for Venice, Italy so it makes sense if Venice, California claims him too.
It was lunchtime.
Cafe 50s in the Sawtelle district
of Los Angeles got our first
"Hole-in-the-Wall" dining call
After much thought, we both
ordered a cheeseburger with fries
In my opinion, it doesn't get more 1950s than that.
During our lunch, we received a call from our Seattle connection, Mark Johnson. Julien and I will be flying up to Seattle on Thursday for a madcap football weekend designed to make Julien's head explode. Mark was calling us to let us know that all of our weekend's tickets were now secured.
Our Seattle football agenda now is set:
Friday, November 6th, 7:00 p.m.
Washington "AAA" State Playoff Game
Bishop Blanchet Bears (4-5) at
Bellevue Wolverines (8-1)
Saturday, November 7th, 12:30 p.m.
BIG-10 Conference Game
Penn State Nittany Lions (4-4) at
Washington Huskies (5-3)
Sunday, November 8th, 1:25 p.m.
NFL NFC West Game
Arizona Cardinals (3-5) at
Seattle Seahawks (4-4)
It should be a real eye-opener for Julien and I love it!
We now drove North back to the Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks to continue getting Julien a front seat at another football practice.
Cal Lutheran was preparing to take on
the SCIAC's bad boys, Chapman
California Lutheran University
Offensive Linemen at work
Julien coaches the OL with Lyon's beloved Villeurbanne Falcons.
An Inside Run Period is
always fun to watch
Julien, on the far right,
taking it all in
After a competitive team period,
we started our final leg home
I had to show off the CLU gym
before we got back to the car
We agreed that we we needed some further sustenance and, after all, it was Taco Tuesday so . . .
Julien at one of our County's
best "Hole-in-the-Wall" spots,
Camarillo's Establos Meat Market
We eschewed the tasty little street tacos for their more substantial burritos, DELICIOUS!
OH MY GOD, IT HAPPENED!!!
The Election Day results that we settled down to watch this evening proclaimed not just a Democrat wave or landslide but more of a Blue Tsunami.
Thank you America for finally waking up.
Lost in the Midterm Election Day
hubbub was today's initial release
of the 2026 CFP Poll
No Huskies of course, but it is nice to see THE Ohio State University on the outside looking in, for the moment.
This 12 team playoff poll has the following Conference breakdown:
SEC - 5 Teams
#2 Georgia, #5 Alabama, #6 Kentucky,
#7 Texas and #10 Ole Miss
BIG-10 - 2 Teams
#4 Indiana and #8 UCLA
BIG-XII - 2 Teams
#3 Utah and #9 BYU
ACC - 1 Team
#1 Miami
PAC-12 - 1 Team
#12 Boise State
Independent - 1 Team
#11 Notre Dame
LOTS of steps the past three days
highlighted by today's 13,992
I look at it as good preparation leading up to December's European Christmas Market Tour in Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
Off the exotic Ojai tomorrow, stay tuned . . .
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