California Trip: People

The nice thing about having free time AND a car was that I could get out and about. One day I drove out to California State University, Channel Islands meet my friend Steve Stratton, who is Head of Collection Development and Technical Services for the University Library.

CI is the newest branch of the Cal State system and, no, you do not have to take a boat to get there. The campus is actually in Camarillo, tucked away in between the low peaks of the Santa Monica Mountains, smack dab in the middle of Ventura County. Apparently the CSU chancellor decided "Channel Islands" was the best possible name for the campus, despite being on the mainland. (The school occupies the campus of the former State of California Mental Hospital, generically known as "Camarillo," so that wasn't going to work. Likewise, a land deal with Ventura County fell through, so that took care of that option!)

Thanks to Steve I was able to take a tour of their new library which is under construction and due to open in February 2008. In addition to Steve I met Steve’s boss, Paul Adalian, and one of Steve’s faculty colleagues, Manuel Correia. After the tour, Steve and Manuel and I went to a taqueria in Camarillo for a yummy lunch!

I was pleased to meet three online friends, all fellow bodybuilding fans, I’d never met in person before:

Doug lives in West Hollywood a and took me to Gold’s Venice, a place I’ve been fantasizing about (it’s the place they invented bodybuilding, you know) for at least 30 years. Mid-day Sunday apparently is NOT the time to go looking for celebrity bodybuilders, although Dougie did point out one aspiring porn star and I was quick to spot former pro-bodybuilder Tom Prince, who had to retire 2-3 years ago after suffering some illness (bypass surgery?) He is much smaller than he was back in his heyday but still very impressive! Afterwards Doug and I had lunch at the French Quarter Restaurant in West Hollywood. We were there about five minutes before I realized that I'd actually eaten dinner there in early 1994 with my friend Paul Camp, who works at UCLA's Biomedical Library.

Tom lives near LAX and works for a major airline. We’ve been chatting online for years. We got our wires a bit crossed so we didn’t have a chance to work out together but Naoyuki and I met up with him in Venice Beach for a cocktail at the Roosterfish and dinner at the C&O Trattoria. (Nice food, cute waiters!)

Dan is another long-time correspondent who lives in San Francisco. Dan moved to SF from the Dallas area where he was living when Jeremy and I arrived in Houston (1999.) It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long for us to finally connect! Dan was down in Palm Springs for Pride Weekend. We went out for a bite to eat our second night there (Friday), then he and I went to Gold’s Palm Springs to workout together Sunday a.m.

Likewise, while in Palm Springs we made a new friend, John, an erstwhile Canadian now living and working in Chicago. We persuaded him to join us for dinner at one of our favorite places, Haleiwa Joe’s, and explored a new one, El Mirasol, with him. El Mirasol goes on the list as another fave!

Next: Other Eats!