Sunday Funday with the 4Foodies

This post is a little belated, but word on the street is that we’ve got a few readers asking why we haven’t been posting any of our culinary adventures lately. Well, the truth is, we’ve been busy – and kinda broke! But whenever we get together with our friends Brittany & Wade, we become the 4Foodies, and we always end up with a crazy food-related day! We spent the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend bouncing from one food quest to another!

crabpot This picture accurately depicts our happiness in discovering that The Crab Pot features $3 mimosas and bloody mary’s from 11-4 every Saturday & Sunday! We can’t recommend sitting out on that sunny, scenic patio and sipping cheap beverages enough! (By the way, The Crab Pot is fully endorsed by Ed, who says it is probably his favorite restaurant in Long Beach. He can’t get enough of “The Feast”) We sampled a crab cocktail, and it was alright – but those $3 drinks induced a huge craving for something else. So, after we’d had our fill of champagne and crab, it was off to the next location that offered something with Brittany & Wade’s “HIGH CRAVEABILITY RATING” …. “THE SPECIAL” at Joe Jost’s!

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Apologies for the dark iPhone photo, but The Special is a hot dog that’s split down the middle with a pickle in it, resting in a cozy bed of rye bread, cheese and mustard. Brittany says YUM!

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Even more legendary than The Special, Ed and Wade are showing off Joe’s famous pickled eggs! Apparently, you gotta get an egg when you go to Joe Jost’s. Wade insists for a good pickled egg experience, you must chase your bite with a peperoncini. So, I even tried one – and as I represent the “sometimes-finicky” segment of the 4Foodies team, I have to admit that after getting over the initial shock value, they weren’t as bad as they sounded! :)

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Amongst all the drinks, specials and eggs, we decided nothing could be more fun than to rent a Duffy boat and cruise around Naples for an hour.  So we gathered two more couples and hit the open sea! We had lots of yummy wine and our favorite pita and hummus from the best Farmer’s Market ever – the Long Beach Southeast Farmer’s Market at the Long Beach Marina, that we scored earlier that day. This is why we live in Southern California!

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Man Overboard! Wade couldn’t contain himself – he had to jump in.

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An awesome 70’s style silhouette pic of Ed & I – so cheesy!

After our escapade on the boat, we went back home to prepare for dinner! Wade swears by “the fish guy” at the Farmer’s Market – and he always scores amazing seafood from him. You see him cut it right in front of you! He’s always got fresh, sushi-grade fish, and Wade always ends up with a masterpiece! He bought swordfish and he made homemade pesto and pasta to go along with it – so there was much to prepare! Wish we would’ve gotten some pics of Wade’s fantastic dinner – but we’ll have to take more next time. Consider it a reason to come back and check up on us!

The verdict is in – and Labor Day Weekend, although gluttonous, was the best ever!

Museums and Fossils and Canters … oh, my!


This weekend, our 3 nieces and nephew get to spend some quality time with us. Last night, our oldest nieces Kendall & Jordan got to spend the night at our house, and then we had an action-packed day planned for them. We have been waiting for such a long time to take the big girls to an art museum … and then we decided to hit up the La Brea Tar Pits, too!

However, no time spent at Uncle Ed and Auntie Carrie’s house can go without a little Guitar Hero. Check out these rocker-girls in action!

After a fair amount of rocking ensued, we headed off to LACMA for an introduction to some modern art!

We were particularly excited for the girls to see the “Happy Happy” installation in the Your Bright Future exhibit. Basically, Happy Happy is bunch of brightly colored kitchen items from the 99 Cent Store, all hung from up high. It’s huge! You can walk through it, play in it – its fascinating for both adults and kids alike. I think the girls were really surprised to see how art isn’t just a painting on a wall or a drawing in a sketchbook.

We bought the girls sketchbooks and colored pencils so they could draw at the museum if they were inspired, or they could simply write how they felt about a piece that they saw. I was excited that they really got into it:

Kendall and Jordan also got introduced to some of our favorite artists – Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Wassily Kandinsky!
Learning about Warhol …

Intrigued by Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog” …
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Inspired by Kandinsky!

After exploring the museum, we walked around to the back, and noticed that the Happy Happy artist also had another similar exhibition that allowed the public to participate in!

The girls were really impressed by this, and we checked out all the random objects people incorporated into the piece:

All that art worked up our appetites, so we decided to hit up Canter’s to show Kendall & Jordan how all the cool kids do lunch in L.A.!

Matzo Ball Soup, Pickles and Bagel Chips … yep, we’re at one of the best Jewish Delis ever!

We were feeling good after lunch, so it was finally time to check out some fossils and Ice Age skeletons at the La Brea Tar Pits

Once inside, there was lots of cool stuff to see – including lots of bones! Just a few of the monsters we saw …

They even have real volunteers in the Paleontology Lab cleaning up the bones and fossils right in front of you! The museum said that after all this time, they finally found a Woolly Mammoth with tusks intact. This is the very first time they have been able to salvage a full Mammoth! Inside the lab, they are calling him “Zed”. Here is part of Zed’s tusks:

Pretty cool stuff:

Everyone enjoyed the visit, but the girls were surprised at how strong the smell was. Here is Kendall’s summary:

And finally, the perfect end to a perfect day – we made a stop at Sprinkles for Kendall & Jordan’s first “original” gourmet cupcake. Only the best for our girls!

Check out the album for more awesome pics!

Kendall and Jordan visit
August 2009

Tomorrow’s agenda: Another big day out with Mikayla & Ethan!