Day 14 - Mask mandate is rescinded in California

Terrazza Restaurant

6/28/21. Monday

8:00 – 9:30 - I’m up at 4:30, then 6:00, then finally 8:00. Reservations for breakfast are at 10:30, but I like to take long showers so I make sure I’m out of the bathroom in plenty of time for L. to get ready.

Long shower. Hotel shower gel and lotion. Covid-19 uniform and my New Balance tennis shoes. Hairspray and make-up.

9:30-10:15 - I’m out of the bathroom by 9:30 and spend the next 45 minutes reading You’re Leaving When?

10:15–11:30 - Mom arrives at 10:15 and we go downstairs to the Coast, a café inside Shutters at the Beach. S&M join us a few minutes later. I order Eggs Over Eggplant, coffee, and a pomegranate mimosa and everyone else gets…something??? My breakfast is delish! 

After breakfast, we go our separate ways.

11:30- 1:00 - Mom, L. and I return to our rooms so L. can call for the car.  Then L. drives us to the 3rd Street Promenade and we park in a parking garage.  We walk down Santa Monica Blvd. first so we can start at Book Monster, an independent bookstore. I like the bookstore – they have a mask requirement – but, eventually, I have to go to the bathroom so we leave the bookstore and walk to Philz Coffee for a bathroom break and a ‘pick-me-up.’ We pass several disgusting transients along the way…Santa Monica Blvd. is very dirty…too close to Venice Beach. Even though I’m outside, I mask.  No telling what diseases are floating around out here.

We order coffee drinks at Philz and sit and talk for awhile.  Philz is filled with gay men…this doesn’t bother me but I find it odd. Also, nobody is masking in here and it makes me anxious.

1:00-2:30 – Mom, L, and I leave and head for “3rd Street”, still on foot on Santa Monica Blvd. There are disgusting people on this street and one homeless person is washing his hair on the sidewalk, using the storefront window as a mirror, while he stands and suds his hair.  How will he rinse off the soap? This is absolutely appalling. I think of my mask as a shield and refuse to take it off.

Even though we’re in the ghetto, it’s still great hanging out with L. and my Mom.

Eventually, we make it to Sephora – they also have a mask requirement – without getting shanked and I buy some concealer and perfume.  L. helps me pick out the right color for the concealer and buys some concealer for herself. We leave the store and, still on foot, head to Urban Outfitters so L. can get a cardigan for her Disneyland excursion tomorrow. More gross transients and there is a Santa Monica PD SUV parked near the pathway at all times, like a food truck.  Santa Monica PD probably sets up shop in this same location every day. Although 3rd Street is ‘fresher’ than Santa Monica Blvd, it’s dirty, too, but at least there are some interesting, life size, dinosaur bush sculptures set up in the median.

I’m quite sure I’m never coming to “3rd Street” again. Why does L. like this area?

2:30-3:30 – We stop at Urban Outfitters and I help L. look for a cardigan. We go through most of the first floor, but L.’s not feeling it.  My Mom bails immediately and says we can find her outside.  When L is finished, we find Mom across the street, asleep in an Adirondack chair, still in one piece, thank god. Her purse is also still there.

3:30–4:30 - L. is done shopping so we head for the parking garage and return to our hotel. It’s a relief to be back at “the compound” (Shutters).  We need to redeem our drink cards so we sit in the massive lobby and split a charcuterie board. I order a prosecco and L orders a mocktail – the charcuterie board is quite good.

N. texts a picture of the dog and says she vomited on the ottoman.  He said cleaning it was disgusting.

4:30-6:45– Return to our room and L. and I watch more  Love, Death, and Robots. After, we finish watching The Clovehitch Killer.

6:45 – 9:00 - We have dinner reservations at 7:00 and Mom stops by our room so we can go downstairs together. We walk a few doors down to Terrazza and find that our waiter is from Spain – he’s great! but he doesn’t mask. We’re eating right on the sidewalk, so very breezy with lots of air flow. S&M arrive a few minutes later – they had a fun-filled day. The first part of the day involved riding their electric bikes from the Santa Monica Pier to Malibu.  Then, S. swam in the ocean, far out where it was deep and his feet couldn’t touch the bottom, but slightly panicked when the sweats he was wearing became water-logged. It is unclear why he went swimming in sweats, but he returned to shore safely.

M. and I order the special - Sole in a lemon butter-caper sauce - but when it arrives, it’s just a plain piece of breaded fish with no type of sauce whatsoever (M’s fish comes the same way). I point this out to our waiter and he says he’ll take care of it.  He comes back with side cups of lemon-butter-caper sauce and explains that the kitchen forgot to add the sauce. Fine… and the fish tastes much better…but “sauce on the side?” For the prices my Mom is paying, this is a major faux pas and something I would expect from, say, IHOP, not Terrazza. The dinner and sides are quite good, as is my prosecco, so ultimately dinner is a “win” and I can’t complain.

9:30-11:30 – Back to our room and I read a little of Your Leaving When?

Nighttime routine. Bed.