Being officially away from California now for two years now, it’s always a fantastic time when I have friends visit and I get a chance to show people around the city I know and have come to love. This Sunday, Patricia and Whitney came through, staying at the Rivington Hotel in my hood.
After settling in I took them over to Suba where on Sunday’s they set up live flamenco music and dancing during dinner. I was first taken here by my woman and loved it. Suba is an excellently decorated, subterranean restaurant with dancing lights reflecting up from the moat surrounding the mid level floor. The Skylight room is where the music fills the room and where we were situated for the evening. I’ve never been on the “hot” nights of Thurs – Sat where I’ve heard of the pretentious people or the increased price, however, I would say – then don’t go… I enjoyed it again though…
After dinner we headed to Oliva on Allen and Houston where on Sunday’s they have a live salsa band and my draw is the excellent home made sangria (which also means the batch quality does vary at times). I think though after a lavish meal and their jet lag, dancing wasn’t a prime activity tonight so we walked over to Le Pere Pinard for another bottle of wine.
The evening wasn’t done as we headed upstairs to the Stanton Social Club for a cocktail before last call. I don’t usually count the rounds but after 2 bottles of wine, sangria and some additional glasses of pinot, I think I had my legal limit in wine for the week… and its only Monday morning…
Well welcome to the city folks, this is the way we roll.
Four hours on the runway and not a bolt of lightning piercing the Airbus A320 port hole windows. Apparently the eastern corridor has been squeezed on the south and north by heavy thunderstorms and here we sit, in line with 29 other large aircraft waiting for the call from the tower to launch in time for a clean pass through the Appalachian mountains. What a way to start what’s supposed to be a relaxing weekend in South Lake Tahoe. 
With the glisten of burger grease on my shirt, 12 n I powered on through the Placerville slow down and we were the first to arrive over the ridge to our play land for the weekend. We quickly cased the strip – and I mean in 20 minutes because its that big and found a spot on the Lake Tahoe Blvd to kick it and have some local porter beer. Met a couple locals that had a pirates of the Caribbean party rolling that evening, however, I knew there wasn’t going to be enough organization in this group to rally to a house party.
2 taps down and we headed out to our first look at our temp residence. Our spot was on the California side, off Pioneer Trail – a 5 bedroom, 5 bath, 4100 sq foot cabin sitting on an acre of land in the hills of Lake Tahoe. Hot tub, pool table, foose, leather couches, triple headed showers, flat screens in every room, and did I mention a huge hot tub… pimp… I already know I’ll be heading back in the winter – with 10 ppl of course. 
