Orange County Teppanyaki

Did not sleep well last night, an alarm of some sort woke me at midnight and I couldn't get back to sleep until around 4 am. Saturday night in downtown LA is noisy, even from the 26th floor behind sound-proof glazing. All night I could hear sirens screaming down the main drag plus a few noisy revelers.

Freeway overpasses

Anyhow, today Khristina drove us all down to Orange County to a teppanyaki restaurant to meet her father Tim, sister Katie and Tim's wife Dianna (not Khristina's mother). We squeezed into her Ford Fusion EV (electric vehicle) and by squeezed in, I mean me, Luke and Augie all in the back seat, shoulder to shoulder. Still it was a pleasant drive on Los Angeles' freeways, especially when we got onto the expressway. To the right, you can see one of the many overpasses that frightens the hell out of me, and I wasn't even driving!

Teppanyaki chef at work

Teppanyaki as you all know, is the Japanese style of cooking the meal in front of you on a large hotplate. The chef here really showed off his skill at cooking swiftly and deftly. I had the teriyaki beef with fried rice which was delicious. We spent a couple of hours here and finally left stuffed to the gills. No need for tea tonight!

Southern Fence Lizard

After that, Khristina took us to the nearby San Juan Capistrano mission, one of the earliest Spanish missions established in California. I found this little guy sunning himself on a rock ledge inside the mission. It's amazing how close he let me get to take this photo.







Here's Luke, Khristina and Augie inside the mission.

Boiling vats

These boiling vats were uncovered in 1935 and were used to boil down animal fats into tallow to be used for candles and other stuff I can't remember.

Blast furnace

They also uncovered these blast furnaces used for smelting iron. If you look closely at the shadow at the upper left, you'll see a terracotta pipe that was used to push air into the center of the furnace to make it hotter. The Spanish introduced the local Indians to the Metal Age, where previously they had only used stone, bone and wood.

Church vestry

We found this church on the mission, it's not the original that was destroyed by an earthquake, but it's still pretty ornate as you can see from the picture of the vestry to the right.

Ros in undercroft

Here's Ros standing in the undercroft. Beautiful old architecture and the building isn't too bad either.

Goodyeat blimp

Finally drove home late afternoon and passed this famous landmark. It's used during peak hours for traffic reports. A good day was had by all, but we were all very tired so it will be early to bed tonight.