Exactly whom are you attempting to get crazy with, ése?
By Paco
Was checking out the blog and reading past entries, and thought we should do another Field Trip.
In case you guys don’t remember Jaime’s original idea, it was this…
Pick a place in or near your town that you haven’t been to that looks interesting, (restaurant, store, whatever…) post what you think the place might be like, and then visit said place, and post about your experiences.
What do you think? Might spur a bit of blog activity?
By Paco
Well, yesterday after work I finally got to go to the “Experience”. And it was certainly not at all what I expected.
Like my first look at the place, as you pull up you kind of wonder why someone would decide that this was a good place for a business. It is on a crappy street, right next to a junky auto repair shop.
So I pulled up, and walked in the front door.
Once inside, I quickly noticed that the Experience was VERY small. And what was inside shocked me. There were racks of wine up front, a couple of small dining tables, and a row of fridges full of beer in the back. I did not expect the place to be a beer and wine shop!
So I lingered for a couple of minutes looking at the decent selection of wine, beer, and a few random spices and oils that they had on a shelf too.
In order to be polite, and also because I was curious, I grabbed a couple of bottles of beer and headed for the front counter. A big guy with a baseball cap and a chef’s outfit met me there.
He was very nice, commented on my beer selection, and proceeded to tell me about the lunches they had, and how at night they have special dinners that anyone can sign up for.
I told him I was impressed, and very surprised at what I found in his little place, and that I would make it by some day for lunch.
So all in all, the Experience was pretty cool. Nothing really interesting inside that warranted any photos. But, it was definitely not the weird cryptic place I thought it would be. Some day I will go eat there, and give a little prologue to the field trip.
By Eduardo
After some convincing, I was able to get my lovely wife Juanita to accompany me to Cal Skate Roller Fun Center. We arrived mid-afternoon on a Sunday, a time when I figured it wouldn’t be too busy. One of the first things I noticed was that the parking lot had far more weeds than cars, so it’s a pretty safe bet that this place hasn’t been ‘too busy’ for quite a while.
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The second thing I noticed, as we walked in, was that my earlier suspicions had been correct. This place was a whole lot like Viking Skate Country in Redding. It was definitely from the same era, and had a similar appearace inside and out. As we approached the ticket counter, I could hear the muffled sounds of Bone Thugz-n-Harmony emanating from the sound system inside. We paid our $15.00 (a bit higher than expected), had our hands stamped, and continued on in to get our skates.
The place was extremely unimpressive. It was exactly as I imagined it would be, only slightly less cool. The whole place was dimly lit, and there were probably only about 15 or 20 people there in all.
We went over and got our skates, and I asked the lady if there were lockers where we could put our shoes and stuff.
“Yeah we got lockers, but on most of ‘em the locks don’ work. You might wanna just put your shoes unnerneath one o’the tables by tha snack bahr.”
We took our gear over to the tables near the snack bar and put our skates on.
The snack bar itself was pretty cool, in a gross kind of way. It was definitely a throwback to the days of unspeakably nasty corn dogs, snow cones, red licorice whips, and syrup-deficient soda with too much ice. I was slightly surprised to see CHURRO on the menu, as these have not traditionally been a staple item at most snack bars. We do have a large population of fellow Chicanos in this area, which may account for this… but who knows.
Juanita wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of spending the afternoon skating, and by this point I wasn’t exactly much into the idea either. The pervasive lameness of the place had succeeded in taking all the fun out of whatever experience we had hoped to have, and we were already feeling quite disappointed. I looked around, surveying the place. Although I really didn’t feel like sticking around, the assignment rules were to ‘experience’ the place you chose. So, I resolved to spend at least a little time skating around. Besides, I needed to take some pictures.
As the tired old lights on the ceiling blinked and whirled, they were accompanied by some of the most horribly annoying music I’ve ever heard. I understand that many people refer to this music as “R&B slow jams”, but to me it was just a lot of wailing accompanied by some guy frantically rapping about ‘bitches’. After that song ended, they started playing what can only be described as some kind of “hoochie rap”. Seriously, jabbing a screwdriver in my ear would have been less painful than having to listen to that stuff. The little kids on the rink just bobbed and swayed, clearly digging the latest sounds from this week’s hip-hop superstar.
I rolled around, shooting pictures of the broken lockers and the cheesy “rollerskating hall of fame” that all roller rinks have, complete with plaques and photos of all the local skating champs (who the #@&* cares???). The lighting in the place was wack, so most of the pictures didn’t turn out too well.
The one saving grace of most forgotten roller rinks has traditionally been the arcade games, so I decided to investigate. Viking Skate Country, for example, had the sense to hang on to many of their classic 80′s games well into the late 1990′s. However, Cal Skate had nothing to offer except for several fighting and racetrack games that were only a couple of years old. Nothing interesting there.
As I skated by the videogames, it was weird. I felt totally out of place, being far too old for that environment. Being there without kids of our own was a little strange in itself, so I skated back to Juanita after a few minutes to see what she wanted to do.
By this point the music had become unbearable, so we decided to leave. We took off our skates, turned them in, and left.
Overall, the whole entire experience was nearly identical to how I envisioned it, being almost exactly like a visit to the once mighty Viking Skate Country in Redding. We left there pretty disappointed, having just wasted an hour and $15.00 on that stupid place. All was not lost, however, because I had completed my assignment.
By Jaimenacho
The first smell that hit my nostrils was that of whatever was dying in the trashcan behind the store. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant . My attention then shifted to two large gentlemen sitting in a truck. Maybe this WAS where the big boys ate. Hey, it was a good sign. I got Bernardo out of the car and we went inside to meet my wife and youngest son. The odors changed to that of real food, and I was satisfied that I my food wouldn’t smell anything like that coming out of the dumpster.
Inside wasn’t what I expected. I saw no signs of lumberjack paraphernalia anywhere. No saws on the walls, no pictures of lumberjacks inside 50-foot redwood stumps, nothing. The waiters and waitresses didn’t even have plaid on. It looked like the restaurant did when it was still Lyon’s. The only difference was the layout was different, the walls were made to look like logs, and the counter had a pie display, and an ice cream area. What I wanted was dudes in plaid shirts with beanie’s on and gruff beards, toting a saw on their back, and taking my order with a pencil carved out of a tree limb. Or at very least I wanted a full size Bluto wandering about handing out balloons and scaring children.
Our server was nice. He would have made a fabulous lumberjack if you get my meaning. The silverware was normal too. I was a little disappointed. I wanted the token “giant” knife, or a little axe to eat with.
Now in my booth, I had the task of mulling over the menu (which was pretty large as far as menu sizes go), and deciding on what to eat. The menu was a cross between outback steakhouse, and Denny’s… typical lunch and breakfast foods, and a dinner menu of steaks, chicken, and some other items you’d expect to find at your local coffee shop. I decided on the Rib-eye steak, and baked potato. I was a little perplexed that I had my choice of potato, or vegetable. I would have expected to get the vegetable on the side anyway. I did get a salad bar however, and it was pretty paltry in it’s selection, but I managed.
Bernardo decided he was going to spend the entire meal acting like he was a dog. I suggested we tie him up outside, but my wife wouldn’t let me. He sniffed things, whined…tried to drink out of the cup with his tongue. It was really “cute.” If you tried to scold him, he’d growl at you. When he wanted a bite of my salad, he whined, and nuzzled my shoulder. I had only taken about 5 bites of my salad,Bernardo had about 10, when low and behold my meal was there. Had they made it before I got there? It was a little too fast for food to show up.
The plates were rather large, although 2 inches of the circumference was border. The steak looked about how I pictured it to look It wasn’t a fantastic piece of meat, nor was it BBQ’d or anything. It looked like typical “diner” steak, with a baked potato on the side. (Although my “giant” kinfe finally showed up.) The weirdest thing was this massive loaf of bread that adorned each plate. Do the big boys require a whole loaf of bread with each meal?
I started looking around to see what others were doing with this loaf of bread. It turns out a lot of people were asking to NOT have the bread with their meal. I heard at least 4 people decline the bread with their meal. I even saw one man ask that his bread be removed from his plate. Was there something wrong with the bread? I couldn’t be sure. I did what every other normal person does with questionable food. I fed it to the “dog”.
When the meal was over we discussed the event. The meal set us back about $40 for a family of four. (three of which ate their food) The food was decent. I wouldn’t say it was great, but it was good. I ate it all, and didn’t get ill. My wife said her food was good, but wasn’t overly impressed. The “dog” wouldn’t answer us, and he ate off my plate the whole time…who knows how his food tasted. The baby liked the crackers, and the piece of bread he ate. The bathrooms were clean, and single occupant, which is always good.
Would I go back? Maybe. I wouldn’t plan a nice evening out at their place or anything. I would go though if I were in the mood to gaze at the flocks of elderly that ate there, or if I had a hankerin’ for a huge loaf of bread.
By Eduardo
For my Field Trip assignment, I chose a place here in town called Cal Skate Roller Fun Center. I know next to nothing about this place, except that a friend of mine (who’s around our age) mentioned that it was quite the happenin’ spot back when he was a kid. That was in the late 70′s, so it’s safe to say that it’s probably a couple of decades past its prime. Nevertheless, if there is any “Roller Fun” still going on in this area, I am sure that this place is at the very center of it. The signs on the building seem very authoritative, as if to announce “Yes, this is indeed the center of all Roller Fun activity.”
It’s in a semi-sketchy part of town, near an industrial park. As far as I can tell, it’s more or less been forgotten by the general populace here. There were only a few cars in the parking lot there this evening (a Saturday night), which should give you some idea of how popular this place is. I did see several high school age kids pull up in Hondas with giant spoilers, so there’s a chance that either A) they work there, or B) large numbers of them congregate there later in the evening. Either way, 100 watt subwoofers and midriff-baring hoochies don’t exactly help promote Cal Skate’s image as a “Family Fun Center”.
I’m going to attempt to bring my wife there next weekend, so hopefully it isn’t too frightening inside. I’m expecting it to be something similar to Viking Skate Country or Sunrise Rollerland – with a gross snack bar, old video games, and the stale smell of thousands of sweaty feet from years past.
We shall see…
By Paco
Those of us who have been long time residents of Redding have seen the old Asian Market on Market Street. I even went inside the place once with my little brother; he had spoken very highly of the various types of “ramen” that you could get there. There wasn’t much to it, a lot of ramen, and a tiny little store that sold various Asian foods and a few other random goods.
A year or so ago the Asian Market left the location and moved down the street to a “better” location and their old location just sat vacant.
That is until now… that is until The Experience moved in.
I remember driving down the street one day seeing this big neon sign that was out front of the old Asian Market with the words “THE EXPERIENCE” on it. There is also a little neon arrow that points towards the little building. It looks so out of place… this big neon sign pointing to a little shack of a building on the crappy stretch of road that is Market Street / Highway 273. I was looking at it thinking… what the heck is The Experience?!
Well, after looking closer at it over the next couple of weeks, I noticed that it says the “Shasta Experience” on the front door. And then one day I noticed an article in the paper that said this place was a new restaurant.
Hmmmm… an odd location and set up for a restaurant. It has peaked my interest, so soon I am off to get “Experienced” at The Shasta Experience.
By Jaimenacho
I’ve been watching the construction of this place for several months. It both intrigues me, and disgusts me. I’m not sure what to expect there, or why it even replaced the Lyon’s restaurant we’d been using as a meeting place for many, many years.
Part of me expects to find that this place is very much like the Samoa Cookhouse, near Eureka, Ca. Where you get a set menu of food, served “family style” to you and a whole slew of strangers eating at the same table.
I expect lumberjack decor. Which mean a lot of saws, and stuff used to cut down, or climb up trees. I kind of expect it to be overly done, and all over the walls. I expect the seats and tables to be made of really awful pine wood, stained with a high gloss..and there to be oversized knives in the silverware.
I imagine my waiter or waitress to be wearing suspenders with there name emblazend on a little piece of burl, like a wooden nametag.
Food wise If I am actually given a choice of what I want to eat, I would expect it to be meat an potatoes types of things. If I don’t get a choice, I expect the same thing. Whatever the food is, I would think I would get a large portion of it, and have to take some home. I mean if it is indeed “where the big boys eat” I would expect they’d eat more than the “little boys” I think Wonderland Ranch is where the little boys eat. (sorry, bad joke)
The sign makes me wonder if the Popeye’ people are aware they stole Blutis from the cartoon, and put a lumberjack outfit on him, and made him there spokesman. That is a question I may never know the answer to. I intend to get to the bottom of this “lumberjack’s” and find out if indeed big boys are in fact, eating there. I will come back with many pictures, and hopefully a full belly.
