Ventura California, Day Two

One of the cool things we discovered before arriving here was that Ventura is the place where author Erle Stanley Gardner began writing his famous Perry Mason series. Not that anyone seems to remember that, but there are a few sites that document his days here – such as the Erle Stanley Gardner Building, where we took this photo. The actual offices are now occupied by other companies, so we couldn’t go in. However, I can say that I took the very same elevator that Mr. Gardner used to take every day, as he launched one of the most successful writing careers ever.

The elevator would seem to be the only thing we have in common…

Technically, we “did” Ventura yesterday, before the registration for my conference in the afternoon. We hoofed it through historic Downtown Ventura, and had lunch in a fun little diner called Busy Bee Café. I ordered a foot-long hot dog that not only lived up to its name, it had five toes to seemingly impress that point upon me. There was something quite intimidating about the beast.

Later in the afternoon, we started to run into fellow attendees, and I had to attend a pre-conference board meeting before grabbing a quick snack, and meeting the gang in the lobby of our hotel, to grab a shuttle over to a historic mission for our first reception. All of this while struggling to come to terms with losing not only Farrah, but Michael Jackson as well. What kind of day goes like that??

We wrapped up the night at a local waterfront restaurant, with a couple of friends, and varied seafood selections. Most batter-free – sorry Captain Highliner…

Chow for now!