Myself, seated at the counter with a mural of a beach with surfboards sticking up in the sand is behind me.

Chili John’s: The 80 Year Old Diner Beloved by Food Critics and Hollywood Alike

April 1, 2026, Leave a Comment on Chili John’s: The 80 Year Old Diner Beloved by Food Critics and Hollywood Alike

I’m not quite sure how to put into words what walking into Chili John’s is like…except it’s somehow magical. There are few places that feel as honest, warm, yet also bit like the Twilight Zone. Chili John’s is one of those places. From its massive murals to its well worn linoleum to its cracked orange…

Inside Greystone Mansion: Money, Murder, and the Movies

March 25, 2026, 2 Comments

Looming over the luxurious city of Beverly Hills sits Greystone Mansion, a sprawling estate built by Los Angeles’ first oil tycoon family, the Dohenys. It is also home to one of Beverly Hills’ earliest scandals. Typically Greystone keeps its doors closed, with only a handful of exceptions. Thankfully my friend, Kristen, was able to secure…

Angled view of Cold Spring Tavern, a single story ramshackle log cabin building with ivy growing around it.

Stagecoach Stop Turned Biker Haven: Cold Spring Tavern

March 11, 2026, Leave a Comment on Stagecoach Stop Turned Biker Haven: Cold Spring Tavern

Up a winding road, tucked into the Los Padres National Forest is one of California’s oldest places to stop for a bite to eat, Cold Spring Tavern. Long before cars and motorcycles traversed these twisting roads, stagecoaches did, with Cold Spring Tavern feeding wary passengers during the 1860s. Almost 100 years, and various owners later,…

Exterior of the Mob Museum, the former federal courthouse.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Visiting the Mob Museum Again

February 18, 2026, Leave a Comment on Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Visiting the Mob Museum Again

While in Vegas, my friend Cristal and I went to a few other museums, including the Mob Museum, which I had been to previously, but it had been awhile, so I was happy to go back. Las Vegas and the mob basically go hand-in-hand. Housed perfectly in the city’s first federal courthouse, built in 1933,…

A retro style TV features the cartoon Fallout Boy, giving the thumbs up, next to the TV stands a life size statue of Fallout Boy, in his iconic blue suit with yellow trim. He gives a salute.

Finding out all about Fallout at the Atomic Museum

February 12, 2026, Leave a Comment on Finding out all about Fallout at the Atomic Museum

Recently my friend Cristal and I took a little girls trip to Las Vegas specifically to go to the Atomic Museum because we are both fans of Fallout, and the museum just debuted an exhibit about the video game and show. This was my third visit to the museum, which still ranks among one of…

Vintage Valentine’s Day Cards Vol. 5

February 10, 2026, Leave a Comment on Vintage Valentine’s Day Cards Vol. 5

Valentine’s Day is this weekend! Can you believe it?? So what better time to share yet another portion of my vintage Valentine’s Day card collection? The one with the two blonde kids on the phone is so weird in that it uses the incorrect form of “your” but in doing so it seems to also…

Taxidermy tiger amid a jungle landscape.

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My at the Natural History Museum

February 4, 2026, Leave a Comment on Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My at the Natural History Museum

Despite living here for over ten years, Patrick and I had yet to be to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. But we finally went, because an exhibit I wanted to see that closes later this month, an entire exhibit dedicated to cats! But of course we had to explore the other areas of the…

View of our built in bookcase next to our fireplace.

Send a Little Love

January 28, 2026, Leave a Comment on Send a Little Love

I caught a cold near the end of 2025, and as a result we skipped celebrating and decorating for the New Year, and after taking down Christmas and a nice deep cleaning, we went straight into Valentine’s Day. I honestly started shopping for Valentine’s Day decor back in October, and found a few items online,…

Myself, wearing a blue western wear shirt, cream cowboy hat with blue stars, leaning against a barrel bar.

A Return to the Kern County Museum: Home to Country Legends and More

January 21, 2026, Leave a Comment on A Return to the Kern County Museum: Home to Country Legends and More

Back in 2021 Patrick and I made our first visit to the Kern County Museum, an outstanding museum with over 50 buildings across 16 acres in Bakersfield. Our visit was amid COVID restrictions, and meant that few of the buildings were open, and between then and now, it has opened a Bakersfield Sound exhibit and…

A 74 foot long lunch counter stretches into the distance with mint and white barstools. A large colorful mural of Black people seated at a lunch counter hangs above.

Revisiting America’s Last Woolworth’s Luncheonette

January 14, 2026, 3 Comments

While many may blow by the small town of Bakersfield en route to Los Angeles, it is well worth the stop for a variety of reasons, but perhaps its star attraction is that it is home to the last operating Woolworth’s lunch counter. Woolworth’s first opened in Bakersfield in 1911, but by the 1930s they…