Tarnished Lady

Babymoon getaway to Mammoth Lakes

Ok so it has taken me a good 4 weeks to get this up but better late than never. We were able to get up to Mammoth Lakes for a last hurrah before Baby J is here with us this past month. It was extra special because we were in Mammoth Lakes back in February when we found out we were having a baby and then we got married up there in May so we have been back for visits for each trimester of this pregnancy. I hope we can go again with Baby J as soon as he can travel. We already have a teeny little ski outfit for him!
I was 33 weeks and 8 months along and so we stayed overnight in Bishop to acclimatize the first night just in case.
We stayed at the main ski lodge right at the foot of Mammoth Mountain which transforms from ski runs to BMX/mountain bike runs in the summertime.
Here's some snaps of our lodge:

We promptly decided to take the gondola up the mountain after unpacking for some lunch up top. Mind you, I knew we were at around 8,500 ft elevation but stupidly thought we were only going up another 1000 or so which I figured was okay for me being at 8 months.

Our lodge looking teeny below us as we headed up.

That reservoir down below is the halfway point up the mountain. I was starting to get nervous.

We got off finally to see this sign:

Yipes. We were at over 11,000 feet elevation. I almost immediately got the dizzy spins and a headache so we ate quickly.

We headed back down.

I will say I felt pretty off after that so just rested up and we had a great organic dinner at Lulu's in town with friends.
We ended up the next day going for a delicious swim up at June Lake where we were married in May. Finally, instead of snow, we got summer. The water was perfect.

A prerequisite belly shot:

More belly:

Then we drove up to Minaret Vista just above our lodge to catch sunset as it fell upon the majestic aptly titled minarets.

The following morning we got up bright and early to catch the tram into Devil's Postpile National Monument. I had no idea how vast this monument is at nearly 800 acres.
from wikipedia:
Devils Postpile was once part of Yosemite National Park, but discovery of gold near Mammoth Lakes prompted a boundary change that left the Postpile on adjacent public land. A proposal to build a hydroelectric dam later called for blasting the Postpile into the river. Influential Californians, including Walter L. Huber, persuaded the federal government to stop the demolition and in 1911, President Howard Taft made the area into a United States National Monument. The John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail pass through the monument.

A snap of Matt as we set off on the 1 1/2 mile roundtrip hike to the monument so we could see the Postpile firsthand.

The landscape here goes deep into the valleys between the mountains and is off limits during the winter when its snowed in so it was chilly in the early hours as we were down lower.

These are pretty amazing in person.
Here is what they are:

Devils Postpile is a dark cliff of columnar basalt near Mammoth Mountain in extreme northeastern Madera County in eastern California. The postpile was created by a lava flow sometime between less than 100,000 years ago (according to current potassium-argon dating) to 700,000 years ago (according to other dating methods). The source of the lava is thought to have been somewhere near Upper Soda Springs campground at the north end of Pumice Flat on the floor of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River, from where it flowed to the site of the Postpile, was impounded by a moraine, and reached a thickness of 400 feet (newer estimate) to 600 feet (older estimate). In any event, the lava that now makes up the Postpile was near the bottom of this mass.

Because of its great thickness, much of the mass of pooled lava cooled slowly and evenly, which is why the columns are so long and so symmetrical. Columnar jointing occurs when certain types of lava cool; the joints develop when the lava contracts during the cooling process.

A glacier later removed much of this mass of rock and left a nicely polished surface on top of the Postpile with very noticeable glacial striations and glacial polish.

Pretty nifty!

I was feeling good so it was my idea to hike the additional 3 1/2 miles to Rainbow Fall. I am such a sucker for a goodlooking waterfall.

Mind you, my feet were so swollen I couldn't even wear shoes so I did it all in Croc flip flops and I was lucky I didn't have the baby on the trail haha.

I couldn't have done it without my Matty though! He pushed me from behind with each bit of incline and gave me lots of support.

The next time we are there, we will head down further to the Lower Falls where swimming is great. It really is so magical there.

These steps carved into the mountainside were killer to climb up.

^This will be Baby J next year on Matt's back!

Then we headed into adjacent Red's Meadow for some tasty lunch and to see the horses.

If you are ever up this way and have just hiked 5 miles in flip flops at 8 months of being pregnant, please reward yourself with a nice slice of freshly made boysenberry pie a la mode at the Mulehouse Cafe.

A picture of Ronald Reagan up here with Red and the boys from way back when.

Now that was a solid and freshly made slab of pie. Yes indeed BUT the best pie hands-down is up a twisting and winding road into the Sierras further south. A trek and definitely off the beaten path but so worth it. More on that in a few here.

We headed back to the lodge and hit the pool and jacuzzi to revive our weary bods before meeting a friend for some Irish supper at Ye Aulde Dubliner in Mammoth. The shepherd's pie hit the spot.

The next day upon multiple recommendations, we headed down towards Convict Lake to Rock Creek Lakes Resort Cafe to get what is deemed the best pie in the Sierras.

Seriously.

We were told about this place by 3 different people- all locals- 2 in Mammoth Lakes and 1 the lady who ran the Mulehouse Cafe in Devil's Postpile. We took this to be the truth as Rock Creek Lakes is nearly an hour's drive away but it was on our way south back home so we determined to try this pie in the sky.

We were also told to get there by 10:30 am at the latest or don't bother as the pies sell out.

They sell these pies which are baked fresh each morning at a teeny lunch counter with only 7 stools and one table in a the smallest of cafes up a winding road into the mountains.

It could be very easy to miss and we had a bit of trouble finding the right turn off but eventually got it right (partly due to the fact that everyone for miles around knows this place and helped to point us in the right way).

We were told to turn right at the old wagon.

On a sidebar, the campsites up in this part of the Sierras is fantastically gorgeous and we determined to come back when we can and do some camping.

I was crushed to see my favorite pie ever- Rhubarb- was already sold out. A super nice gal sitting to my right got the last slice and she graciously offered me her last few bites. I know that sounds crazy but that is how it is up there. I took her up on it and man, oh man, was it ever delectable. While we sat, a few more pies sold out.

We got a slice each of the Loganberry and the Chocolate Chip Pecan. The Cheddar Pear wasn't ready (set) yet.

Look at these slices and prepare to drool:

We would have gotten a whole pie to take home to LA but they only sell by the slice due to high demand. No wonder Sunset Magazine wrote them up and even gave a recipe for their Peach Pie. I may have to try to make this. The crust is amazingly delicious. Both Matt and I gobbled our slices down.

Best pie ever.

We jumped back on the road heading south. Oh yes, here is a snap of our new little car Jing Jing (named for the Olympic diver)- a Versa that got us up into the mountains and back no problem!

On the way south to LA, we stopped for a late lunch in the teeny teeny town- if you can call it that- of Independence at a recommended authentic French bistro called Still Life. They use organic products and the place has an old school jazz motif. If you are ever passing through, stop off.

The pasta was simple yet so fresh and delicious.

It was a great little trip and for us, Mammoth Lakes and the Eastern Sierras in general is just a special place to us both. It was where we took one of our first real trips together and have since had so many wonderful things happen for us up there.  We can't wait to share it with our son on the first of many family trips.

Goodbye Anita

I was so sad to read that Anita Page, the very last of the MGM silent stars, has passed away. I had the chance to meet her back nearly 15 years ago and loved her charm and energy as well as listening to her stories. She will be missed.
I wrote about her before HERE.
RIP Anita.
xx Vivlish

Silent screen siren Anita Page dies at 98

2 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anita Page, an MGM actress who appeared in films with Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, has died. She was 98.

Page died in her sleep early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, said actor Randal Malone, her longtime friend and companion.

Page's career, which spanned 84 years, began in 1924 when she started as an extra.

Her big break came in 1928 when she won a major role — as the doomed bad girl — in "Our Dancing Daughters," a film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films.

Page's daughter Linda Sterne said her mother had been good friends with Marion Davies and Jean Harlow, and for about six months in the 1930s lived as a guest in William Hearst's massive castle on the Southern California coast.

"She was the best mother I could have," Sterne said. "She was wonderful.
"
In 1928, the New York-born Page starred opposite Chaney in "While the City Sleeps.
"

The following year, she was co-star of "The Broadway Melody," the 1929 backstage tale of two sisters who love the same man. The film made history as the first talkie to win the best-picture Oscar and was arguably the first true film musical.

In his 1995 book "A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film," author Richard Barrios reserved much of his praise for Bessie Love, the veteran actress who played the other sister. But he called Page "intensely likable — sincere, well-meaning, endearing, in much the same fashion as Ruby Keeler several years later — and, of course, quite beautiful.
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Variety wrote in 1929 that Page "is also apt to bowl the trade over with a contribution that's natural all the way, plus her percentage on appearance. ... She can't dance, (but) the remainder of her performance is easily sufficient to make this impediment distinctly negligible.
"

Among Page's other films were two of Keaton's sound films, "Free and Easy" in 1930, and "Sidewalks of New York" in 1931; "Night Court," with Walter Huston in 1932; and "The Easiest Way" in 1931, in which Clark Gable had a small role.

For a short time Page was married to composer Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote songs for "The Broadway Melody," but the marriage was annulled within a year, Sterne said.

Page stopped acting in 1936 when she fell in love with Herschel House, a Navy aviator. The couple married six weeks later and Page happily adapted to life as an officer's wife, hosting many parties at their home in Coronado, a city peninsula in the San Diego Bay, Sterne said.

The couple had two daughters, Linda and Sandra.

After House died in 1991, Page went on to return to films. In 1994, she appeared in the suspense thriller "Sunset After Dark.
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Most recently, she had a cameo in the horror film "Frankenstein Rising," due out later this year.

Before Bette, there was Kay.

Imagine how excited I was after going to Cinecon last week and having just relayed to my pals Victor and Judson my disappointment over there being no Kay Francis vehicles being shown this year to find out she is TCM's Star of the Month for September!

If you like glamourous 30's films and especially pre-codes, you have to acquaint yourself with Kay. I recommend not missing the campy lurid Mandalay.

Yay!
They started this past Thursday night ( and I tivo-ed them all) and will be showing on every Thursday evening over 40 of her films. *sigh*
Here is an article on her legacy in case you are unfamiliar...
Kay Francis Profile

What?! You’ve never seen a Kay Francis film? That means you have some terrific treats in store this month on TCM -- 42, in fact., and that’s more samples of the work of a single performer than we’ve ever shown before during one of our “star of the month” salutes. Kay was, like Garbo, Crawford, Dietrich, Stanwyck, Carmen Miranda and a very few others, one of a kind. For several years (1933-37) she was also the undisputed queen of Warner Bros. studio, the one name among the company’s female contingent which was a guaranteed draw at the boxoffice, a position she enjoyed until that Massachusetts girl named Davis began sitting on the throne at that studio in 1938. But unlike Bette D. who fought for strong dramatic roles and recognition as an actress, Kay was famous for looking gorgeous and elegant while riddled with angst. There seemed to be an unwritten law that any bonafide Kay Francis movie had to include four basics: Kay wearing stunning gowns, Kay in love and suffering for it, Kay being gallant and true, Kay doing the right thing at the film’s wrap, even if it meant her giving up a great love, be it a handsome swain, an adorable child or a devoted hubby. The public loved the Kay Francis formula so much, ironically, it also doomed her. The more her fans crowded into the local Bijous to see the latest Francis film, the fatter her paycheck became until she was making far more moola than the Brothers themselves. They didn’t like that idea and decided to give Kay the heave-ho and, instead, put their muscle behind a newer actress who’d cost them much less, such as hat new girl named Davis. They did not, however, fire Kay as that would have required them to pay her a fortune in compensation fees - so they plotted instead to embarrass her into quitting. Thus, the studio started casting her in third rate movies, lowering her billing even on those films in which she played the lead and, the unkindest cut of all, riddling her scripts with words such as “ridiculous,” “really,” “resounding” and “Roger,” because she had trouble pronouncing her “Rs.” But it didn’t work. Kay stayed and stayed and stayed. She kept pocketing those weekly checks until the contract expired, winning the battle but, unfortunately, losing her standing in the movie industry, and ultimately also diluting her legacy. But knowing what was going on in her career during those latter days at Warner Bros. does make even the weaker Kay Francis films great fun to watch today. Meanwhile, looking at the four-star Kay movies she made which we’ll be showing this month, such as Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage and King Vidor’s Cynara, give a chance to see Kay at her finest. Never fear, there are also myriad examples of the kind of Kay Francis films that moviegoers loved best, one of them Mandalay, in which she is miraculously able to jump on a steamer in Burma carrying only a purse, yet for days after she’s on board the small boat wearing a succession of lavish gowns, complete with headdresses, which have appeared from out of nowhere and would seem to require a closet the size of Versailles to hold them. That was the magic of movies. It was also the kind of magic moviegoers always expected, and got, from Kay Francis. Welcome to her unique world every Thursday this month. by Robert Osborne

Smitten

We had a 3D/4D scan done today of our little guy. Its part one of two. The next one we will get a dvd.
He had his hands up by his face most of the time, was cozy in the corner but he did give us some smiles, yawns and a bout of hiccups.
Some snaps of our little mister:

Irrelevant & disturbing surreal dreams of crawdads

I am quite pleased to say time is flying and it shouldn't be too much longer until Bebe Wombat is here.
It has gone by surprisingly quickly. Here is a bit about where I am at right now...

You are now in the third trimester, and last, of your pregnancy! Your baby's crown-to-rump length is about 9.6 inches and your baby's total length is approximately 15.3 inches! Your baby now weighs about 2 pounds 3 ounces and is going to grow rapidly during this last trimester! Your uterus is about 2.8 inches above your bellybutton.

If your baby were born now, it would have an 85% chance of surviving. Even though your baby is still not fully developed, she would be well within the limits of premature viability.

Yay for making it this far so easily!

One thing that is very trippy to say the least about pregnancy are the psychedelic dreams. Ask any pregnant woman and she will confirm this for you. Mine are so vivid and like watching an Italian film from the 60's sped up and in another language. I wake up and still feel like I am asleep. Just bizarre but an inherent part of pregnancy thanks to the hormones coursing through our body. If you think you have had strange and realistic deep dreams, trust me- you have nothing on a pregnant lady!

One of my favorite obsessions is perfume and perfume oils if not hand-blended by me than by Beth at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. She happens to be pregnant herself right now and due this next month I believe. I always look forward to the full moon oils she puts out and the updates of the new limited editions and have been trying to save money by not partaking right now. I could not help myself yesterday though when I saw she had created a special limited exclusive just for the Black Phoenix forum members that was inspired by her crazy pregnancy dreaming...haha.

I can't wait to receive this one in the mail. from the BPAL site: 

This was made exclusively for bpal.org members.This odd little biscuit will be live until Sturgeon Moon comes down.

Please include your forum name in the comments field at checkout.   

IRRELEVANT AND DISTURBING SURREAL CRAWDAD DREAM
If there was one thing that I think encapsulates the whole experience of pregnancy for me, it would be the Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream. Since conception, my dreamscape has been unusually bizarre, bordering on the demented. One of my baby books told me that I'd be having nonstop dreams about puppies, kittens, and baby bunnies. Really? 'Cuz my dreams are filled with zombie-driven ice trucks that are late for delivery on my kid's birthday, masquerades where people come as themselves, a quest to cure possessed individuals (in this dream, you could tell that people were possessed by how annoying they were) by hitting them on the head with large rocks, and, of course, millions of malformed crawdads with human faces filling up numerous 18-wheeler truck beds.

Nary a bunny nor kitten to be found.

Par for the course during pregnancy? For me, it is.

An irrelevant, disturbing, and surreal scent: red currant, green tea, red musk, Hawaiian ginger, benzoin, vanilla, coriander, squash blossom, and blueberry.

Hahaa! I completely relate Beth and I can't wait to be slathered in blueberry musk.