From the category archives:

Adventure, Travel & Tours

Visit LA’s Idea of Country ~ Ojai

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Let’s say you’re hitting the wall. You need to be somewhere quiet. Somewhere to think, breathe, sleep. Maybe you need to be alone, a solo traveler. Or, the two of you crave de-stressing. If you’re located somewhere between Orange County and Santa Barbara, choose Ojai.

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Ziplines, Bridges, Rappels–What To Gift A Guy Who Has Pretty Much Everything

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Fly, Larry, fly… up up in the sky!  This day was gonna be a blast…  I was taking Larry to fly through treetops on ziplines, rappel down the sides of pines and traverse canyons via suspension bridges. All just 90 miles from our home in Westwood, CA, it’s Navitat Canopy Adventures in Wrightwood.

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Do Something Each Day That Scares You

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Do something each day that SCARES you?? What the heck for, you might ask? Being scared… isn’t that something to avoid at all costs? Isn’t that what you shield children from, the thing that causes angst and fear?

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Jim Morrison’s Last U.S. Home ~ Stay There!

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Larry loves experiences, large and small. So when this hit his radar, he was all over it – you can rent Jim Morrison’s West Hollywood apartment. Where Jim and Pamela lived and fought and slept around. Their last U.S. abode before Paris…

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Seriously, Patti… Take A Hike

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Hiking is not the same as walking; that revelation dawned on me at Rancho La Puerta. Gad, I sound like a bubble-brain, but there aren’t that many opportunities to hike in my routine. And I know you’re thinking, “Gee Patti, there are plenty of hiking trails nearby.” Santa Monica mountains are visible from my home, [...]

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Have You Heard of Rancho La Puerta?

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My New Yorker friend, Miriam, was the one who told me that Rancho La Puerta is the “gold standard” of spas. She’d spent a week there a few years ago. I was surprised that an adventure traveler such as her would pick a “spa” as a vacation destination, let alone one at the opposite corner [...]

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Armadillo Sighting in Beverly Hills

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Angelinos (and frequent visitors)…  Does this armadillo look familiar? Surprise! It’s part of a Route 66 art installation on Santa Monica Blvd. between Century City and the 405 freeway. Technically NOT Beverly Hills, but a stone’s throw away.  Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, California is Route 66.

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Eating & Drinking in Cuba ~ Good Eats But Pack a Bottle of Hot Sauce

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“The food in Cuba is not so good,” said a friend who’s been.  Liar!!  I found plenty of awesome eats and washed it all down with copious amounts of rum. Here’s my photo gallery of eating in Cuba. Beans, rice, chicken, beef, lobster, shrimp, soup, salad, fruit, ice cream, eggs, pasta, pizza, ham, pork, plantains, [...]

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Why Cuba Has So Many Classic American Cars

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We just returned from the island of Rum, Cigars, Great Music and Beautiful Women – Cuba. There, we got the feeling that time had somehow stopped. And it was there that we witnessed thousands of Cubans going about their daily lives, transported via late-50’s American automobiles.

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Historic Route 66 Trip ~ Days 7, 8, 9… OK, 10 & 11, too

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I’m immersed in producing my way-cool slide show of our Route 66 road trip (Westwood Library, January 12, 6 PM, plus other bookings to be announced soon). Back to blogging, it was Day 7 when we started to really hightail it. With a budget of 12 days, we were NOwhere near a half-way mark in [...]

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Historic Route 66 Road Trip — Days 4, 5 & 6

October, 2011 Larry and I flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove Route 66 back to Santa Monica.  The adventure continued, and now that we knew we were taking way too much time each day pulling over to photograph every "66" we saw, we agreed to hightail it and use the interstate, when necessary. [...]

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Route 66 Legend ~ Hanging With Bobby Lee at his Big Texan Steakhouse

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Steak, corn, bread, salad. Just what the doctor ordered the day we rolled into Amarillo on our Route 66 road trip. You’ve seen the Big Texan Steakhouse on the Food Network, right? Man vs. Food. Or in travel books… “Home Of The Free 72 Oz. Steak!” We watched anxiously for signs of it off the [...]

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Historic Route 66 Road Trip – Days 1, 2 & 3

Get your motor running. Head out on the highway…. this road trip may be on your Bucket List – driving Historic Route 66 the full way.  Mapbooks, websites, chatrooms, AAA guides all confirmed – there IS NO one long Route 66 road. It’s been chopped and rerouted to smithereens over the decades.  But still, what an adventure [...]

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Route 66 Road Trip ~ Before I Post Our Journey, Lessons Learned If You Go

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I shot this iconic Historic Route 66 scene on my smartphone. Larry and I live in LA; we flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove 11 days, 8 states and 2675 miles across our big country to reach end-point Santa Monica, a few miles from home. Some people have this trip on their bucket [...]

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Our Tour of Wilton and My Autumn Leaves Pie Crust

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This pie crust is brought to you by Nancy Siler and Gretchen Homan, who are helping me perfect my autumn leaves. They’re the go-to home economists for baking pretty things – they work at Wilton. 

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OMG, There’s A Spa Within Walking Distance of Our Home

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Our neighborhood is a wreck. Westwood and Brentwood area, Southern California. The 405 freeway widening project, now known the world over for “carmageddon,” is exhausting. Noise level, grit, gridlock and general construction chaos make it nearly impossible to feel peaceful anywhere outside of our own homes. Don’t bother walking with an iPod unless you crank [...]

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Indian Spices on U.S. Store Shelves

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Hey, I can’t believe I forgot this post was in DRAFT mode!  Larry and I rang in last New Year’s in India. What American food blogger travels all the way to India and doesn’t publish the ubiquitous “spices in sacks” shot?  Well, here it is, above. And now, what to do about it…

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What to Pack for Africa

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No… I don’t have another trip to Africa planned. Yet… I WISH! My friend, Marlene is going on her first safari and asked a simple question, “What is your number-one recommended item to pack?” One?? When only allowed 26 lbs. of luggage total, EVERY ITEM is vital. After I emailed her with this collection of [...]

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Publish Your Own Magazine ~ Photozini Product Review

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A few months back, Larry and I hit the LA Travel Show.  It’s a kind of convention for John Q. Public to spend the day scouring hundreds of booths for places to visit and things to buy. Larry and I travel; always good to see what’s out there. If you have a dollar to spend [...]

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Cruise Eating ~ What Most Passengers Will Probably Never Do

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Say hi to two cool Texans we met on our cruise: Kevin and Teri. OK, enough about them… Let’s talk cruise food: on cruises, you eat often and well. Anything. Any time. From modest all-American hot dogs to heady caviar-lobster-prime rib blowouts. So here I was, Day 3 of a Regent Seven Seas Voyager journey [...]

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Take My Mother, Please!

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Whoa hooo, heeee heeee, got a laugh envisioning my mom seeing this headline and getting her ire up before reading the post. Hyuk hyuk. Take My Mother, Please is a custom tour company here in Los Angeles. If you want a highly personalized adventure, seeing exactly the LA you think you want to see, Anne [...]

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My Treasured Travel Souvenirs

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This morning, while emptying the dishwasher, I took an appreciative look at one of my treasures – my Iowa State Fair 2006 pancake syrup pitcher (#7 in the photo). Love that little thing. It works well, and started me thinking… to me, there are only two kinds of travel souvenirs worth buying. Stuff to wear, [...]

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Hollywood Bowl Picnic for Speed Demons

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Sunday morning, I awoke thinking about Sunday dinner. We had tickets to Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks at the Hollywood Bowl.  Larry is Mr. Ticket; if a concert is coming to LA, he’s all over it. I’m not such a die-hard concert-goer; I love to picnic, however. He loves concerts but loathes the parking. Our [...]

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Road Trip ~ Take A Long Weekend in Temecula

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Travel posts are harder to write than you might think. They can easily come off with the air of a braggy Christmas letter cuz of the FUN. But my intention is to deliver useful info to you… here’s today’s recommend. If you like the idea of an affordable yet busy So. Cal. getaway, a Long [...]

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What Women Over 40 Should Pack For Paris

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A better title for this post is probably, “What one woman over 50 researched, purchased and packed for a winter’s week in Paris with a longtime food pro friend, a stay at the posh Hotel de Crillon, attendance at a Cookbook Fair and Gourmand Awards Ceremony all during Fashion Week.” (The 40-age-mention in the title [...]

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Itinerary Ideas For A Foodie’s Trip to Paris

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Going to Paris? Have a great passion for Good-Things-Foodie? While some people come to Paris with a list of restaurants to hit, I tend to bring lists of places and things to see. I’m a window shopper, a person who likes to see food-related things in different ways. Oh sure, I also like to eat. [...]

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Product Review: Très Chic Trench Coat for Road Warriors

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I’m “posing,” my face had just been done by a Lancôme makeup artist (he was in-between model appointments) at a Vogue-sponsored studio at our lovely Hotel de Crillon, Paris. I felt pretty! Note the trench coat – if you are a road warrior, read on.

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Pierre & Paulette, A Parisian Love Story

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The story of Pierre and Paulette may need a little explaining, unless you are a Facebook friend of mine or Denise Vivaldo’s. We recently traveled to Paris, many thanks to Denise (links below tell you more). For comic relief, Denise often travels with little plush toys from the Idaho Potato Commission called Spuddy Buddy. She [...]

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Eating in Paris

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  A dreamy week in Paris; how I got there sans Larry should be noted. My longtime food pro friend, Denise Vivaldo had two books nominated for prestigious Gourmand Best in the World Cookbook Awards, and she invited ME to join her. She also was a featured presenter at the Paris Cookbook Fair, teaching food [...]

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Gone to Paris

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  Right now, I’m in Paris, shadowing my longtime food pro friend Denise Vivaldo as she travels to the Gourmand Awards, Paris cookbook fair and other French adventures.  Denise’s books are nominated for awards, and she has a food styling demo at the cookbook fair (plus treating herself quite nicely for her birthday).  I am [...]

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Everyone Should Take A Cruise One Day

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Cup o’ tea in the Todd English restaurant aboard the Cunard Queen Victoria Ocean Liner. It’s been some time since we cruised, and this wasn’t one of them. We were docked.

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Universal Studio’s Haven for Foodies

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First the good news: fine dining exists inside the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. Now the Patti & Larry backstory: From the very beginning of our relationship, Universal has been part of our lives. Larry was an A-Top member of the Universal {outdoor} Amphitheater when we met; he had early access to tickets.  We moved [...]

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Eating in India

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Larry and I weren’t Indian food aficionados before we visited India. Early in our marriage, we lived next door to a delightful Indian family; Northridge, CA. One evening, they invited us to dinner and proceeded to blow our brains out with the hottest food I’d ever encountered. I recall wincing and sweating, followed by spice-burping [...]

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Our India Adventure from A to Z

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Overwhelmed and overstimulated. There’s no way to effectively present our travel to India. Too much to process.  Too many photos to show. Too many questions to answer.  My solution – highlights of our India Adventure from A to Z. Elsewhere you can read about classic India experiences, but here are mine…

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Botswana Bush Tea and Shortbread

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This post is long overdue. When we were on a safari last spring, besides photographing animals, I certainly shot a lot of food photos. If you are a foodie, and a traveler, and adventurer, HURRY and take a trip like this.  Warning, African safaris are as uncomfortable as they are comfortable.  “UN” because you freeze. [...]

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Road Trip: Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others

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Women were dancing on the basketball court at Camp GetAway, a weekend retreat I produce up in our local mountains of Southern California. This was my tenth. Or maybe eleventh?  We had exactly 100 women this time around. Big camp. And even with the occasional thunderstorm rolling through, good times rolled even more.

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Road Trip: Taste of San Diego Walking Tour

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What you see here is what awaits you on a walking food tour of downtown San Diego. SD was my college town. Back then, the only reason to go downtown was… uh, well, there was no reason. The closest I may have gotten was my stint working in a Mexican restaurant in Old Towne, but [...]

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Road Trip: Picnic and a Movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

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Confession: I don’t always share my fav things on this blog. Publicity can easily wreck a great experience. Case in point: the LA Times decided the week before this adventure to run a feature on something Larry and I’ve been trying to hit for three years: Cinespia movies at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Santa [...]

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Road Trip! U-Pick Strawberries in Carlsbad

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Our home in Westwood is at the north-west end of LA.  Cousins Nancy and John graciously hosted a family potluck at their home in Del Mar (North San Diego). That’s about a 2+hour drive IF no traffic. But since there ALWAYS IS traffic, we brought a big ice chest to keep our dishes cold. The [...]

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Road Trip! Foodie Walking Tour of Cantonese San Gabriel Valley

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Three and a half hours, more eating than walking, we were rapt students during our culinary tour of LA’s “new Chinatown.” The San Gabriel Valley Food Tour by Six Taste Tours was Larry’s idea (again, he luvs this stuff). Adventure pals Cathi and Barry (the ones who zipped around Long Beach on Segways with us), [...]

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Camp GetAway is for Mothers – AND Others, Like Me

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Circa 2001. Somewhere in this happy crowd was me. Mountains. Cabins. Hikes. Arts & crafts. Sing-a-longs. Dance class. Water aerobics. Skits. Archery. Canoeing. Sounds like good times for the kiddies, except that THIS was camp for grownup women.

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How to Fold A Napkin Into An Ostrich

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Tablescaping at the Lianshulu Lodge in Namibia was fanciful. Each meal was decorated with fresh-cut branches, intriguing little pods, local craft art such as warthogs and dragonflies. One evening, the napkins were folded as ostriches, and later we were taught the technique. I was EXCITED for the demo, don’t laugh.

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Namibia Sunset Orange Blossom Cake

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African sunsets go on forever; the sun drops behind the horizon quickly, then melts the sky into a full hour of magnificence. Considering there are no buildings to block the view, hundreds of miles of horizon can (and do) glow every night.

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Eating on an African Safari

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When you travel 30+ hours to get home from Southern Africa, jet lag can be a whopper. But a great use of time at 4 AM is photo management. African light is naturally stunning. Morning light differed from mid-day, and sundown yet again different. It was easy for my little Canon G-10 to document how [...]

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Travel Drip Coffee Pot

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We’re in prep mode for an adventure to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. We have all the gizmos and whiz bang thingies road warriors have, but maybe YOU don’t have one of these. Not only is it a travel sized coffee pot, it is DRIP. Great for places with no in-room hot water pots. Not so [...]

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Food Tasting Walking Tour of LA’s Original Farmers Market

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On the hoof again. Larry and I love the kind of activity that combines walking + touring + eating. This Farmers Market Walking Food Tour by Melting Pot Tours was right up our alley. In fact, this was our second MPT, our first was a few months back when we took their great Walking Food [...]

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Road Trip: On The Hunt for Ojai’s Pixie Tangerines

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My niece, Danielle, and I were on the hunt for the most awesome of snacks, the Pixie Tangerine. They only grow in Ojai. The region produces just enough to keep the best local stores and farmer’s markets supplied and then, BUMMER, gone ‘til next season (March through summer). If Larry and I hadn’t attended a [...]

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Road Trip! Segway Riding Around Long Beach

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You know, Larry has some awesome ideas sometimes. So when he suggested to me, plus friends Cathi and Barry to buzz around Long Beach (CA) on Segway two-wheeled electric vehicles, YEAH. Was it really, REALLY fun? “Better than I actually expected,” was Larry’s review and he was right.

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Travel to Barbados, Friend

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Barbados is a little bit of heaven. Nothing here is pushy. No one’s hand feels like it’s in your pocket. I’d call it an “easy” destination. Larry and I take lots of vacations, and we tend to visit places that are hard, challenging, rough, complicated — on purpose, don’t get me wrong. Antarctica isn’t for [...]

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Food Tasting Walking Tour of Old Pasadena

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Larry and I LOVE touristy things, even in our own backyard. We’re both native Angelinos; been to Pasadena plenty of times. But never on foot for a tasting, history and architecture tour. When friend Chef Diane Scalia and her sister, Lisa, launched Melting Pot Food Tours, Larry and I were totally on board.

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