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Terranea
By Charles Martin | July 22, 2010
Went to this place right before the 4th.
Interesting. A museum to the go-go “aughts” that we all lived through recently. Big nice resort slung along the craggy coast of Palos Verdes near what Angelinos call “the south bay”. Word has it that one of the big guns that left Starwood has the $500M note on it. Desperate times. Cheap rates for the time being. Go get it.
In those same go-go aughts, we went to a lot of these types of resorts. My fave being Hualalai on the Kona coast big island style. Terranea wants to be that place. Someday it might. The polish isn’t there. The Four Seasons allure and hushed quiet delivery of basically everything you do isn’t there.
The main difference between an acme named resort (anything without a badge of luxury) and a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton is just like the difference between the sound proofing being much thicker and what I call “small edges”.
You see, just (NOT) like you, I look along the baseboards as I walk around and I notice if the team got the small stuff. At the Four Seasons, they always do. At places like Terranea they are too busy paying the bills to get there. I notice how many little kid band-aids I see along the edge of the pool. The other guys never miss them.
I digress.
The visit was good. The restaurants ok. If you stay more than 48 hours, you get bored with “Nelson’s”. It has the veiw and firepit. It also has a wait staff that is primarily “college I don’t care”. Lots of waiting around to get some simple food. But gosh oh mighty do you get a twing if you like or have anything to do with “Sea Hunt” and Mike Nelson’s travails as a scuba diving special-guy. I loved that show. My brother did too. I sent a bunch of the picture of Mike to him while I was there. We then watched a bunch of Hulu when we got home. The old “Marine World” was situated on this same craggy coast years back and Sea Hunt used the aquarium for lots of underwater work.
The main bar was nice and twinkly with jazz but VERY expensive. A single espresso is $5. Watch for the double $10 one. Whiskey neat $20.
I digress.
The boy lost his favorite bear there. Put between the sheets to keep kid bro out of it. I did my major topple everything in the room before I cleared out but never got between the sheets on his separate bed. Awful but a lesson we had been trying to teach on all things that want to come out of the bedroom and follow us around. This time, we gave in and of course catastrophe!
Called. Emailed. Dug around and called the basement departments. Almost drove there to get into myself. Got a nice connection to the GM and she worked hard in all areas to find “Remy”.
No dice.
Got a card today with $50 to ToysRUs. Not the same but a very nice gesture. The boy can have his favorite bear replaced…. or maybe a new DS game. So, I’d say try Terranea. For LA, it’s the best place to get away without driving 2 to 5 hours for Santa Barbara, Big Sur, San Diego, or north.
Other parts not to miss: The bird wrangler. He has a golf cart loaded with a Hawk, an Owl, and a few other predatory birds. Keeps the roofs clean ya know? The pool for kids is good. The slide so-s0. Runs along the paths are good but the first time you will keep it slow. Then go out again and get it on. Food? Like I say, pretty good. They had a seafood buffet one night. Dunno how that makes them an “eco resort” — lots of waste of seafood and mini-desserts — but it was good, especially the King Crab. (RIP – Deadliest Catch guy…)
My bet is on the DS game.
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