A few weeks before Christmas I ordered Charlene a book by one of her favorite authors, Robert Crais. The only problem was that it wasn't release at the time and wouldn't until January 11. I told Charlene that her 'last' present would be delivered about the second week of January and I think she forgot. I had ordered this book through my favorite store, Amazon.com and knew from past experience that it would be here on the release date so I did some research and found that the author would be in Santa Monica (about 70 miles as the road travels) on Tuesday for a 'reading' and signing.
Of course, I 'really' had to twist her arm to go to the signing/reading thing. Charlene hates freeways so for the trip to the little bookstore in Santa Monica, we took the Pacific Coast Highway. Normally a beautiful drive along the ocean, I found it extremely creepy dark at night. The drive home was bright, fast creepy freeways. At least I could see what was going to hit us......
The bookstore, "The Diesel Bookstore" is located in Santa Monica, right beside Brentwood. The thought occurred that this is O.J. territory but then I remembered he lives in Florida now and I shouldn't worry about knife attacks. Oh, wait, he now lives in a Nevada jail. Cool. The bookstore is located in an open air food court. Three or four restaurants surrounding an open air court. The center of the court has a huge screened-in outdoor gas fire pit. Since it was very cool and sprinkling, the fire felt great.
We decided to get some chow from one of the places, settling on a fish basket. We skipped the baked potato menu. Sitting by the fire, eating hot fries and Kelly-Style breaded fish. Yummy and the fire felt so good.
Then, the author, Robert Crais came out to the court area and did some jokes, letters from readers and did a reading for us from his book.
He has a great sense of humor and a nice 'reading' voice. All the while one of the restaurants was 'catering' this affair with all sorts of gourmet things. All food was served on plates made from, uh, I guess, palm fronds. Lightweight and strong and unique. Very cool.
The food just kept coming and we were on the 'outside' of the crowd so we got served often, and plenty. The servers would come in waves with something new every few minutes. First there was gourmet crackers with some kind of crab meat stuff on top, then Deviled Eggs with a different filling than I'm used to (complete with Caviar on top), Butternut Squash Soup with mushrooms, Steak Tallot (to absolutely die for!), Mini sandwiches with a seafood meat, expensive cookies and meringue cookies. Of course, gourmet coffee and teas from around the world. Much as I'm not a seafood fan, I gobbled continually. Worse than Thanksgiving. It was so good and so free....
When the reading was over, it was into the bookstore to get Charlene's copy signed. There was probably only 10 people ahead of her but it took almost an hour as Mr. Crais is very 'reader friendly' and talked about anything and everything with his fans. I wandered throughout the tiny bookstore while Charlene talked to everyone in line including Mr. Crais's wife. I've taken pics of some of the books that caught my eye:
Finally it was Charlene's turn. This guy is very accessible, very approachable and very likable. He's just very 'very', I guess.
What a neat gift, Kelly! I used to practically live in the Brentwood Country Mart.It seems to have hardly changed, which is nice to see. Glad my Neenie had fun.
ReplyDeleteSarita
You are such a fab guy! And what a magical place for a book signing, eh? You two are the best!!
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