Posted by Terri Hardin under TravelResponses (2)

I just left Long Beach, CA, where I had been invited by the Long Beach Area CVB. On Saturday morning, I got to wake up to the roar of “cigarette” racing boats as they opened up and growled to their places for the Long Beach to Catalina and back ski race. The harbor, which was created by a 10-mile-long jetty, gentles the waves coming into what was once California’s prime surfing beach. Although there’s a movement afoot to remove at least part of the jetty—and thereby restore some of the gnarliness—the beach’s waves are currently mild and family friendly.

On my last visit to Long Beach, I never left the convention center complex. For the short visits that are conventions and trade shows, it is perfect. The center is flanked by a Westin, a Renaissance, and a Hyatt Regency, and is across the street from The Pike, a dining entertainment complex; and the Aquarium of the Pacific, a world-class aquarium featuring a LEED silver certification and three irrepressible sea otters.

This time, however, we wandered farther afield: to the Long Beach Museum of Art (where the big yellow baby above will be for the next two months) and Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), to Naples, a neighborhood, where million-dollar houses are cheek-by-jowl on harborside  tracts that were originally meant for tents, and some up-and-coming arts districts.

Now, as a journalist on a site inspection, my place on the "food chain" was very high indeed: I was treated to some of the best grub this side of the Rockies, including lunch at L’Opera on Pine Avenue, dinner at Sir Winston’s (aboard the Queen Mary), and Tracht’s on Ocean Avenue—the new signature restaurant of celebrity chef, Susan Tracht, which is located in the Renaissance hotel.

And that’s just the haute of it; we also chowed down at the Yard House (signature onion rings), La Muse Café (signature crepes), the Omelet Inn (signature you guessed it), and Buster’s Beach House (the latter has a bar band that has been playing in the same place for 26 years—even though the venue itself has changed hands three or four times).

However, at the Aquarium of the Pacific, I met my match in the food chain: the Australian lorikeet. At the Aquarium you can buy nectar with which to feed these colorful bird clowns. I fed three of them on this nectar, which only appeared to whet their appetite. They then turned to my sweater and began chewing through it. I cowered as they were gingerly removed by an aquarium staff member.

Bottom line: Lorikeets are awesome! I can’t wait to get back to Long Beach and feed them again!