Mom's Adventures #3

Di's Delightful Discovery of Riverside

As promised, our third adventure planned by Diane. She graciously wrote the recap which I have typed here:

Here we are standing in front of the red door of Sevilla Cafe, Flamenco Night club and dinner show. Aren't we cute! Note the color coordination. We sent this photo by phone to all of our daughters who had a picture phone. We had a fun day and evening!Rilla, Jan, Sharon and I arrived at our surprise exotic destination of Riverside at lunchtime and visited the charming little deli at Ralphs to purchase a delicious picnic lunch including some weird cans of healthy(?) power fruit drinks Rilla wnted us to taste. What were they called? (Rockstar)
We picnicked at the UCR Botanical Gardens, an incredibly beautiful park full of trees and hillsides and foliage, with little signs identifying every plant and tree. Along the trail we claimed a cozy cluster of comfortable benches to lunch and chat. Jan's chocolate balls from Starbucks were a hit. The power drinks were tasted and rated. The purple and mango were hits.
We were expecting Belinda to join us in the evening, as she had a last minute memorial to attend. We were delighted when she called as we were eating to say she and Jim were already in Riverside. We waited for her to join us, and then we wandered up the trail a bit. There was a little footbridge over a pond full of turtles, koi, guppies, etc., and birdsong and lizards were everywhere. We found a gorgeous rose garden, too. We could have stayed there all day, but beautiful downtown Riverside awaited us.We popped into the Mission Inn and visited the Metropolitan Museum across the street from the Inn. Saw beautiful Tiffany glass and some local stuffed animals, and birds (sorry, Laura) which were actually quite interesting, plus a collection of Japanese kimonos. No, there wasn't a theme. We kept watch on the time, because we knew we had to be - somewhere - (dressed up) by 6:30.We were parked by a beautiful, colorful gazebo in front of the library, and for some reason there were a lot of long black fronds of ash raining down on us from a mysterious nearby fire. We took our dressy clothes from the car and headed back to the Mission Inn. We sampled some of the little shops in the outdoor Mission Inn mall, and surveyed the architecture of the buildings there. Then we had cocktails in the Presidential Bar at the Mission Inn. (Well, giant margaritas, and iced tea or something...) We changed clothes and primped in the Mission Inn lady's room, and then drove under the freeway to the Spaghetti Factory. Not really, that's just where we parked. Diane was trying to drag out the identity of our secret dinner destination: the Sevilla Cafe and nightclub.
Our table was right by the stage, and the show was great. We enjoyed the flamenco dancing. The percussionist (man) had a body guaranteed to entertain, plus he was an INCREDIBLE dancer. There was a woman dancer as well, a lady singing in Spanish, a drummer playing mostly a sort of board, and a flamenco guitarist. The Mom's humored me and flamenco clapped (los manos) throughout the show just like in Madrid.
Dinner was traditional Spanish Paella. Poor Belinda prefers to experience unfamiliar seafood in a setting where she can actually see it, and was terrified she would encounter a squid in the rice in the dark. She piled all her cockles and mussels alive on her bread plate to take home and explore with Jim in a brightly lit room. I ate every bite, and requested a takeout box for the shells, which I will share with my class. In a brightly lit room they are beautiful. We had dessert that involved espresso (you can't fool ME......that's coffee). It was called Creme Brule Espresso, so I requested the Flan instead.After dinner and the show we expected to watch Salsa Dancing, but soon realized we were trapped in a room with bald boys and sleek girls in tiny black dresses and tattoos, plus techno music, and the volume was getting louder and louder. It turned out Salsa dancing is on Thursdays.
So we negotiated with the forbidding burly bouncers in suits for wristbands, went upstairs looking for the Tapas Bar, and found the Hookah Parlor on the roof. We checked out all the smells, and had a guided tour of the equipment by one of the hookah boys. Rilla was looking around for a cigar, but we moved on, going down more stairs until we finally stumbled across the Tapas bar.
It was a crowded room, with a nice available table with two chairs. Jan and Sharon cleverly scannedc the joint and spotted chairs that might be vacated soon. We were ruthless and scored those chairs at the right moment. then we all settled in for a nightcap. Six Spanish guitars and a drummer who was also the lead singer entertained us along with a small crowd that enjoyed dancing. Especially fascinating were two youn women who had apparently taken flamenco or belly dancing lessons and really were having a great time. I loved that many of the dancers were clapping....los manos, flamenco style, though not actually dancing flamenco.

Then all five Moms jumped up on the table and did a wild flamenco dance while the crowd clapped los manos, until the table collapsed and dumped us on the floor, and the burly bouncers in suits threw us out and called the police. Oh, wait, I made that part up.

Anyway, we had good times, and proved that even good old Riverside could be a cool adventure if you experience it with your buddies.
Buenos noches, Mamacitas! Hasta luega.......