REVIEW: Gateway Restaurant (Three Rivers, CA)

The evening of Day 4 of the Summer 2007 Road Trip we spent at "the best restaurant in [Three Rivers] to eat at if someone else is paying": The Gateway Restaurant and Lodge. Interestingly they had no problem when we showed up minutes before 8pm with a canine companion in tow and no reservation on a mid-week day in August (after spending nearly 7 hours in the park). They seated us outside and brought a bowl of water for the dog. The Gateway is almost directly outside of Sequoia National Park, literally on top of the Kaweah River. Their motto is "The only thing we overlook is the river!"

Mad Professah ordered the Top Sirloin Champignon Royale (A Truly Thick Cut of Chairman's Reserve Top Sirloin, Broiled to Perfection and then Topped with Sautéed Mushrooms and Onions in a Brown Sauce with Red Wine and Garlic) from the Entrées From the Broiler section of the sizeable menu. The Other Half ordered the Trout Almondine (Idaho Rainbow Trout Pan Fried to Perfection. Topped with Toasted Almonds) from the Entrées From the Sauté Pan menu.

Trout Almondine	Top Sirloin Champignon Royale

I quite enjoyed my Champignon Royale. The sauce with mushrooms, onions and wine was scrumptious and went perfectly well with medium-rare sirloin. I detest squash so I let The Other Half eat my portion as well as his. He was not as pleased with his trout, which he thought was slightly overcooked. He'd a master at pan-grilling salmon so he's often disappointed when he orders fish in restaurants (though, to my surprise, he does so quite often, since he does like to eat the stuff).

After our entrees we were pretty stuffed and didn't order any dessert. Mad Professah doesn't drink alcohol, but The Other Half ordered a Lambrusco, which was surprisingly served over ice and was pretty sweet and frizzy. Unimpressed, he finished the sangria-like potable and ordered a Pinot Grigio which he quite enjoyed. I took sips of both but grimaced both times.

Overall I rated Gateway a B+ while he rated it a solid B.

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 5

Day 5

We woke up, packed up the car and checked out of the lovely Lazy J Motel Ranch. We ate breakfast at We Three Bakery and Restaurant and got some sandwiches for the trip. As you can see, we took the scenic route home, basically trying to avoid the direct but ugly Interstate 5 Highway.

Breakfast at We Three was delicious:

Buttermilk pancakes with soft-scrambled eggs and bacon for Ron	Chicken enchiladas with choice of eggs (over-easy) for Dean

During breakfast we ordered a club sandwich with homemade potato salad and tuna salad with fresh fruit to go, got in the car and drove non-stop for 5 1/2 hours, taking the scenic route along California State Highway 56 around Bakersfield to Mojave onto California State highway 14 to Interstate 210 to the Pasadena area and home.

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 4

Day 4

Today was mostly a travel day, as we drove from San Francisco, CA to Three Rivers, CA just outside Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We left San Francisco at 1pm and arrived in Three Rivers by 630pm, checking in to the Lazy J Ranch Motel, an Americas Best Value Inn.
The motel was surprisingly pleasant, with a king-size bed, a microwave, refrigerator and TV with DVD/VCRplayer. It also had a pool.
Here is a view from the car of the Kaweah River Valley on the way to Three Rivers.After checking in we drove immediately into the park and although the Visitors' Center was closed we paid our park fee ($20 for a week's multiple entry into both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks). We took the picture below at Hospital Rock.

We had dinner (at the recommendation of the front desk at the Lazy J Ranch motel) at Serrano's Mexican Restaurant and although the service was shockingly slow, at least we could eat outside with our canine companion in tow and the food was excellent and plentiful. I had the costillas en salsa (pork ribs) with refried beans and rice and the other half had the broiled chicken salad. We had enough food left over for a snack in the morning and the doggie enjoyed those bones!

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 3

Day 3 The third day of the road trip was spent driving from Sunnyvale to San Francisco and hanging out with friends and family in "The City." We walked along Valencia Street in The Mission District and had amazing sandwiches for lunch at Bi-Rite Market with ice cream at the Bi-Rite Creamery across the street. We split dog-sitting duties as Mad Professah took a detour to go to a meeting in Marin County and took the ferry back from Larkspur Landing Ferry Terminal to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, walked to the Embarcadero Station and took Muni to the corner of 24th and Church a few blocks from where we were staying in the Mission District. The whole trip on public transportation took about 2 hours and cost under $10. I got back just in time for barbecue chicken and a vicious game of Blokus (won by the expert player pictured below).

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 2

Day 2


The second day of the Summer 2007 Road Trip was spent mostly in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of the tallest trees on planet Earth, the California Redwood.

After arriving in beautiful Sunnyvale, CA on Day 1 after a five hour drive from Santa Barbara, CA and checking in at The Maple Tree Inn (one of the few places that was in the right location that was pet-friendly) we woke up at the crack of noon and drove up into the hills above Santa Cruz for about 90 minutes on a very winding road to reach Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of some of the tallest and oldest living organisms in the planet: the California Redwood. As one enters the park, here is the very first tree one sees.

Right next to the office where one pays ones park fees is a cross-section of a redwood showing the numerous growth rings of a very old sempervirens (literally "long living") tree.

Here's a close-up showing the details of the metal plaques showing dates that the tree had lived through to put its amazing longevity into human perspective.

And here's the close-up of the plaque next to the growth rings.
Unfortunately almost all of the trails in Big Basin Redwoods state Park (and other parks) do not allow dogs, so after we had a lovely picnic (severely attacked by vicious yellowjacket/hornets) we set off for a walk on one of the paths we could take the dog.
On the way back we stopped at a "turn out" to get a view of the forest from one of the high points in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 1

Mad Professah spent the last week on a "Great American Road Trip" to see the tallest and largest trees in the world, Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum respectively,which just happen to be several hours drive from my home in Los Angeles. This week, as a blogging special series I will be recounting the details of my trip.

Day 1

Day 1 was mostly spent picking up a rental car from Fox Rent-a-car near LAX. The other half took public transportation all the way. He walked to the Pasadena Gold Line Southwest Museum station, then took the train to Union Station, and from there the Fly-A-Way Bus to LAX and finally a shuttle bus from LAX to Fox Rent-a-Car. Then it took about an hour to get a grey Honda Civic Hybrid (pictured above) rented. The entire ordeal (from leaving home to arriving back home again in the rental car) took nearly four hours.

I was up in Santa Barbara at a tennis camp the whole time and got picked up around 7:30 pm and we drove up the 101 freeway from Goleta (where University of California, Santa Barbara is) all the way to Sunnyvale, CA.