Touring Claremont

The old part of town is a charming enclave of short buildings (one or two stories) with wide sidewalks and tourist attractions such as bakeries, clothing stores, restaurants and an antiques shop.

We left the house at 10 a.m. and found ourselves there at 11:30 a.m. We went directly to the church and then oriented ourselves from there.

Espiau's, 109 Yale, Claremont 909-621-1818 It's been there a long time but it doesn't look beat down, but lovingly kept spotless. Deep booths and attentive service.

I was strongly tempted by the Fatty Burger, a beef patty with cheddar, onion rings, bacon and barbecue sauce ($9.95) but I succumbed to reason and ordred a small Caesar salad ($4.25) and machacas which are left-over beef roast stir fried with onions, green or red peppers or both, tomatoes and eggs.($10.25) Richie ordered machacas, too. He had a Pacifico ($4) and I iced tea ($2.25)

The salad came first, served in a deep bowl with a saucer under the bowl. I served myself half on the plate and haded the bowl to Richie. The dressing didn't have much of a Caesar flavor; not enough Parmesan. In fact, it could have been half mayo and half buttermilk. But the lettuce was possibly the freshest I've ever encountered! It tasted like summer...

It was 12:30 p.m. when we finished and now we had an hour and a half to kill. Richie brightened and said, "I know! The library! It's air conditioned and has toilets!"

On the way, we stopped at Bert & Rockie's Cream Country, a novelty candy and ice cream shop. It was 105 so we got cones. My lemongrass ginger had a chewy texture and a creamy taste with flecks of lemongrass sparking throughout. Neither flavor dominated. In fact, they seemed to sit in a corner, quietly chatting. Richie liked his spumoni. Junior cones $2.50 I wondered why country western was playing and then remember "Cream Country."

We found the library, I bougoht "Tuesdays With Morrie" in the used books store and settled down to read. Richie roamed around. At 1:40 p.m. we had one last pee and headed to the 2 p.m. funeral. We were right on time.