My wife and I recently had the opportunity to enjoy two popular passtimes in Costa Mesa (www.travelcostamesa.com) – people watching and play watching. 

The first was accomplished by grabbing a prime table in the Lobby Bar of the impressively renovated Costa Mesa landmark, Westin South Coast Plaza (www.westin.com/southcoastplaza). Weeknights from 5 until 7, you can join locals and overnight guests alike for the hotel’s Unwind Hour, a new social experience.  We ordered from the bar menu and watched as the crowd grew in size, with groups reassembling from meetings held in the hotel earlier that day, as well as other couples like us, and singles, too.

We were told that during June, the hotel’s Executive Chef Hussain Zouhbi is pairing two Napa Valley California favorites, the Ghost Pines 2006 Chardonnay and the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, with delicious appetizers. Each month the libation and the food pairings will change.

The next part of our evening was also easily accomplished. Known as the City of the Arts, Costa Mesa is home to The Orange County Performing Artscenter and South Coast Repertory.  On this evening, we made the short walk to the Repertory (http://www.scr.org/) to watch the often hilariously funny play, Taking Steps, by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.  Appearing on the Segerstrom Stage through June 15, the play is a farce about a group of eccentric people occupying a Victorian home for an evening and the next day.

As luck would have it, the play’s director Art Manke, who also directs UPN sitcoms Eve and One on One, and Disney’s Hannah Montana, addressed a group of theatergoers ahead of the curtain. One challenge he overcame:  the “home” has three stories with action taking place on each, yet the stage is only one level.  Watching the actors pretend to climb imaginary staircases and slip past one another undetected was amazing and entertaining. 

For watching people and plays, Costa Mesa’s hard to beat.

As the weather gets warmer and summer gets closer, my instincts are telling me to head over to Metro Pointe at South Coast, an outdoor shopping area just across the street from South Coast Plaza on Bear Street.

When my coworker Debbie and I have the opportunity to enjoy lunch together, Metro Pointe is our top choice. In addition to shopping and entertainment, there are great places to eat with plenty of shady spots to protect our sallow skin from the sun’s ravenous rays.

One of my favorite places to eat in Metro Pointe, and perhaps in all of Costa Mesa, is Finbars Italian Kitchen. At Finbars, the ambiance is casual while the food and service is out of this world. From one-of-a-kind pizzas to classic pasta dishes, Finbars offers New York-inspired Italian food with a “Left Coast” twist. Last week, Debbie and I had lunch at our old friend Finbars and enjoyed the soon-to-be-summer weather on the patio.

After a scrumptious grilled chicken rosemary sandwich and a Florentine chicken pizza, Debbie and I strolled about 20 feet over to Cold Stone Creamery, the ice cream experience which puts other parlors to shame. With their “hands on” service and unique flavor & mix-ins combinations, Cold Stone rarely disappoints. Remembering our past mistake of ordering two “Gotta Have It” sizes to scarf down on the way back to work, we decide to split a “Love It” size of the aptly named “Cookie Doughn’t You Want Some”. Our frugal decision left us 10 minutes to spare, so we hopped on over to Barnes & Noble to check out the new releases.

Unfortunately, there's just not enough time in one lunch hour for Debbie and I to check out everything at Metro Pointe, but we're going to be sure to stop by a few times during summer break!