Tapping Princess

After "So you think you can dance" now she wants to be a tap dancer.

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego Surfing & Snorkeling

Our second day there we had breakfast with Marcos, Josephine, Rod, Mala, and their kids in Old Town. Rod suggested The Old Town Mexican Cafe.

Marcos felt right at home and became nostalgic with his grandmother's cooking, he just had to take a picture.

It was a very good time catching up with everyone and the food was super delicious.

After breakfast, we took a short walk to central Old Town.

Our next stop, Pacific Beach for a little surfing. Mike and Marcos checking out the waves for us.

This was my first time surfing in 5 years. A bit nervous but really excited. The waves weren't too big and the water was perfect - a warm 72 degrees.

Trying to catch a wave. Josephine had more experience surfing in Hawaii. The waves were good but the sets were coming in every 2 - 3 seconds which made it hard for us to paddle out, turn our boards around and then catch a wave. Josephine got a couple of waves in; I was content with getting in at least one.

After a couple of hours at Pacific Beach, we headed to La Jolla - one of my favorite places to go when visiting San Diego. We showed Marcos the cove where he could go snorkeling.

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego FlowRiding

Our last full day, we ventured out to Mission Beach. Initially we were going to go surfing again but I heard about the Wave House on the Travel Channel and wanted to check it out. The Wave House has two wave machines: The Flow Barrel & The Flow Rider.

The Flow Barrel incorporates and mimics waves that break over reefs and creates a hollow barrel. It was amazing to watch experience surfers flip, cut, and ride the barrel with ease. Though wanting to try, I reminded myself that I am not that young anymore and haven't surfed in 5 years. Mike on the other hand had more confident in me and inquired about the price. Get this people, for 1 hour, you get to ride the waves for $15 dollars + one time registration fee of $10. That is crazy cheap!!!

After inquiring, we were told that in order to ride the Flow Barrel, every rider needs to get on the Flow Rider. What another wave??!! Where?!! We walked to the opposite end of the Wave House and there we found a much "tamer" wave with no barrel!!! My kind of wave!!

After signing up for the session, Josephine and I, along with Marcos and Mike sat to watch the group before our session take on the Flow Rider. It was fun and funny watching people get on the board and then wipe out. The group we watched had about 10 - 12 people in it and we calculated that each would get about 5 times on the board. As 3 o'clock rolled by, I started to get nervous - mainly because I didn't want to get hurt - especially while falling (which I expected to do more than stand on the board.

To our excitement, we found out that that there was only 5 in our session - more riding time!! For fun, riders can also boogie board.

Below is one of my first attempts, after getting over the fear of falling and finding out that it doesn't hurt at all, I was more confident and focused to master the board.

Our instructor Logan was a huge help in that he would tell you how to improve on your ride; because our group was so small, we were all able to get a semi-private lesson. He noticed that I kept opening up my right shoulder and shifting my board to the right instead of going straight - which is what you need to do. So he taught me to reach down with my left hand and skim the water - actually straightening my board. I was so stoked afterwards!!!

So those of you visiting San Diego soon, this is one to put on your to-do list. And although I love surfing, I love this even more because you don't have to wait for the wave, you don't have to paddle out (which is the most taxing ) and you get the "perfect" wave each time...Did I mention it was only $15 dollars?

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Monterey

After a day of being back home from our San Diego/LA trip, we were back on the road again.  Next destination - Monterey.  We stayed for a night and visited our usual favorite spots.

We took a walk on the Wharf

Found this alley in downtown Carmel

Kaykay was still recovering from our San Diego Trip

Secluded beach - reminds me of my favorite beach in Hawaii - Waimea

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Ronald Reagan Library & Museum

Our last stop on our stay-cation was the Ronald Reagan Library & Museum in Simi Valley.  I would recommend visiting this place if you haven't had the chance.  The library portion was filled with Reagan's memoirs and chronicles of his days from being a movie star to, what I believe, was one of the greatest presidents we've had.

Our all-american hawaiian gal

Reagan's Airforce One was one of the highlights of the Museum; you actually got to go inside and tour; unfortunately they did not allow any photos.

Outside in the garden is Reagan's final earthly resting place.

A piece of the Berlin Wall

A great way to end our final day of our stay-cation

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Los Angeles

After several days in San Diego, we drove up and stayed a night in LA.  Our first stop in LA was Universal City Walk

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego Zoo

Our second stop:  San Diego Zoo

This was one of my favorite exhibits: the Koalas

(Aren't they cute!)

My personal favorite land animal - the giraffe

My ultimate favorite: Kaykay the Giraffe

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Great Grindz in San Diego

One thing San Diego doesn't lack in is their local grindz (food).  Here are some that we were able to visit and enjoy.

Sushi on the Rock is in La Jolla (a favorite area we like to visit)

Very friendly town; I liken it to Rodeo Drive but by the sea.

Caterpillar Roll

Sashimi

A few blocks from our hotel, we walked over to Joe's Crab Shack.  

Another very friendly place with delicious sea food

Crab Nachos

Mike order the burger, forgot the name but it was huge!

And the center attraction:  Their bucket specials

One morning we took a walk and visited Mary Jane's diner (adjacent to the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel in the Gaslamp)  Very good breakfasts with reasonable price.

An advantage of having family come with you on vacation is that you're able to "sneek" away from the kid(s) and that we did.  We walked down the Gaslamp District and found this saloon called Chocolat.  Very nice atmosphere; we got a window seat and watch the happenings outside.

Crepe and Gelato!

The Owner of the place recommended this to Mike

All I remember was it was good and discovered how good pistachio gelato was

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego

Our second favorite place to vacation, second to only Hawaii, is San Diego - the weather, the atmosphere, the town, and the people are what makes this place worth visiting and stay-cationing.  Initially it was exclusively our family but since my parents are retired and my sister and brother-in-law had time off, we invited them along as well.  

First stop - Legoland

So our first stop was Legoland - it was probably for the best as Kaykay kept asking us the WHOLE drive down if we were in Legoland already; this has become one of our family's favorite place in San Diego; we contemplated going to Disneyland but were concerned that Kaykay is still too young to fully enjoy it.  But not in Legoland; she is able to ride 80% of all their rides.  Here are some of the things we captured:

Chronicles of a Stay-cation

Summer for our family has come and gone and the lack of entries only indicate that we've been a busy family.  This summer, we decided to join millions of people and have a "stay-cation."  Although I don't know if there is a proper definition for this term, I've come to understand that this it means:  to vacation by staying around your area.  And that we did; however we extended our "area" to the state of California.  Come and join us as we chronicle our family stay-cation!

Swim Day

This past Friday my cousin called and invited us over to their place for a swim day - and considering the minor heat wave we've been experiencing, I took the opportunity to drive Kaykay and I down to my cousin's house - about an hours drive from our place.  And boy, was the drive worth it all.  Kaykay and I had so much fun in the water; we're planning to make this a regular trip during the summer.  

Mario's Pasta Creation

Recently I had the pleasure of eating a dish that a brother made and he was kind enough to share with me the recipe.  This was my second time making it and thought to add more ingredients like broccoli, mushrooms, and olives.  Mike has declared this is one of his favorite recent dishes.  Since Mario came up with this recipe on his own and measured the ingredients to-taste, I couldn't mirror his recipe to the exact, but I believe I came close.  I will need to try to perfect it, in the meantime, thank you Mario for sharing this dish with our family!