Since I landed saturday night in Toronto, i had one day of warm/dry weather. Then it has been nothing but snow and freezing rain starting today. Given I will be leaving on saturday, that means i can't do much during my stay this time. BUT in a way, i am hoping the weather will persist to be unstable. If my flight gets cancel, then i can go play hockey this sunday!!!!
*crossing my fingers*
If you are in NYC and is craving to have some good old American Apple Pie, then you got to go to The Little Pie Company. They have some REALLY amazing pies. During all our visits to the Big Apple, we have tried out pretty much most of their pies. And they were all finger licking gooood.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
Despite my many visits to all the star studded cities (i.e. LA, SF, NYC), I have yet to run into someone famous...until last Sunday!
Mike and I were in NYC over the weekend. As we were leisurely strolling along the streets of Lower East side/Nolita area, I noticed a couple approached toward us. They were like any other NYC couples, nothing really stood out about them. But for some reason, i thought i would take a glance their way. By the time it dawned on me who i was looking at, the lady gave me the "oh, you know who i am" look. I quickly turned my gaze back onto the street ahead. Once they walked further passed us, i quickly told mike who i just saw. The lady just walked by us is GRACE!! Grace from Will & Grace. Deborah Messing!!
So yeah, that was my highlight of the day.
Mike's sister and her family are in town for a week on vacation. Since they are staying with us, we have the chance to spend a lot of time together. Especially with Evan, my little nephew (or is it nephew in-law?). He is 2.5 years old and starting to speak in sentences, but mainly in Mandarin. He adores both mike (his Jiu-Jiu 舅舅) and I (his Jiu-Ma 舅媽), and we both love playing with him. But due to my limited Mandarin vocabularies, everyday is like Lost in Translation. He would speak Mandarin to me. I understand most of the time, but sometimes it can be difficult with the toddler accent. In turn, i would either reply in Cantonese or English, OR sometimes in small phrases of Mandarin which i picked up from Evan himself. When i have no clue what he's saying, i would just nod Yes or acknowledge it with OK. When he has no idea what i'm saying, he would either repeat what he said to me, or repeat my reply in a question form (as in "what the hell are you talking about" in the toddler way).
The family finds it fascinating how we communicate with each other. There are a few phrases I have mastered since Evan's visit. Example: Sleep. Does it taste good? Do you want to eat? Do you want?
Maybe by the time he leaves, I will be fluent at Mandarin.....in the toddler level.
After spending several holidays as a married couple, mike and i do noticed there are certain pros and cons for being married at these festivities. And with Chinese New Year fast approaching, that definitely goes under the list of cons.
For those who are not familiar with Chinese tradition, here's a short explanation. Chinese New Year is similar to X'mas, but instead of gift giving, we give money. Thus you would see Chinese people everywhere exchanging red pockets stuffed with lucky money. It symbolizes passing of good luck to others in the new year.
This is a big banking opportunity for kids and anyone who are single. But not so much for elders and married couples, as they are the giver of these lovely red pockets. Thus, mike and I will refrain from visiting any kids and single friends this Chinese new year. We will be celebrating our first at home as a happy married couple.
When Mike and I were staying at my friend's place in LA, they both brought something to my attention. And since then, i can't seem to figure out am i the abnormal one, or there are other people out there who is also like me.
They both thought i was weird that whenever i go to the bathroom at home, i would lock the door. Home meaning the place where you reside either by yourself, or with roommate, or with family, etc. We are not talking about CLOSING the door (that's a given in my opinion), but we are talking about LOCKING the door. Their explanation is that if the door is closed, then someone is occupying the space. I can understand that if you live in a small space with only one bathroom. But what about those people who live in homes with more than one bathroom. Could that assumption still stand?
I've always lock the bathroom door at home since i was young. I can't really recall if everyone in my family does the same, since i never really barged in when the door was closed (thus, i can see their reasoning).
So my question is,
"Do you lock the door when you go to the bathroom at home?"To make the question less complicated, let's not include house guest into the equation.
The last four days we were back in California again. Didn't really get to visit many friends b/c of the tight schedule we had. We were on the road most of the time. First day we landed at LAX, drove to San Diego (2 hrs), then back to LA (2 hours) where we stayed for the night. Second day we drove from LA to San Fran (5 hrs). Third day we commute between SF and San Jose (only 45 mins-ish each way). Fourth day we drove from SF back to LA (another 5 hours). Last day we flew out from LAX.
Despite all the driving, we still manage to do what we love most...ah-hem...it's EAT!! And we ate A LOT! Below is a summary of all the places we visted.
Day 1:
Ramanyani Indo Restaurant in Westwood LA - Their fried chicken, fried rice, tofu dish and desserts are really good. Supposidly one of the best Indonesian restaurant in LA. Apparently they take order from anywhere in US, and can be deliever the next day. We are much tempted to try that out.
Day 2:
Yung Ho Restaurant in St. Gabriel LA - They have some authentic Taiwanese dished. Great Chinese breakfast place. They make all their own soya product (soya milk, tofu, etc). They even have stinky tofu! mmmm...
Farmer's market at The Grove - We got ourselves some English toffee from Little John. They have THE BEST English Toffee we go ga-ga for. Then we ate at one of the Thai food stand in the market. Had a fish curry and laksa noodle. We were too full to try out the funnel cake stand...next time.
Day 3:
Best of Thai Noodle on Haight Street in SF - They have really yummy Thai dishes. This time we got the Tom Yum chicken soup noodle, Thai ice-tea and a Pad Kee Mao (Stir fried flat rice noodle with ground pork).
The Stinking Rose in SF (www.thestinkingrose.com) - We go there everytime we are in SF. Let's just say everything on their menu are made with TONS of garlic, thus the name Stinking Rose. We alway get the Bagna Calda (garlic olive oil spread) as starter. This time we got the Toy Box Tomatos salad and the Garlic Encrusted Baby Back Ribs. And we can NEVER leave without having their Garlic Ice-cream for dessert. It's one of the best ice-cream we ever had!!
*Warning: The next day or two, you will smell, breath and burp garlic.
Day 4:
Tofu House in San Jose - Their specialty is tofu soup, and that's what we always order. Either with Pork or seafood in their bubbling pot with the raw egg. The cool thing is the rice for each table is served in a stone pot, and barley tea is poured into the bowl once finished to loosen the crusty bits and provide a post-meal digestive.
Andersen's Pea Soup in Buellton Cali - They have the best pea soup (all you can drink for $7 with bread) and really good pastries. We had a cherry jelly filled cream puff, and a almond cookie with chocolate mousse on top coated with chocolate dip.
Day 5:
Big Tommy Burger in LA - They have really great burger. I haven't try much in their menu but i know they have awesome turkey avocado burger. They are HUGH. Fully packed. Their fries are really good too.
So yeah, we ate tons. And now we need to detox.
After being a smoker for 36 years, my father has official quit smoking. Cold turkey. Just like that.
I didn't really believe it at first when my mom told me. I thought it's another one of those temporary quit sessions after much of her nagging. He would always say he quit. Then after a few days of grumpiness, then it'll be back to normal. A cig at a time. I've always told my mom there's no point of making him quit when he's not ready and willing to. Getting out of a habit is mainly psychological. If he truly doesn't want to quit himself, there's a very slim chance he will succeed.
But this time is different. My dad quit a month prior to announcing the news to us. I guess one day he decided to just stop smoking. From a pack a day to zero. Considering he was a LONG term smoker, i thought it was pretty amazing how he can just go cold turkey. He must be quite determine this time. That's not all, he shows no sign of grumpiness or agitation. In fact, his temper actually got better. He seems more relax and happier.
You ask what triggered him to stop smoking? We don't know exactly, but we suspect that it has something to do with the cold he got a month ago. He was coughing quite a bit and he was also showing some asthmatic symptoms. I guess it got him worried feeling all these tensions in his lung. But regardless, i'm so proud that he quit. You know that feeling when you wake up to a warm sunny morning and there's something good you are anticipating to happen that day. That's the feeling i have. I feel so happy for him that he now has a new beginning to life.
I have entered him in www.DrivenToQuit.com. It is a challenge presented by Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Health Department to promote smoke free Ontario. The website provides many tips and help to people who are trying to quit smoking. It may sound cliche, but i truly believe that regardless if my dad wins or not in this challenge, he already won the best prize there is...his health.
I was going to mention this along with the Chicago post, but because it's such an amazing find, it deserves it's very own space.
Mike and I were parked on a side street in Chi-town while leeching off someones wireless bubble, we found this awesome sounding hot dog mecca at one of the online posting for Chicago cheap eats. This place is call Hot Doug's. Just reading the types of hot dog they have on their special menu makes my mouth water. I wouldn't mind ordering one of each.
"White Wine and Dijon Rabbit Sausage with White Truffle Butter and Romao Sheep's Milk Cheese"
Mike and I took a day trip to Chi-town the other day. We mainly ventured to see shops in the city, can't say we really did any sight-seeing. But we did drove through down town and some special districts. We noticed there are so many things on sale in Chicago. It seems like there are abundances of merchandise on sale and no one is buying them. And trust me, they are REALLY cheap! Where are all the shoppers? Isn't Chicago one of the biggest cities in the States? I know it's not fair for us to comment about the city given we only spend 6 hours in town, but from what we did get to see. The city didn't give us an urban/big city feel. It almost feels like being in Calgary (no offence to all the Calgarian out there). But one thing i got to say is Chi-town do have some REALLY unique architecture. Actually, I would say it's the best architectural city in US. Regardless if it's a 3-story residential building, or down town skyscraper, many of them are very well designed. I just wish people in Canada would put as much thought into designing buildings. It would add so much more character to each city.
So we finally arrived to Toronto. Our flight was delayed for 29 hours. We were first scheduled to depart on Saturday 7:30pm. But we got a call from the airline at around 2pm saying our flight was cancelled due to weather condition in Toronto. As weather is not one of the things they have control over, we have to scramble to arrange the extra night accomadation. But at least they re-scheduled us for a flight the next day free of charge. Since mike never been to the capital of U.S of A, i thought the extra night would be a great chance to show him around. We drove around the government district for a crash tour. But we did parked and walked over to see the White House up close. On our way back to our car, we and other pedestrians were stopped by police to proceed toward the pathway to the estate. We weren't sure what could possibly be happening at 11pm. Five minutes later, we saw the chain of police bike, security SUV and limo THE president is in drove by in front of us. It was kind of like what you see in the movie. Now we can tell people that we saw the president..in his limo!!
So the next day, we drove around town to checked out some stores. Mike found a wallet he's been hunting for and got it at dirt cheap price. So he was a happy camper. We also went to an Etheopian resto for a late lunch. It was delicious and very interesting. After all the fun, we returned the rental car and checked into our gate for our again delay flight. It was suppose to be 7:30pm, now it's at 9:30pm. Through out the time we are at the gate, the departure had been delay again and again due to mechanical problems. As this is obviously an error on their part, free accomadation was offered. A number of passangers took the offer, re-schedule the flight and left. The rest of us await for the future of our intended flight. At least we each got food vouchure for some sandwiches and water. Finally at 12:30am, our plane has arrived and we got back to Toronto at 2:30am.
ahhhhh... home sweet home!!
New York was quite hectic. There's just too many places to see in too little time. And it doesn't have that NYC was FREEZING COLD those couple of days. We didn't exactly packed for the negative 10+ weather. We had to defrost ourselves by going into one store in every other block. blurrr...
I noticed my perspective have slightly changed toward the city. It doesn't seem to be as intimidating as i last remembered. People are quite friendly, everywhere is easily accessible via transit (much easier/efficient than driving), and every district is in rather close proximately to each other. Despite approaching to a number of passerby for directions, I grew quite comfortable to venturing around town on my own. Did i mention that there are soooo many restaurants in NYC, it'll take us a VERY LONG time to try them all out!!
Can't believe i'm flying out tomorrow again. I'm both nervous and excited to go to the Big Apple. Excited because I always love New York. The food, the shops, the craziness are all too fascinating. Nervous because i have to get myself familiarize with the subway system once again. I got quite comfortable with it last time I was there, which was like 2 years ago. Now i have to re-learn it all over again. It feels almost the same as returning to driving stick shift after a long period of time. Nervous yet exciting. I just hope it won't involve too much staling.
Anyways, wish me luck!
I guess that pretty much sums up my trip to LA. I'm sure most people would first think of Disney, Universal, Walk of Fame and allll the other tourist spots which populate that city. But I didn't see any of it this time. Most of them I've already been in my previous visits.
My main purpose of going this time is to hang out in the city, see some friends, try out some good local food joints, and maybe find some good deals in the stores around town. I've managed to do all that and it was quite relaxing. But somehow i felt that my friends were the ones who are anxious to have me to do more and see more in LA.
I know as a host, there's always a sense of obligation to arrange a fully packed schedule for your guest. I wish they would only believe me when i said "it's OK. Anywhere would be fine. I just want to hang out (together)". Since my LA friends are all relatively new residence to the city. I think by saying that, it made their lives even harder. Because not only they can't take me to the few famous tourist spots that they know of, but now they have to think of somewhere new to take me to "just hang out". As odd as it sounds, i would have no problem even if they just take me about to do their daily errands. But of course they didn't. And therefore, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to those of you that made this trip so perfect!
Being in LA is great. Even though it's rather cold considering normal LA weather, but it's awesome be somewhere that's always sunny w/blue sky. We think one day we will move down to Cali. We feel that California and NYC is a great place for young couple to live in. But we definitely don't think it's a place to raise kids in. This place is too superficial in general, and there's too much temptation. But as "bad" of an influence LA is, we LOVE it. There's such a great eclectic of places to go and see. There's been so many things happening, i thought i just do a point form briefing.
The first day we were there, we went to a farmers market. All we did was eat. From Thai, to Turkish, to toffee, to ice-cream. MMmmmmm..
Next we were here and didn't even realize the Golden Globe is happening. We actually drove by Beverley Hills Hilton during the red carpet not knowing it's there. But we didn't see any celebs (at least i don't think so), only limos, police and star gazers.
Example of the "bad" influence. We heard a commercial on the radio for plastic surgery. It sounds as if it's a clothing sale commercial. It said you can get tummy tuck for as low as $99. And there's a breast, tummy, lipo combo which can save you $1000. AND they have limo service to and from the surgery. Isn't that just beautiful! No wonder most people here has no facial expression.
Speaking of radio/tv, it's intriguing to think that when you hear about any upcoming musical shows, tv shows, or celebrity news in general. They are actually happening in this city. Despite of the close proximity of these Hollywood event/news, i still think the chances of bumping into one is quite slim. Just because there's a ton of people in this city.
Finally, MTV is a horrible. Can't believe how much trash can one channel contain. If this is the influence the new generation is being expose to now, then global warming is not the only thing in the state of emergency.
LA continue...
Our day trip to Edmonton was short yet sufficient. Even though we were only there for 6 hours, i feel that we have seen what Edmonton has to offer. We were impressed by the West Edmonton Mall. The water park, the roller coasters and rides, and the mini aquarium (they have real flamingos, and they really do look like the fake ones!). Before going, i thought it would be HUGH and it would take us more than a day to cover the entire mall. But it's actually not THAT big. I mean other than the extra additions to your regular mall, we can walk through everything in 2 hours. It's interesting to see people swimming and resting on beach chairs inside the water park while it's -20C outside. We took some pictures, then moved onto the downtown area. There's really not a lot of make notes on regarding the trip. But i did also noticed that Edmonton has more major shops than Vancouver. I would think it's probably due to the existance of West Edmonton Mall. But still, how odd.
Next, Los Angeles...
I swear this is not a duplicate entry. And I'm not using the same picture as the previous snow post. But it's snowing in Vangroovy again!! This is not fun anymore. The novelty of trenching through snow in the west coast is starting to wear off. I definately didn't moved here for the cold weather and the snow.
As mike and I will be back in TO the end of the month, we would like to go to one for the first time together. As there are TONS of resto to choose from, do any of you have any sugestions as to which one is worthy of trying? We mainly want somewhere that has well made dishes.
As per my previous North America Adventure entry, i mentioned that i will blog about all our trips throughout Canada and US. We started off our NA adventure yesterday with a day trip to Calgary, which we call the Texas of Canada. With only 8 hours or so in this city, we can't say we know everything about Calgary, but we did noticed a few things...
We have never seen so many people that drives pick up truck in a Canadian city. We've saw housewife, business man, senior and even asian driving them. There's old ones, American-made ones, Jap-made ones and modified ones. Pick-up is like the staple of Calgary. But beside pick up, we also noticed there are quite a number of high end luxury cars. From Audi to Mercedes. Then again, it is an oil city after all.
Second, the great Western hospitality. When I entered into the baggage area at the airport, i was welcomed by this friendly senior couple who were in their cowboy hats and boots. I think other than being greeters at the airport, they also help assist travelers with directions. I thought that it was kind of neat. And within the city, there are a number of Western clothing/accessory stores. We went to check out one. If it was within my budget, i would of got myself a pair of real cowboy boots. They come in many colors, styles and are very well made.
Lastly, after visiting Calgary, we thought it would actually be nice to travel to small city like this. The whole day that we were there, given we've managed to see most of the tourist area in the city, we only spend $7 in gas. Everything is in such close proximity that doesn't really too much driving. It is a great deal to see a city. Can't wait to be back for the Stampede and to visit Banff. EE-HA!
Next, Edmonton....
It was great to be back home for the two weeks over the holiday. Got to spent sometime with family and friends. Even thought i didn't get a chance to see EVERYONE, but it was great to hang out with familiar faces at familiar places.
I noticed there's a definately a difference between Return-Home vacation, and Travelling vacation. Return-Home vacation is less eventful, very lay back, and you're there pretty much just to hang out. It's like re-living your time when you were at home. Usually nothing really changed. Same life stlye, same routine. The only difference is that you are constantly updating yourself with what's new with everyone. To hear or to see what you've missed the last months. It's funny that by the second week that i'm back, it felt as if i never left.
Well, i'll be back again in two weeks. Hopefully, I will manage to see everyone this time.
