Newport/S.CA - may.15th~23rd

we are back from week long of trip and still unpacking ...clothes are everywhere and it will take at least one week(so me..lazy mom!!) or few week

almost everyday was went as i planed
1st day which was Sunday and was Disney day - had breakfast with Minnie @plaza inn, same all stuff dried ham and mickey waffle (and pricey tag...) yet we got lots of pictures with Minnie and pooh -as long as we have pictures with character it is all worth it...
weather was overcast so not many people at the park - we went to all the ride at least twice

this time we did Bibbidi bobbidi boo salon - bun bun always want to try "princess hair" but her being 2 she couldn't do (have to be 3 and older)this time we told her to say she is 3(she is really 2 and 8 months) it was fun and great experience, "fairy god mother to be" did hair and make up, they made sooo fun for kids (for example, they called each child as princess, there is tinker bell flying - you can't see but they said "stop tinker bell, your all over..." i guess you got the idea of this place) it was neat experience for both parents and kid until we see price...$90 can you believe? they said it start t $45...key word start at
my Asian child have pink hair and she choose purple eye color so she looks like "beat up princess on crack" (of cause i did not say to her...i said "you look beautiful!!") well it is one and only time and we had fun...

stayed till 11:30 pm and my first one was just not sleep in the car!! she is crazy princess!!

Monday: we went to crystal cove state park(beach) it was right in front of our hotel and if you stay @ marriott newport villa they have parking permit otherwise $15 per car - water was clear and surprisingly warm even this groomy day, play with sand no one was in the beach so we had whole beach to our self - crystal cove have quite bit walk from the parking lot to beach, there is 3 entrance and middle one have beach comer shuttle for $2each way if you don't want to walk


Tues. went down to san diego whole day @sea world - food inside of seaworld was again pricey and worse than Disney...sea world child switch system was well made you can go head of line and other parent can wait very near the exit so no line for parents with young kids
dinner @ old san diego - casa de r( r something...sorry again but i can give you location - end of court (end of san diego st. have old court, can't miss) and this place is really end of court right next to little stage) Mexican food was good, not great, i personally like taqeria better than this fancy mexican food and they said best Margarita but it was lie, horrible cheap alcohol gave me headache, all out side seating and had chance to see Mexican folk dance while we ate dinner


W. crystal cove again, it was so cold and foggy yet my crazy kids want to play @ beach....went to last Crystal cove closed to laguna side - not clean as much as 1st one, closed to Newport side - there was soooo much flies and some kind of oil chunk everywhere it even got in to my husbands feet and hard to wash off, rest of day we spend at pool


Th. Balboa island, this was only sunny day out of whole week - balboa island have ferry that take your car to balboa fun zone($2 for car and driver,$1 passenger,$.50 per child and each way you need to pay) fun zone is really old classic play place - have classic merry go round and ferries wheel that show up at state fair and arcade, also have state beach - this one is really clean,and on sunny days it can get pretty packed, and end of harbor have ruby diner: great view 360' ocean view but no restroom service and this one does not have tap water service so everything come with disposable dish and cup


F.we finally did some dining!! it was fine brunch @beach house resturant, laguna beach - it was amazing ocean view and really great food (i had laguna omelet which was made with crab and avocado, my husband had breakfast sandwich and little chicks had pancake, everything was sooooo good) but there service was horrible yet weird thing was our waitress was nice to everyone but us so i am thinking either she doesn't like kids or Asian.... anyway i told the manager on the way out so hope she will get the point - even though food was great i will not go back and this place charge for $3 valet fee and there is no other parking spot other than valet...
we walk around laguna had tiny shopping time and went to hotel spend all day at pool
dinner at garden grove Korean restaurant called Shik DO Rak - this is different kind of Korean b.b.q place and our favorite, every time when we were down s.ca we stop here, they used Angus beef make so thin and grilled yourself and wrap with rice paper and vegi. taste soooo good and compare to other Korean place it is very "inexpensive" average tab without drink for four of us $50 that include b.b.q(lots of beef) and soup and rice and free kids meal(soup and rice), every time we need to roll our self out of this place yet this place waiting can be up to hour...

Sat.check out and Universal studio - the originally plan was go to outlet but my husband doesn't want to shop...universal studio was really busy, it was pack with people and this place is not for toddler -this will be good for high schooler or college kids, only thing we can enjoy with our kids was little play area with curious George, had water feature and ball play area
there child swap was very different than other parks my husband think was good but i disagree, they have "play area"(it is more like small room with TV that play weird kids movie) so one parent wait with kids and the other go to line so the first parent have to wait full line and when they return the other can go...it was hard for me to keep them busy(or not bored)since they have one toy to play and at least 10 kids are there...did not like system and there room also did not like whole universal experience...i don't think we will return there for long time, at least 10 years...



we stop at Santa maria(near San Luis obispo) for night, we stay @ fairfield inn which i was little scare about...i thought it will be like cheap motel but room was very clean and bed was comfy, place was modern, free breakfast and 2 pm check out doesn't hurt....if i go back to SLO i will stay here definitely (they do have tiny indoor swimming pool which was good for my kids and hot tub) on the way back we stop at SLO and we had biggest forever 21 experience - i don't usually shop at this place but since this place was size of big macy's i had to stop - can't believe how big it was...and price of cloths was very affordable

this time we did lots of "home cooking" since we had full kitchen wish weather was better but that is up to God....week feels so short this time maybe because we had so much fun

oh, we did stay marriott newport villa and we did got half ocean view and half golf course view (no complain at least it is not a parking lot) and it have to be Bunnie season tiny baby Bunnies was everywhere which make my kids so exiting, every morning we look for baby Bunnie some time in the swimming pool, around b.b.q area...they were everywhere and very cute and sparingly service was good this time, the person who check in us was really nice and can't wait to answer our question....very unusual for this place (her name was bunnie too she was born Easter day)anyway we had good experience on this place and room was nice and roomy and clean(2bed, all this property is 2 bed rooms)
good to be home but i start to miss being on the road...=)
i will put on pictures soon


happy vacation

SLO pictures!!

remember i said i will put pictures of SLO trip...

after2weeks later

here they are...

Enjoy!!

@pismo beach

you can see how water is soo calm...totally different than N.CA

my kids LOVE beach but this was the time when we can enjoy sand and water at the same time...usually only sand and bucketful of water not whole ocean

@Cayucas

few months ago my kids hate sand...my older one thought sand is yak...but look at them now, don't mind step on it(when we went to Mexico, bun bun never step on sand not even a step!!), love to play with sand and tiny even ate sand just for try...LOL

we are heading to S.CA, we will have more beautiful S.CA beach pictures(and mickey)

have good night and

Happy vacation!!

Detail of newport trip

next week we will be in Newport beach, CA
before every trip i write down every single detail of trip and it better be going through as my plan - if not....i will be cranky as hell and have to make new plan(don't have very good personality and my husband will tell you all about it =)

here is my plan so far

15th.sat : drive down south, 8am start to drive - not a minute later but i am very sure we will not leave our house on time - breakfast in the car and hoping and praying kids will take a long~~ nap...yet knowing my older one we are out of luck...
2pm: Korean town LA - i give us 6 hours to get there(extra 1 hours) have a great korean lunch and get little Korean stuff(cute toys, hello kitty etc...)
4pm: start driving again, and we will hit the LA traffic even it is Sat.
6pm: check in @ marriott newport villa - we always stay here very pretty property with "minimum" service.... but i still like here, and it supposed to be ocean view property yet every single time we got parking lot view(3 out of 3 times) so wish me luck to get better view maybe half parking lot/half ocean...
rest of sat: grocery shopping for week and cook dinner

16th.Sun: Disney day!!
10 am till park close!! - told you we are hard core

17th.M: check out crystal cove, beach hang out day - pack the lunch for beach picnic
come back for lap break for everybody but me(sneak out for spa, maybe=)
after nap, rest of Monday @ pool

18th.T: San Diego day, leave hotel @10am
wild life zoo(or sea world, still debating any idea where we should go?) picnic lunch in the park and head to old san diego - hope girls will sleep in the car
dinner at old town and little shopping

19th. W: hang out at pool day A.K.A break day
make picnic lunch to Laguna, do some shopping at laguna beach, come back for nap and pool time

20th.TH: Balboa Island, picnic lunch
and meet up with friend at Garden glove for dinner

21st.F: use all left over day, stay at pool and pack

22nd.Sat: leave hotel @10:30 am - 2pm @Santa Babara outlet A.K.A big shopping day =)
we will shop, shop and shop!!!
7pm ckeck in at Saint Luis obispo - have dinner and maybe some hot tub time!!

23rd.Sun: breakfast at hotel, some beach time at local beach mostly we will stop at pismo beach and have lunch at splash cafe
and finally heading home!!!

we will see that how much my plan will go as real.... most of time we will do at least 70% what i plan a head.... but it is getting harder as my girls getting older and starting to have "opinion"

i always think planing/packing is part of fun!! even i don't feel that way when i doing work....

i will post about this trip when we come back!!
happy vacation!!

Road to Hana,maui - from Farmgirl paint blog

I Was doing blog hopping and i found this cool blog and i thought it would be so nice on our space

since i never been hana(we think about it many times but...)- and probably it will not happen to someone like us who is such a indoor girl

so i contact Beckey who run this wonderful blog and ask her permission

thankfully she said it is o.k to link it but i do not know how to do....so i copied - i didn't copy her pictures because lots of them are her kids pictures..(she have lots of wonderful pictures between her blog) it is great to check it out...

here is her address

http://farmgirlpaints.blogspot.com

hope you enjoy trip to hana!!

If you ever go to Maui one of the most popular...most talked about things to do is The Road to Hana. I had read all about it before we went. I even had my handy dandy Coastal Living Magazine all dog eared and ready to take us step by step on our next big adventure.

We were a tad bit nervous. You hear all kinds of stories about the Road to Hana. It's a 50 some mile drive that takes hours and hours, because it has 600 plus hair pin turns. If that's not enough there are several bridges that only one car at a time can pass through and the locals are a little crazy! So after hearing all this we were really kind of dreading it, but we knew we couldn't NOT go. THAT would be crazy:)

This little fruit stand was our first stop. We got loaded up with fruit smoothies, coconut candy and coconut chips. OH my goodness. Who knew I loved coconut so much. I will forever crave that chewy candy!

You would think the sign might tip us off for something to see, but since we didn't get the much raved about driving CD to take along with our drive we missed the Twin Falls. Oh well!

Up until this point the roads hadn't been that bad. I even said...see nothing is as bad or as good as people make it out to be!

Then all of sudden it all began...the endless twisting and turning. We came prepared though and drugged up on Dramamine and the girls and I wore the anti-nausea Sea band wristbands. It helped and none of us got car sick...thank God!

My magazine article pointed us to mile marker 11, where it said we could splash around in the beautiful pools of Haipuaena Falls. So here we are trying to be adventurous. It's really not in our nature to trudge through mud in the middle of a tropical jungle, but nonetheless I wanted us to experience it all:)

Just a pretty little fall. The water was icy cold.

By the time we got to the car we were all covered in mud! Welcome to the Road to Hana;)

Our next stop was between mile marker 16 and 17. At the end of a very hidden road we made it to Keanae Landing Fruit Stand. It was raved about in my magazine for Auntie Sandy's banana bread. Apparently it's the best on the island and we just HAD to have some

Her banana bread is famous for a reason...it was soooo good! Oh my:) I think we bought 4 or 5 loaves. So yummy and she doesn't use milk, eggs or nuts...hmmm.

This place...this moment was one of my very favorite on the trip. We pulled into a little shaded cove and ate our picnic lunch out of the back of the jeep. We could hear the waves pounding the black volcano rocks and hear the birds chirping over head. It was pure bliss.

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? And the best part is that it felt

like it was all ours. There was no one else in sight. It was so peaceful and serene. The huge spray of ocean every few beats. It was magical.

We used our time wisely and took LOTS of pics! I was PMSing unfortunately and I remember yelling at some point that...we weren't leaving until we got a good shot. Even if it took all day. Because we'd probably never be here again and and...JUST DO IT!

This is only about one tenth of the shots it took before we finally got a good one. Oh my sweet peeps. How they put up with their crazy mama!

This one works pretty good. That's the problem with a deserted, special private cove...there is no one to take your picture;)

One more fall to see at mile marker 20...Upper Waikani Falls or better known as Three Bears Falls. It was a beaut. Not only did you see the big fall, but lots of little ones along the walls. Rainbows in the water spray. It was just a beautiful site

We didn't make it to Hana. We went about half way and then decided that was enough. How many gorgeous beaches and waterfalls do you really need to see in one day?? We got what we came for...pics to last a lifetime and enough banana bread to feed a small village, our little "village". So glad we didn't get spooked and made the trek anyway. When I think of Hawaii this is where my mind goes.

Have a blessed day.

special thanks to farmgirl paint

happy vacation