Socal Day 2: Disneyland

This was the big day. Neither of us had been to Disneyland in quite some time, at least since CA Adventures opened up. We knew it was going to be a long day to try to make both theme parks. Since we went on a weekday, I wasn't expecting insane amounts of people. Once the park opened we made a mad rush for Indiana Jones, one of the more popular rides. We waited about 10 minutes. Within the first hour, we rode Indiana Jones, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and the Jungle Tree House. Talk about fast. By noon, we rode every Disney ride that we wanted outside of a few classics which were hitting the one hour wait, such as Space Mountain. We ended up fast passing this for later in the evening. We spent the rest of the afternoon at CA Adventures. Since most of the rides were roller coaster types, we decided not to ride a lot of them. We did however ride Soaring over CA, which was an exciting simulated ride over CA. We could smell the oranges as we went over orange groves, pine as we went over forests, and even mist as we went over the ocean. We also tried to watch the Aladdin musical, which everyone recommended seeing, but upon arriving at the theatre, we discovered that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bummer. We also wanted to try the new Toy Story ride, but with over an hour wait, we decided to pass. In the late afternoon we caught the CA Adventures Parade, and then jumped over to Disneyland to catch the Disney Parade. We rode our final 2 rides, Space Mountain and Peter Pan, before watching Fantasmic, and then the fireworks. We ended our night at 10 pm.

Socal Day 1: Downtown Disney

Near the end of June, Becks and I flew down south to use the free Disneyland tickets we received from one of my uncles who worked on one of the Disney Cruise ships in Florida. The parkhopper tickets were actually good at any Disney resort for the day, including the Disneyworld resorts, but since a one day pass wouldn't have done us any good for Disneyworld, we went to Socal instead. We arrived in Irvine on Monday night, checked in at our hotel, the Carousel Inn and Suites, which happened to be 2 hotels away from the main crosswalk to the parks, and walked to Downtown Disney for some dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. Along the way, we explored the various shops, ESPN Sportszone, and one of the Disney hotels. We were even able to catch the fireworks taking place above Disneyland.

Sonoma & Bodega

Back in June, Becks and I decided to spend a Saturday driving in the back country. Our first stop was the beautiful town of Sonoma. This was my first time there, although Becks had been there quite a few times. It reminded me of an old Mexican town, although I've never been to Mexico. Everything centered around the town square, which consisted of a nice park, frequented by picnicers. We went stopped by a local bakery for some pastries, an ice cream shop for some Lappert's ice cream, and then the Sonoma Cheese Factory some free cheese sampling. They had cubes of cheese and toothpicks in front of every type of cheese for sampling.

We then made our way, more like lost our way to Bodega Bay. Although my initial plans were to drive the back roads of Sonoma eventually to Petaluma, I made a couple of wrong turns that took to the halfway point on old Lakeville Road. We attempted to make it to Doran Beach in the Bodega area, which came highly recommended, but were scared off by the line of cars attempting to enter the gate at 3 in the afternoon, which by the way charged a $5 entrance fee. So we turned around and attempted to find somewhere free to get beach access. We eventually found the Bodega point area, which had beautiful views of the ocean, and a small beach area to relax in the sand. After spending our time at the beach, we made our way back to Petaluma to do some shopping at the outlets, which I might add, was pretty nice.

Sorry For the Hiatus

For those of you bloggers out there who frequent my site, do not worry, for I am still alive and kicking. It's been particularly busy for me over these past 4 weeks, so I haven't been able to share our latest exploits with you. But rest assured, they will be coming, in a flurry. Just to give you a taste, here's what the topics will consist of:

• Sonoma/Bodega Bay Exploration
• Disneyland
• The Real O.C.
• 4th of July at American Canyon
• The Contest of Champions Volleyball Tournament
• The Annimonthiversary
• MLB All-Star Game
• Comic-Con 2008 (July 25-26)

Blast From the Past Week 10

October 2005. COV&CORE Halloween Party. These were our cheesy costumes from a few years back. There was apparently a big Batman theme going on that year. Needless to say, it was probably one of our most creative costume years ever. That year we diverted from our usual digital picture scavenger hunt all over Vallejo and did a progressive dinner theme, where people were assigned to homes for dinner and met up at a single home in the end for dessert. I believe John Caguin won the best costume that year for his "Jack" of Jack in the Box costume.

4 Month Anniversary

On Monday Becks and I celebrated our 4 month wedding anniversary. Time indeed does fly. Not too long ago we were just married, and within the next month will be a year from when we first started dating. Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord." Indeed I have found great favor from God with Becks.

I remember a brother once reminding me, "you don't date to marry, you marry to date." What a perfect way to date your wife by celebrating monthly the date on which you got married. It's something we both look forward to every time the 16th rolls around on the calendar. We celebrated by getting each other gifts and going out to dinner at Celadon in Napa. I kept our dinner location a surprise, and despite having grown up in Napa, she had never eaten at Celadon. The restaurant was very nice and quaint, dimly lit, quiet, and decorated with European style artwork. My only gripe was having to sit only a couple feet away from the next table, so conversations weren't too private. But as for the food, I tell you, this probably the best meal that we've ever eaten. Becks would agree to that!

For appetizers Becky had the endive and pear salad with blue cheese, candied walnuts and honey mustard vinaigrette and I had the maine crab cake with frisée salad, gazpacho sauce and black pepper aïoli. The crab cake was unlike anything I've ever tasted before.

For the main course Becky had the special for the day, which consisted of wide noodle pasta mixed with vegetables and grilled sliced ribeye on top and I had the roasted chicken breast with baby basmati rice, broccolini and szechuan sauce. My chicken was very tender and succulent and the broccolini was very tasty. Becky's pasta was also killer. Let's just say that we'll be experimenting with putting steak on our pasta at home.

For dessert Becky had the vanilla bean crème brûlée with caramelized bananas and I had the
celadon bread pudding with grand marnier crème anglaise. Man, this bread pudding was awesome.

Thanks again Har for recommending this place. TripAdvisor rated this place #1 of 155 restaurants in Napa.

GO CELTICS!!!

The Three Amigos. The Boston Three Party. Three's Not A Crowd. Tres Leches.

2008 COV/CORE Monterey Bike Trip

This past Saturday we took the COV/CORE group biking in Monterey. We had 27 bikers all together, plus 3 kids. While most of us brought our mountain bikes, quite a few folks decided to rent bikes from a nearby rental...pretty cheap @ $20/4 hrs or $25/8 hrs. They got some pretty nice Specialized cruisers. Overall, our bike trip was about 8 miles round trip from the Cannery Row area to Asilomar State Beach, which is right before the 17 mile drive entrance in Pacific Grove. Most of the ride was fairly level, with just one area with a gradual incline. Pretty easy considering we had some biking novices with us. We stopped at a few places along the way to explore, take pictures, and have lunch. We saw seagulls, seals, deer, jellyfish, ducks, surfers, and wedding during the bike ride. A few people (who will remain nameless) also got wet trying to cross the slippery rocks. Let's just say that their egos were bruised more than their bodies. Perhaps you can tell who they were from the pictures. So of course, after the first fall, Eileen and I waited like vultures to take pictures of the next person to fall in. Most of the bike ride was overcast, except for the last part of our ride back where the sun finally came out as we neared the homes. On our return trip, we stopped to take this really cool picture of the entire group on this huge rock. After the bike ride, we roamed Cannery Row for an hour before we drove back home.