Quick Update

This is going to be a quick update. The hubby recently commented that I had not blogged in awhile and when that happens it really has been awhile then.

So here goes:

* I had to do online traffic school for my speeding ticket that I got a couple of months ago. Now, I am very thankful that I was able to do it online and not have to sit in a classroom wasting away my Saturday, but I think I choose the worst site off all of them. Everyone that I spoke with said theirs took them anywhere between 15min - to about an hour. Ha! Well, mine probably took like 4 or 5 hours! And of course because I am stubborn and cheap, I didn't go to another site, when I realized that it was going to take awhile. Needless to say I am glad I am done with it!

* It's been hot, hot, hot! I'm over it!

* I am re-reading Twilight again. :) So much better the second time around. David was really sweet and went online and bought the movie for me. But, when I try to play it, it doesn't play. Booo! I guess he emailed them about it and surprise, surprise, they haven't responded.

* I watched several movies this weekend. First one was with David and we Slumdog Millionaire. I went in expecting it to be really good and it was eh, so so. Little disappointed there. I am also loving that fact that I can watch movies from Netflix's Instant View through the X-box. I just wish their selection included more of the new releases. But I did watch, Vanity Fair (liked this one) and Penelope (cute) and I'm Reed Fish (umm, can't decide if I liked this or not, it's a little odd).

* Also, there is this really good sandwich place in town, that is only open for lunch(thus I never get to go) but does dinner in the summers. Ya, well turns out they aren't doing dinner this summer! I was all excited last week to be meeting friends there for dinner. As I am getting in my car to leave, I get a phone call from my friend to let me know she is standing out front and it's not open! Come on people, what's going on? Don't they know summer nights are my only time I ever get to go! I called my MIL, who I knew out of anyone would know exactly why they weren't open. Turns out the owners father is not doing well health wise and it's too much work to be open in the evenings. So sad!

Nothing else exciting going on, so that's about it for now. I hope everyone had a good weekend!

The Getty Villa

So, yesterday we went to the Getty Villa in Malibu, with the hubby's family. I think we all really enjoyed ourselves. Even though I enjoyed myself, I was a little surprised, because I was expecting it to be J. Paul Getty's home and not a museum. Kinda like the Hearst Castle or the Vizcaya Museum Gardens in Miami. I got over that quickly and focused on the gardens and artwork. My favorite part of the museum was the gardens. I really recommend as well, getting the head phones. It was really worth the extra $5.00.

It was also nice to get away and head down to the ocean. After leaving the museum, we headed over to Dukes restaurant for a late lunch. David and I have officially now, been to all 4 Dukes restaurant, Kauai, Honolulu, Huntington Beach and now Malibu. My favorite is the Kauai one. Not surprising, because your talking about Kauai. We got the Hula Pie for desert and it was amazing like always. It is macadamia nut ice cream, with chocolate fudge and whipped cream. Yummm!

On the way home, we saw the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. No pictures unfortunately. The sunset was so beautiful, from all the smoke in the air, from the fires. It was this gorgeous red color. Also because of the fires and freeway closures, it took us forever to get home. As we got close to home, we could see the bright red glow in the distance, from the Orange county fire. It was very eerie.

Anyways, we had a good time. Here are the pictures we took of the museum.








My super cute nephew Jackson











Here are a couple silly ones of my oh so humourous husband.

Recap: Birthday Celebrations

I just realized that I hadn't done a recap about David's birthday so here you go!

We went to the Auld Dubliner last Wednesday with David's family to celebrate. I had never eaten there before, but David had and we also had a coupon. I got the potato leek soup and I was hoping that it would be really good, but it wasn't. I have to say, it was just average and I would never order it again. Everyone else said their food was good, so I may have just ordered the wrong thing on the menu. The service was also really slow and they weren't busy at all. There was one other party eating along with a couple of people at the bar, while we were there. I would be willing to let that slide, if say they were busy but they weren't. Overall, my experience there wasn't that great, but it was nice to be able to spend some time with the family. Maybe, if we decide to go there again they can redeem themselves.

The next day, David's actual birthday we went to Citrus City Grill with another couple. Every time we have been there we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had another coupon, this time $50.00 off which was awesome. We got their calamari appetizer, I got the Ahi and the hubby got Pork Tenderloin, which were all really good. Our server was the greatest and hooked David up with a special dessert for his birthday, when they normally only do ice cream. It was sooo good! I think I ate most of it though! Here are a couple of pictures!



Our yummy dessert!

Only The Orignal Will Do

The other night we went to DQ with some friends for desert. I really wanted to recreate the Girls Scout Cookie Thin Mint Blizzard since they don't offer it anymore. According to DQ, it should be sometime in the winter, when they bring it back. That unfortunately doesn't do me any good, because it won't be hot then, but oh well!

Anyways back to me trying to recreate it, I told one of the employees that I was really sad they don't offer it anymore. She said a lot of people get mint flavoring and Oreo cookies. I said sure and that I would try it.

I get my blizzard and it looks really good. I take a bite and it's pretty good, but no where near as amazing as the Thin Mint. I was bummed and actually didn't even finish it.

I guess I will have to patiently wait till winter!

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

I can definitely be a creature of habit, especially when it comes to food. Most the time I will just about try anything, but when I find something I really like it's hard for me to branch out.

For example, when we first tried sushi, I tried anything that was put in front of me. Since then, I have definitely settled on some favorites. I always get a Philadelphia roll and Spicy Tuna roll, no matter what. Let's just say, I know what I like. :)

Since it's summer and it has been super duper hot, ice cream is a requirement. Now I'm not that big of a fan of ice cream. Gasp, I know! How can that be possible?! I don't really know why, but it's just okay. I feel the same way about cake as well.

So whenever we go to Dairy Queen, I get the same thing, a small M&M blizzard. The hubby thinks I am boring and always teases me. I have been getting the same thing for years. Every once and awhile I branch out and try something new, but I always come back to the M&M blizzard.

On Saturday though, I threw David for a loop. I ordered the "Girl Scout Thin Mint blizzard". I am sure he was thinking to himself, "What did you do with my wife!" The taste testing results are in and holy cow its amazing! I don't think I am ever going back. I am already looking forward to the next one!

Relaxing Weekend

This past weekend was very relaxing, which I definitely needed! The hubby went out of town on his annual backpacking trip , and was gone from Wednesday to Monday. This trip they went for an extra day and I told him he is not allowed to go for that long again! Even though I missed him a ton, it did allow me to get somethings done, which I can't do when he is around.

On my Friday off, I got the car washed and headed over to Target to check out their garden selection. I have been looking for awhile now, for Cilantro and couldn't find any. Thanks to Angelina though for pointing me in the right direction! I picked up two Cilantro plants and some flowers from Target. I now have a good selection of vegetables in the back garden. I have 2 tomato plants, cucumber, zucchini, orange bell pepper, jalapeno, parsley and a basil plant. Now if they only start producing some vegetables!

Saturday, I went to a very beautiful bridal shower for a friend of ours and lunch at Nordstorm's Cafe with a friend. I was really sad as I couldn't get my favorite Chicken Lime Cilantro salad, because of the Cilantro recall. :( I ended up getting this really good turkey sandwich though.

I also got some cleaning done. I deep cleaned the kitchen and the shower. I also cleaned up the backyard. So even though David was gone all weekend, it was very productive!

Weekend Recap

I thoroughly enjoyed this last weekend! It was very relaxing and a much needed break from all of the busyness of life! Friday, after work I convinced the hubby to come with me shopping (what a great husband)! I had a gift card to H&M, which the girls gave me for my birthday that I still hadn't used. We headed on over there and I found several things that I loved and got them all! Hehe!

After shopping, we hit up Yard House for their happy hour. The rest of the evening was spent playing Mario Kart on the Wii. We just bought it so the novelty hasn't worn off yet!

Saturday, was spent celebrating Melissa's birthday. In the morning, we went to Simple Simon's with the family and it was nice to eat outside on a summer morning. We went home and I took a nap. Then we headed on down to Corona Del Mar beach, for a bonfire. I believe I have mastered the art of s'more making! The marshmallow needs to be nicely toasted and chocolate all melted. Yumm! Hope you had a wonderful birthday Melissa!

On Sunday, our alarm clock unfortunately did not go off and we missed church. It was weird being home on a Sunday morning. For some reason I decided to make crepes, which by the way I have never made in my life (post coming). I had a lot of fun making them. The afternoon was spent doing absolutely nothing, other than watch House: MD. FYI: the hubby deleted all 22 episodes of CSI that were saved on the DVR. We keep getting confused, as the episodes aren't in order and we keep missing critical character development. It's time to add them to our Netflix queue!

We went to dinner at Salsa Mar, to celebrate Father's day with David's dad. Like always their food was good. The salsa was even better than normal. It had a little bit more kick and I love that.

Since my folks are in Indiana, I spoke with my dad earlier in the day and he talked my ear off like normal. Housing prices, the car, and weather are always his topics of choice never fail, but I still love him!

Our 1st Anniversary!

The hubby and I decided to celebrate our 1st anniversary, by going to Santa Barbara for the weekend. I still can't believe that it has been a year, that we have been married! We headed up to San Simeon, on Friday night. Now I am sure most of you are wondering, "Why San Simeon? ". Well, we had plans to visit Hearst castle the next day. Neither David nor I had ever been there. During, our trip to Miami in January, we visited the Vizacaya Museum and Gardens, which is considered the Hearst Castle of the east coast. We figured why not be able to say we have been to both!

We woke up Saturday morning and it was really sunny but oh so cold! The grounds were so beautiful and especially Neptune's pool. We definitely want to go back to do one of the different tours. I would like to see the bedrooms. Our tour consisted of one of three guest houses, Neptune's pool, the bottom level of the house, and the indoor pool. We also recommend watching the movie, either before or afterwards as it will give you a lot of additional information regarding the Hearst family.









After Hearst castle, we took a couple of pictures at the bay and then headed down to Cambria for lunch. The hubby's family recommended, The Old Stone Station. It's a small little place with a lot of character, great prices and some really good food. I got the fish & chips and David the ribs & blackberry cobbler.







We then headed on down to Santa Barbara and we stayed at, the Hotel Oceana. We got an awesome deal on Priceline's, Name Your Price. Overall the hotel has some really cute decor, but our carpet was a little on the gross side. Considering how much we paid we weren't disappointed.

For dinner Saturday night, we headed over to Brophy Bro's, which I found online at Santa Barbara.com. It had a ton of great reviews and was considered more of a local place, loud and very busy. We headed on over and got some great fish. I wouldn't consider it a romantic spot, but we enjoyed the experience and we would go back.

Sunday, morning we headed over to State street and did a lot of window shopping. We went into Anthropologie, when David set a couple of their kitchen timers for 5 min and then told me we had to immediately leave! You gotta love my husband! I also longingly looked at Restoration Hardware, which I love, but could never afford in a million years.

We grabbed lunch at Zia Cafe. They had great chips & salsa and margaritas. For dinner, we went to the Santa Barbara FisHouse. I got the best Ahi tuna! Amazing! We definitely would go back there as well. Monday morning, we walked over to Sambo's for breakfast. Both Saturday and Sunday morning, we saw a line out the door. I got the crab cakes benedict and David just the pancakes and eggs. So very good!

As you can tell our vacation centered around food, which always seems to happen. After breakfast, we headed on back. We got home very quickly, which was awesome because I hate LA traffic! We also pulled out the top of our wedding cake and had piece. It was still really good. Thanks Melissa for doing such a good job wrapping it up!

I wish it had been a little bit warmer and that we would have been able to do a little wine tasting but overall we had a great time! I am definitely looking forward to what lays ahead for us!

Another Year Older

Every year on my birthday, it is weird to think that I am another year older. Like clock work, your birthday rolls around and you can't stop it. They just keep coming and coming. I actually wouldn't mind staying at the age I am right now forever. That would be quite nice actually! I start thinking about what the next year holds in store for the hubby and I, and I am excited. We have been extremely blessed by the Lord. I constantly have to step back though and be reminded of all our blessings: family, amazing friends, our church, jobs that afford us the luxuries of having Disneyland passes, going out to eat and the ability to go on trips. What an amazing Lord we have!

Anyways, I am sure you all want to know how my birthday went. In the past, I have always taken my birthday off and spent the day with David. This year I wasn't able to do this, as I had used all my vacation time on our Miami trip that we took in January. The work day went a little bit slower than normal, but that was okay. My coworkers were sweet enough to get me little presents and took me out to lunch to our favorite little Mexican restaurant for lunch.

We went out to dinner with the hubby's family and our friends to Table for Two, in Riverside. We had a good meal and then headed over to Dairy Queen for desert. No birthday cake for this birthday girl, instead I got a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate. After ice cream, we headed back to our friends house, to watch The Office. I unfortunately fell asleep on their couch and missed the show. Good thing we have tivo!

So all in all it was a good birthday with hopefully many more to come!

Image Source: Avery.com

Birthday Tea

Birthday's, Birthday's and more Birthday's. April is full of them! I am lucky to share this great month of April, with my good friend Rachel, along with several others. We started the birthday celebrations off, by going to Bennihana's last week to celebrate Rachel's birthday. We were a little disappointed with our experience there, but it was great to spend the evening with great friends and celebrate what an awesome person Rachel is. I won't bore you with all the little details as to why our experience wasn't good, but to make a long story short, average food and lack of entertainment from our chef = a not so good experience. Sorry Bennihana's, I would have loved to have given you a raving review but I just can't.




The birthday girl with her gift certificate for a pregnancy massage from us girls.

Then last week, the girls surprised me for my birthday, by taking me to the Blooming Teapot, in Old Town Temecula. It was very cute and the food was really good. Oh and you can't forget the tea! We had 3 choices of tea and my favorite was the Peach Blossom! It was great to get to spend the day with just the girls, hang out and talk. I feel very blessed to have such good friends!







It doesn't stop there either. Since tomorrow is my actual birthday, we are going out to dinner tomorrow night with the hubby's family and some other friends. The birthday celebrations aren't over yet!

Food Rut

I haven't done a food blog in over a month, so I really suck! It's not like I haven't been cooking anything. In reality, I have been cooking a lot. We have been really trying to cut down on how often we eat out. A to eat healthier and B to save money. We have actually been really good about it too. I have been cooking almost every night during the week and only eating out on the weekends. I also made this amazing coconut cream pie for Easter, but I didn't take any pictures of it before it was all eaten. I just guess that means I have to make it again! :)

I believe the problem is that, I think I am in a food rut. It seems as if, I have been making the same one of two things over and over again. I think one reason, is that we don't eat red meat very often. I don't think we do it on purpose either. I guess I don't really think about buying it, when I am the grocery store.

My goal is to make more items that don't include chicken and to buy vegetables that I don't normally get. I made some really good couscous tonight. I don't think I have ever made it for David. I cooked it in some chicken broth and added cooked onion and red pepper, cilantro and a little bit of diced jalapeno. It came out really good and David really liked it a lot. I will be definitely making that again.

I currently have these Cranberry Orange bars in the oven. If they come out good, I will hopefully blog about it tomorrow.....

Well I'm back and the cranberry orange bars came out really good! We went over to a friend's house and they are already all gone!

Anyways, that's it for tonight. Goodnight!

Don't Judge A Restaurant By It's Cover, Opps I Mean Book

There is this amazingly good, whole in the wall, Mexican place near my work. I have to thank my coworkers for introducing me to the place, as it is definitely somewhere that I would never stop at myself. As run down as it looks on the outside, there is always a line (we normally call in our orders) and there are always several truckers pulled over on the side of the road to get food. I always get their carne asada tacos and they are so good!

Last week, I took David there and he loved it. On Sunday after church, we were hungry and he suggested going back for lunch. We invited some friends of ours to meet us there and the looks on their faces when they pulled up were great. I am sure they were thinking to themselves what did we agree too? What's neat is that everyone seemed to really like it.

It's always awesome knowing the local places and getting some good authentic Mexican food. That is one of the things, that I do love about living here. Don't even try to find any authentic Mexican food in Indiana!

Late Night Out

David and I haven't stayed out late on a weekend night in ages! I think both of us, enjoy our sleep way too much to stay up late. On Friday night though, we couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. It was nice for once to not really have any plans. For awhile, we tossed around the idea of going to Disneyland. We threw that one out quickly, as it has been colder than normal the last couple of days. We eventually decided to mix it up a bit and go out for dinner and head down to LA.

We got dinner at Salsa Mar, which is a great little Mexican restaurant, in Dos Lagos. We used one of the gift certificates, that David has bought from Restaurant.com. We ate a ton and even had leftovers for lunch the next day. I still can't get over how great the deals are at Restaurant.com and how come more people don't use them. Anyways, we had a great dinner along with some yummy chips and guacamole.

After dinner, we then headed down to LA to watch The Daylights, play at the Troubadour. We had never seen them play live and they put on a great show. My brother in law Noah (it's still weird to say brother in law, hehe), joined them on two songs and played the pedal steel. We don't get to see Noah as often as we would like, so it was good getting to see him, even if it was a short visit.

We left LA at about 1am and by the time we got home and got to bed it was after 2! I can't recall the last time I was up that late! Since we got to bed so late, we then slept till 11:30 the next day. All day Saturday though, I kept thinking it was Sunday and that I had to go to work the next day. We don't normally go out on a Friday night, so the weekend felt a lot longer than usual. The weekends always feel to short and never long enough so this was a nice change! David and I both agreed, we need to do this more often!

Oh, Too Short of a Weekend

This last weekend turned out pretty good! We started with a party to celebrate the launch of our friend's new website, OutdoorPros.com.

Tim- I have already added OutdoorPros.com to my blogroll, as I know you would eventually ask me everyday, till I succumbed to your request.

Anyways, if you want cheap camping equipment or anything outdoor related head on over to OutdoorPros.com. David thoroughly enjoyed himself at the party. He got to be part of a small informational movie, in which he, described what bear boxes are and how they are used. Put him in front of camera and he always has a blast. When they post it, I will definitely need to remember to post the link on here!

Saturday, we met with a financial planner. We went over everything from wills, life insurance to planning retirement. It's nice having a plan and acting on it. He gave us a list of things to do for homework! I'm not in school anymore and I am getting homework! :) This is good homework though.

The highlight of the weekend for me was when we FINALLY went to Portillo's Hot Dogs, in Moreno Valley! The place was jam packed, which I am hoping is only temporary, as they just opened. I got myself, the Chicago style hot dog I wanted. It was very good! Scott and Rachel joined us and they liked it as well. David and I walked out the door spending $10.00 on lunch, which is awesome. It is definitely going on my list of places to regularly visit. If Moreno Valley is too far for you, they also opened one in Buena Park.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. I took a nap both Saturday and Sunday afternoon which was great! We went to bed early Saturday night, so we missed the hail. I would have loved to have seen that, as it doesn't happen very often out here. We did go to sleep listening to the rain though.

Overall, it is was a great weekend, but like always never long enough!

"Chicago, Chicago that toddling town. Chicago, Chicago I’ll show you around - I love it. Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago." Frank Sinatra

100 Posts

First things first, this is my 100th post. Wohoo!! It took me much longer to get to this point, than I ever thought it would. But I made it and now onto the next 100 posts!

You will now be returned to the regularly scheduled programming.

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Boy, am I glad today it is Friday. This time change has really affected me. All week, I have been extremely tired in the evenings from getting up that hour earlier. Hopefully, this weekend I can recharge and get my internal clock reset to the new time. I am most definitely looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning. Eventually, I will be liking the time change, but until then waking up and driving to work before the sun has come up is miserable. There should be a law banning this.

This week, also brought about the most absolute ridiculous diesel prices ever. FYI, I drive an older Mercedes which uses diesel. I drove past the gas station this morning and it is now $4.09 a gallon! I don't even want to hear about anyone complaining that regular prices are high. They aren't even close to the diesel prices.

Gosh, this post is all about me complaining. On a nicer note, I heard about a new restaurant while listening to the radio the other day, called Portillo's. What caught my ear was that the restaurant is from the Chicago area and they have Chicago style hot dogs!
I was so excited, because I haven't had one since the summer of 2002, when David and I went back to Indiana. We haven't been yet, which is driving me crazy. We unfortunately started our new budget for ourselves this week. Why, this week darn it! Oh well, if I haven't had one in 6 years, I can wait another week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am even looking forward to the rain and TGIF!

bbquEWW!

Hyped up food is really a let down, especially when it turns out gross! Last night, the hubby and I went to Raxx BBQ and Brewery, in Riverside to celebrate, his friend Matt's birthday. David had previously been there for a bachelor party and said the food was amazing. He has never let me down before when it comes to food. Well, scratch that, because he told me the sweet tea was amazing and I don't like it at all! But generally, he is right on the mark, except this time.

We shared the short ribs , with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. Let's just say, the whole thing was horrible. The ribs were all fat and even when I was eating the meat part it had fat in it. The sides were not good either, as the mashed potatoes were plain and had no flavor to them and the macaroni and cheese was bland as well. I am not sure if short ribs are normally that fatty, as I have never had them before, but I didn't like them. If we ever go back, I might try their baby back ribs, but I was really disappointed in the sides as well.

We did have a large party though and the service was still great and the company was good. Matt seemed to really enjoy his birthday dinner, so thats all that really matters. David wants to go back, so they get one more chance in my book and if its bad again then they are off the list!

On another note, my friend Rachel who is pregnant, just had her first ultrasound at 19 weeks. The baby is healthy and doing well! Wohoo! They didn't find out the gender though, so we get to wait to see if its a boy or girl. :( It seems like it was yesterday that her and her husband Scott, told us that they were pregnant! Now she is almost half way through her pregnancy!

What? February?

I can't believe that tomorrow is the first of February. Where is the time going? Is life on fast forward? Can we please slow it down, pretty please! Maybe its just that we are enjoying life to its fullest. We have been so busy going on trips and socializing with friends and enjoying being married. The next couple of weeks, are again jam packed. We are going to San Diego for Valentines Day. David did the Name Your Price on Priceline and we are going to stay at the Hilton San Diego Resort for an awesome price. I am looking forward to it and I hope we have some nice weather while we are down there. One thing on the list of things to do, is go to the mexican restaurant, El Indio that we went to the last time we were in San Diego. They have the best chips and salsa ever and I really mean it! Too bad it is so far away, but it does make those trips to San Diego that much more special!

The weekend after that, David is starting back up doing film work again. It was nice that he had a break from it the last couple of months and we had our weekends to spend together. Last year, the auto races that he was filming, were all pretty local. There were a couple of times that he had to go to Havasu, but it looks like this year though, they will be going farther away. Thus, David will be gone more. The first shoot is in Phoenix and they are flying him out there which is a first for him. Rumor is that some of the races during the summer might be even further. There are times that I don't like him being gone so much on the weekends, but it pays for the fun extra stuff that we get to do. Like going to Hawaii this summer and then London for Christmas. This time that he is gone, I have made plans to spend some time with my friend Kristy, whom I don't get to see nearly enough. I am looking forward to spending some girl time with her, going out to lunch and shopping. Who doens't like shopping?! :)

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Edit: I am a horrible friend, because I failed to mention that I am having lunch tomorrow with the fabolous MZBrandy and Jenn, which are probably my most faithful readers. Please forgive me?

Are We Wine Snobs Now?

This last weekend, we were so very busy hanging out and spending time with friends. On Saturday, we went with Rachel and Scott down to Temecula for some wine tasting. Neither, David and I are big wine people, but for some weird reason we want to like wine. We figured that by going wine tasting, we could get a sample of each one and hopefully find a couple that we liked and then slowly get used to the taste. I have heard that liking wine is an acquired taste and most people don't like it right away. Anyways, we went to two wineries, Maurice Car'rie Vineyard and Winery and then over to La Cereza Winery and Gallery.

Here is Rachel telling me which ones she thinks I would like


David and Scott




I tried several different types of wine. The ones I liked the most, where more of the sweet white wines. I definitely have a long way to go, before I like some of the red ones. I am sure we will go again and I would love to go sometime toward the end of spring because it is so beautiful down there at that time of the year.

While we were at La Cereza, I saw some paintings that I really liked by the artist, Jami Tobey. I would have loved to have bought one, but they were way out of our price range. Maybe someday!

Source: Jami Tobey

We spent Friday night and Sunday with Tim and Casey at Disneyland. We ate dinner on Friday at the Story Teller's Cafe in the Grand Californian Hotel. We all got the corn chowder and it was sooo good and not a bad price either for Disneyland. Then after dinner as we were entering California Adventure, the gate attendant who was an older feller said, "Hi Robyn" and then, "And you must be Batman", to David. Haha, I have never had anyone say that before.

Casey and I


On Sunday, we got poured on so we sat in front of the fire in the Grand Californian for awhile








I love Disneyland, but I can get tired of it and right now is one of those times. David could go every day but not I. After 3 times in one week, I think we might take a break for a little bit!

Sweat Deals on Yummy Food

I always love going to restaurants that I haven't been to before. On Thursday, we got the chance to go to another sushi restaurant, here in Riverside. We headed over to Akina up in Orangecrest, with Tim and Casey. David had bought a $25 gift certificate, for $5 from Restaurant.com. I am sure your thinking, how is that possible! Well, basically it just works. I don't know how, but it does. Normally, there are certain restrictions, like you can only use the certificate from Sunday through Thursday. Also, you have to spend a minimum amount on your food. I say check it out their website and see for yourself!

So we ordered our typical rolls, that we normally get and when they came out the pieces were so large! I could barely fit it in my mouth. It was extremely good! I really liked how their Shrimp Tempura roll has asparagus in it. It gave the roll and extra little something. I think this might be our new place for sushi. I love Ooka as the decor is more modern and hip and the quality of the fish is great. Akina is an older restaurant and the sushi bar is a little bit of a tight squeeze but the sushi just as good as Ooka. But you can't beat the price when you use the gift certificates from Restaurant.com. All this talk about sushi has got me craving it again!

Sigh - The last day in Miami

Finally, I am blogging the last day of our Miami trip! My goal was to blog one entry each day. Well a week and half later I am only now finishing it up. I have cooked a lot this week and we have been busy socializing so I haven't had time to finish it.

Anyways, how about if I get on with it and tell you about our last day. We went to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which I had been looking forward to the entire trip. I was a little disappointed, because you can't take pictures inside the house. Sorry folks, all you get to see is the gardens. It was pretty amazing though, as there were ceilings imported from Italy and furniture from France. Most of which were from several centuries ago. I have never been to Europe before, but this is what I have always envisioned it would look like. Here are some photos of the outside of the building and the gardens.













When we were done, we headed off to the beach and watched the sunset. No pictures as my camera battery died! :( After, that we met up with friends, at the Cuban restaurant La Carretta. Our food was really good and we ended the evening with some Cafe con leche. Now I am not normally a coffee person, but I tried some of David's and it was so good. It was light, creamy and sweet. After trying his, I had to get one for myself.

So thats the end of our trip. We really enjoyed ourselves and would love to go back someday. I do wish we could have just relaxed a bit more, but we will just have to save that for Hawaii in July!