Trip Over Thanksgiving (Late, Sorry)

Hi Guys,

I’m sorry this is so late. But you will still enjoy the story of my trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Thanksgiving.

It was SO much fun there. We did a hike in a desert area. VERY boring if you ask me. But, we had a great lunch of sandwiches and we got to see a lake. So, overall, I think it was enjoyable. 

That’s me looking cool (NOT!).

Anyway, the trip there sparked an idea to make gingerbread (no men). Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out so good.  Let’s just say that Calvin was the only one who liked it.

We also saw my mom’s friend Jane. She and Luis have a 2 1/2 year old kid named Noah. He is very friendly with us and I had a great time. We also went to Noah’s future school and played there.  Here are some pictures:

 

When we had free time, me and Grandpa played some games of Poker. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it at first, but soon I was playing as much as I could. It is a LOT of fun.

We also went to Zoomars: an animal petting zoo. We went in an area filled with guinea pigs and bunnies. I never touch the bunnies (my dad picks them up). I pick up guinea pigs and pet them and hold them. This is about my 4th time going. It is really fun!

 

Lastly, we went to an Animal Shelter, where I saw my favorite cat EVER: Vinny. He was SO adorable, playful, but no. We couldn’t adopt him. So sad. And we don’t even have a picture. While you are feeling sad for me I will show you something great: a domesticated PIG!!! This is not Vinny!

Oh, and the Thanksgiving dinner. I almost forgot. The dinner was amazing. It was SO fabulously tasty!! We had turkey, gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes, sting beans and almonds (one of my favorites), and 3.14. PIE!!!! If only you could have eaten it. Oh man, it was good!

Poker

I recently learned how to play Texas Hold 'em and 5 Card Draw. My grandpa Jimmy taught me and ever since I have been having a blast playing poker. What makes poker interesting is the betting. You bet a certain number of chips depending on how good of a hand you have. In 5 Card Draw you try to improve your hand by drawing new cards. In Texas Hold 'em you use community cards to improve your hand. And, no, we don't bet with real money, because I don't have any.

Garden Court Cafe+An Historic Park

Hi Guys,

This morning I went to Garden Court Cafe, which we have now visited and enjoyed 3-4 times. We left at about 7:55 A.M. for breakfast and arrived at the small cafe in about an hour. They serve everything from omelets to hash browns, and my personal favorite, a Belgian waffle towering with fresh fruit. Here’s a picture from a previous visit of my mom’s bagel and lox.

Below, we’re outside the cafe waiting for a seat. We had to wait what seemed like 1 hour to get our food.

But, when the food came…. It was AWESOME!!! It was the most delicious breakfast EVER.

After that my mom had the brilliant (not) idea to hike in Jack London State Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, we went to Cornerstone Gardens. Their gardens aren’t real flower gardens. Isn’t art fun?

This is me and Anna riding on balls and climbing on fake hills.

 

Halloween

I am writing about a wonderful Halloween experience. As most of you know, my family doesn’t eat candy, so we usually don’t go trick-or-treating. But this year my mom, my sister, and I went trick-or-treating with some of Anna’s friends.

One of her friends, Ava, dressed like a character from Wicked. In the picture, Ava is on the right, Anna is in the middle, and Maggie, another friend, is on the left.

I was really excited about collecting candy after I saw how fun it was. I had an awesome time and I definitely want to do it next year. We went to about 20 houses and all of it was very enjoyable-except when I got stuck in a thorny plant! I gave my candy to eager kids. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t dress up. Not my thing.

Off to Lavender Hill!

Lavender Hill is located here, in Santa Rosa, CA, on Crane Canyon Road. You can see Lavender Hill in the middle with a bocce ball court and a pool.

Here goes the story:

After school on Friday, we traveled to Lavender Hill. Grandma and Grandpa drove there about 2 hours earlier than we did. When we arrived, we were greeted by my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle, Connie and Kit. Oh, and by the way, Lavender Hill is big, and has a weird design. It’s three houses. One main house, a two-bedroom complex, and a fancy bedroom that the hosts, Grandma and Grandpa, get to stay in. They definitely paid for it! I had lots of fun there, even though I had an orange cast (if you didn’t know, sorry). Casts cannot come in contact with water, so NO pool for me.

The food was delicious, really delicious, really really delicious.

Daniel and his girlfriend Rumi made this:

This is soba and lotus root tempura.

Don’t you want to take a swim? A frog wanted to dive in the pool one day!

Charlie and I played an ancient Nintendo ‘64. It was fun. No photos. Says Sara, “I don’t take photos of people playing video games!” Nice. Real nice.

And bocce. Bocce was a highlight of the trip. Heck, it was the only thing I did except for the old ‘64. Oh, and NO pool.

And that was the Lavender Hill experience. Sound fun? Cough up a couple thousand bucks if you wanna join in!

North Carolina Trip

One week ago I went to North Carolina with my family. We were invited to a family reunion in Surf City, NC. It was for my grandma Susan’s side of the family, which I had never met. We’d be staying in a rental house. My mom, my sister, and I took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to SFO. We took Delta Airlines (which later turned out to be a mistake) to Salt Lake City. To the right is Anna holding a smoothie we bought at the airport. She is at our gate in SFO. At Salt Lake City we met up with my grandparents Jimmy and Susan. We then took a flight to Raleigh, NC. We arrived there around 11:00 at night. I wasn't actually that tired since in Pacific time that is 8:00 P.M. Anyway, at RDU (the airport) we waited and waited at the baggage claim. We were all annoyed that RDU had such bad bag service. Everyone's bag eventually came except for Anna's. We then had to deal with the bag service and in the end we filed a claim for it and gave the address for Barb and Gary's house. And you know what they gave Anna and Sara to say sorry for the “slight mistake”? They got a Delta shirt and a toothbrush. That just shows how much they care about your belongings. That’s why I said that taking Delta was a mistake, unless you want them to lose your bag!

Then we rented our car and drove to Barb and Gary's. Gary was Jimmy's best friend in high school. Also, Gary's daughter, Jen, was Sara's friend when they were teenagers. Their house (in the picture on the right) is in Wake Forest, NC, near Raleigh. We spent two nights there and it was tons of fun! Jen’s kids came over and we all played. She has three boys: Drew, Christian, and Matthew. Here is a picture of all of us. We had lots of fun together, as you can see.

 

 

 

I bet you’re wondering what happened to Anna’s bag. Well, the day after we landed in Raleigh, it arrived on Barb and Gary’s doorstep.

The same day we received Anna’s bag we went out to lunch in Chapel Hill, NC, northwest of Raleigh at a place called Sandwhich.  The owner’s name is Hich, so that’s why Sandwich is spelled incorrectly. Here are two photos of Sandwhich. The food there was to die for. It was like sandwich heaven. It was totally worth the hour drive to get there!

The morning of the next day we said goodbye to Wake Forest and continued on our way to RDU, where we picked up my dad. With one more person added to the group, we hit Trader Joe’s in Cary, then Grandpa’s cousin Barbara’s house in Wilmington, NC. One more stop: Costco in Wilmington!  Then, it was off to Surf City and Flip Flops, our rental house. The second I saw Flip Flops I knew I was going to have fun. It was a huge house with three stories and an elevator. The elevator got use the second we arrived because we loaded all the food into it and went up to the third floor: the kitchen, dining room, and living room. I cannot tell you how  much fun I had there! I played on the beach so much and met lots of other kids.         

 

Top row (left to right): Justin, me, Anna (different Anna), Mei Mei and Joey

Bottom row: Anna, Mary Jia and Amanda

The Atlantic Ocean was not cold like the Pacific. It was a very pleasant temperature, but the waves were very rough!! I was thrown down several times by them. But that just made it more fun.

I hope that eventually you will explore North Carolina like I did and have just as much fun!

 

North Carolina Map: The pin next to Wilmington is the rental house. The pin east of Raleigh is Barb and Gary's house and the pin west is RDU Airport.

Riding Horses

On Sunday my family took a trip to the Northgate Equestrian Center where we rode horses. Our neighbor, Tiffany, let us ride two horses. I learned proper horse technique like how not to make the horse so angry it will flip you off it and how to not fall off when you're riding and break bones. Luckily I had a pretty good teacher so I only had some minor injuries like the horse jamming me against the railing so my skin scraped off and stuff like that. Other than that I had a fun time as you can see in the picture. I learned how to steer the horse and go in circles. It was very fun!