trips – Page 3 – Teachers Have Lives Too!

04/29/2012 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

a California weekend

With our move to the east coast looming, B and I are trying to squeeze in as much Northern Cali as we can. I want to do all my favorite things and see all my favorite people as much as possible before I leave. My list was hella long, but I’ve been working on whittling it down. checked two off this weekend.

10 mile hike through Robert Louis Stevenson state park by Calistoga. I struggled a bit with the climb, but in the end it was worth it.

Next up was a trip to Great America. Last time I came here it was on a physics class field trip. Rides haven’t progressed much. The biggest change was the names of the rides. Paramount doesn’t own Great America anymore, and they’ve changed the name of my favorite ride from “Top Gun” to “Flight Deck”. meh.

Sandy won me a Domo 🙂

04/23/2012 Erika S. trips

I’ve been here

I’ve been here. Quick weekend trip to the big city. Will be my city too in about a month.

03/29/201203/29/2012 Erika S. outfits, trips

napa

This is what I’ve been doing since yesterday:

B was on a work trip in Napa this week, so I took advantage of my spring break to crash in on him at his work event. Lucky me, he was staying at the Carneros Inn, a suuuper nice place. Our room was pretty insane. There was an outdoor shower!

We left Napa today, but stopped at the Oxbow Public Market on the way home. This place is basically just like the Ferry Building, but with Ritual Roasters instead of Blue Bottle and a Kara’s Cupcakes instead of Miette. I bought 3 cupcakes for myself (2 for later) and B only got one. =) B, being 6’4″ also got stuck sitting at the kids table.

I decided to wear my pizza shirt today, since pizza goes so well with wine. right? And, I seriously love these Forever 21 sunglasses. They were cheap as heck ($6!!) and so darn cheeky. I love cheeky, off beat-ish things.

sunnies: F21 – cardigan: j. crew – tshirt: h&m – jeans: madewell – bag: pour la victore – boots: ZigiNy – nails: Essie Chinchilly

spring break is almost over! Tomorrow: snowboarding. Quite possibly the last time this winter season.

01/14/2012 Erika S. outfits, trips

nem nuong love

Yesterday we ate three noodle meals. Pho in the morning, ramen for lunch and banh canh gio (other type Viet noodle soup) for dinner. Today, it’s a wrap day. My uncle Richard took us out for nem nuong wraps. second to pho, these wraps are my favorite Viet dish. plus, you end up smelling fish sauce in your hands for the rest of the day. good thing or bad thing?

No joke, LA has the BEST Asian food ever.

Nem noung is garlic and sugar marinated barbecued pork patties. At the table, you wrap the pork up with lettuce, rice noodles and mint. A quick dunk in nouc nam and its ready to be devoured. Seriously delish.

uncle richard, aka richard-fufu.

cousin eddie, aka shortie. 😉

glasses: bonlook – scarf: nordies rack – necklace: hand me down from my mom -top and tank: madewell – jeans: f21 – flats: frye – bag: pour la victoire

01/13/2012 Erika S. outfits, trips

ramen love

Coming to Los Angeles means two things: hanging out with family and eating noodles.

LA to me = San Gabriel, Alhambra, Rosemead, Monterey Park. LA, the asian part. I’m ok with that though because this part of LA has the best noodles ever, all kinds. The best Pho, the best fun and mein ever, the best ramen ever. I would happily eat only noodles while I’m here in asian LA.

For lunch today we went to a ramen place in Rosemead called Shin Sen Gumi. So yummy, even yummier than Katana-ya in SF which is my favorite in the city.

Gyoza, char siu tacos and spam misubi. Om nom nom.

our ramen: Kris’s (sister’s) with roe and egg, Eddie’s (my cousin) with extra char siu and mine with extra char siu and spicy miso. Holy crap it was yum.

I swear this is the first time ever I’ve been able to eat noodles without geting splashes all over my top. Kris and Eddie helped me snap photos. Kris was sure to remind me to give her photo credit, so here it is. Photo credit to my sister, Kris. and Eddie.

The ultimate LA background…the parking lot of a strip mall.

There’s my new bag!!! I was super excited to find this at Nordie’s Rack last week. It’s the perfect size, color and it has a cross-body strap. Not to mention it was a steal.

sunglasses and glasses: bonlook – coat: gap (hella old) – top and jeans: f21 – belt: gap (hella old) – flats: frye – bag: pour la victoire

Family photo time. My mom, sister, Popo and me. Popo doesn’t remember who I am anymore. Popo needs round the clock care now and she talks to herself a lot. But she still mentions how tall I am every time she sees me. “Wah. hou gouw ahhh.” some things never change.

12/30/201101/01/2012 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

Big Sur

Second day in Monterey, B and I drove down the coast a bit to Big Sur. I feel thankful I live in California every time I dive down Highway 1. It’s gorge. Even more breathtaking down near big sur.

The perfect location for a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shot. B and I joked about how the models would get there. I said by canoe or repelling down the cliff. He swears models are too prissy for that so he stuck to helicoptering in. whateves. I just want to park it under that waterfall and get a good massage in.

i thought those little black things were little sharks or large catfish at first. but it’s just plain old kelp.

12/29/201112/28/2011 Erika S. trips

monterey bay…the aquarium

B and I wanted to get away for at least a few days over the holidays. after much debating over thailand, hawaii or mexico, we ended up just jumping on a livingsocial deal for a hotel in monterey. Our holiday get-a-way got cheaper with every debate.

We stayed at the Casa Munras Hotel and Spa in Monterey, CA. It looked super cute online..but in person it was meh. Nicer than a motel, but not as cool I as I was hoping it would be. And the in room fireplace that drew me into buying the deal on living social? It was gas, which flicked on with a switch. Not exactly romantical.

Oh well. Next year we’ll keep the holiday trip debate to a minimum and maybe actually end up going to Thailand like I originally wanted. The goal is to not get scared off by sticker shock.

There is no way a bio teacher can go to Monterey and not go to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. So B and I shelled out for the tickets ($60!!!!) but only had 2 hours left in the day to see everything. So we formed a plan of attack and stuck to it. It’s a really good thing both B and I are tall. and fast walkers. we can maneuver the shit out of any crowd. here are some highlights from the trip:

the cove.

trying my best to feel up some sting rays. really resisting the urge to make a stupid steve irwin joke here. B would not appreciate bad aussie jokes =) but he would appreciate silly pictures of him sitting in a rainbow clam shell.

Sea Otters!! The cutest marine mammal by far. They currently have three otters, all behind thick plexiglass. All the photos sucked.

Seahorses. one of the very few groups of organisms where the males put forth the resources/time/energy to nurture offspring. Males take the eggs from the female and get “pregnant”. My kind of animal.

and then there are the facier ones. the dandy, the sea dragon. oh you fancy huh?

Sea dragons are very limited in their distribution, their habitat range. They are only found in the south western waters of Australia. Coincidentally, that is also where B’s father lives and dives. For him, sea dragons are an everyday thing. fancy huh?

cuttlefish. cephalopods could rule the earth one day. really. no joke. the jellies on the other hand…they’ll just plain kill you!

Monterey in the end, was just ok. we had a ridiculously expensive massages with chi chi aromatherapy oils and fluffy robes. We enjoyed the breathtaking views of the california coast and big sur. We lazied around together. That was the ultimate goal after all.