Travelogue: Los Angeles

This beautiful sunset greeted us while traversing the end of highway interstate 5. Before the dreaded crawling traffic in downtown LA. We were too exhausted by the time we reached home (Joseph's cousin Mia was our host) that we skipped doing anything the night before Thanksgiving and decided to just catch up and talk.

The next day, Joseph's uncle, Joe was too kind to drive us around Malibu and Santa Monica Pier. Now I understand why so many people fell in love with LA. The sun, sand and sea. 

It's been so long since I felt that salty air and warm sand on my feet. Winter is not the best time to be here. I miss the beach a lot. Back home in the Philippines we have easy access to the beach and we don't have to wait for summer to enjoy the water. I will make sure I'd check out the summer vibe here when the weather warms up. For now, this is enough to cure my craving for the beach. A lot more reason to visit LA often.

We didn't do touristy stuff on this trip but  we made sure to have lunch at The Grove. 

Travelogue: Monterey Boardwalk

This is a very late post. I am just now trying to update my blog for having been lazy and MIA since last month. We spent Thanksgiving with Joseph's uncle and cousins in Los Angeles and we took the long drive instead of flying coach. We enjoy road trips together and I have been looking forward to this trip for so long. Our drive to the south took roughly around ten hours including our quick pit stop at Monterey boardwalk. The scenic route will have taken us twelve hours. So we started off at Highway-101 and had our first pit stop at Monterey boardwalk to grab a decent lunch with amazing views of the bay. We had fish and chips. It was really that we forgot to take pictures of it. We spent almost two hours enjoying the little shops and taking in the beautiful view before we finally head off to LA.

Old school candy shop. Caramel taffy is a must try.

Met a new friend. Isn't he cute?

Joseph took this picture while we were having lunch. He was hanging out by our window.

It was rather a rushed pit stop and I would have loved to try the ice cream shop and dolphin watching next time. I am definitely going back sometime in the summer.

Left My Heart in Texas

Jim(2) + Abby(4). 

She was so excited showing me her school picture wearing the crochet dress my Mom made for her

Play dates at the park.

Picture with Santa

Sweet smile after having a bite of his red velvet cupcake

Disney on Ice

My 14-year old niece who refuses to take pictures/selfies with me

He loves Jollibee

They just adore him like any Filipino kid back home

Arguing who gets to hold Jollibee's hand

Afternoon session watching Power Rangers Megaforce

As you may have already known, my sister lives in Sugarland Texas along with her three adorable kids. I've been frequently visiting her lately because she's been having problems looking for a nanny to watch them lately and she feels more comfortable for me to be around the kids when she's away for her doctor's appointments. Aside from cooking Filipino food these two little rascals occupies most of my days. Now, I'm back in California and browsing through my iPhone pictures makes me miss them. Before I left, I helped them put up the tree. I wish we'd get to spend the holidays with them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Joseph can take a leave from work and we can fly to Texas for the holidays. 

Have a great weekend!

My First Pumpkin Patch

Since we had rental car for the weekend, we drove around highway 1 to look for a pumpkin patch because I just wanted to have my picture taken with the pumpkins! As shallow as it is, but yes. Haha! Besides it'll be good to just be a kid sometimes as we never experienced this growing up. Lucky we spotted one along the highway and not so busy with kids. We didn't bring our camera though and just took photos using my trusty iPhone because I only wanted to Instagram it. :)

The ginormous pumpkin. The first I've seen in my life. Pretty awesome!

Ah yes, the photo op not to be missed

To give you a scale on how big the pumpkin is. Yes, it's a real pumpkin.

Foggy and cold.

A selfie with the pumpkin should not be missed. LOL

Pick a pumpkin your own size. 

Went home with these babies.

Happy Halloween!

Travelogue: Old Town Sacramento

Joseph and I went to visit his high school buddy, Jason in Sacramento over the weekend. We had a lot of fun touring around the oldest town in Sacramento which dates back from the "gold rush" era. We had a blast playing dress up as southern belle and gunslinger for an old style "black and white" photo op. Totally worth checking out if you don't mind wearing costumes that has been worn by almost everyone else that day.

I was really surprised how the dress didn't look way too big on me in this picture. The lady had to put clips behind my back as it would fall off. It's like ten sizes bigger! Imagine in the old days women had to wear this heavy dress in almost everything. Even climbing wooden ladders during the great flood.

The old town has been kept pretty much looking the same as it was way back. A lot of restaurants that you can grab a quick lunch or dinner to. We took a two hour historical walking tour and it was very informative and entertaining albeit a little hot and humid that day. They took us underground (under the wooden walkways) and a lot of history was attached to this cute little touristy spot in Sacramento. 

Back in the "gold rush" era, the Sacramento river behind me was where all the business and gold trading happened.

Perfect spot for photo ops.

Aah! Easily my favorite place. An old school candy shop.

The original Wells Fargo building. Still has a working ATM inside and a mini museum.

 The Sacramento Capitol building.