After our lunch from Yellowfin, we drove a couple of blocks to check out the model homes at the brand new Pavilion Park in Irvine.
We stopped in the nice Visitor’s center to get a lay of the land.
*k has a bandaid on her face from an injury incurred when she fell of the swings on Saturday.
Greenhouse
At first, the kids were not too excited about looking at model homes. However, they did end up having fun. They especially enjoyed playing in the weird shaped closets under the stairs that many of the homes had.
The next two pictures show another trend—having an additional ground floor “suite” to accommodate multi-generational families.
Even the dogs get a fancy place to stay.
This was the backyard of the house listed at $1.5 million.
D pretending to be bartender.
It was warm out, so we stopped very briefly at the playground.
Undeterred and determined, we had D stand in the line while the kids and I wandered the festival. There were several booths for kids, including the one where k and n made the fish kites above. We also heard some taiko drumming and watched some Japanese dance performances.
We supported Fugetsu-Do, which is based in Little Tokyo.
We were also curious to try a Samurai Burrito. They are basically really big sushi rolls wrapped in nori or soy paper.
The kids absolutely loved the Rockin’ Daruma roll which had shrimp tempura inside (along with lot of other ingredients). It was a little spendy though, at $10.
I also stood in a long line for okonomiyaki with cheese.
Interesting concept, but our least favorite of the day. Half of it is still in our refrigerator. The price was fair at $5.
Finally, D made it to the front of the line, after an hour and a half of waiting—crazy, I know. Turns out they were trying to turn out 1,000 ramen burgers on this one small grill, as their other grill was giving them problems. D seemed to be enjoying chatting to the people next to him in line, so I did not feel too bad.
Was it worth it? Well, it definitely had a rich umami flavor. The noodles were nice and soft, but somehow stayed intact. The price was fair, at $8. I don’t think we will ever wait in line for it again, but it is one hamburger we won’t forget anytime soon!
There was even a small group of cherry blossom trees in bloom to add to the atmosphere.
I am happy to report that we have made another major improvement regarding our ill-placed media niche. I first blogged about our “problem” back in 2009. We have since gone through some changes, including getting rid of cable, buying an antenna, buying a converter so our Series 2 Tivo could work with digital over the air signals, and replacing our Tivo after it died with a Tivo Premiere, which negated the need for the converter.
This was our recent setup, which was certainly not ideal. TV shoved into the corner, ugly antenna hanging over the fireplace, and wire dangling between the tv and Tivo because I was too lazy to fish it through the wall (which I now realize is not even safe, after my dad showed me some internet articles).
A few weeks ago, my mom mentioned that my dad was thinking of buying a new television and giving their old (very nice) one to us. Only problem was that there was no way it would fit in our media niche. They thought maybe we could wall off the media niche and hang the television. I brought it up to D, thinking there was no way he would go for it. Surprisingly, he was open to it, so we called a guy that hung our neighbor’s television. We decided to add a partial fake wall, so that the media niche would be even on top and bottom, and the tv would fit on the wall above the fireplace.
Here is our “fake” wall mid-construction. It is about four inches deep.
A hole was made so the wires could go through.
It’s up! We will have to put up some shelving to fully utilize the space. I guess that will be part three of this ongoing saga. Hopefully it will not take us another four years!
While we were all well, we went to KBF to see the Christmas decorations and see Snoopy on Ice. The kids did not remember seeing the show from last year (I think they fell asleep), so it was all-new to them.
Afterward we ate at Paul’s Place, home of THE BEST fried zucchini.
Unfortunately, I spoke to soon about our house being “recovered”. n woke up sick last night so it looks like we’re in for round two.
On Black Friday, we went to Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific since we had free adult tickets that could only be used during the weekdays. I was worried about crowds, but we went nice and early (arrived just before the 9 a.m. opening), and we had many of the exhibits to ourselves. By the time we left, it was definitely more crowded. It was a rainy day, so the aquarium was the perfect outing (except that the Lorikeet exhibit was closed).
I think this was our first visit to an aquarium where the kids seemed really interested/excited to see all of the sea creatures. Their enthusiasm definitely made our trip more fun! As you can see, I kind of went camera-crazy. There were just too many photo ops!
A sea-themed Christmas tree…
The kids were fascinated by the moray eels. k said they were so ugly she never wanted to see them again, but then decided she had to backtrack three minutes later to take another look.
I think I have mentioned this before, but seahorses freak me out.
The kids were too scared to touch the rays.
We witnessed a puffin feeding—worms and shrimp.
These rock fish crack me up.
I thought these sea dragons were weird, until we saw this…
Leafy seadragon—wow. God’s creativity is truly amazing.
On Saturday morning, after D took the kids to the Home Depot Kids’ Workshop, we all went to Boomers to play a round of miniature golf. We had free tickets courtesy of the OC Register.
The kids are not yet at the stage where score-keeping is a practical idea, but it was a fun family activity.
On Sunday we went on an excursion outside of the Orange curtain. After church we drove to LA to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
First, we ate lunch at Plancha. We ordered two chicken tacos, one steak taco, one tilapia taco, one shrimp taco and a breakfast burrito.
The shrimp taco was the best. The chicken was too healthy/bland. The breakfast burrito was hearty and filling.
Stomachs filled, k asked if she should go to sleep in the car afterward, thinking we were going home. I thought it was funny that she thought we drove all that way just to eat at that restaurant.
We found free street parking off of Sixth street since it was Sunday. We walked past the La Brea Tar Pits and found the LACMA campus. There is a program called NEXGEN which allows kids under 18 years old to get a membership pass (good until they are 18) for free. Best of all, each kid with a pass gets a free adult admission. In other words, we didn’t have to pay anything.
D and I had been to LACMA during our early married-pre-kids stage of life when we lived in L.A. Oh, how that seems so long ago!
Our first stop was to see a piece called Metropolis. It consists of a bunch of buildings and roadways with cars, buses, trains, etc. The best part is that it is put in motion during certain hours. I made sure we were there for the 12:30 flip of the switches.
Shortly after D put n on his shoulders, we were informed that this was NOT allowed. There is an upper balcony if you want a bird’s eye view, though.
“How do we get out of here?”
Next, we went to see an outdoor installation of lampposts.
Then, we went to the children’s workshop area.
n was quite pleased because he said this was the first time he ever painted. That is not true, but it is true that I don’t really enjoy the mess that comes with painting at home, so I appreciate when they have the opportunity to paint somewhere else.
Finally, we stopped off at another outdoor installation that looks like pasta. At first, it was roped off, but later on it was open and the kids were going crazy with it.
Who knew that plastic tubing could be so much fun? We were amazed at how strong it was, considering the kids were swinging on it like vines.
On the way back, we stopped to look at one of the La Brea tar pits. D checked it off of his 1,000 places to see, even though we didn’t go to the actual museum.
I just now realized that we forgot to see Levitated Mass. Oh well, I guess we have until the kids are 18 to go back and see it. And, given the lengths it took to install that particular piece, I don’t think it is going anywhere anytime soon!
On Friday, D took off a half day of work, and we went to Fontana to see the qualifying and practice rounds for the MAVTV 500 Indycar World Championships. We had free tickets from the OC Register and the kids were free too. The parking was even free, although we did spend a lot on gas $ because they don’t call it Fontucky for nothing!
We came prepared with earplugs.
Mazda, represent!
As you can see, we had our pick of seats. It was kind of nice that it was not crowded at all. We also appreciated the tram service to and from the parking lot.
We went to the OCFA Open House for the second time last Saturday. The key to this event is to arrive early. The parking lot fills up fast. We arrived at around 9:50 for the 10:00 start time, but there were already lots of people there. The sign said they opened the parking lot up at 9:45.
Last time the line for the fire engine ride was too long, so we made that our first stop this year.
This truck was from the 1950’s.
We knew a family that was on the truck before us.
Kitchen fire demo. The moral of the story was never pour water on a kitchen fire. Turn the stove off, put the cover on, leave the house and call 911.
There was a Habitat for Humanity house model. n is munching on his Krispy Kreme donut from Salvation Army. There was also coffee/hot chocolate.
We also took a tour of the 911 call center along with a boy scout troop.
I was surprised to hear that the 911 operators have sleeping/living quarters there.
There was some old school equipment. When was the last time you saw a dot matrix printer in operation? They also had Gateway computers in another room.
However, they also had some high tech equipment, like this huge HP printer that they bring to the field to print maps. Can you imagine how much the toner costs?
I always like tours that give you the “behind the scenes” view of things.
Afterwards, we had a hot dog lunch prepared by the firefighters. We ran into another family we know there. I’m actually surprised we did not see more people we know, but I think a lot of them showed up later in the afternoon.
We are so appreciative of firefighters and those who protect our community!
Today was Free Museum Day, so we reserved tickets to San Juan Capistrano in order for D to see one more of the “Thousand Places to See Before You Die”.
First, we stopped for our annual trip to the Original Pancake House with our Entertainment Book BOGO coupon. A vegetarian omelet (with a side of regular pancakes) and an apple pancake were plenty for the four of us.
I thought the mission’s tagline, “Worth a Visit” was kind of funny, but in the end, I must agree.
We had a coupon for two free adult admissions, but paid $6 each for the kids. The price includes an audio tour, and there were separate audio recordings for the adults and kids, which was nice.
Depiction of life at the mission.
D stretching to show how low the doorways were.
The grounds are beautifully maintained…so many photo ops.
Lily pads!
Koi fish are both fascinating and freaky creatures. We had a coupon to feed the fish for free, but it wasn’t good until 12:30, so we weren’t able to use it.
I was surprised how much the kids seemed to enjoy it. I think the novelty of having their own audio tour was a big part of it. I guess they will have a head start on their fourth grade California history curriculum.
