After a full night’s sleep in Carlsbad, we packed up and headed north to Oceanside. We had breakfast at Beach Break Cafe. I was looking forward to banana crunch french toast. Unfortunately, we found out that is has walnuts, so we didn’t order it. I ordered strawberry french toast instead.

We also ordered the “ABC” Avocado Bacon Cheese Omelette.

Coffee cake came as a choice for a side.

This was enough food for all of us. Everything was good, but nothing really had that “wow” factor. I’m thinking it is that banana crunch french toast that has pushed their Yelp rating so high!

The bathroom is also very cute. There are murals painted everywhere, including the toilet seat cover holder:

Our final stop was San Onofre State Beach. We like this beach for the kids because of the short distance between the parking lot and the sand. There were a lot of surfers out that day, but not too many waves.

As you may know, we are on a never-ending quest to improve D’s list of best places to eat. During the break, we added two: Gen Korean BBQ and Portola Coffee Lab.

Gen hasn’t been open for too long, but it has become quite popular in and around Tustin. We put our name on the list at 11:10 a.m. even though it doesn’t open until 11:30, and we weren’t even the first to be seated. I have read that waits can be two hours plus!

AYCE for $14.99 for lunch. This was our annual New Year’s Eve Eve date.

Spicy rice cakes. We came away not wanting to eat Korean food again for a very long time. We didn’t bring the kids, but D ran into a couple of co-workers. They said kids pay $1 per year of age, which seems reasonable.

Portola Coffee Lab in Costa Mesa. Hipster with a capital “H”. The baristas wear lab coats. If you have any coffee snob friends, this is the place to take them.

Latte. We also asked for a cup of water for the kids…they serve “reverse osmosis” water. At least it was free!

Lots of cute shops in the OC Mart Mix, but they don’t have much merchandise. Also, it makes me nervous when the shop owner is watching me shop.

Hello Kitty bike

On Saturday mornings there is a farmer’s market with food trucks. We tried a pork and beef taco from the Taco Maria truck, which were excellente.

We also bought a bag of Kettle Corn in a seasonal “Christmas” flavor. We couldn’t quite put our finger on the ingredients, but it was a bit salty, cheesy, and sweet. Also looking forward to more food finds in 2012!

September is birthday month for both D and I, so you know what that means…birthday discounts! Haha. Most of the coupons have progressively become less of a deal over the years, but out of the restaurants I’ve signed up with, I think the best is Veggie Grill. They mail you a postcard, it is good for a meal of your choice (no purchase necessary, no price limit listed), and it is good for a month and a half.

We haven’t been overly impressed with Veggie Grill in the past, but this time we decided to “upgrade”: we were willing to pay extra for a drink and sweet potato fries (which are usually $2.50 more). Turns out we weren’t even charged for the drink or the fries!

Chop Chop Salad:

All American Stack:

I thought these entrees were pretty good. We just let k and n think that the protein was meat (not exactly sure what everything was made out of, anyway). They ate some, but the sauce/dressing was too spicy for them. They did enjoy the strawberry lemonade, however. The teas were also refreshing, and made for a good Arnold Palmer as well.

I don’t think we’ll be going vegetarian anytime soon, but it was a nice change of pace.

As summer is winding down, it is heating up here in Southern California. We took it easy today…went swimming in the morning; D and I made some progress in painting k’s room.

For dinner, we went to New Shogun in Mission Viejo. I think this is the first time we have eaten at a Japanese restaurant since returning from Japan! We used our Entertainment Book card for a BOGO on the Shogun Special Boat (reg. price $17.95/person). Although only meant for two people, it was plenty of food for us and the two kiddos.



It also comes with miso soup, salad and rice. We took home some leftovers, too. k liked the sesame chicken the best, but everything was good. We left very satisfied.