It was a foggy Saturday morning. 

The Halloween celebration was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m., so we left the house at 8:30.  By the time we got in line, I would say there was a good 50 people in front of us.  We brought our canned food for Second Harvest so that the kids could do a little “extra” trick or treating.  D and I strategized about our plan of attack and we decided trick or treating first, pumpkin patch second.  D made a beeline to the trick or treating area, and he was running, pulling both kids in the wagon.

Totally not necessary.  But, out of the thousands of people that attended the event, guess who was the very first family to go through the trick of treating section?  Yep, that would be us.  I thought the trick or treating was not as good this year.  Last year the adults were given some treats too.  I understand the cutbacks, though, given the overwhelming popularity of the event. 

Next we headed to the pumpkin patch.  A line had formed by this time, but it moved fairly quickly.  They also set it up closer to the trick or treating section this year, so that was convenient. 

Next, we headed to Palm Court for the carnival-type games.  Everyone wins the small toy prizes, so the kids weren’t shy about participating.

For some reason, k was reluctant to try the cake walk, however.  Our whole family participated, so I was not sure why she did not want to.  When the music stopped, she ended up being on the same number as another boy.  Spot 16 was open, so we told her to go stand on it.  Guess which was one of the winning numbers?  16!

Her prize was three cookies, which we shared at home. 

We also watched a cooking demonstration by the self-proclaimed “Asian Martha Stewart”.  Sadly, no samples of the food were given out.  In fact, she kind of mocked us for wanting samples.  Kind of disappointing.

n was complaining he was hungry, so we bought two bags of $1 popcorn. 

After picking up k from school on Friday afternoon, I took the kids to another free food adventure.  We stood in line for 50(!) minutes to try Creamistry, a new ice cream place in Irvine.

I’ve heard the lines have been long since its opening—partly due to its popularity, and partly because each flavor is made to order using liquid nitrogen!

I was under the mistaken impression that we would each be able to choose our flavor and topping.  I thought that was why the line moved so slow.  Instead, when we reached the front of the line, there were only a handful of choices of flavors, including hazelnut chocolate, oreo, strawberry, and green apple sorbet, which they were continuously making.  Given the limited flavors, I really do not understand why the wait was so long!  But, given that it was free, I guess I should not complain.

Both kids had oreo and I chose the green apple flavor.  The consistency was nice and smooth and creamy.  It seemed to melt faster, though, and I did detect a few ice crystals.  In any case, my curiosity about the liquid nitrogen concept has been cured. 

Weekends in October, Knott’s Berry Farm has trick or treating for the kids.  k and n dressed up in their costumes from last year and had fun going to the five candy stations.

The characters dress up too!

4/5 of the stations handed out “normal” candy—m&m’s, dum dums, etc.  However, I was curious about what they were handing out at this station.

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We unwrapped it at home, and there were three of these strawberry marshmallow coconut cookies, very similar to ones I bought in Baja.  Interesting.

The kids refused to go on the log ride (boo), but we convinced them to go on the mine ride.  Turns out that they made the ride much more scary for Halloween.  There was even this fake spider on a string that the ride operators can make go up and down.  k thought it was real.

Our passes are almost expiring, so I wanted to make sure we watch all of the shows.  This is a Native American hoop dance that we had seen from a distance before.  This time we had front row seats. 

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Two Sundays ago we had our annual church picnic.  It was sunny, but not too hot, as it has been in years past.

Food is a big deal at our church.  The main course was hamburgers and hot dogs, but there were plenty of Asian (American) sides, such as spam musubi, pot stickers, Chinese chicken salad, somen, and jujubes (Chinese apples). 

The cookie pops have now become a tradition.  The kids go to the dessert table early so they are able to snag one.

Here are some highlights:

We went to Red Robin so that D and I could both redeem our free birthday entrees: Bruschetta chicken sandwich and Oktoberfest burger.

k had her last Little Hoopsters practice.  She played half-court 3 on 3 since it was so hot outside and actually seemed to be enjoying herself!  She made three baskets, and had a steal and a block.  This is quite an improvement from last year.  We will be glad to have our Saturdays back.

We had shave ice sponsored by a neighbor real estate agent from Wiki Wiki Shave Ice.  They had a lot of flavors, including “dill pickle”, which we didn’t try.

We went to the Orange County Museum of Art and saw the controversial “Bad Dog” installation.  (There is also yellow paint on the building which is not captured in this picture).

We walked around the museum and finished in about ten minutes (plus one minute for the gift shop).  I guess we don’t get/appreciate modern art.

Next we ate at Mozambique Peri Peri, which serves South African cuisine.

We ordered Mahi Mahi and the Chicken Plate with our BOGO coupon.  I’m not sure how South African the food really was—the coleslaw had pineapple in it?  It was tasty, but we must note that the fish portion was tiny compared to the chicken, even though the plates were the same price, $12.95.  In the end, both dishes were enough for the four of us because the chicken portion was quite large. 

This Lotus was one of the cars in the parking lot.  Yep, I guess we are in Newport.   

The OC Register was giving away LA Galaxy tickets to 7 day subscribers, so I requested some for Saturday night, against the San Jose Earthquakes.  On our way up to Carson, we stopped in Cypress to visit Frostbites.  We had a BOGO coupon, so we ordered two sorbet creams—one with mango and passionfruit, and one with mango and cherry sorbet.  The “cream” was vanilla frozen custard.  It was a refreshing treat, especially during this hot weather.

The game started at 7:30, but we arrived early.  This was a good thing, because it was quite a trek from the parking lot to the Stubhub Stadium.  The tickets were free, but we did have to pay $15 for parking.

Soccer players certainly have a lot of running around to do on such a large field. 

We received Robbie Keane bobbleheads at the gate.  (I told them we only wanted two.  Four seemed like overkill.)

The sun went down, and the weather was actually pleasant. 

The bleacher section had some rowdy fans.  They played drums, sang, chanted, waved hug flags, threw streamers and smoke bombs throughout the WHOLE GAME!  At least it was entertaining.  We didn’t stay until the end, but LA won, 3-nil.

Since it was a shut-out, all ticketholders were entitled to five boneless chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.  So, the next day, we redeemed our tickets in Irvine for 20 free boneless chicken wings:

These were a bit disappointing.  We ordered lemon pepper and sweet bbq for the kids and jalapeno and Asian zing for us.  The flavors seemed artificial, and the boneless are just not as good as the bone-in.  Oh well, they were free, so we shouldn’t complain, right?

For breakfast we ate guava cheese pastries that we had picked up the day before at Porto’s.  After breakfast, we walked down to the beach again (in our jammies), just because we could. 

k being silly

After packing up, we drove less than ten minutes to check out UCSB, which is actually in Isla Vista.

I liked all of the art installations on campus.

School was not in session, but there were a lot of bicyclists and skateboarders.  There are lanes for bicycles, skateboards, and pedestrians.  We actually witnessed an accident between two bicyclists.  It must get real crazy when classes are going on.

There was a bell tower with an elevator, but the elevator was not in operation.

We made a rest stop at the University Center.  Outside there is a view of the lagoon.

The bookstore had an impressive Hello Kitty selection.  I wonder if Cal has Hello Kitty stuff now too?

Go Gauchos!

Finally, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center.

This large koi fish surprised us!

Desert landscaping

Next, we had a two-part lunch near campus.

First, we split a chicken burrito at Freebirds.

It was good, but nothing out of the ordinary; kind of like Chipotle.  I know that people love this place—did we order the wrong thing?

UCSB’s version of People’s Park—haha.

Part II of our lunch was at Pizza My Heart, which we used to go to in Los Gatos.

One “Big Sur” slice and one pepperoni.  The Big Sur had tons of roasted garlic, which D and I both enjoyed.

We picked up an agave latte for the road at a café called Caje.

A little too sweet for our taste, but the espresso was nice.

It was a short, but fun trip.  We’re ready to say goodbye to summer!

After our home visits, we had a free afternoon and evening.  For lunch, we returned to the fish taco stand.  There is also a shrimp taco stand, not too far away, but I wasn’t able to try one this time around.

Next door, a guy was making a fresh batch of chicharrones.  One of our team members bought a bag and shared, but we declined.

Just around the corner is an outdoor market where people sell trinkets and souvenirs.

D and I bought a couple of hacky sacks for the kids and a swordfish figurine that now resides in our kitchen.

The kids here are very aggressive about trying to get you to buy things.  They were following us around with puppy dog eyes.

Our final stop was for paletas.  D and I shared a coconut-chocolate dipped-peanut one, and fresh mango with big mango chunks.  Yum!

Next was an outing to the beach, just about five minutes away by van.  This is where D ran to every morning.

There were tons of smooth rocks.

Our celebration dinner was at Don Diego’s. 

Shrimp with garlic butter

Fish-Vera Cruz style

Flan and pecan pie

On Saturday we were ready to go home just after 6 a.m.  We had to make some extra stops, and it ended up taking us about ten hours, without a lunch break!  I think we waited at the border about 1.5 hours. 

Here are a couple of yogurt drinks we picked up for breakfast—mango and coffee. 

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  It was nice to serve alongside D and my church family.  This was my first mission trip since high school.  It was inspiring to see families with older kids go together, and I hope that D and I can bring k and n someday. 

On Friday morning, the team made surprise visits to past home builds to check in with the families, say hi, and bring some food.  I’m not sure I would want 40+ people unexpectedly coming over to my home, but the families we visited were all very welcoming and seemed happy to see us.

But first, Friday morning was our last meal at IDT: scrambled eggs, tortillas, rice, and fruit.

These pictures are from the first house build.  (This is where D went on Wednesday to re-roof).  The woman who lives there started a house church, and they meet in the courtyard in between her new house and her old house.  Pretty cool.

The following picture are from last year’s house build.  Everyone loved the color of this one: Newport Blue.  This house was so neat and tidy!

The next family seems very resourceful.  Notice how they made a screen door, made their own toothbrush “station”, keep chickens and ducks and rigged their own irrigation system for growing food. 

The last house struck me as being very decorative and homey.

They even painted the interior walls, which makes a big difference, I think. 

I thought it was nice how our church has been able to maintain a relationship with the families we have built for.  I hope that we will be able to continue doing so for many years to come. 

Breakfast: potatoes, tortillas, and fruit.  I should show this picture to my kids since I don’t think they’ve ever eaten anything but seedless watermelon! 

When we arrived at the jobsite, Dean, one of our team members, took the families out to a restaurant for breakfast.  This was the first time they had ever eaten at a restaurant!  His job was to keep the families away from the houses so that we could furnish them on the inside before they came back. 

Dean did a good job, so while we were waiting around, we took some team pics:

The Gen Xers (that’s us) and the Gen Yers.

The men.

The women. 

When the families returned, we welcomed them through a human tunnel. 

With the help of a translator, Gerald conducted a dedication ceremony for each of the families.  He reminded the families that these houses were a gift from God, and that all glory should be given to Him.  This young couple is expecting their first baby (a girl) next month!

Roger, a talented woodworker at our church, made these lovely signs for the front of the houses. 

This was my favorite day of the house build, for obvious reasons.  I also enjoyed helping to make the inside of the houses a “home”.  I made beds and laid out the clothes that we brought.  It was a lot of stuff, and the families are always surprised, because they think they are just receiving a house. 

This room is dark because the family did not want windows on this side due to a neighbor who sometimes gets drunk and throws rocks.  We wired the houses for electricity, but they are off the “grid” so it won’t function until the power lines come closer to their property. 

Three generations.

Little Paloma with the key to her new house.  Love those cheeks!

Showers were delivered.  There is no plumbing—it is basically a bucket system, but a great improvement from what they had before, which was basically a tub of water outside. 

The clothesline turned out nice.  I liked the cheery clothespins from Daiso. 

Earlier in the week, the families persolnaized their outhouses.

As a reminder, here is where one of the families was living beforehand.  I cannot even imagine how different it will be for them to live in their new house. 

Afterward, the VBS team held a hot dog lunch at the local church.  I ended up in the van that went for a fish taco run.

Wow, these were so good.  My favorite tacos of the week.  Hot and fresh from the fryer.  Two tacos were plenty for me.  A couple of the young guys ate NINE.

Afterwards we stopped at the candy store to browse.  I thought these large Coke cans were interesting.  Wonder why they don’t sell them in the U.S.?  (I placed the small cans on top to show the scale). 

That afternoon/evening, my stomach wasn’t doing too well.  Let’s just say I had to see “Dr.” Miles again, this time for some Immodium.  The team went out for tortas (one of my favorites, darn), but I stayed behind in my cabin, eating saltines and rice crackers.  Thankfully, I felt better almost immediately, and I was fine for the rest of the trip.