Our new camera, the Panasonic Lumix ZS25 came in the mail yesterday, so I started experimenting with it today.
A Fond Farewell (to Our Canon S90)
It is with great sadness that I would like the announce that our camera, which has played an integral part of this blog, is no longer working. Its tragic fate was due to my unknowingly putting an open bottle water in my purse while my camera was inside. Coincidentally, both the first and last pictures taken with this camera were in Napa. These were some of the first pictures taken with my camera, back in 2010. It is amazing to think about all of the moments this camera has captured of our family. Our camera was actually on its second life, since we had it repaired under warranty after Utah (sand). I’ve been doing some research, and I think I know which camera I will buy next. Thankfully, prices on digital cameras have gone down a considerable amount since four years ago.
In the few days that I have not had a camera, I feel lost. I was not able to take more pictures of the kids with D’s parents, brother and sister, which I meant to do on Sunday. I was not able to record our visit to the Jelly Belly Factory on Monday. I know life is about experiencing things, not recording them, but I fear that these experiences will be lost without pictures.
OK, enough about that. I was relieved that I was able to rescue all of the pictures in Napa that I took before our camera’s demise. These are pictures of our lunch at Mustards Grill and our dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni on Saturday.
Sterling Vineyards
After golfing we drove north on Highway 29 to Sterling Vineyards. I thought this would be a fun winery to visit for the kids since it has a gondola ride. D was also excited to add it to his list of “1,000 places to see before he dies”.
Fittingly, they had this chalkboard sign at the entrance. D wrote “I want to run a sub-4 hour marathon” even though he has already done that. When we returned someone had written “+1” next to it. D also wanted to write “I want to visit Sterling Vineyards”-haha- but we had to go. n wrote “Lim. WOW”…not sure what that means.
Yes, we have a ham on our hands.
The gondola takes you up the mountain and offers a beautiful view.
Lots of lilly pads.
We made it to the top.
There is a nice self-guided tour which includes tasting stops.
n making a face after smelling Grandpa’s wine.
What was described as “fruit popsicles for children” actually ended up being Otter Pops for $1 each. The kids didn’t seem to mind.
On the way down, k and n rode with Grandpa and Grandma.
Although D did not drink much in total, he ended up not feeling well in the afternoon and got sick. (I’m allergic to alcohol so I did not partake). This was the first time D has had such an adverse reaction. We deduced that it must have been because he did not have much food in his stomach at the time. Nevertheless, this was one of the more impressive wineries that we have visited and I would recommend it for families with kids.
Golfing on the Fifth of July in Napa
Since the kids did not sleep a wink in the car on the way to Napa, we did not try to stay up for the fireworks at the nearby Vintner’s Golf Club. However, on Saturday morning, we went to the golf course for k and n’s first try at golfing. Grandpa and Grandma bought them kid-sized golf clubs and they were ready to hit the driving range.
They also practiced putting. Both of the kids enjoyed themselves, but I think n liked it more overall. D was also able to brush up on some of his skills since he may be playing for a work function in a couple of months. They even returned to the golf course on Sunday when D’s brother and sister came over.
Fourth of July in Napa
We just returned from visiting D’s family in Napa. The kids had so much fun that they did not want to leave. We left early on Friday morning. In the late afternoon we took a short stroll through Yountville.
The French Laundry garden had new additions since the last time we visited—animals! Goats, chickens, and bees, to be exact.
These goats are fed “farm to grass”—carrot tops and red potatoes. 
Bee hive
Next was a return stop to the park, which has a lot of cool, different features.
Dinner was at Pacific Blues Café. Even though we have been to Napa so many times, there are always new-to-us places to try.
It is a relatively casual spot, so it is good for families with kids. It was nice to eat out on the patio under the shade of the umbrellas. D and I split the hamburger and cobb salad, both of which were solid choices. k and n split the kids’ chicken tenders (and shared some of the other dishes as well).
Afterward we made a stop at nearby Kollar Chocolates for gelato.
The service was not the friendliest, but the kids enjoyed the gelato. n was being particularly possessive over it.
Da Hawaiian Kitchen and Afters Ice Cream
The theme for this weekend ended up being “eating not-so-good-for-you food”. Part of our dinner tonight was green (spinach) smoothies, in order to make up for it!
It all started when we drove to Huntington Beach to deliver dinner for a family with a new baby. To make the most of our driving time, I thought it would be prudent to try out a couple of places that have been on my mental list of places to try.
First, we went to Da Hawaiian Kitchen in Huntington Beach to try the famous Chili Peppa Chicken. We ordered one “regular” and one “spicy garlic”. This chicken had the crispiest skin ever, and was quite flavorful, too.
Afterward we went to Afters Ice Cream in Fountain Valley. This place is known for Milky Buns, which is basically a donut ice cream sandwich. We opted for a glazed donut with strawberry crunch ice cream and sweet cornflake cereal. Yes, we shared one for the four of us, so I didn’t end up feeling *too* bad about this decadent treat.
The verdict? Well, as D concluded, you could pretty much make this at home, with donuts and ice cream. It is an interesting concept though, especially how they seal the donut, and the play with warm and cool. I don’t think we’ll go again, but it was fun to try.
Tavern Bowl Yelp Event
Last night, D and I had the opportunity to go to a Yelp for a Cause event at Tavern Bowl in Costa Mesa. There was a suggested donation of $10 per person for the Make a Wish Foundation. It was a really fun event, and I hope we are able to go to more in the future.
The night started out a bit confusing due to the parking situation. There was free valet parking, but we must have entered the parking garage the wrong way, because we ended up at the valet station for the 24 Hour Fitness club at the bottom of the building. (Can you imagine using a valet just to work out??) We eventually found our way and stood in line with fellow Yelpers before the event opened up.
The venue was nice…definitely not your typical bowling alley.
We didn’t bowl, but we found a nice private booth for the two of us. We each received two drink tickets, but I stuck with my diet Coke. I think D made someone’s night when he gave a couple of our tickets away. There were passed appetizers throughout the night, including:
Chicken wings—nice and meaty, including Buffalo and Korean-style.
Macaroni and cheese with pulled pork. Really good, but filling.
Lobster roll, also good. There were also various sliders, all of which were good with the exception of the vegetarian one made of beets. That one was just too mushy for our taste.
Fish taco. We missed out on the beef taco, but we were too full at that point anyway. There was also flatbread pizza, not pictured.
For dessert there were chocolate dipped strawberries and various cookies. We almost missed out on the butterscotch crème brulee, but I asked a waitress if there were anymore, and she kindly found the last one back in the kitchen and brought it out to us.
D and I probably wouldn’t go bowling here with the kids, but the venue would be perfect for a corporate event. We were quite impressed by the quality of the food, which is something you do not typically expect when bowling.
Review of Fish Fest 2014
On Saturday afternoon we went to our second Fish Fest concert. The last time we went was three years ago. Looking back, I wonder what we were thinking bringing a two year old and a four year old. Last time we sat in the lawn area. This time we were in the Terrace, which is the section just in front of the lawn (the tickets are the same price). I think I liked having seats better, although it really is just luck as to who you are sitting next to. n ended up on my lap most of the time, so we were able to have an extra seat “space cushion”, if you will.
One big improvement was that Verizon Amphitheater now allows you to bring a 1 gallon plastic bag with food per person, and 1 sealed plastic water bottle (20 oz. or less). This saved us a bunch of money, as we were able to bring dinner (sandwiches) and snacks. We saw a lot of people upset about their blanket policy, however. The security guards were saying the blankets had to be less than 4 feet by 4 feet, which is not stated on the website. Not many blankets are this size, aside from baby blankets, but it is a good rule to keep in mind if we go again.
I will also note that when I saw D put a long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt into the car, I made fun of him. However, when we arrived, I realized we had forgotten k’s sweatshirt. I let k borrow my sweatshirt, so I had to take back what I said when D was able to lend me his shirt to wear at night.
As for the show, here are my opinions of the various performances:
Dara Maclean–not really familiar with her. Her voice seemed “off”, not sure what was going on there. Her songs were pretty good, though.
Jonathan Maclean—American sounding guy who claims he is from Sweden. Nice keyboard playing and voice.
Plumb—Wow…they really “pumped up the volume”, and not in a good way. I seriously thought I was going to go deaf. I had to cover n’s delicate ears. I had forgotten about their song called “Stranded”, which I used to like back in the day. The lead’s performance was quite dramatic and engaging.
Graham Saber—Introduced a little hip hop flavor into Fish Fest, which I enjoyed. A little cheesy, and a couple of the lyrics did not seem too “family-friendly” to me.
Tenth Avenue North—They sang a lot of familiar songs, and the lead singer is quite the talker. I was thankful that they were not over-the-top loud in volume even though they had the full band.
Jeremy Camp—My favorite of the night! His set was worth the ticket price alone, in my opinion. He has so many good songs, at the end I was wondering “Why don’t I have any of his CDs?” (I promptly added them to my Amazon wish list). I must admit, I have become a *little* obsessed. I’m planning on checking out his autobiography from the library. His faith in God is very evident and inspiring, and he got quite emotional on stage, remembering his first wife (who died of cancer four months after they got married).
Mercy Me—We made it through the first three songs, and decided to go home since it was getting quite late. They have a lot of energy, but I have never been too into their songs. **(EDIT)** [D would like me to revise this statement and go on record to say that Mercy Me actually does have quite a few songs that we like; I just did not realize they were sung by Mercy Me.] It ended up being a good thing that they were the last act, in that we did not feel bad leaving early and avoiding being stuck in traffic trying to get out of the parking lot.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Rob Wagman, one of the Fish DJs did a little stand up comedy routine that had D chuckling louder than I have heard him laugh in a long time. Although this particular DJ is not my favorite on air personality, I must admit he was pretty funny.
The next day, k said that “The concert was more fun than I thought it would be.” I’m not sure if that just means she had really low expectations, but I am glad that she enjoyed it too.
Summer Solstice Tradition: Backyard Campout
We continued our tradition of camping out in the backyard the weekend after school lets out. This time we camped out on Friday night, since we went to Fish Fest on Saturday night. We cooked hot dogs over the bbq, but no s’mores. The tent feels so much more roomy when we don’t have to store all of our bags/clothes too. D went to the bathroom at around 3 a.m. and opted to sleep in our bed for the rest of the night. 
If/when we get a bigger tent, it won’t fit in our backyard!!
Welcome to Summer!
The class said goodbye to their principal who is going to another school.
Mr. B played a few good-bye songs. k said she liked first grade better than kindergarten but couldn’t give me a definite answer as to why.
They were encouraged to wear Hawaiian clothes on the last day, which was yesterday. This dress that my mom made for k was perfect.
I wanted to put together a little surprise for k and n to celebrate.
