Trip to Asia-Hong Kong Day 1-Landing.

Sorry for the long delay in posting pictures, stories, or well, sorry for not posting at all.  I know that PC recommend that I blog about my trip.  Hopefully this works out.

Cherie and I departed from LAX on Thursday morning at 1AM PDT.  We arrived at Hong Kong at 730AM on Saturday.  It felt really weird losing a day.  We flew on Cathay Pacific and I had really good airplane food.  I supplmented that by making myself some miso soup that I purchased at Costco.  I was able to sleep a little, but Cherie was able to get a good amount of slept.  I watched Promised Land on the plane.  Good movie, not really about any science of fracking, but more about the human spirit.  We picked up our luggage and headed off to Metropark Kowloon.  Hong Kong is primarily two main areas, Kowloon/Mongkok and Central Hong Kong.  We stayed at Kowloon as it was slightly cheaper.

We dropped off our luggage and it was off to Disneyland Hong Kong.

Vegas in Spring

This blog post will basically describe the events that occurred in Las Vegas, but I really won't go into a tremendous amount of details. What happens in Vegas well it stays in Vegas...

Thursday

Left in the mid-day with Linh to get to Las Vegas in order to make the blue man show.

Went to Barstow for the first time, didn't really seem that interesting. Along the way I got to see a crazy vehicle accident.

There was a big rig that got completely destroyed.

I honestly don't remember if we ate before or after the show, but honestly we just grabbed food at the food court.

The show was interesting as there was a lot of audience participation. Including a crazy amount of toilet paper that was used at the end.

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The Blue Man were able to pose for pictures at the end and they did some hilarious poses.

We stayed at the Hard Rock hotel.

Trip to Santa Maria

For those who aren't aware of the wonders of the Central Coast this is one for the record books. This trip was arranged by Joelle and myself as we haven't seen one of our friends/former supervisors in a long time. We leave early Saturday morning and prepare to have a great drive on the way there. It is amazing that this is the first of many trips that Timmerie(my car) has taken. Well it is kind of cheat to blog about the future trips as the haven't happened yet, if I write this in chronological order.

We arrive at Emily's place in Santa Maria where it is a nice condo. Un

fortunatley I don't have any pictures of the condo as I was sneezing and trying to s

urvive by injecting myself with Benadryl. Ok maybe I wasn't exactly injecting it into myself, but I wanted to :-P. Once another one of my friends, Navi, arrived we decided to get a dinner/lunch thing at a steak place. Apparently Santa Maria is known for its tri-tip. I am really not sure why though...So a few of us got the open face tri-tip sandwich, but I went with an open face steak sandwich. You tell me which one looks better...

It was a great linner (lunch/dinner). What else is there to do in Central Coast after a nice meat lunch? That would be wine tasting, yes wine tasting from the individual who never really goes wine tasting/drinks alcohol. We went to the Laetitia Vineyard & Winery, where there were a variety of wines being sampled. While some will recommend going from a white-->red-->a desert, I pretty much went to the desert and had a Muscat. Tasted like oranges and it was very syrupy. Much better than a port.

Afterwards we ended going to see a mo

vie, Date Night starring Tina Fey and Michael Scott! I have to say, after watching this movie and seeing the saviors of NBC in a movie, Tina can act circles around Steve, no contest. I think this is one of the reasons why I really started to get into 30 Rock. Sadly the day ended there as while Joelle and I were off the next day, Emily and

Jacque were unable to stay out crazy late due to work. Joelle and I went back to the room to prepare for the journey back.

On the way back to Los Angeles, we decided to stop in two locations, Solvang and Santa Barbara. At Solvang we walked around and saw some random shops as well as a hat store.

There wasn't too much do at Solvang. It was than time to go to Santa Barbara. This entire trip had been rather gloomy, but when we got to SB, it was like the clouds decided to give us a break.We were able to try some of great items called ebel skivers or fried pancake balls. Its amazing that the majority of stuff to do every where it is consume food.

We went to a seafood restaurant that Joelle had been to in the past. Pretty good, but I still have to say that The Original Fish Company in Los Alamitos still rules the school.

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Got back home safely and I have to say that the few things I learned. I am really allergic to cats and that central coast weather is really gloomy and it can rain a lot...

Trip to Arizona Day 2

So this blog is about 7 months late, but I have decided to blog to the best of my ability the adventures I have had the last few months so I will not have a back log of blogs in October.

The day began with waking up in the hotel. Interesting enough the night before was filled with the hotel being not that great. We had these sheets which did not cover more than half

of the bed. The movie that was playing while everyone was falling asleep was Why Did I Get Married. It was alright, but I swear Janet Jackson lo

oks like Michael Jackson...maybe because they are related, but it was still weird. The weekend was also the same time Wrestlemania was going on in Arizona, so there were a lot of people going to either spring training or wrestling. Maybe I should go see Wrestlemania next year...just a thought.

We arrived at Tempe Diablo Stadium to watch the Angels vs Clevel

and Indians. The day still very warm and not a cloud in the sky. Luckily this gam

e was somewhat in the shade with terms of seating so it wasn't extremely hot. The Angels didn't do that well and lost. After the game it was time to hit the road.

The drive back is somewhat interesting as the sun set was pretty cool. Jessica was able to take some cool sun set photos.

Interesting work related thing that I was able to see, were some

trucks that appeared to be heading to the ports for the whole Prop 1B program.

So overall it was a great trip and an interesting experience outside of California. Will I be back again in the state of Arizona to watch baseball? I would say yes, but I will probably also look at other teams as well.

Trip to Arizona Day 1

So this past weekend I went to Arizona, Phoenix/Tempe , to watch the Anaheim Angels participate in spring training. I went to this event with my college friends Deanna and Jessica. The day started out bright and early, well I shouldn't really say bright as it began at 4AM on Saturday. Let me tell you, when you wake up earlier than you do for work, it is quite an experience.

This was the first road trip for Timmerie and I was nice to actually have a car that can make a long road trip without it dying you in the middle of it. I was going on about 4 hours of sleep for this drive and honestly the drive wasn't that interesting. Once you leave Riverside area it is nothingness followed by more nothingness. I finally got to see a place called Desert Center, really not interesting. This entire Deanna was sleeping in the back, no pictures of that. Crossed the Arizona border at 9ish and saw how cheap gas got, decreased by 25 cents a gallon. Don't you love the additive and tax we add in California?

Got to Phoenix and attempted to go to a restaurant that is part of Triple D or Diners Drive In's and Dives, but the line was incredibly long. Instead we went to a farmers market. For being 700 miles from San Francisco this place seemed incredibly hippie.Here are Jessica and Deanna in the farmers market, where we got some really overhyped tamales. I am sorry I don't really see what the hype was about them. Apparently Arizona has legendary Mexican food...don't really see that. So, it was off to Tempe Stadium to see Game 1, Giants vs Angels. The thing about Arizona, you hear about cities, Tempe, Glendale, Phoenix like they are separate, but no they are right next to each other. It was like saying there is a great difference between Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, and Orange in terms of distance. Way to be cool Arizona.

Game 1, we sat in the lawn area and it was crowded as hell and yes, Arizona gets warm during March. It did not help that my shorts are dark and that there was no shade. I think that my legs got burnt more than my face. The game was cool, although the only Web Gem was done by Panda, it was fun none the less. A funny moment was where a bunch of kids got carded and escorted away. However, there was one girl who I guess went to the bathroom and came back to find her friends gone. I could see her mouth "Are you fuckin serious?" Great moments, still refuse to pay 5 bucks for a Coors. It seems a spring training that is the main selling point, beer at ball parks.

We left the ball park to go grab some dinner at another place that I saw on Triple D that was only 7 miles from the stadium. However, due to the intellegence of my GPS and Arizona's need to have construction when Wrestlemania and spring training is going on, it took about 45 minutes to find the place, Chino Bandido.

What if I told you that a place served Mexican, Chinese, and Caribbean food all at the same time? I would told you at would AI (UCR Dining Hall) on a Tuesday night. Yet, this place exists and it was pretty good. I had BBQ in a quesadilla, which is 10 times better than beef or chicken quesadilla. There mascot is a Bandido Panda, how PC can you get over here in Arizona?

Here is a picture of me with the mascot. It is apparently carved and then set off to Arizona. While I was taking a picture of the food, a bunch of Arizonians, were like "You take pictures of your food?" Guess I just perpetuate an Asian stereotype. Well enjoy your "large" city! LOL. Seriously this area has an Ontario/Riverside vibe to it.

Got to the hotel where Deanna and Jessica were talking about going out. I was fucking exhausted at this point and the best I could muster was fake excitement. Stayed at La Quinta Inn, not bad except when I was trying to sleep. Apparently they did not have a large enough bottom sheet and I felt the mattress pad. Now this sounds really stupid, but it is one of the strangest feelings. I guess it has more to deal altered expectations. I will add in Day 2 later.

New Beginnings

So, I created this blog thanks to Brenda and thanks to Paul, I may actually start doing one of these things. My first blog was more of complain log and I look back at and wonder if I actually took any of my old advice...hmmm...I should really listen to myself...

Anyways, I remember a conversation between my Uncle Ross and my Uncle Mark, where they felt that the year flew by (this was the one year anniversary of my Grandpa [Nike Noguchi]) and I couldn't help, but think that my one year felt a lot longer. Both of them attributed that due to the fact that I was doing a lot of stuff and enjoying life to its fullest. For 2009, I felt that that year went by really fast and there were a few great memories (concert, games, trips), as a year it seemed sort of like a routine. I guess that it what means when you start a job and start getting into a pattern.

I think that I will start keep a track of what I am doing. I will be posting pictures of my trip to Arizona and description of what happened.