TC has graduated and is college bound!

I still remember the day she was born...

fast forward to yesterday when TC graduated High School....


Working at a school, I've never sat in the stands for a graduation. I've always been under the canopy and sometimes would read names or say a small speech introducing the California Scholarship Federation students (those wearing gold sashes).  This time, I was a mom  proudly watching my daughter and her classmates file in to the stadium for the commencement exercises.

It was really a sight to see the students filing in from this vantage point to the sounds of "Pomp and Circumstance"...Bert and I marveled at how fast time flew by for TC. From dropping her off on her first day of preschool, when she cried after we left, to going to the yearly open houses at her elementary, middle and high schools.

TC graduated with honors, lettered in three varsity sports and was involved in various other meaningful school activities. She plans to major in Studio Art at SDSU (my alma mater).

For her graduation lunch, we kept it low key. Just us three plus the boyfriend (or as Bert would say, "the friend that is a boy") and her godfather (Bert's bro).  TC chose Aroma Thai in Imperial Beach as our lunch destination.

Appetizer sampler platter - coconut shrimp, fried egg rolls and cream cheese stuffed wontons (not very Thai in my opinion).  Yes, fried everything plus standard sweet and sour sauce. Fresh spring rolls were also ordered. These may have been vegetarian (for TC and BF).


Papaya salad to share. This was pretty mild (by choice, on a scale of 1 to 10, we chose a two). I noticed peanuts were missing. The cook must have had a heavy hand with the chilis/spice because this felt like a five!

Bert's spicy noodles with chicken.

The noodles weren't seared well enough. His two also felt like a five!

Brother in law's pad thai with chicken. TC also ordered the same thing but with mock chicken (no photo since it pretty much looks the same).

The BF's fried rice with a combo of seafood and chicken + a few of the appetiers:

We enjoyed our dishes but I was really bummed that they no longer had TWO items I really wanted, the tod mun pla (Thai fried fish cakes) and the Thai bbq chicken. The server said they hadn't had it on the menu in years (they did have it back in March 2016; post linked at end).  Maybe those items weren't big sellers or whatever, but I had been looking forward to it.  My choice was the papaya salad and appetizers which were shared along with the noodle dishes.

It was a beautiful sunny day  in San Diego to celebrate TC's important milestone....

We took some photos of TC by the pier before heading out for dessert all the over in Kearny Mesa.

TC was disappointed that the worker at Somi Somi could not pipe in the soft serve into the cones. The worker explained that the machine wasn't working right and the texture of the ice cream was too soft, so it was served in a cup with the fish cone on top of the ice cream.   She chose the ube and black sesame combo with sprinkles and a strawberry. The BF chose green tea plain.  The kids later spooned the ice cream into the cones, which were actually quite nice and crisp.


I ordered an iced drink next door at Sul  & Beans, the strawberry citron cooler. This was really refreshing and had real bits of various citrus foods (rind too) in there.

We ordered the mango bingsu to share...


Delicious and refreshing. I really like the texture of the ice here. It's not sweetened so the only flavorings you get is from what is on top.  There was also a layer of mango syrup within.

Previous visit to Aroma Thai
March 2016

Previous visit to Somi Somi
April 2018 during my bday foodcrawl with my gal pals, the Educator GF's.

Previous post for TC's milestones:
When TC finished kindergarten June 2006  - my boringly name "update" post.
 & elementary school "Smashburger" June 2012
followe by middle school "TC is now a freshman!"

Next major milestone to occur in (hopefully) four years, College graduation!