Day 4 - Breakfast with KDB @ Slappy Cakes

We were originally planning to go to Mount Hood with KDB but he was worried about the weather conditions. There was a big snow storm going on and he didn't want us to get stuck there, so instead we did our "Plan B"...

This was one of his favorite breakfast places in his neighborhood...

ABC Music Humpday Videos 2.0 - "U" is for...

It's time for something old school...

This entry is definitely NOT about U2....

More clues ahead...

Sweet Sisters Bakery

I was in west Chula Vista early this morning on my home from an appointment...

As I drove down 4th Ave, I passed by this new bakery that I'd only read about so I quickly made a u-turn....

Memorial Day Weekend - Birthday party for Baby Thane

So how is everything this Memorial Day weekend?

It was a bit of a mini reunion for us...

Thane and YSquared were in town to celebrate baby Thane's first birthday! The last time we saw the baby was last year during our roadtrip. The baby was only twelve days old! Anyhow, Thane and his extended family threw a birthday party for the baby which was held at a local rec center...

Of course this meant lots of Filipino food...

Tillamook Cheese Factory

As we traveled down the coast, it was getting cloudier and cloudier. A far cry from when we began the day traveling to Astoria...

It was 4:30 pm and the factory wouldn't close for another hour and a half...

Random lunches

This is a compendium of various lunches from the past couple of months...

Yes, I had some free tacos at good ole Rubio's...

In 'n Out - National City

Last weekend I was off on my own to run a few errands. As I was traveling north on the 5, I decided to exit off the Mile of Cars....

I hadn't been to this location of In-n-Out Urge before!

Return to Mandarin Beijing

I'd only been here for lunch before...

They had their grand opening last December. Turns out that the yogurt place that we like, Tutti Frutti, appears to be closed for good...It was almost 9 pm and we had just gotten out of the movie theatres at the Otay Ranch mall.

Zambales

[Update - Closed as of 2013]

And just literally a few steps away is this place...

I hadn't been here in about three years. Bert and I wanted a quick lunch so...

Return to Valerio's - Otay Mesa

[This location is closed]

Bert and I had a craving for mini pandesal...

What better place to get it than at Valerio's....

ABC Music Humpday Videos 2.0 - "T" is for...

Although this song originally came out in the late 70's, it was the first song featured in one of the best movies of all time...

Here's a bit of a clue that relates to the scene it plays in the movie...

Need another hint?

Oh my gosh, the shoe gives it ALL away!

Green Banana Leaf

OMG, I'm trying to tie up loose ends here, then it's back to the Oregon posts....

This is the last of the Epic Birthday Food Crawl Posts (EBFC). Our final stop for the day was a place recommended by our trusty driver, D...

For this we had to travel to Chino Hills...uh where?

MIL's bday dinner at Pho Convoy

Tired of Vietnamese food yet?

I'm not!

This is where we went for my MIL's bday dinner. Joining us were both of my BIL's, and my nephew...

Hans & Harry - MIL's birthday

Later that same day I had breakfast at Broken Yolk and lunch at Mea Kwan, I made sure to stop by this place...

It was my MIL's birthday and I wanted to get her a dessert...

World Market

I'm totally posting out of order! This is back to Mother's Day...

Before heading home, we stopped by World Foods Market on El Cajon...

Revisits to Mea Kwan

Wanting to stay local, we had planned on going to Mea Kwan over in the Shops at San Miguel Ranch shoppping center (anchored by Albertsons)....

I was just here recently with La Ley and another friend....

Return to Broken Yolk Cafe

Hey where's the long lines? Wait, that's the Garnet Avenue location in PB. All the way back near Sprout's (formerly 'Henry's') at the Eastlake Village Walk shopping center is the Chula Vista location of the Broken Yolk Cafe.

The Broken Yolk is also where that guy from "Man vs. Food" went two years ago and had some massive omelette (gross), but that was again, the PB location. I was here with the co-workers for our annual planning meeting....

The Fish Peddler at the Pacific Oyster Company

It was raining a tiny bit as we meandered down the Oregon Coast. Our next stop was a place I'd read about from Wandering Chopsticks blog (link at the end of this post)...

This blue building is the old restaurant. The newer one was just down the pier...

Mother's Day Dinner at Pho Hiep Grill Chateau

I'm glad that I paced myself earlier today since we were going to have dinner later on with Bert's mom and bro-in law (#2 son).

Yes, Vietnamese again!

MD Desserts at Lisko

[Update - Lisko closed Spring 2013]

After our amazing lunch (with tons of leftovers) from Que Huong, I suggested Liskos for dessert.

Bert hadn't been there before and was game to try a new dessert place...

Mother's Day Lunch at Que Huong 2012

It's nice to see that QH was recognized by San Diego Magazine...

I didn't want to go to any place that had artificially jacked up prices for their "Mother's Day Menu". I also didn't want to deal with crowds and long lines...

This may not be the fanciest place in the world, but for me, it was a perfect choice to come here again for Mother's Day....

Robin Gibb...

R.I.P. Robin Gibb

Ecola Seafoods

Whenever I hear the word "Ecola", I think of "Ecoli".

Not the word you want to associate with good seafood.

Actually, "Ecola" is derived from the Chinook word for whale, which is "Ehkoli".

Cannon Beach

Before I finish off the EBDFC (epic birthday food crawl) posts, it's back to the Oregon posts...

We just left the Goondocks! Now it was time to head down the coast where we passed by many small towns such as this one...

Dream Era Cafe and Books

Right next to Din Tai Fung is a little gift shop slash bookstore slash cafe.

D wanted us to check it out before heading down to Chino Hills...

Din Tai Fung

Right across the parking lot from JJ Bakery is this dumpling house that D raves about!

"We HAVE to eat there!" she said...

JJ Bakery

D, our driver for the day, was well versed in all the different places to go during our little food crawl.

She wanted us to check out this Taiwanese bakery she really likes over in Arcada...

More shops at the Holly Building

A few steps down from Mignon Chocolates was this enticing sign at Tibet Nepal House(see my previous posts here and here)...

Too bad we were still full from our meal at Vien Dong. One day I swear I'll try this....

ABC Music Humpday Video 2.0 - "S" is for...

It's time to go back to the 70's...

1979 to be exact...

Welcome to the Goondocks!

After enjoying the sights of the toppermost of the poppermost point of town, we ended up eating our homepacked lunch in the glamorous confines of our rental car...

We also made paid a visit to the very cool Oregon Film Museum and spent some quality time there before heading back out to make a pop culture pilgrimage to one of Astoria's most famous homes...

The Goonies Jail, I mean, Oregon Film Museum

After our time spent at the Astoria Column, we made our way to the former Clatsop County Jail, now known as the Oregon Film Museum...

But first, we passed by this, the Flavel House, which is seen in one of the opening scenes of "The Goonies". It's the museum where Mikey and Bran's father (Mr. Walsh) works...

I took my obligatory shot of the home but our attention was more focused on this:

Let's go inside, shall we?

Not your typical Mom's shoes...

One of my friends had a sexy ass pair of sky high platform peeptoe wedges that she got recently at Kohl's. Now Kohl's is normally not a store I shop at, but when she told me she saw some heels with spikes on them, I just had to see for myself.

Of course, being the shoe whore fanatic that I am, I had to have them...

Business in the front...

Rooty tooty fresh and fruity - The Strawberry Fields and Holy Land Market

Last weekend Bert and I made a quickstop over to the Strawberry Fields...

I was tempted to walk across the street for the tacos at El Prieto but no, not today.

The new silhouette - Platform chunky wedges!

It's been awhile since my last confession shoe post!

I'm in lust with the new look for this season...

Mignon Chocolates 3x

Prior to coming here, D took us to one of the shopping districts in Pasadena. She wanted to check something at one of her favorite clothing stores. It happened to be next to one of my favorite stores so I browsed around in that while the other ladies also window shopped.

After our retail therapy breather, we felt it was time for some sweets.  It was starting to warm up and we were feeling the heat...

Luckily we found parking across the street of our next destination which was housed in the historic
Holly Building in Old Town Pasadena...

Baby Shower

This past weekend I saw MFH once again but this time for a baby shower...

Our hairstylist was a hosting a baby shower for her son and his wife...To show you how old I am, her son was my FORMER student 17 years ago! (WT.....)

ABC Music Humpday Videos 2.0 - "R" is for...

Back to the 80's of course.

The guys in this band probably used a lot of this...

Or maybe it was this brand instead...

In any case, these dudes also utilized their ratting combs...

in order for their hair to rise to great heights during their heyday...

Dessert at Cafe Madeleine

We didn't have to drive too far from Alchemy to Cafe Madeleine...

She'd never been there and it was closer than going to Lisko's or PubCakes on El Cajon Blvd...

Brunch at Alchemy

The last weekend of April was awesome, having spent one day on an Epic Birthday Food Crawl with the Educator GFs and the next day, with one of my dearest friends, Mi Firme Heina (MFH).

That last Sunday we originally wanted to go to Extraordinary Desserts for brunch. Unfortunately, there was a big event happening in Little Italy (Art Walk, I believe it was), so therefore parking was scarce and shitty.

We didn't want to deal with parking in an overpriced ACE lot so we put Plan B into action and headed east out of downtown and into South Park...

The Astoria Column

I'm all over the place, aren't I?

Epic Birthday food crawl, South Bay Food Crawl, and back to Oregon...

We finally reached Astoria by 9:30 am...

I'm glad we left early. Lots of time to see and do lots of things. As we sped off on Marine Drive which hugs the Astoria shore, we knew we were headed in the right direction by the looks of these signs...

Vien Dong

While at Bon Epi Patisserie, I was furiously thinking of where we were going to go next for the Epic Birthday Food Crawl. As I punched in the address of my desired location in my GPS, I saw that it was only ten minutes away. Since we were in the area, I thought, "Why the fk not!"

So off we went to Little Saigon...to have the mini feast that you see above...

R.I.P.

R.I.P. Junior Seau

1/19/1969 - 5/2/2012

#55 S.D. Chargers (1990-2002)

ABC Humpday Music Videos 2.0 - "Q" is for

I could have taken the easy way out and chosen "Queen" (classic rock but already done last time) or "Queensryche" (heavy metal), or even Q-Feel (new wave)....or if I was desperate, Stacy Q (Two of Hearts, two hearts that beat as one....)!!!

This entry is from a different decade for once! The 70's.

Here's the first clue (answer at the end of this post)....

Ooh, I like her dress, but that's besides the point...

Second clue...

Return to Bon Epi Patisserie

We were still in the same shopping complex, Diamond Jamboree...

We wanted to check out another bakery just across the parking lot...