"The Adobo Road" Book Signing at Vroman's Bookstore

One thing I learned while driving around in Pasadena with Cathy was that Colorado is one super LONG street! It is part of the route used for the Rose Parade...

Fresh from our super quick pop into Mignon Chocolates, we headed over to Vroman's, which is the oldest and largest independent bookstore in Southern California.

We would be getting there early for "The Adobo Road" booksigning...

California Center for the Arts - "Art Illustrated: Celebrating Comic Arts" exhibit

Our next stop was the California Center for the Arts...

which is a huge complex designed to showcase dance, art, and music as well as offer cultural enrichment through museums and various educational programs...

The exhibit we wanted to see precedes Comic Con by about a month or so. I'm a sucker for these kinds of exhibits so off we went to learn more about Comic Art...

Parc des Chutes de las Chaudieres, Levis, QC

Fortified by our hearty breakfast at Chez Cora, we headed over to NM's house to do a last minute pit stop before going over to a local park.

Both C and I were gifted with a can of maple syrup from her friend. To tell you the truth, I still haven't opened that syrup yet, but I will soon because there is a pie recipe I want to test out...

A Delight of France

What we liked about downtown Escondido was the free parking!

Well, up to two hours at least, but hey, at least we didn't have to fiddle with any change for meters...

Although we were set to go straight to the California Center for the Arts after our breakfast at Belen, I saw another place on our Garmin that ended up being our next stop...

Wich Addiction

A couple of weeks ago, I was up in Manila Mesa...

set to have lunch with the ever so knowledgeable Mary (of This Tasty Life) and Faye (of Faye's Fork) at a "hidden" eatery tucked into a quiet business district...

The First Avenue Bridge

Right after our "walk" across the Quince Street bridge, this next one was on our list...

In fact, while on the previous bridge, we saw this yellow bridge from afar, on the western edge of Maple Canyon. A fire engine had raced over it, catching our attention and when we saw another bridge there, we wanted to find it....

Belen Artisan Bakers

Last Friday, which was the July 4th weekend, we decided to take advantage of Bert's day off by exploring a part of San Diego we hardly ever go to...

which is up north in Escondido...

Of course, I did a little research to make our trip worthwhile. Our original intention was to view an exhibit on comic art, but we didn't want to go to Escondido just for that so...

Free Slurpee Day 2013

Hey now...

It's that time of year again...

Return to Brodard's and a Mac attack!

Fresh from our quick foray into blueberry donutland, we headed back down to Little Saigon, taking the surface streets. We drove through Anaheim, Santa Ana, and a few other cities and ended up in Garden Grove.

Our next destination was right across from one of the many locations of Lee's Sandwiches, a Vietnamese chain which popularized the Banh Mi sandwich to Americans. The original location is on Bolsa Blvd, across from the Asian Garden Mall (thanks Wandering Chopsticks!).

There it is...the 99 Cent Store in a non descript strip mall, called "The Mall of Fortune".

Ignore your GPS directions and  go around the BACK...

Goodbye Valerio's and the Strawberry Fields

Earlier today, I thought I'd check a few favorite places I like to go for Filipino baked goods and fruit.

This is where my parents used to buy fresh pan de sal every weekend...

Anniversary Dinner @ West Coast Tavern

Now on to our "real" anniversary dinner...

Bert wanted me to choose a place and I thought it would be fun to go here since we could catch the tail end of happy hour...