Our 24th Anniversary - Dinner at the Bali Hai (plan B)

[Retroactive post - Actually  written on 6/27/20]

It was our 24th Wedding Anniversary...

Our original plan was to have dinner at Supannee House of Thai near Shelter Island...

Maui Day 1 - McD's for lunch, plus quick stops at Walmart & Safeway for local stuff

Sadly, because the Geste Shrimp Truck was closed on Monday...

we ended up going here...

Maui Day 1 - First stop, Costco

Last week we went on a much needed vacation...

We hadn't been to the airport since our Portland trip last year and I don't remember the new sitting areas complete with outlets in the tables (nice!);

This year, we would be off to Maui for about a week...

LASA LA

[Retroactive post - 6/26/20, heh heh]

We made it to our hotel in Burbank to unpack and freshen up....

LA's Chinatown looked so close on the map, but traffic was going to make this "fun"...

Tatang NoHo

[Retroactive post - written and posted on 6/26/20]

FYI - With the pandemic, this place may not be doing in-house dining. Instead, they are doing Takeout according to the four lettered site.

In a small strip mall with a nearby Mexican market is a new (at the time) Filipino eatery...

Tilt Coffee, DTLA

[FYI - This is a retroactive post...dated 4/14/19 but written and published on 6/26/20]

Due to Covid-19, this coffee bar is most likely operating quite differently than when I first visited in Spring 2019. Take heed.

After our quick snack at Sari Sari Store at the Grand Central Market...

we took a walk to find this "hidden" coffee bar...

Sari Sari Store at the Grand Central Market in L.A.

The publish date for this post may say April 23, 2019, but really... it is June 25, 2020.

Yes, I am posting retroactively...

My birthday morning - Cream Pan in Tustin + Hopper & Burr coffee in DTSA + Mexican fruit cup from vendor

Bert's bro was kind enough to let us stay in his pad overnight. TC and her cousin were able to catch up while we were crashed out...

My birthday morning was started at one of my favorite bakeries...

Irenia Part 2 - The Food

As promised...

this post will feature the food we had for my pre-bday dinner at Irenia in Santa Ana...

Irenia Part 1 - The decor + the art exhibit, "Maiden Voyage" by Patricia Ybanez

I'd recently read about Irenia and was excited to know that it was written up favorably by the late LA Times food critic, Jonathan Gold.

Since we were staying overnight at my brother in law's pad for the evening, Irenia was the perfect spot in keeping with my birthday crawl theme...

Seal Beach pier

The last time we were at Seal Beach was several years ago for a road trip.

We were passing by the area and Bert realized he had forgotten to bring his jacket...