Last weekend, Nahae and I took a last minute road trip to Las Vegas. Last minute for me means that I booked the hotel the Friday prior instead of a month in advance. I actually found a pretty good rate for the Wynn on Hotels.com, only $160/night. It was quite an adventure while leaving Los Angeles due to the strong winds – car swaying and debris floating about. We finally made it safely to the Wynn around 1:00 am and checked-in with Danny at the front desk. He found us a bigger suite at the Encore, but since I’m not that fond of all the red decor in that hotel, I decided to just stayed at the Wynn.

After a much needed night of sleep, Nahae and I had our first meal at Max Brenner inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. I introduced her to my three favorite items on the menu, the mac n’ cheese, waffle fries and the golden latte.

So that Nahae can have the Ocean’s Eleven experience, we did a walk through of the Bellagio hotel. Naturally we had to snap some pictures at the Conservatory with all it’s dragons, tangerines, and chrysanthemums. We’re looking very tall huh? That’s because we found a slightly shorter person to take our picture.

Before taking the tram to Aria so that I can introduce Nahae to my favorite gold fish slot machine, we made a quick caffeine stop at Jean Philippe. I ordered a white chocolate mocha (it’s amazing here) and exercised a lot of self control by not ordering any brioches or croissants. Ooh we also bumped into the ladies of The Red Hat Society. The focus of the picture below were the red hats, not the split between my bangs.

I like to take a moment to rescind my love for the gold fish slot machine because while at Aria, I fell in love with the Sex & the City slot machine. Oh it was so much fun!

After Aria, we went back to Wynn and we found a gift basket filled with Chinese snacks and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. I wish there was a fridge in our room. We couldn’t finish all the strawberries and had to tossed them the next day. What a waste. Perhaps the strawberries were Danny’s way of apologizing for not getting us the room with the view of the golf course and waterfall? Oh but thanks to Danny, I stained my white shirt with chocolate.

Our next stop was the atrium at the Palazzo. After seeing the insane amount of Chinese New Year decorations in every hotel that we had stepped into so far, it was no surprise to also find a dragon at the atrium. However, this wasn’t just any dragon, it was a fire breathing dragon. I’m not joking.

I still think the CNY decor at our hotel was the best though. My god Nahae and I are tall.

Anyhoo. Time for dinner! Nahae and I met up with my sister, cousins and some family friends at Postrio for an early dinner at the Venetian. We split a calamari and rock shrimp appetizer, the wild mushrooms agnolotti with black truffle butter and a side of roasted cauliflower. My sister and my cousin split a prosciutto pizza and crab cakes. Oh and there was bread. Unfortunately, it wasn’t warm.

On our way back to the Wynn, we stopped by Espressamente Illy for an affogato. Later in the evening, I met my sister, cousins and Christina at Tryst for an evening on the dance floor. Grandma would be so proud.

My party buddies later left me to go to Lavo so that they can see J.Cole. I didn’t know he was the guy that did the “Work Out” song. On my way back to the room, I snapped this photo of the pretty roses at the elevators. Why were these not delivered to my room?

The next morning, Nahae and I ended our Vegas trip with brunch at the Tower Suite Cafe. The virgin Bloody Mary healed Nahae’s headache and our hunger was sated by the elk sausage and the duck hash that we ordered. We had a perfect view of the garden/pool area too.

I must start planning the next Vegas trip!

Last weekend my sister and I drove up to the Bay Area. We unloaded her stuff at her apartment in Berkeley for her last semester. Gosh my mini me is growing up so fast and is making me feel very old. The weather was beautiful in San Francisco and my three day weekend would have been perfect had I not got a speeding ticket on the 280 and then a parking ticket too on the same day. At least I did get to eat some good food and spend some quality time with a few friends and family.

On the way to SF, my sister and I stopped at Harris Ranch for dinner for the first time.

Saturday, I had brunch with a few friends at Town’s End (pics from my iPhone) by Pier 38.

After brunch, I introduced Judy to Daiso and Bi-Rite (pic from my iPhone).

Wendy had suggested we have dinner at The Tipsy Pig in the Marina area. Umm…the appetizers were good.

After I got my speeding ticket on Sunday, I had lunch with my sister and cousins at the On The Bridge restaurant in Japantown. The service was so slow.

As for dinner, I slowly drove myself back to Millbrae for some steak at Jerry and Grace’s house. Argh! I’m dreading the day that damn speeding ticket arrives in the mail. I hate traffic school, even if it’s online.

I’m sick and my head feels like it’s going to burst, but I had planned to go shopping today and I did. Now I’m sitting in my room, with my box of kleenex wishing I had just slept in instead. My sister, the trooper that she is, accompanied me to the Americana in Glendale so I decided to treat her to an early dinner at Granville Cafe. I was also a little hungry myself. We ordered the Uptown Mac n’ Cheese and the Kalamata Artichoke Pizza to share.

Today I had lunch at Fortune Dumpling with Lena. Fortune Dumpling used to be 元寶小館 in Rosemead (or was it El Monte?). I haven’t been there since I was in college and had completely forgotten about this place until a friend mentioned it to me last week. Lena and I ordered three plates of dumplings, a plate of thousand year egg and tofu, and an order of beef wraps.

soup dumplings - holiday special only $2.99

spinach wrap w/ pork, carrot wrap w/ pork & seaweed, goji wrap w/ chicken

dumplings w/ pumpkin & shrimp filling

pumpkin & shrimp filling was meh

our order of beef wraps was huge

beef wrap

thousand year egg & tofu

Yesterday, Lena and I played for almost 14 hours at Disneyland and California Adventure. We started with a very relaxing ride on the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland and ended with an equally relaxing ride on Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland.

Here is our very ambitious list of fun:

1. Adventureland – Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones Adventure, Bengal Barbecue

2. New Orleans Square – Disneyland Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion

3. Critter Country –  Splash Mountain

4. Frontierland – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

5. Mickey’s Toontown – Mickey’s House

6. Tomorrowland – Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster, Captain EO, Space Mountain

7. Fantasyland – Small World ride & show, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Scary Adventures

8. Hollywood Pictures Backlot – The Tower of Terror

9. A Bug’s Land – It’s Tough To Be a Bug

10. Paradise Pier – California Screamin’, Goofy’s Sky School, The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, World of Color

11. Golden State – Soarin’ Over California, Grizzly River Run, The Bakery Tour,

12. Other – napped on a park bench, shared a turkey leg, shared a swirl soft serve, and took funny pictures in Toontown

Have you ever seen the World of Color show at California Adventure? It was amazing. I can watch it over and over again. Seriously. I can’t wait to go back.

Fighting Evil

BOOM!!!

Weee!!!

Lifting Weights

Chillin at Mickey's house

She ate 3/4 of that turkey leg.

Sunset

The Little Mermaid

World of Colors

Love the holiday lights. I wished I had brought my actual camera.