A nice little surprise....over the weekend

Saturday...a little surprise party

On a usual saturday afternoon, I went back home after my grocery shopping with a slight headache from the afternoon heat. A little cake filled with candles greeted me as I stepped inside my house.

Wow...! ..... A birthday cake?!! But my dew dew was with me all these while, so who could it be?!

The house looks empty.

I started searching around... First, the kitchen and the common bathroom, next, the master bedroom and the attached bathroom... When I peeked inside the "to-be" study room, I saw some bags lying on the floor.

Before I could react, a few girls sprung on me and I literally "jumped"!

What a startling surprise!

The "gang" hidding in the make-shift storeroom as they waited patiently for our return...

And not forgetting to take some pics, while they "hide"...

The Girls... (Fang, Li and Boon)

The guys... (Rodin, Daryl and Leo)

The mischiveous faces, as they plotted how they should "surprise" me...

Still hysterical from the "surprises"

(Erm, stop counting those candles, the idea is to fill the whole cake with candles, and it doesn't mean anything.....)

Thanks Dew....

Thanks for planning this little surprise for me

and I know it ain't easy to plan for something like this while in India for the past week...

Oh! and thanks for the yumilicious Choc-a-Bloc chocolate cake ,

which I have been yearning to try!

(moist chocolate sponge cake coated generously with rich creamy chocolate. Yummy!)

And of course, thanks to all my dear friends for being part of the nice little "party".

(Thanks for capturing the beautiful moments Leo)

Sunday... Pot Luck

Guest: Miaoqun & Jason, Miaoyan, Xiao Yi and Ling & family (Richard and her 2 little darlings).

Menu for dinner: Roast duck, char shao, Braised tofu with brocolli, sambal veg, fried bee hoon, fried rice, seafood pizza, bbq chicken pizza, almond jelly cocktail (made by MY) AND chocolate cake.

So nice of MQ and MY to prepare the cake for me...

Honeymooning on the West Coast! (Part IV)

27Nov'08: LV to Grand Canyon

Drive to Hoover Dam then to Grand Canyon

Grabbed our brunch at Macdonalds before our proper lunch at Al Tovar

As the Grand Canyon is covered totally by fog, we decided to check out the Grandeur of Grand Canyon at Imax.

Overnight at Best Western Grand Squire Inn

28 Nov'08: Grand Canyon to Dessert Hills Premium Outlets

We decided to check out Grand Canyon again...And Phew! Luckily the fog is not back!! We managed to stop at a few look-out point for photos before driving off to our Last shopping Stop!

Another 5 straight hours of non-stop shopping!

Overnight at Best Western Pasadena

29 Nov'08: LA
La Brea Tar Pits for its huge collection of fossils extracted from the tar pits.

Lunch at Musso and Frank

Some other sights:-

- Chinese Theatre, hollywood

-Getty Centre

Overnight at Hollywood Orchid Suites Hotel

30 Nov'08: LA

Checking out LA beaches front - Santa Monica , Venice...

Forest Gump bench outside Bubba Gump Shrimps restaurant:

Trying our best to imitate Tom Hank's signature look as Gump

Farmer's Market with Lunch at Gumbo Pot, followed by home-made ice-cream, coffee and donut for tea, and Dinner at Koi.

The most expensive parking during our Trip!

Overnight at Howard Johnson Anaheim

1st Dec'08: LA - Disney Land!!!
Truly magical experience, not bad for my 1st Disney experience!

Goofy !

Christmas Theme Mickey outside Adventure Land

Dinner at Denny's

Overnight at Howard Johnson Anaheim


2nd Dec'08: LA - Disney Adventure Land

Adrenlin rush, after taking the rides at Adventure Land, the rides at Disney is no longer thrilling for me. But the magic is still there. I love their fireworks and happy music blaring through their speakers throughout the whole magical kingdom.

Mickey in Adventure Land

Sharing our Turkey Leg lunch...

3rd Dec'09: LA- Universal Studio
Breakfast at Johnny Rockets before our visit to Uuniversal Studio Hollywood
Dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimps

Interesting theme park, but I still prefer Disney Land.

Drive to Slovang

Overnight at Kronberg Inn

4 th Dec'09: Solvang - San Simeon

Breakfast at Mortenson's ...

and a nice walk around the Dannish-looking streets.

The Most-photographed Inn at Solvang

Next, drive to San Simeon
(en-route) Lunch at Steamers
I love the clams! Super-duper delicious!

Piedra Blancas for the nice sunset...

... and elephant seals

Overnight at Sea Breeze Inn

5th Dec'08: San Simeon - Carmel

Morning visit to Hearst Castle

(remember to book your tickets online to avoid a wasted trip)

Takeaway Lunch - Hearst Ranch Beef burger

Point Lobos walk

Explore 17-mile Drive - Shepard's Knoll, Point Joe, Bird Rock, Lone Cypress, Fanshell overlook, Ghost Tree, Restless Sea

Pebble beach along 17 mile drive (Carmel by the sea)

Another beautiful sunset along 17 mile drive

Dinner at Rio Grill


Overnight at Highlands Inn - Sea View facing with real fireplace



6 Dec'08: Drive to Monterary Bay

Our long drive back to SF for our flight back along California One highway, en-route to Monterey Bay.


Some other sights not pictured here:-
Butterfly Grove

Lunch at Seawife (nice, reasonably priced, and very friendly owner)

Brave, Inquisitive squirrel checking us out for some snacks

as we check out the coastal views from

one of the look-out point along California One Highway.

I guess this is one of the main cause of squirrel pancake along the highway: A kind act, which cause tragedy to these cute, little things

Moon Jellyfish at Monterey Aquarium

Coastal view from Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Sunset along California 1 highway

Half Moon Bay

A nice end to our honeymoon...

Lunch at Leo's

Sumptuous philipino lunch, great fun, delicious snacks and great coffee for our teabreak...And of course, all these wouldn't be possible with our wonderful Hosts ~ Leo and his sister, Ollie!

2nd Row: Moi & Dew, Ollie, Leo, Rodin, Daryl, Suling
front: Siting & Terence

Honeymooning on the West Coast (Part III)

24th Nov'08: Camarillo premium outlet

Shopping!! So, no pics for today.. Only about 4hrs to shop..

Want to take some pictures of the wonderful outlet, but totally forgot about it when I started shopping.

At about 4pm, we started our drive to Death Valley.

Oh yah, did I mention that we totally skipped lunch? And my poor dew got to take Subway sandwich as he drive towards Death Valley

We nearly lost our way as we circled the area a few rounds before finding Furnace Creek Ranch, our acoomodation for the night!

25th Nov'08: Death Valley

In the morning, we drove past Painter's valley towards Badwater basin, the lowest elevation in North America at 85.5m below sea level. Amazing isn't it?

A few other sights to see in Death Valley - Furnace Creek Area (very near our lodge):
- Dante's view: the ultimate viewing point atop the mountain


- Natural Bridge: Massive rock span across the canyon, looks like a sturdy bridge for a giant
- Devil's golf course: immense area of rock salt with jagged edges... and you wonder why it's called devil's golf course

Check out the razor sharp salt-crystals.... I wouldn't want to fall at the Devil's golf course..

- Artist's Drive: Scenic loop drive through the colourful hues created by different minerals on the hills.

Stovepipe wells area:-
- Sand Dunes: Got to go there to satisfy dew's weird desire to set his feet on massive sand dunes after his dissapointment with the sand dune at Nida


Next stop:
- Scotty's castle: a spanish style mansion built by "fiticious gold"
- Ubehebe's crater


After Death Valley, we drove down to Les Vegas!


After checking into MGM Grand, we had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's bar and grill, followed by Mystere show at Treasure Island.

26 Nov'08: Les Vegas
After breakfast at Nathan, we drove to LV premium outlets. Another 4 hours of shopping before we went back to LV to explore the hotels at the strip.

Caught the fountain show at Bellagio again. Beautiful!