My Long Weekend

I'm tired. So tired. I went to work today and wanted to lock myself in the restroom stall in the morning to take a nap. This weekend didn't feel like a weekend, I felt like I was on a week long vacation. My friend, Jessie, from New York flew in early early Friday morning at about 1am. Her flight was delayed for 3 hours because of some weather condition. We got home a little after 2am, I went to bed, and woke up a 5am for work. Argh! I was not a happy camper.  Anyways...now for my long weekend. Beware...this is going to be a long blog with lots of pics.

On Friday after I got off of work, I picked up my friends Jessie and Margie to grab a quick bite to eat at a nearby Hong Kong Cafe. Then we drove down to Orange County. The first stop was Costco. We were spending the night at our friend Peian's place so we decided to pick up some rib eye and pie to bbq for dinner. Guess who I saw as I was leaving? D.Y. Sao. I wasn't sure if it was him or not so I signed onto AnD and asked him on his guestbook.



Jessie wanted to check out the UCI campus so Margie and I took her on a little tour. A lot has changed since I graduated. It's only been 3 years, but the whole student center had been remodeled and there are a bunch of new buildings. We now have a Starbucks on campus. The weird thing was that there was a statue of Li Bai, Ma Zhu, and Qu Yuan in the park.

That Anteater was not there when I was still a student.


Really? I guess UCI really is the University of Chinese Immigrants.


After the UCI tour, we went back to Peian's apartment for some bbq rib eye and rock band.

After a couple of rounds of rock band, we gathered together to watch the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. I loved it! All of it! I wish I was there to see it live.


I really wanted to go swimming at her pool. It's so pretty at night. I actually used to live in the same apartment complex.


The next day Margie, Jessie, and I met up with our friend Amy in Carlsbad. Before we drove down there, I took Jessie along the PCH so that she can check out some of the cleaner California beaches in the OC (Laguna Beach, Dana Point).

It took us a while to get down to Carlsbad because we hit a bit traffic on the 5 south. Argh! Traffic on a Saturday sucks. When we finally got down there, we picked up Amy and drove to La Jolla Beach. Yes more driving. It was a beautiful day out and there were people everywhere. We saw so many couples holding their wedding ceremony at the beach. We had a little bit of a surprise too while we were at the beach because we saw the people at Sea World capture (well I guess capture wouldn't be the right word but whatevers) a sick sea lion. It was awesome. I took a video. Because it was such a nice day out, I got a lot of pretty pics of the water.








Later in the afternoon, we took Jessie to Balboa Park where there were also a bunch of people getting married.



What are they looking at?




Ooh...for anyone who lives in San Diego, I highly suggest that you visit "Starlite" near the airport. It's a neat little bar with really yummy drinks and the best mac and cheese that I've ever tasted.



At night we had dinner at "The Tractor Room." The food was okay but the drinks were awesome. They are definitely not stingy with their alcohol.

I really like their corn bread. When the waitress said she was going to bring us some cornbread, I expected a couple of slices, but just look at this huge yummy goodness below. Not only did she give us one, she gave us two. We only had six people.







Sunday - The Long Beach Aquarium

Bring it on kiddies. The mid twenty year olds are here to play. You wouldn't believe how many kids were pushing me back and forth, left and right that day.


Ooh sea urchin. Come to Rennie! I also touched a shark that day.


Find Nemo! Find Nemo!


Some underwater cuteness.


This octopus flashed me!


Jellyfish? Maybe? I forget.


Of course, there is no hanging out with me if there isn't food involved. I love gyros, do you?




I love desserts!!! Here are some blaklava custard sweetness and a cool looking (but not so great tasting) chocolate dessert.




Of course I had to take my buddy Jessie to Din Tai Fung for some soup dumplings. After dinner, we took some sticker pics too. I felt like i was in high school again.



And that was my very long weekend.