I’m finally feeling it now, how can I not when I’m actually experiencing it myself. I will be on a temporary lay off starting next week. I don’t know how long but I know it will be for a long time. I feel sad but happy at the same time as I can stay home and watch Isaiah and take him to school do homework together and prepare his lunch and snack and the best part is I will be paid to stay home and be a full time mom. My pay for staying home won’t be as much as I make but it’s at least 60% of my regular cheque every 2 weeks which is fine as it will cover all the bills it just means that no extra for the wants and it seems like my Mexico trip next month will be cancelled, damn.
Another reason to be happy is knowing that my boss doesn’t really want to let me go, he just has to as the business is really slow as in really really slow. We had more than 100 workers back in December to January and were now down to about 20 in just a month difference and can be less than that this week. He was shaking his head and showing me all the things he has to financially cover and how much we’ve lost for the past 2 months and he even asked me if I’m disappointed in him for making this decision, seeing his facial reaction and movements made it easier for me to accept his decision freely and not think if I did anything wrong in my job for him to come to this conclusion. I told him that his decision was acceptable and I totally understand and I won't take this to my heart. I even told him that i don't think we've seen the worse yet, I think it's just the beginning and I know we should be optimistic but at the same time you have to think of the worse too. He asked if it’s ok for him to call me if he needed someone to cover for sick days or holidays of the remaining employee and I said for sure I will come and help out, he said he will put me back on board as soon as the business picked up. He is even talking to some of our clients and see if he can put me there till the time he can bring me back to the team. I told him how gratefull I am to him for doing this and said told him I'm ok for some temp works for now and I won't be looking for full time positions for atleast 3 months. Another reason that made it easier for me to accept his decision is when he was telling everybody the news and he said “wow, I think I’m taking it harder than Anna did” and I swear there was some tears in corner of his eyes and everyone saw it. So I’m relief that his decision is because he has no choice and not because I did something wrong with my work.
Looks like I will have lots of time to add the pictures for my past entries on our family vacation!!!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Fly Back Home
Day 10, time to go back home. I really can’t believe how fast the days went by so quickly that week but then again everything has to come to an end right. I didn’t get any sleep so I’m looking forward to sleeping the whole way back, it’s only 3 hrs. but that’s better than nothing.
Tita Iya picked us up the hotel, we checked out at 11 then head to the airport.Our flight is not till 2:10 but they want all travelers to be in the airport ahead of time. Me and my Tita Emy don’t have anymore American money as we put all the cash we have left in one envelope to give to Tita Iya’s daughter. We didn’t expect that we had to freakin pay for a cart to use at the airport and it wasn’t like it’s only a dollar it was $5 and worse part is it won’t take coins only bills and it also won’t accept visa or master card so I was pissed as I didn’t want to take anymore cash out of my bank account and so was my Tita Emy and we can’t take the envelope back from my Tita Iya to get $10. So the only choice we had was to ask Tita Iya for $10 from her pocket ^_^ I felt shy about it but I really didn’t want to get anymore cash and I just told her you can take the $10 from the envelope for your daughter hehehe. That’s done, hugs and kisses and we went in.
I love online check ins. The only thing you need to do now is to weight your luggage’s go to check point and sit in the waiting area. When the guy was weighing our boxes I was a bit scared because I don’t want to be over weight. 2 worse thing can happen when you go over the limit. 1. you open it, leave some stuff behind or open the other box and put the stuff there if that other box is under limit or if you have another box. 2. if you don’t want to leave anything behind then pay, over limit penalties are not cheap but if this ever happen to me I will rather pay than to go to the whole opening and closing boxes. It was a relief when the first 3 were weight, they were all under but when he weight the 4th one it was over by 4 lbs. so Mark gave me a quick glance and giving me the signal to use my skills hahaha so my eyes were wide open and thinking crap what to do what to do, think quick, act cute anna, use your talking skills so he will let you off , deep breaths wet your lips and flip the hair now. Hahaha … So I did a bit of talking on how the vacation was and this is what happened blah blah bla blah and ask him how he likes his job andmore blah blah blah I don’t know if this skills are a good thing or a bad thing but hey it’s very useful most of the time and guess what it worked!!!! He let me go, he didn’t made me pay, he said since my other luggage’s are under limit he won’t charge me but in exchange of my phone # as he said his thinking of going down to my town in July but I told him I lost my phone 2 weeks ago and haven’t replace it yet as I had to go to this vacation so I gave him my e-mail add instead hahaha…ppphheeww that wasn’t easy, I felt like I’ve cheated the airlines but hey no more spending for me.
The problem came though to my Tita. A girl was weighing there luggage’s and she won’t let them off, 2 of there boxes were over by 6 lbs. and she’s asking them to take some stuff off or pay. Tito Arnold (the husband) wants to just pay it but Tita Emy didn’t want to as it’s $74 U.S. per boxes so that’s a total of $150 U.S. which is probably $200 something Canadian. Mark gave me the glance again and I’m like crap I can’t do anything with this it’s a girl for crying out loud. I tried talking to her nicely and all but bi@tch didn’t bite it. So we had to go on the corner and open those 2 boxes and put some in there other luggage’s and this took a good hour and a half. I thought we were going to miss our flight as we finished checking in at 1:45 which is the boarding time and I still had to go to duty free to buy my dad’s smoke luckily the store is right next to our departing area so I told them to all get in and I’ll quickly run to the store to get the smoke, I had to get this or I’ll see a very sad daddy face.
I made it!!! I got in the plane, look for my seat and closed my eyes!!!
Tita Iya picked us up the hotel, we checked out at 11 then head to the airport.Our flight is not till 2:10 but they want all travelers to be in the airport ahead of time. Me and my Tita Emy don’t have anymore American money as we put all the cash we have left in one envelope to give to Tita Iya’s daughter. We didn’t expect that we had to freakin pay for a cart to use at the airport and it wasn’t like it’s only a dollar it was $5 and worse part is it won’t take coins only bills and it also won’t accept visa or master card so I was pissed as I didn’t want to take anymore cash out of my bank account and so was my Tita Emy and we can’t take the envelope back from my Tita Iya to get $10. So the only choice we had was to ask Tita Iya for $10 from her pocket ^_^ I felt shy about it but I really didn’t want to get anymore cash and I just told her you can take the $10 from the envelope for your daughter hehehe. That’s done, hugs and kisses and we went in.
I love online check ins. The only thing you need to do now is to weight your luggage’s go to check point and sit in the waiting area. When the guy was weighing our boxes I was a bit scared because I don’t want to be over weight. 2 worse thing can happen when you go over the limit. 1. you open it, leave some stuff behind or open the other box and put the stuff there if that other box is under limit or if you have another box. 2. if you don’t want to leave anything behind then pay, over limit penalties are not cheap but if this ever happen to me I will rather pay than to go to the whole opening and closing boxes. It was a relief when the first 3 were weight, they were all under but when he weight the 4th one it was over by 4 lbs. so Mark gave me a quick glance and giving me the signal to use my skills hahaha so my eyes were wide open and thinking crap what to do what to do, think quick, act cute anna, use your talking skills so he will let you off , deep breaths wet your lips and flip the hair now. Hahaha … So I did a bit of talking on how the vacation was and this is what happened blah blah bla blah and ask him how he likes his job andmore blah blah blah I don’t know if this skills are a good thing or a bad thing but hey it’s very useful most of the time and guess what it worked!!!! He let me go, he didn’t made me pay, he said since my other luggage’s are under limit he won’t charge me but in exchange of my phone # as he said his thinking of going down to my town in July but I told him I lost my phone 2 weeks ago and haven’t replace it yet as I had to go to this vacation so I gave him my e-mail add instead hahaha…ppphheeww that wasn’t easy, I felt like I’ve cheated the airlines but hey no more spending for me.
The problem came though to my Tita. A girl was weighing there luggage’s and she won’t let them off, 2 of there boxes were over by 6 lbs. and she’s asking them to take some stuff off or pay. Tito Arnold (the husband) wants to just pay it but Tita Emy didn’t want to as it’s $74 U.S. per boxes so that’s a total of $150 U.S. which is probably $200 something Canadian. Mark gave me the glance again and I’m like crap I can’t do anything with this it’s a girl for crying out loud. I tried talking to her nicely and all but bi@tch didn’t bite it. So we had to go on the corner and open those 2 boxes and put some in there other luggage’s and this took a good hour and a half. I thought we were going to miss our flight as we finished checking in at 1:45 which is the boarding time and I still had to go to duty free to buy my dad’s smoke luckily the store is right next to our departing area so I told them to all get in and I’ll quickly run to the store to get the smoke, I had to get this or I’ll see a very sad daddy face.
I made it!!! I got in the plane, look for my seat and closed my eyes!!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Saturday
Day 9 Saturday, our final day to do everything and go around Los Angeles and do more last minute shopping. A relative of ours (who also picked us up and will drop us off to the airport) volunteered to tour us around this last day. That was really nice of her to do and I thought yey I don’t need to spend an hour in front of my laptop to search for places and addresses. So I didn’t bother to look at any places or tourist’s spots the night before as I thought our cousin would know where to take us. I thought wrong, thank gudness we have a GPS and Blackberries. Anyways more of that as I go on.
She picked us up at around 9:00 went to Chowking for breakfast (another food chain from the Philippines) I wasn’t blown away with there food but there picture selections are great. It just tastes different from the one in the Philippines. I know I shouldn’t compare but the Jollibee from Vegas and L.A. and also the Goldilocks taste was wow as in wow, excellent. Anyways I forced myself to eat it even though I didn’t want to as my cousin paid for it so I didn’t want her to feel offended by it and she might think that I’m not appreciating her.
After breakfast we hit the road down to Hollywood and Rodeo drive, just walked around, sight seeing and hoping we would spot any Hollywood stars walking around with there starbucks coffee in one hand a purse from chanel or LV, but we weren’t that lucky so no luck of seeing any stars, nothing special down those streets besides the HOLLYWOOD words on top of the mountain which is often the main reason people go there to prove that they did go there. The streets are the same as any other streets from any place in the world (I’m think). Next to Beverly Hills Mall, pretty pricey there but I was expecting that and I actually prepared myself to use my for EMERGENCY card but in the end I didn’t have to use it. I was surprise to find nothing I want. As in nothing, I spent 30 minutes in Victoria Secret and found nothing, spend an hour to forever21 and found nothing. I didn’t expect that as I go crazy buying stuff from these 2 particular stores online and I thought I would save some shipping money L. We didn’t stay there that long maybe 2 or even less than that hours to this mall after being disappointed with the first two stores I browsed. We went to a different mall which I think is called Glendale or Greendale mall. I bought more here and vent out my frustration to Beverlyhills Mall. We sure came at the right time at this place as Abercrombie and Hollister have big sales but I had to dig deep as they didn’t have a lot of choices for my size and my brother’s size but in the end I was pretty happy with my purchases. They also have the Target store which is similar to Wal-Mart where they have everything from food to shoes and toys to gadgets, good stuff and brands at a cheaper price. Good thing they have it here as one of my co-worker had asked me to buy her daughter this target brand of baby shampoo, conditioner and lotion, I’ve been looking for awhile and realized that I’ve been going around to the same isles so finally I asked help but she was unsuccessful. They were out of stock so I guess it’s a good type for kids and the only thing they have of that brand is there bubble bath so even though it wasn’t on the list I bought it anyways so I can prove to her that I did my best to search for her daughter’s stuff but no luck so hopefully she won’t be disappointed.
Dinner time, Tita Iya brought us to another Filipino restaurant called Max’s Chicken. No complains as we don’t have any of this kinds of restaurants in Canada or if there is it’s either in Vancouver or Toronto. I couldn’t compare the taste as I didn’t have the chance to eat at this restaurant when we were in the Philippines so when I go back this December I will for sure put it on my to do list. Anyways, the food was great as in from the appetizer to the dinner, we didn’t have anymore space for dessert but I’m sure it would’ve been awesome. It’s around 9 p.m. when we started to drive back.
If you’ve read my Day 2 entry in Disneyland you will probably remember that I was pissed at this bi@tch about the fireworks thing. Well as we were pulling our car to the parking lot we heard this loud sound like something just got blown up and so we were looking around to see if there was an accident or something then we heard the kids oh look look up there it’s fireworks! YES the bi@atch lied to me gggrrrr. If I knew there will be fireworks we would ran back to Disney so we could see the ground fountains and all, oohhh I was mad. But all those angry feelings quickly melt to happy emotional one. Isaiah said Mom is this my birthday surprise?! And I laughed and just said yes babe of course this is your birthday surprise, Happy birthday Isaiah! He quickly turned around and said, Thanks, I love you Mom I love you Dad! With a big warm hug. I got to admit a little tear dropped on the corner of my eye but I quickly wiped it and joined the group with the oohhh’s and aaahhh’s of the lovely fireworks.
When all that was done it was 12 midnight and we still have to pack. I’m not sure if I mentioned that we only had 2 luggage’s when we left but now we had to ask Tita Iya to get us boxes J I used up 2 boxes that were 50lbs. each plus the 2 luggage’s that we have and also allowed 50lbs. each so you do the math! I finished packing around 3 so I didn’t get a lot of sleep but that was ok I know I’ll get at least 3 on the plane anyways so that’s were my Saturday ends.
*Pictures to follow soon, I promise.*
She picked us up at around 9:00 went to Chowking for breakfast (another food chain from the Philippines) I wasn’t blown away with there food but there picture selections are great. It just tastes different from the one in the Philippines. I know I shouldn’t compare but the Jollibee from Vegas and L.A. and also the Goldilocks taste was wow as in wow, excellent. Anyways I forced myself to eat it even though I didn’t want to as my cousin paid for it so I didn’t want her to feel offended by it and she might think that I’m not appreciating her.
After breakfast we hit the road down to Hollywood and Rodeo drive, just walked around, sight seeing and hoping we would spot any Hollywood stars walking around with there starbucks coffee in one hand a purse from chanel or LV, but we weren’t that lucky so no luck of seeing any stars, nothing special down those streets besides the HOLLYWOOD words on top of the mountain which is often the main reason people go there to prove that they did go there. The streets are the same as any other streets from any place in the world (I’m think). Next to Beverly Hills Mall, pretty pricey there but I was expecting that and I actually prepared myself to use my for EMERGENCY card but in the end I didn’t have to use it. I was surprise to find nothing I want. As in nothing, I spent 30 minutes in Victoria Secret and found nothing, spend an hour to forever21 and found nothing. I didn’t expect that as I go crazy buying stuff from these 2 particular stores online and I thought I would save some shipping money L. We didn’t stay there that long maybe 2 or even less than that hours to this mall after being disappointed with the first two stores I browsed. We went to a different mall which I think is called Glendale or Greendale mall. I bought more here and vent out my frustration to Beverlyhills Mall. We sure came at the right time at this place as Abercrombie and Hollister have big sales but I had to dig deep as they didn’t have a lot of choices for my size and my brother’s size but in the end I was pretty happy with my purchases. They also have the Target store which is similar to Wal-Mart where they have everything from food to shoes and toys to gadgets, good stuff and brands at a cheaper price. Good thing they have it here as one of my co-worker had asked me to buy her daughter this target brand of baby shampoo, conditioner and lotion, I’ve been looking for awhile and realized that I’ve been going around to the same isles so finally I asked help but she was unsuccessful. They were out of stock so I guess it’s a good type for kids and the only thing they have of that brand is there bubble bath so even though it wasn’t on the list I bought it anyways so I can prove to her that I did my best to search for her daughter’s stuff but no luck so hopefully she won’t be disappointed.
Dinner time, Tita Iya brought us to another Filipino restaurant called Max’s Chicken. No complains as we don’t have any of this kinds of restaurants in Canada or if there is it’s either in Vancouver or Toronto. I couldn’t compare the taste as I didn’t have the chance to eat at this restaurant when we were in the Philippines so when I go back this December I will for sure put it on my to do list. Anyways, the food was great as in from the appetizer to the dinner, we didn’t have anymore space for dessert but I’m sure it would’ve been awesome. It’s around 9 p.m. when we started to drive back.
If you’ve read my Day 2 entry in Disneyland you will probably remember that I was pissed at this bi@tch about the fireworks thing. Well as we were pulling our car to the parking lot we heard this loud sound like something just got blown up and so we were looking around to see if there was an accident or something then we heard the kids oh look look up there it’s fireworks! YES the bi@atch lied to me gggrrrr. If I knew there will be fireworks we would ran back to Disney so we could see the ground fountains and all, oohhh I was mad. But all those angry feelings quickly melt to happy emotional one. Isaiah said Mom is this my birthday surprise?! And I laughed and just said yes babe of course this is your birthday surprise, Happy birthday Isaiah! He quickly turned around and said, Thanks, I love you Mom I love you Dad! With a big warm hug. I got to admit a little tear dropped on the corner of my eye but I quickly wiped it and joined the group with the oohhh’s and aaahhh’s of the lovely fireworks.
When all that was done it was 12 midnight and we still have to pack. I’m not sure if I mentioned that we only had 2 luggage’s when we left but now we had to ask Tita Iya to get us boxes J I used up 2 boxes that were 50lbs. each plus the 2 luggage’s that we have and also allowed 50lbs. each so you do the math! I finished packing around 3 so I didn’t get a lot of sleep but that was ok I know I’ll get at least 3 on the plane anyways so that’s were my Saturday ends.
*Pictures to follow soon, I promise.*
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Last Day Disneyland/California Adventure
Friday, our last day to the “Happiest place on Earth” I can’t believe we’ve been to L.A. for 8 days already, that sure went by pretty quick. Gate opens at 10:00 so we were in no rush to get ready and we were all pretty tired from the drive the day before even though I didn’t drive J. I was surprised though, as we were all awake by 8, I guess we are just all use to it. We grabbed are breakfast then rest a bit and start getting ready to start our last day in Disney. We actually went to California Adventure first as they close at 5 p.m. so we stayed there till they closed as we wanted to watch the parade and they always have parades at the end of the day. This area actually is not as fun for the kids as the rides here are pretty much for the adults liking, the roller coaster is there and NO I didn’t go (I was pretty pissed) I wanted to go but no one would go with me and I was actually prepared to go by myself as I know none of the adults that’s with me are as fascinated of rides as me but they kept saying it will be a waste of time for them to just wait, it will be long line up blah blah blah so I’m like fine lets go. Also, I wasn’t able to ride the Hollywood Tower wwwaaaahhhh, seriously this guys are useless chickens. All they want to ride is freakin’ dumbo the flying elephant ggrrrrr. I went to one of the closest store and grabbed my self some ice cream to calm myself hahaha and that strawberry shortcake 2 scoops in a wafer cone sure did help a lot. Anyways even though we weren’t able to go on rides at the California Adventure the kids sure had fun still watching more 3D shows and those tell a story rides. As long as Isaiah’s happy then I’m happier. After watching the parade we scrolled on the stores there and buy some expensive this and that for the people back home.
It’s 5:00 p.m. so time to cross the street and get those fast pass lane tickets so we won’t have to wait on line and waste our precious minutes. While waiting for the times of those fast pass tickets we went to those places that we liked the most and take more pictures and buy more expensive souvenirs (lucky people). As always we waited till the park closed till we leave and we had to find Mickey and Minnie again to take more pictures, lucky us we didn’t have to look for long they were waiting by where we return the strollers and there were not much line up so we all ran to them and get signatures and pictures, too bad though they weren’t together the two were in a “fight” according to the people accompanying them J so our pictures are one by one. Oh well that’s better than nothing. This time we really took our time walking around Downtown Disney and we ate at one of the restaurant I forgot what it’s called. Then we looked at some more stores and our last stop here was the Lego place, it’s pretty cool even though I was never a fan of lego. No matter how hard I follow the instructions to get the same results as the pictures on the boxes I can’t do it as in I can’t freakin’ do it. But I admire those people that can build this amazing stuff out of lego. We were so full and we actually thought of taking the cab back to our hotel hahaha, but we figured it’s probably better to walk since we ate so much and can’t go to sleep when your full good thing the kids agreed.
Well that’s the end of our day to the “Happiest place on Earth”. Farewell and see you again not soon but we sure will meet again !!!!
Pictures to follow....
It’s 5:00 p.m. so time to cross the street and get those fast pass lane tickets so we won’t have to wait on line and waste our precious minutes. While waiting for the times of those fast pass tickets we went to those places that we liked the most and take more pictures and buy more expensive souvenirs (lucky people). As always we waited till the park closed till we leave and we had to find Mickey and Minnie again to take more pictures, lucky us we didn’t have to look for long they were waiting by where we return the strollers and there were not much line up so we all ran to them and get signatures and pictures, too bad though they weren’t together the two were in a “fight” according to the people accompanying them J so our pictures are one by one. Oh well that’s better than nothing. This time we really took our time walking around Downtown Disney and we ate at one of the restaurant I forgot what it’s called. Then we looked at some more stores and our last stop here was the Lego place, it’s pretty cool even though I was never a fan of lego. No matter how hard I follow the instructions to get the same results as the pictures on the boxes I can’t do it as in I can’t freakin’ do it. But I admire those people that can build this amazing stuff out of lego. We were so full and we actually thought of taking the cab back to our hotel hahaha, but we figured it’s probably better to walk since we ate so much and can’t go to sleep when your full good thing the kids agreed.
Well that’s the end of our day to the “Happiest place on Earth”. Farewell and see you again not soon but we sure will meet again !!!!
Pictures to follow....
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Las Vegas
Our Wednesday destination that I said I was really excited to go to is none other than Viva Las Vegas!!! Yup yup yup, if Disneyland is the happiest place on earth for kids well Las Vegas is the happiest place on earth for adults, we went to Vegas for a day not to party but of course to shop ^_^ Las Vegas is about 3 ½ to 4 hrs. drive from Los Angeles and the drive is pretty smooth none of those confusing roads and turn here and there just straight freeway. I know most people would go straight to there hotels first to check in and drop there luggages but not us, we went straight to one of there best outlet stores which is called Premiums. In this outlet store you will find good deals of branded stuff for 50 to 80% off. Stores you will find in there are Armani Exchange, Burberry, Lacoste, Adidas, Sunglass Hut, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gap, Guess, FCUK, DKNY, Coach, Puma, True Religion, Ed Hardy and much more, don’t worry though I didn’t go to all of those as much I want to I was good enough to have a hold of myself. I just went to the one’s that we don’t have here in Calgary or are expensive store here in Calgary. My favorite stop is none other than there Coach outlet ^_^ I spent about 2 hours in there (sorry kids) and I couldn’t believe how much I bought and not feel guilty at all. I was disappointed to leave True Religion and Ed hardy empty handed L. We were at Premiums for about 5 to 6 hours so I feel bad for the kids but at least there were some kids attractions or some kiddy rides that caught there attention so while me and my Tita Emy shops and the guys and kids hit those rides.
So dinner time, we checked in first which is at Excalibur Hotel then search for the #1 Family Restaurant in the Philippines, it is called JOLLIBEE.
The outside pool of Excalibur, too bad we didn't have time to try out there 3 lovel pools.
This is what our hotel looked like outside in daylight. So lively isn' t it? It looks like a castle.
We punched in the address to our GPS and on the way we go. I missed these restaurant so much it has been a year and a half since that last time I had it.
Anyways after eating we went back to the hotel then we took turns on looking after the kids while we browse the hotel lobby. Nothing new though as the lobby of all the hotels in Vegas are pretty much a casino. It’s filled with slots machines, tables for different kind of card games. I’m not a gambler so it’s not attractive to me at all but there bars sure is an eye catching sight for me. I’m not alcoholic too I can just drink ;) When you visit you can’t miss the volcano eruption and the Bellagio dancing water which are both better to see at night than the morning, there light effects add a little excitement to the shows.
Eiffel Tower Vegas version.
The only thing we really wanted to see there was the Chris Angel show but unfortunately there weren’t any show at that time sp better luck next time.
Thursday, we get ready to hit the road but before we go back to we had to have breakfast at JOLLIBEE.
Next and last stop before heading back to L.A. is another outlet store hehehe. It’s name is Primms Outlet store, this store actually have more of my type but for some reason I wasn’t in the mood anymore to look around but I did stop at there Coach and I did bought something there I find that all coach outlets have different sale but I was glad that they didn’t have the once that I bought from the other store otherwise I’ll be pissed. They have Hollister and Forever 21, I left forever21 with nothing but ok with Hollister. We were out of there really quick, less than an hour as Mark was getting a bit angry, I wonder why J we had to be back by 7-7:30 as we have a family dinner with my Aunt and cousins so Mark was a bit agitated with time management. So anyways after that we are on our way back to L.A. and we made it by 7:00. We dropped off my Tita and her family to the hotel as they don’t know the people were having dinner with so they said there ok to stay in the hotel and rest as it’s going to be another long day ahead of us and the kids were pretty tired too.
We met my relatives to Tony Roma’s and I was pretty shock how cheap the food there was, well compare to the one’s we have home. For the 3 of us we will pay more than $200 and this dinner there was 5 adults and 3 kids and we only paid $160 including tip. Even if I convert it to Canadian it’s still less than $250. After dinner we went to my cousins house and chit chat a bit then head back to the hotel, Isaiah was getting angry already so I know his tired and needs to sleep as Friday will be our last day in Disneyland/California Adventure so he needs to have all the energy he can have.
So dinner time, we checked in first which is at Excalibur Hotel then search for the #1 Family Restaurant in the Philippines, it is called JOLLIBEE.
The outside pool of Excalibur, too bad we didn't have time to try out there 3 lovel pools.
This is what our hotel looked like outside in daylight. So lively isn' t it? It looks like a castle.
We punched in the address to our GPS and on the way we go. I missed these restaurant so much it has been a year and a half since that last time I had it.
Anyways after eating we went back to the hotel then we took turns on looking after the kids while we browse the hotel lobby. Nothing new though as the lobby of all the hotels in Vegas are pretty much a casino. It’s filled with slots machines, tables for different kind of card games. I’m not a gambler so it’s not attractive to me at all but there bars sure is an eye catching sight for me. I’m not alcoholic too I can just drink ;) When you visit you can’t miss the volcano eruption and the Bellagio dancing water which are both better to see at night than the morning, there light effects add a little excitement to the shows.
Eiffel Tower Vegas version.
The only thing we really wanted to see there was the Chris Angel show but unfortunately there weren’t any show at that time sp better luck next time.
Thursday, we get ready to hit the road but before we go back to we had to have breakfast at JOLLIBEE.
This is called Tocino, it's sweetened pork.
This one here is called Longanisa. They have different flavours for this one, there's sweet, spicy, regular. I like the spicy and the sweet one, yummy.
I think this one is called Tapa, and i believe it's beef but not to sure how they cook it or how they prepare it, but it sure is delicoius.
After that we headed to another outlet which is called Las Vegas Outlets. It’s a nice mall but I actually just went to Coach again J and YES I bought something there oh and I went to bath and body works, I love there hand soaps. We were only there for about 2 hrs so not bad right.
Next and last stop before heading back to L.A. is another outlet store hehehe. It’s name is Primms Outlet store, this store actually have more of my type but for some reason I wasn’t in the mood anymore to look around but I did stop at there Coach and I did bought something there I find that all coach outlets have different sale but I was glad that they didn’t have the once that I bought from the other store otherwise I’ll be pissed. They have Hollister and Forever 21, I left forever21 with nothing but ok with Hollister. We were out of there really quick, less than an hour as Mark was getting a bit angry, I wonder why J we had to be back by 7-7:30 as we have a family dinner with my Aunt and cousins so Mark was a bit agitated with time management. So anyways after that we are on our way back to L.A. and we made it by 7:00. We dropped off my Tita and her family to the hotel as they don’t know the people were having dinner with so they said there ok to stay in the hotel and rest as it’s going to be another long day ahead of us and the kids were pretty tired too.
We met my relatives to Tony Roma’s and I was pretty shock how cheap the food there was, well compare to the one’s we have home. For the 3 of us we will pay more than $200 and this dinner there was 5 adults and 3 kids and we only paid $160 including tip. Even if I convert it to Canadian it’s still less than $250. After dinner we went to my cousins house and chit chat a bit then head back to the hotel, Isaiah was getting angry already so I know his tired and needs to sleep as Friday will be our last day in Disneyland/California Adventure so he needs to have all the energy he can have.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Sea World
Sea World is our Tuesday destination. It is located in San Diego so it’s about an hour to two (depends on the traffic) hours from Los Angeles. Just like Universal Studio some of the rides are closed specially the ones that is connected with water. Again, there was not a lot of people so line ups for some show’s, ride’s and other activities were not very long.
Main attraction here is of course Shamu a.k.a. Free Willy! I love that movie and it is one of my all time favourite. He was awesome, we were sitting at the very front and then as we were waiting for the show to start there was an announcement saying that if your sitting on the first 16 rows please be prepared to get wet! I wasn’t afraid to get wet as I’ve been wet from the 3D shows we’ve watched (Elmo and the Gang) but I have to admit it was getting a bit chilly and by the look of it, it seems like it’s not just a quick sprinkle of water. So we moved and glad we did and laughing our heads of at those who decided to stay at the front. I was right it wasn’t just a sprinkle it’s more of a shower ^_^ But I’m sure it’s a good experience for those who got a quick shower from Shamu and the others. We stayed here till they closed which is at 5:00 p.m. We were gonna go to Lego Land too since it’s also in San Diego and was still early but when we got there it was already closed they also closed at 5:00 p.m.. We were all disappointed but what can we do, we said we’ll just go back but it never happened as we didn’t have enough time and it was ok as there was this place in Disney that’s full of lego’s and statues as in big statues made out of lego and someone from there said that’s it’s pretty similar to what Lego Land has to offer and turn’s out it was. I searched online and saw the same statues so we didn’t really missed a lot for not going to Lego Land.
I couldn’t remember what we did after. I think we just headed back to our hotel and rested early as we are going somewhere fun the next day ^_^ Can you guess where?
You’ll find out on my next entry!!!!
Main attraction here is of course Shamu a.k.a. Free Willy! I love that movie and it is one of my all time favourite. He was awesome, we were sitting at the very front and then as we were waiting for the show to start there was an announcement saying that if your sitting on the first 16 rows please be prepared to get wet! I wasn’t afraid to get wet as I’ve been wet from the 3D shows we’ve watched (Elmo and the Gang) but I have to admit it was getting a bit chilly and by the look of it, it seems like it’s not just a quick sprinkle of water. So we moved and glad we did and laughing our heads of at those who decided to stay at the front. I was right it wasn’t just a sprinkle it’s more of a shower ^_^ But I’m sure it’s a good experience for those who got a quick shower from Shamu and the others. We stayed here till they closed which is at 5:00 p.m. We were gonna go to Lego Land too since it’s also in San Diego and was still early but when we got there it was already closed they also closed at 5:00 p.m.. We were all disappointed but what can we do, we said we’ll just go back but it never happened as we didn’t have enough time and it was ok as there was this place in Disney that’s full of lego’s and statues as in big statues made out of lego and someone from there said that’s it’s pretty similar to what Lego Land has to offer and turn’s out it was. I searched online and saw the same statues so we didn’t really missed a lot for not going to Lego Land.
I couldn’t remember what we did after. I think we just headed back to our hotel and rested early as we are going somewhere fun the next day ^_^ Can you guess where?
You’ll find out on my next entry!!!!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Universal Studio
Monday, time to drive around town. I called my cousin that lives in Anaheim and asked him to drive us to rental cars so we can choose and pick our ride. We didn’t get to go to a lot of car rentals as a matter of fact we just went to one and told them what we needed they told us there price and done deal. For me the rental was pretty cheap as we got an 8 passenger van so me and Tita Emy will just split the rental and gas fee in half instead of renting 2 cars.
Our Monday destination was Universal Studio, it is located north of D.T. so it’s about an hour to an hour and a half drive with traffic and yes even though there freeway (highway) have 5 lanes there still freakin’ traffic. When we got in the first characters we saw was The Simpson’s, so I got excited and told Isaiah look babe it’s the simpson’s let’s go take pictures and he said but mom you said I’m not allowed to watch them because there shows are only for adults ^_^ I said it’s ok babe they won’t talk today so you won’t hear a single word from them. So we go in line for pictures and Isaiah was wearing his Mickey Mouse hat and as soon as Marge saw it she comes to us grad his hat throw it on the floor and stepped on it and Isaiah said oohh you guys are really bad, we took some pictures and I don’t know why but Isaiah tried to bite Bart’s finger ^_^
There was not a lot of people which is good so not a lot of line up but at the same time a lot of there rides were closed as most of them have water and it’s winter time for them so they have to shut the water flow or something like that. It was ok though as we still saw a lot. How to do movies and those shows that I watch, we couldn’t do a lot of the movie rides as the kids got scared after riding Space Mountain in Disneyland. Atleast we got to see how they make the movies and those props and magic type of scenes. If you go there make sure to watch the 2D Terminator and the 4D Shrek also it’s best if you cover up when you watch shrek or atleast wear long pants otherwise prepare your self to get wet. The kids enjoyed here since there was not a long wait for lines in rides, games and shows and they loved playing with curious george, sponge bob, Scooby, Isaiah wouldn’t go take pictures with Dora. We had the chance to do everything in Universal in just 1 day and also they closed at 5 during weekdays which is good for me and my Tita Emy ^_^ can you guess why? If there’s downtown Disney well there is also Downtown Universal which is more of a shopping strip, and they close at 10:00. You should’ve seen my face when I saw Abercrombie and Fitch!!! We didn’t get home till 1 that night. I made sure I went in to every single store and not miss anything ^_^
Our Monday destination was Universal Studio, it is located north of D.T. so it’s about an hour to an hour and a half drive with traffic and yes even though there freeway (highway) have 5 lanes there still freakin’ traffic. When we got in the first characters we saw was The Simpson’s, so I got excited and told Isaiah look babe it’s the simpson’s let’s go take pictures and he said but mom you said I’m not allowed to watch them because there shows are only for adults ^_^ I said it’s ok babe they won’t talk today so you won’t hear a single word from them. So we go in line for pictures and Isaiah was wearing his Mickey Mouse hat and as soon as Marge saw it she comes to us grad his hat throw it on the floor and stepped on it and Isaiah said oohh you guys are really bad, we took some pictures and I don’t know why but Isaiah tried to bite Bart’s finger ^_^
There was not a lot of people which is good so not a lot of line up but at the same time a lot of there rides were closed as most of them have water and it’s winter time for them so they have to shut the water flow or something like that. It was ok though as we still saw a lot. How to do movies and those shows that I watch, we couldn’t do a lot of the movie rides as the kids got scared after riding Space Mountain in Disneyland. Atleast we got to see how they make the movies and those props and magic type of scenes. If you go there make sure to watch the 2D Terminator and the 4D Shrek also it’s best if you cover up when you watch shrek or atleast wear long pants otherwise prepare your self to get wet. The kids enjoyed here since there was not a long wait for lines in rides, games and shows and they loved playing with curious george, sponge bob, Scooby, Isaiah wouldn’t go take pictures with Dora. We had the chance to do everything in Universal in just 1 day and also they closed at 5 during weekdays which is good for me and my Tita Emy ^_^ can you guess why? If there’s downtown Disney well there is also Downtown Universal which is more of a shopping strip, and they close at 10:00. You should’ve seen my face when I saw Abercrombie and Fitch!!! We didn’t get home till 1 that night. I made sure I went in to every single store and not miss anything ^_^
Disneyland Day 2
No matter how tired we were the night before we still all got up at 7:30, went downstairs to get some breakfast, check some e-mails and surf the net for a little bit then get ready and by the time were done the rain was also finished. I’m surprised the kids were not complaining about walking to much and carrying there mini backpacks. From our hotel to Disney it will take us 15 minutes walk it was really a good exercise but then after walking around and standing in lines for 10 hours you don’t need the extra 15 minutes walk.
I don’t think I mentioned who’s with us to this trip. Well there’s me, Mark and Isaiah then my Tita Emy, Tito Arnold and there 2 kids Kenneth and Keanna and there family and whenever I plan to travel I always include them weather it’s a family thing or just for the girls as Tita Emy and I are pretty close which is how family should be.
Second day, we thought we planned how our day will go for this day so that we won’t waste any minute, we got a good view of the ground, we took the booklets that tells us when and where the shows are but we never followed any. Of course every time there’s a Disney character the kids see walking around we have to stop and get pictures and autograph and we have to line up to get them. I couldn’t remember exactly which shows we watched in orders but we did watched a lot and they were all really good, I’m really loving those 2D, 3D and 4D shows. Too bad they don’t allow video taping or even pictures during the show but I guess it’s for our camera’s own good ^_^ they’ll get wet. We almost went to everything we wanted to for the 3 hours of the morning so we did pretty good.
Lunch time so meaning break time. We had to go back to the hotel for lunch to meet someone that my grandma know’s from the Philippines as he will be treating us for lunch. Make sure to get a stamp before leaving the park so you can go back anytime free of charge otherwise you’ll have to pay again. I’ve never met this guy so I really didn’t know what to talk about with him all I know is that he is a retired engineer so what I did was I told Mark to go to his car and ride with him to the restaurant since Mark is an engineer I figured they’ll probably have lots of things to talk about (I know pretty mean of me) and yes I got a big stare from Mark. He took us to 1 of the best restaurant in the Philippines which is Goldilocks. (They should also bring some Philippines restaurant to Canada) Food was really good nothing I can complain about this as it was really good. We all talked for a bit after lunch then head back to the hotel and rested as we have to go back to park.
I was still tired but the kids kept bugging us adults to go already so we had no choice but to go. Kids never run out of energy or it just means that I’m getting old and can’t keep up with the kids anymore. Anyways second day we almost finished the whole park which is what we planned to do so that our last ticket we can use to California Adventure. We were waiting for the park to close so that we can watch some fireworks and when I asked what time the fireworks are the staff there said that they don’t have any as it’s winter and told me to just come back in march. I got pretty pissed at her not because there’s no fireworks but just to the way she talked to me and the way she told me to come back it was pretty sarcastic so I returned the favour and told her sure I’ll come back if you pay for all of our trip back here, she got my point as she apologized and said I was like the 20th person to ask her that question. I told her well you are working at one of the worlds best family attractions and most people here are probably tourist so we don’t know the schedules. Aaarrggg I wanted to slap her in the face.
Here's eeyore, my favourite character from all winnie the pooh gangs. Isaiah was a little disappointed that he couldn't get his autograph but it was so cute 'coz when Isaiah was giving him his autograph book eeyore showed his hand up in the air and I'm guessing his saying sorry buddy I don't have fingers to write ^_^ I explained to Isaiah and then he said oohh yah he doesn't.
Anyways, just like the night before we were at the park till it closed and walked around downtown Disney to listen to whatever music they were playing there on the streets and kids running around to each stores looking for something else to buy ^_^
This last 3 pictures was taken from Tomorrow Land! It was pretty neat inside 1 button can change your entire house's looks and style.
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