Highlights from the past week

It's been a week since I last posted anything so here's an update:

1. We made our second trip into LA. On the train, of course. J was so eager to leave; he tried calling and calling us to get us to leave the house. Then he got tired of that, so he just put his shoes on, went out the door and leaned against the car. When K found him there, he asked plaintively, "Can we go yet?". We checked out Chinatown in LA, where we had a really good dim sum lunch and where I bought ginseng and chrysanthenum. We also visited Olvera Street - the heart of the Mexican part of LA. The kids took in the sights:

It's quite colourful and supposed to get really loud and fun around Christmas time, so we'll see if we can make another visit down then.

2. San Diego, part 2. We did the same round in San Diego, stopping at La Jolla to check out the seals again. Unfortunately, because the weather's a lot warmer now, there were no seals on the beach, and only a few swimming in the cove. Both kids were much more interested in watching the waves crash on the breakwaters. J was particularly thrilled each time a huge wave came in.

3. SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo, and the Wild Animal Park (which is also run by the Zoo, but it's in more a safari style).

J insisted that we get a dolphin cup, and you can see that E had fun with it too! It's much much hotter now, compared to the last time we visited, so everyone's really brown now! The heat can get quite quite draining, and J even wanted to borrow Dad's shades.

Both kids were suitably impressed by the animals they saw. Here's J doing his best imitation of a dolphin dive:

And both practiced being flamingoes back in the hotel room after their day at SeaWorld.

We didn't get a chance to visit the Children's Zoo in the San Diego Zoo the last time, but we did this time round. And we learnt that while E usually loves watching animals, she gets real antsy when they're up close and personal! Oh, and in the hotel room, she surprised me by saying "duck, duck" at a picture of a duck on the wall, all by herself, without any prompting.

True to his fascination with big things (he always wants the bigger french fry, the bigger piece of cake, etc.), J spent a long long time checking out the big hippo at the zoo. He wormed his way to stand right up against the glass, and followed the hippo up and down as it swam the length of the pool.

3. Food. In true Singaporean style, good food featured heavily this past week, with two highlights in particular. In San Diego, we had dinner at the Kansas City Barbeque, where apparently one of the sleazy bar scenes in Top Gun was filmed. Food was fantastic, everyone enjoyed their barbeque meats, E most of all! She happily sat in her highchair throughout the ENTIRE meal, eating corn kernels, french fries, the crust from onion rings (she spat out the onion - that's my girl!), and meat from my plate of babyback ribs. She loved it, and had oily hands, mouth and cheeks at the end of it all. She was quite a sight. Unfortunately, no pictures to show it because everyone else had oily hands too.

The best part of the meal from J's perspective was that the restaurant was located right next to train tracks. And right after dinner, he got to see the longest train ever go by. We saw the first carriage of the train, and it must have been ten minutes later when the last carriage went by. J's standing in front of the train below.

The next night we ate at Joe's Crab Shack on Pacific Beach. Also yum yum yum. Check out my broiled seafood combination below. E didn't last the entire meal here in her highchair, but she did enjoy the broccoli off my plate - she loves broccoli.

Sharing a lollipop!