No Cook

I think one disadvantage of having a sister who cooks well is that we totally get spoiled by it. We hardly worry about cooked food on the table. This week she's in NY, so we are on our own.

So what do we do on our first day without her? Of course, eat OUT.

We went to the Ferry building in the city. I've been meaning to have hubby taste the food in this one place where they serve good seared ahi burger. The Ferry building also went through a big transformation, it's now a favorite spot for the city folks. Today (Saturday), they also have a farmer's market just outside the building. In the inside are a number of interesting shops. Parking was a hassle, as is always the case in the city. We meter parked for an hour so we had to breeze through one end to the other end of the building. Next time, we'll try to get there earlier and enjoy a good long lunch in one of the tables outside.

I didn't bring my good old camera, so these are phone pictures--unfortunately, it's not as vivid as I want it to be.

Ferry building on the Embacadero

Feeling so starved at 2 pm, the sign didn't help us feel any better while we waited for our food.

Taylor's Refresher -- great burgers in this joint.

Inside the Ferry blg, specialty shops flank both sides of the establishment.

You can even bring your food out here and enjoy the bay view.

We've got a bunch of these hearts scattered all over the city. They come in different themes. It would be nice take a pic of each one of them.

Obviously if we keep up with this kind of lifestyle we'll be broke even before sis comes back from her trip. As much as I hate cooking, I'd have to deal with it this week. We'll probably survive with leftovers.

Oh by the way, this has been one (and only) relaxing day. I feel that it's finally the first since we left for our hawaiian trip. Tomorrow will mark the start of the usual crazy and busy week ahead. When sis comes back on Friday, she's bringing along an aunt (who I have not seen for ages -- 17 long years!!) who is visiting from the Phils. I'll once again be the designated sightseeing guide for this part of the country.

You'll get a whiff of what I've got planned for her in my coming entries--stay tuned....

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

Flower power

I've finally downloaded the flower pictures I took in Kauai. I took these from the Allerton garden collection. I love tropical flowers, it is too bad I can't plant these in our garden because of our weather here--so I am just going to enjoy them in pictures instead.

I want to learn how integrate an orchid on a tree

An insect eating plant.

Don't these look like crab claws on a string?

Below are my favorite pictures of the tour. Under the lily pods were strange wormlike plants. There were quite a number of small poisonous frogs in the pond.

I think I've centered this picture well enough, it actually came out quite pretty.

I just forgot the name of this tree but it looks magnificent. It fell over and the gardeners planted more orchids on the branches and moss like plant thriving very well on the branches.

This is a bamboo forest. It grows really fast--I think around 4 inches in a day.

I just realized, I didn't take pictures of the banana trees! aarggghhhh....

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

Let's dance

After that exhausting Kauai hike experience last month, yesterday was my first stab at going back to the gym after a month's hiatus. I took a day off on Monday so that I can spend some time with my mom who is in town for a very short visit. I've also planned to squeeze in some time for a work out in the morning.

It so happens that H also wanted to have company in the evening when he goes for his usual work out, and so naturally I went back to the gym with him but only to check on a class that I've been interested in since this gym opened late last month. It's a Latin dance workout class and last night it was packed! It seems fun and I can see people drop out like flies after half an hour because they were sweating bullets from the workout. It's either they've turned down the temperature in that room or it's just body heat from the class participants.

Now doesn't that sound like it's going to be an effective and fun workout? I will attend next week! This even though I don't have a single graceful bone in my body, we'll see how I'll do in it.

Oh--and I think hubby is also interested since he loves anything Latin.

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

Hair-raising evening

It was a long holiday weekend for me. I am back to my insomniac ways and started to visit my regular reads in the wee hours of the morning. This and posting entries, has been a priority this weekend more than any other chore like paying bills. The wonders of procrastinating seem too hard to resist.

And so I came upon this entry , the one written on 10.8.04 in one of my routinely visited sites. At the end of her entry there was this link about a certain ad. I think my curiosity got the best of me. I don't even know why I even clicked on it when I know I am such a scaredy cat when it comes to things like these. I may be the last person to have seen this ad but just in case you are one of the few left who hadn't, I won't tell you what it's about (the instructions will tell you anyway) but all I can say is that I woke up hubby from his deep slumber last night with my scream. So that's how it feels when they say one's head hairs stand on it's ends-- literally.

What felt like a wild caffeine rush courtesy of Wendy

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

L.A. in pictures

They say you get your roles defined once you get married.

He navigates, I drive--this is the law of our marriage because I suck at directions (haha).

Our purpose to drive south--we only saw the outside of the stadium.

so we ended up in Disneyland instead

Disneyland's fireworks show is still the best!

I've seen this bridge in too many movies

The LA skyline looks painted on without the smog. They've got quite an impressive collection of big buildings

Pershing square--from Keanu's "Speed" movie

The L.A. Philharmonic -- got to see it only while driving, wished we had more time

another unique building being erected in the heart of L.A.

Strangely, L.A's downtown streets seem deserted except for Broadway St

At the farmer's market. These shopping wooden baskets were hand-made when the market started in the 1930's. Read some interesting facts about this place here

The Grove--feels like you are in Las Vegas

Driving along 3rd Street--the landscape had changed with the building of this shopping mall (The Grove)

Just across from the Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market -- I'm known for taking pictures that will make any tower look like the leaning tower of pisa (or is it just me?)

The Farmer's market also gets to keep their history. A vintage gas station.

Little Tokyo-we usually stop by but it was getting late, time to head back home.

...but not before I take my tree pictures...

driving around the Hancock Park neighborhood.

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

Outlet shopping, etc

I am not much of a clothes, shoes and accessory shopper. I don't know, I think I just don't have the patience to go through the racks to look for something I'd like. That posed as a predicament for me as I've promised FuNkYmOmMa's cousin, who was visiting the bay area, a trip to the outlet shops before she goes back home to Manila. I am good at sightseeing but not shopping!

So I resorted to the 'bahala na' syndrome and hubby gave me the directions and the information I needed so I can bring Ate Marie outlet shopping. I took half the day off on Monday immediately after we returned from LA (haha), anything to be away from work is fun for me.

She mentioned something about a Coach outlet so we decided to go to Petaluma instead of the Napa outlet. I actually enjoyed shopping in the stores we visited and even ended up buying some items of my own. I think I'd like to go back and do some more later on. Maybe all it takes are the nice discounts and outlet prices for me to start enjoying this kind of shopping for once.

We finished shopping quite early and so I was determined to take her to the downtown area so she can ride the cable car. As they say, no person can be called a tourist in SF if they've not caught a ride on our cable car. I think I've never seen a day that the queue for this ride has gone short even on a Monday-- and on both ends! We planned to eat at the Cheesecake factory for dinner. The best way was to ride it up the hill on Powell, get off on California St--but in our case, Pine St (my mistake)--and catch the next trolley back to where we started. If we've taken the trip down to Girardhelli square and back, we'd have skipped dinner all together that night.

Dinner was great, we just ordered a number of appetizers as Ate Marie has a very small appetite and Cheesecake factory serves an enormous heap of food. I don't know why I wasn't too hungry either, I only had coffee from Starbucks since breakfast.

I had much fun with Ate Marie. I didn't even feel tired until I'd hit the sack. I hope the next time it will be Girlie and Angie who will come visit me here--that will be double the fun!

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker

Trekker in me

Well, I am back -- again. I think if it weren't for my job that helps pay the bills, I'd be out some place travelling. Wanderlust is in my blood. I'd jump at any opportunity to go and explore a place anytime if my schedule permits it. Oh yeah, I'd make time for it, you bet! I think my blogname is sounding more like an understatement rather than an exaggeration these days.

I haven't had the chance to log in nor visit my favorite sites again...bummer...I miss that a lot. I think I need longer days, that is.

Our drive down to Los Angeles to watch a baseball game totally got scrapped but that didn't stop us from turning it into a foiled weekend. We ended up in Disneyland and cared even less if we returned so late on a Sunday just to be tourists around LA. We had fun even if we've been to southern California many times before.

Pictures to come. Hubby has a narrative of our adventure in his blog.

Copyright 2004 Wandertrekker