Family Fun in San Diego 8-15-14

That weekend we were supposed to go to a family reunion in Parump, NV (a small city about 20 miles from Las Vegas) but since my brother wasn't going, we decided to make a trip to see them instead. It was kind of a bummer because Andrew tried to get that weekend off to come with us but his work wouldn't give it to him. However, it was still a nice trip to have just with my Mom. We headed out that Friday morning and to our surprise, it seemed like it took us forever to get there. So many car accidents and terrible bumper to bumper traffic! But when we got there, we were so elated to see everyone. 

When we walked through the door, we were so happy to see that my nieces made us a welcome banner! It was so sweet of them!

My Mom also bought some lychee from Food Maxx. She said it was a random shipment so she bought the whole thing! They were so good, I've never had fresh lychee. Only in jellies from Asia Market.

My little niece, Millie is such a character.

My Mom really wanted some Korean bbq so we ended up eating as soon as we got there. It was so good! This place had a 2 hour time limit so we stuffed ourselves pretty fast.

Next my brother took us to an Asian grocery store where they sold popping boba. If you've never tried popping boba, they are little balls filled with flavored liquid and the outer part is almost like a film. When you bite into it, it's like biting through a balloon. It pops and the liquid just squirts into your mouth. It was pretty interesting! Everytime I popped them in my mouth, I let out a "Woo!"

Then we got home and we played video games, watched Drunk History, got drunk and just caught up with life and what not.

The next morning we decided to go to the Birch Aquarium. Kenzi and Millie helped me get ready. I let them put my makeup on. Kenzi got to do the right side and Millie got to do the left.

My Bro decided to take us to this place called 50/50 for burgers close to the military base. They're called 50/50 because they are well known for their half beef, half pork burgers.

You get to build your own burger and name it. My brother named his Mannizle, I named my Mom's Mamasaurus and I named mine Maechen. It was so funny hearing the waiters trying to pronounce the name of our burgers when they came to deliver them to our table.

EVERYTHING seemed to have bacon or bacon flavoring in it...well, except for the fries.

 
Then off to the Birch Aquarium! It's way smaller than the Long Beach Aquarium but it was still very fun with a beautiful view of the coast.

I had no clue my Mom loves aquariums as much as I do. I hope to take her to the Long Beach Aquarium one day!

This guy was walking around with different shark eggs and educating people about how each one is different.



Outside they had games for kids to inform them about water conservation. All of their benches and chairs were made out of plastic bottles found and cleaned out of the ocean so that was pretty cool.

 

 

They had so many different kinds of seahorses!

These were baby seahorses. There was an exhibit on how seahorses are born and showed a video on how seahorses give birth. The male is the one who gets pregnant...Crazy. When the babies are ready to come out, it looks like the male sneezes out of his bellybutton and all these little babies expel out of this hole. These sneezes are actually his contractions. It was so interesting to watch!

We were gonna go to see the seals but my Mom didn't really feel like it but she did want to get ice cream. I yelped an ice cream place called Mariposa in Kensington so we ended up going there. It was so good that my Mom went back for seconds haha. It's a small little creamery and the walls are covered in Beatles memorabilia. I guess Will Ferrel is a regular customer because there were pictures of him and the family who owns the shop on the wall.

 

 

Then we went to Vons and got groceries because we decided to stay in and cook dinner. I ended up making my baked stuff chicken and my home made chili and Monica made her spaghetti which was super good. We watched movies and we played a little bit of Heads Up Charades.

The next morning, we wanted to attempt the Donut Bar. I heard about the long line but when drove past it, we were shocked to see how ridiculous the line truly was. It wrapped around the whole frickin block! These people were nuts! So we ended up goin to another donut place called Donut Panic. Their vegan earl grey tea donut was pretty awesome. Then we went to Starbucks for some coffee.

When we got home, my Mom had Kenzi do her whole work book. She got a $20 bill for her efforts haha. Millie was playing video games on the Wii U and it was so funny how mad she gets when she loses.  Then we put on Pitch Perfect and they got us some Vietnamese sandwiches which were so good!

Then it was time to say our goodbyes! We can't wait to visit again. We miss them dearly!