The first day we were kind of all just tired from driving, but of course we could still eat.  After seeing our rooms, we went to a buffet at the Wynn, and well ate a whole bunch of course.  From there it was nap-time and didn’t do much until the night.  We really just roamed around that night, visited Caesar’s, the Bellagio, road in a taxi cab that kept breaking down.  Tammy and I went out again and blew 40 bucks on slots, we weren’t too lucky you could say.

The following day the trip got more exciting.  I went to my first Jollibee, basically its a filipino fast food restaraunt, but it was very good!  Then Carlo showed us around a bit more of Vegas and then it was on to the Stratosphere, the very t0p.  We bought tickets to the top and Tammy and I got tickets to ride “Big Shot.”  We rode the elevator up 108 stories and as we looked out the viewing deck all protected by the glass, I must admit I was a bit scared to go up another few stories to the ride on top, there was really no turning back now though.  So Tammy and I went up the next floors and waited in line outside on top of the Stratosphere, the ride is like a drop zone type ride.  We were seated next to a couple who had just got married, I guess it was their wish to ride the first thing as a married couple, who knows?  So yup, they do the whole ambiguous countdown thing so the launch up is a surprise and Tammy and I both agreed, it was the scariest thing ever until we were able to relax a bit at the top and got over the whole nervousness part.  It was quite amazing to see all of Vegas from 108+ stories up on that thrill ride.  Funniest part of the experience though was when we bought our picture (which is better if you see it in person), the cashier lady took one look at it and laughed at us!  She said she wasn’t sure who looked more scared.

So we then continued to enjoy the whole Vegas atmosphere, walking the strip n such, and then it was time to decide what to do that night.  We decided on The Blue Man Group, I had always wanted to see them, Tammy at first didn’t seem so excited.  The show itself was unbelievable, basically was unlike anything we had ever seen before.  The things they do are so random and out of the ordinary!  They interacted with the audience quite a bit and it made the whole experience even funnier.  At one point, they basically tp-ed the whole audience and at the same time there were strobe lights and craziness from the ceiling (who cares how much that makes sense), and they decided to show up behind us!  I was freaking out because he was literally standing over Tammy and she didn’t even notice, I had to yell to her at which she turned around and was shocked.  Up close, they look somewhat like aliens, kind of freaky especially when you see the paint shoot out of their stomachs later on.   Overall though, the show was quite amazing, not just a bunch of blue guys playing drums with paint or a “self help group” (for you AD fans).

So Vegas was over, but of course the vacation didn’t end with that, Disneyland was next!  You all know how that goes though, lots of fun, even got to take Dylan on Small World.  Lots of fun!  Maybe someday we will make it to the new World of Color show.

1st big event: HONDURAS

Well, in case you haven’t heard, both Tammy and I got to visit Honduras at the beginning of summer on a medical mission, Tammy going with UCI Global Dental Brigades and I with UCI Global Medical Brigades.  Just as it sounds, I got to do medical stuff and she did dental stuff.  As to not bore you with all the details I’ll just let you know the basics.  The trip was 7 days long with other people from UCI (we really didn’t know them very well) and several doctors/dentists.

Several of the days we went on what we called brigades.  A brigade consisted of several stations: Triage, consultation, dental procedures, education, and pharmacy.  As they sound, triage was designed to find out each patient’s symptoms and signs and take basic signs such as blood pressure and weight.  Consultation was when they met with a doctor and were prescribed medicine.  Dental procedures involved cleaning, fillings, and extractions.  Education was also for dental in which they taught children how to brush, etc.  And pharmacy was where each patient received the medicines for whatever they were diagnosed for.  Over the 3 or 4 days we did brigades almost 1000 people were treated, it was quite amazing.  In addition to these brigades we got to visit an orphanage and play with several of the kids and do a little tourism for ourselves.  Overall, the trip was quite fun, fully complete with bug bites, huge bugs, wild dogs, security escorts with large guns, Honduran beer, and anything else you can think of.  Tammy got to inject people for fillings and assist with extractions, while I got to take blood pressures, attempt to talk to the people, and fill prescriptions.  Was a great experience to start off the summer!

2nd big event: TAMMYS HOUSE

Upon arriving back in the U.S. and dealing with all the customs junk and Tammy’s missing suitcase, Tammy’s family came down to visit my city.  We all had a bbq with my grandma and aunt and Tammy’s parents and her.  Kind of a big step I suppose, needless to say everything went great and everyone had fun.  From there, Tammy drove on to Vegas to visit more family and we eventually met up in Dublin for an extended weekend vacation.  I arrived and basically upon arrival we met up with Jax to see A-Team (see the films sections for a review!).  After that night, we did the usual visit to Santana Row in San Jose on Saturday and had a delicious meal at the Counter.  Then on Saturday we had pinoy food at Lumpia House, very delicious, and of course for dessert we had halo halo.  In case you don’t know it is a filipino dessert of crushed ice with a whole bunch of goodies mixed in, including ice cream, red beans, leche flan, jello, coconut, and some other stuff.  Then it was off to see Toy Story 3 (more reviews!) with Dylan and Tita Lady and swimming!  Finally to basically end the weekend, lucky for us it was Half-Christmas.  We met up with some of Tammy’s friends and ate some IHOP and hung out at Amy’s house for some yummy brownies and cider.

3rd big event: FOURTH OF JULY

The fun just doesn’t stop, before we could really settle down for normal summer, it was July 4th.  Seeing as Tammy had just gotten back to Irvine, we spent the fourth with my family in La Crescenta.  After a Thursday of seeing Knight and Day, a Friday of craziness, a Saturday of sick laziness, it was Sunday the 4th.  My family had decided we would go to the Starlight Bowl in Burbank for a concert followed by fireworks.  The night was quite fun, started with a picnic on the grass and then we all filed into the bowl for some mo-town music, Stone Soul.  We were surprised to see a white guy singing, but were pleasantly surprised by his voice and his entertaining dancing.  We were definitely kept entertained between the band and the older people line-dancing in front of the stage.  After the music, the fireworks were really good, they managed to fire some right above the stage that complemented fireworks a little farther away.  What made the night even more exciting was the fact that we saw the “other Asian,” Harry Shum jr, from GLEE!  We actually got a picture!  Definitely a good Fourth of July.

As you can see, we have been quite busy.  We are now settling into the summer with Tammy working 3 days a week, me taking a superheroes class at school, and whatever time we can we spend hanging out and being lazy even though we should study more.  Anyway, you can definitely look forward to more posts coming soon!  We have more movie plans (Inception and Scott Pilgrim!), new eateries, and of course, more places to visit!

We had already visited Point Loma, Balboa Park, Sea World, and the zoo, but this time we were straying from that area and heading towards UCSD.  The area admittedly looks a bit different, lots of gated apartment communities and maybe a little nicer looking.

We went without having any real plans, just hoping Brittany could find something to do.  After a bit of thinking we decided to visit La Jolla til dinner time, then find someplace for carne asada fries before we left.

So we did just that, La Jolla cove was really nice, we spent a while watching the seals as they lounged around.  We all freaked out whenever a bunch of seagulls flew over us, which they liked to do, and laughed at the fact that the swimming seals looked like Darth Vader with only their black heads poking above the water.

After leaving the cove we walked up to the city of La Jolla with its random shops.  We didn’t get very far before we found a cupcake place, “Cups,” so we ran across the street and peaked in.  The whole atmosphere of the place looked pretty cool and we decided we couldn’t possibly leave without eating a little afternoon snack.  After looking at all their interesting flavors, Tammy settled for an “old school vanilla” cupcake, I went with the “chunky monkey,” and Brittany got the “chocotorte.”  We were very much impressed with the different tastes, but it failed when it got to moisture, much too dry.  O well.  After that, we spotted a toy store and well we spent quite a good deal of time playing with all the toys and such.

It was dinner time after leaving La Jolla, Brittany had this Japanese place picked out, Tajima.  We all got some sort of noodles, and it was mighty good.  After dinner of course was dessert at Yogurt World.  It was basically Yogurtland with a bunch more flavors and some different toppings.

Just before we left San Diego we stopped by and got some carne asada fries, because of course we can’t visit san diego without getting them.  They were very tasty, we even had some funky carrot to go along with it.  Anyway, with our stomaches full, we headed back home.

Anyway, so Saturday the plan was to go and see LACMA and then visit Diddy Reise for some delicious make-it-yourself ice cream sandwiches.  We left around noon-time after lunch and drove the half hour through LA to reach the museum, on the way we got to see all the different parts of the city from quite ghetto to upper class.  Also, witnessed a random accident (everyone was fine), quite an exciting drive there.  Upon arrival, we road the “high tech” elevator, as the old ladies called it when they couldn’t find the button, to the museum.

As you may know, outside the museum is a whole bunch of light posts of different heights that are all lined up in rows.  Following convention, we took our pictures hidden among the lights, too bad they weren’t on.  From there, we struggled to find the entrance but stumbled upon it and took the escalator way up where you could see the Hollywood sign.  Upon entering they checked our tickets and we wandered over to the first exhibit.

The first exhibit was quite confusing, wasn’t the best starting point.  It was all Germany things during World War II but everything was written in German.  A couple pictures were interesting but we were mostly just lost.  So we moved on to the next exhibit, which was much more exciting.  This one made up all the crazy art, to put it simply.  There was a bunch of Andy Warhol paintings, murals, random objects that looked like they couldn’t exist, a huge balloon dog (was actually metal), and a big sculpture of Michael Jackson and his monkey…this was totally the stuff we came to the museum for.  Although we wanted to, we didn’t take pictures because we thought we weren’t supposed to :/ turns out we could have.

We went down and explored a different floor, we stepped out of the elevator and on all we saw was a big piece of metal in the next room.  We walked in, and this exhibit was literally a huge piece of metal that took up the room and kind of mimicked a ribbon.  We walked around the metal and inside the little rooms and tunnels it created, it was almost like a house, Tammy and I started picking out which rooms would be ours.  After that, we walked to the exhibit next to it and it was the same thing, the big metal took up the whole room, but this time it was like inverted to the last one.  Once again, we walked all the way around it, amazed by its complexity even though it was just metal.

This all was just in the first building of the museum.  We moved on to the next couple buildings.  These buildings contained exhibits of all magnitudes.  One room was devoted to Robin Rhode who painted at different steps of an action and combined them to make a video (see above).  We stayed there for a while watching the art, we found it quite interesting. We continued along and saw the paintings and sculptures, all quite intriguing, there was even some from Picasso!

As luck would have it, with all our wandering about inside the museum we even ended up in a closed exhibit.  After that mishap though, we got to see the Japanese art section.  I set about playing with the lights that turned on to light up the exhibit while Tammy was quickly enticed by the structure of the place.  The inside was many levels but none of them lined up, some pretty awesome architecture.  After this though, the trip to the museum was over.  It was definitely worth the trip and the day devoted to it.

With this finished we looked forward to a visit to Diddy Reise…it didn’t happen.  We drove to it and we found a line that was all the way down the block, we decided it could wait.  But you can look forward to it in a future post ;]

Despite the lack of ice cream sandwiches in our stomaches, we can surely say this trip was a success.  Was definitely one of the more interesting museums we had visited, may have to go back sometime soon.