juice & snacks

Came across this gem of a photo recently. I invited some friends & family to come with us to an A’s game because I had a deal on really good lower level seats & Jordin Sparks happened to be holding a small concert after the game. A few rows in front of us, a bunch of friends had a bit too much to drink. Fortunately for us, they’re emotional drunks. One of the few fights that occurred within their group was between this teary-eyed guy & his buddy. Everyone that sat at least four rows behind them were watching intently, a soap opera drama unfolding

It was so entertaining, Clay video recorded a portion of the scuffle, dubbed with their custom audio track.

Flickr: A's games 2009

juice Bay Area, Photo of the day, baseball, photography, sports

An Australian photo album wouldn’t be complete without a photo of a kangaroo! It was our last few days in the country, & right next to our beach resort was a wildlife sanctuary. They have this breakfast thing where you can have breakfast with the birds, so we thought it would be a good place to start our day before heading back to the airport.

They had all kinds of native animals for viewing. You can walk right up to a kangaroo. They’re a bit scary—they have really huge claws on their feet. Don’t wanna mess with them.

It was pouring when we visited, so there were puddles all around. My shoes & socks were soaked, but I tried my best to try to keep the rest dry by rolling up my pants & covering up with a cheap poncho.

The birds rely on human leftovers, so they can be a bit gutsy:

Was the place worth our time? Absolutely.

Honeymooning in Australia

juice Photo of the day, travel

Sydney was our first stop in Australia so the first few days, especially for me were spent battling jet-lag. As with any westbound journey it wasn’t too bad, we just ended up waking up before daylight and going to bed after an early dinner.

I don’t know if it was because it was the first leg of our trip, but we didn’t enjoy Sydney as much as the other cities. We found it to be a little harder to navigate. Even once we figured out the train system, we continued to have trouble even getting to places we’d been before. It was great exercise but a little tiring on the legs and draining in the heat. We also found it harder to find places to eat. I would definitely recommend staying in the Circular Quay or Darling Harbor area since that’s where most of the tourist destinations are. We stayed near the Darlinghurst area across the street from the Anzac Memorial so while it was easy to get to a train station, we usually didn’t want to go back out to where we were after we came back to freshen up before dinner.

Our favorite spots:

• Pink Peppercorn. Laotian restaurant in Darlinghurst. It was a short walk from our hotel and was recommended by one of the guidebooks. We really enjoyed the lamb kabobs which were cooked and seasoned perfectly and we had a delicious coconut curry with chicken. Ian loved the fragrant rice which went perfectly with both of the dishes.
• The Cantina. Tapas place in the Darlinghurst area. They had an early bird special
• Sculptures by the Sea. Sculpture exhibit from Bondi to Bronte beach. We were fortunate to catch it because it goes for only about 2 weeks from the end of October to mid-November. Many of the installations were built into the rock areas along the walkway but there was also a park right before Tamarama beach that had quite a few additional sculptures.
• Open market at the Rocks. On the weekends only. Fortunately my brother gave us a heads up about this because we were only in Sydney for 1 weekend day. The shops close up before 5pm so we were only able to shop for a little bit but we were able to get some nice souvenirs.

Places we recommend avoiding:

• Sydney Tower/Oz Trek. I’ve been to towers and lookouts in other cities I’ve visited and felt like it was a worthwhile experience, but the same cannot be said about the Sydney Tower. For one, it’s not the highest point in Sydney and also they didn’t have placards like most places do to let you know what you’re looking at. We did our best to try to figure it out with our guidebooks, but especially since a view of the Opera House was obscured it really wasn’t worth it in my opinion. As Ian mentioned in his post, Oz Trek was not a good experience for me. I’ve been on other simulators before and been okay but something about this ride made me really ill and I was out for the night.
• Museum of Contemporary Art. Admission was free and for us we were thankful that it was. Neither of us are big contemporary art fans but it is located in such a prime location we had hope. The best thing about it was to see all of the school kids on field trip doing hands on projects with the docents. It seems like they had a really good program for field trips but with the exception of a couple exhibits, it was not our cup of tea.

The only thing we didn’t do that we wish we had done was to go see a performance at the Sydney Opera House. We went on a tour there which was impressive in itself especially since we were able to see some of the ballet people do their warm-up exercises but we could only imagine how much better it would be to see an entire show.

Honeymooning in Australia

cnaks travel

We loved Melbourne. I’m sure it had a great deal to do with the fact that we have a friend who lives there who helped us out immensely while we were doing our planning but we also really enjoyed the nice, relaxed vibe of the City. It’s also set up on a grid season so it was much easier to find our way around. The Flinders Station area is a great, central location though all of downtown is easily accessible.

Places we enjoyed:

• San Churro. Cafe where they make fresh churros with different dipping sauces. Came highly recommended by my brother. They also have them in Sydney but good thing we didn’t try them until Melbourne because we went there twice in three days.
• Longrain. Thai fusion restaurant that came as a recommendation from our friend’s colleague. There is also a location in Sydney. She called it the best Thai in the world. It was conveniently located across the street from our hotel and the perfect place to celebrate our last dinner in Melbourne. It was definitely more upscale than the Thai restaurants we go to at home but it was delicious and worth every penny.
• Brighton Beach. More of a locals beach with cute little bathing houses.
• St. Kilda. Really cute beach area with lots of trendy shops and restaurants.
• Cafes in the laneways near Flinders Station. Free wi-fi and reportedly the best coffee in Melbourne.
• Phillips Island. We loved it so much it deserves a separate entry.

Skip it:

• Camy’s Dumpling House. In the guidebooks touted as the best Shanghai food outside of Shanghai. Two words: not true. It was cheap but not worth it.

Honeymooning in Australia

cnaks Photo of the day, travel

Happy new year! Sure, this greeting is a few weeks old, but I still mean it!

It was a relatively quiet New Year’s Eve party. Many family members were out of town or couldn’t make it. Disappointed? A little. It’s a bit hard to maintain a huge family, but you gotta hold on to what we have left—namely, tradition. Hopefully for years to come, I can always count on the big family New Year’s reunion as I’ve done all my life.

On a positive note, my Auntie Remy threw a really good party, complete with good food, a money booth (inspired by a Filipino game show) & a house full of laughter. As a gift, I’ve uploaded a photo of her & her sisters. I doubt she reads my blog, & if on the off chance she does, I hope you enjoy it, auntie!

juice Family, photography