New Year's Resolutions!

I really wanted to tell you all about the things I did after my birthday but it's too late to catch up now and I don't really want to keep lagging back by trying to cover everything I did when I don't have the time for it.

As for my 2014, it's been filled with many ups and downs. The downs left me physically and emotionally exhausted but the ups bandaged all of it nice and gently. My relationships developed in ways that I never expected it to. Some of them moved towards a direction I didn’t prefer it to but as everything happens (or happened) with a reason, I’m pretty sure that the pain and sacrifices are not for nothing. Despite my difficulties this year, I’m ending it with so much gratitude because whatever didn’t break this year just got stronger.

Since it's the 31st already, instead of frantically trying to catch up, I leave you all with this New Year's Resolutions video.

Have an amazing New Year everyone and hope that 2015 be great to all of us!

9/26/14: The Running Iron (Birthday Trip Part Ten)

Even though our host told us that we could stay at the Chicken House for the entire day of our checkout day, we decided to just pack everything early in the morning and head out. The Chicken House was about thirty minutes away from Carmel Village and the village is on the way back home so it didn't make sense to leave our stuff behind to go back there again after breakfast.

The Running Iron was the other place that we heard from our host about so we decided to have breakfast over there. It was a restaurant and a saloon so the place had this very interesting look to it.

Q got the Bacon and Eggs breakfast with some sliced oranges and potatoes.

I got the Fried Egg sandwich, also with the oranges and potatoes. I'm not really a fan of sandwiches but I wanted to get something different from what Q have. 

The food was satisfying and the portions were huge (at least for us).

The weather was perfect so we were seated outside. After our meal, I used their bathroom so I got a view of the interior of the restaurant. It was even more interesting inside! I'm really curious as to how they collected so many cowboy things, especially the boots. Are the owners real cowboys? Are these items part of their history? Now that I look back on it, I could have asked someone working there but I was too astonished at the time.

I've been to nicely decorated (sometimes themed) restaurant but the bathroom disappoints in some of them. This restaurant isn't like that. Even the bathroom followed the overall theme of the place and I would have taken more pictures but there was ongoing traffic in the bathroom and I didn't want to seem like an unreasonable tourist, if not a creeper. Here's one picture I managed to take when I had like ten seconds of alone time in there.

When I got out, Q was ready to go. He paid for the bill already and everything. We really enjoyed our Carmel trip and it was a bittersweet feeling to go. We loved our "vacation" from busy LA but at the same time, it felt so wrong to stay longer since we both have stuff to do. Besides, we can't stay somewhere too long or else the special feeling we get from being in new places will get old. It was time to go home.

9/25/14: The Sardine Factory (Birthday Trip Part Nine)

It was already dinner time when we finished exploring Cannery Row. Q Yelped the places around and found the reviews for The Sardine Factory quite encouraging so we walked towards it.

The exterior of the restaurant looks like it was a fun family restaurant but when I saw the menu displayed outside, I found out that the price range was around $30-75. However, after being so disappointed with the food place we formerly visited, Q insisted that he wanted something really nice before we leave. 

Upon entering the restaurant, the price range suddenly made sense. The setup was fancy; there was a live performer playing songs for everyone, the servers were dressed prim and properly and the service was magnificent. The receptionist greeted us with a friendly smile, not with judging eyes and doubtful, arrogant voice that we usually get in other fancy places ( I guess, we look a bit young for these places and people sometimes doubt if we could afford such a luxury). The receptionist asked us if we had a reservation and despite answering with a no, he politely asked us to wait as he looks for a place to sit us. The place was packed but he still found us a spot and politely asked us again if that area would be acceptable. After being seated, he introduced us to our server who then took over. We had two servers assisting us and both were very cheerful and friendly people. They were both very polite and they treated us with respect.

We started our dinner by having some freshly baked dinner rolls.

They also provided us some spread which was well-organized in this stainless dish.

 Q said that I might as well treat this as my third birthday dinner so he ordered some Pinot Noir that was recommended to us by our server.

We both ordered their 6oz. USDA Filet Mignon steak and enjoyed it a lot. It was very rich without being overwhelming. We felt full but not bloated and in fact, we even had some room for dessert.

I really wanted to try their Legendary Chocolate Sardines but I thought it would be too much so Q and I decided to share The Sardine Factory's Baked Alaska. It's layers of strawberry sorbet, sponge cake and vanilla ice cream in meringue served on raspberry coulis and chocolate sauce.

It was wonderful. It definitely ended our Sardine Factory experience beautifully and if ever we stop by the area again, we would love to eat there again. Our experience was perfect and given that our day went by perfectly as well, that day couldn't have been more magnificent. 

9/27/14: Cannery Row (Birthday Trip Part Eight)

Our day did not end after exploring the aquarium. Around 5:30, we left and explored Cannery Row.

I really enjoyed the buildings here. 

I was expecting some defunct cannery buildings but most of what we've seen looked new. It was very touristy but I enjoyed the sights nonetheless.

We weren't very hungry but we felt that we could grab some snack. We ended up in a the Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop. 

I'm down to try the crazier ones but I know I couldn't finish it so I had to compromise and pick one that Q and I could share. This is one of their "lighter" selections, a Mango Sorbet with hot fudge. 

Yup, it was pretty big.

I like eating out even though I can't eat a lot. (I'm not on a diet or anything. It's just that my stomach can handle only so much food and forcing myself to eat more makes me sick.) One of my favorite things about dining out though is how Q and I just get to sit there and talk. I like talking (and if making videos didn't take a lot more effort, you'll probably be in my channel instead of reading these walls of texts). When we're at home, we watch something while we eat which is perfectly fine too but I really enjoy just talking to Q as well. It's like a first date all over again. Just talking, getting to know each other... looking at some nice view...

After that, we explored all the shopping areas in Cannery Row. To my delight, most of them are candy stores! However, I've never seen a candy store so packed that I was as overwhelmed as Q was.

Good thing, I admitted to myself that I still a truckload of candy at home to finish and spending $50-100 more on just candy is not a very smart idea.

There's this other candy store there IT'SUGAR that carried brandname candies and some SNL humor ones. They had fun merchandise and a great selection but it's a little bit too commercialized for me.

Couple of years ago, I remember getting excited when I see gummy candies this big but now that I've actually mellowed down on my consumption of sweets, I didn't even know what to feel. 

I was trying to include myself in the picture to emphasize the scale of these boxes but it's really hard to selfie with a huge phone. They're much bigger than the usual size.

I hope this photo shows what I meant a little bit clearer.

More candy stores.

More taffies.

More Pop Rocks.

And more oversized things. That or maybe I'm just really small. 

At this point, I've realized that I looked sugar high. Q recognized that, despite my enthusiasm, I was getting tired. So he gently pulled me away and we walked out the building to go find a nice place to sit down and have dinner.