Anza Borrego April 2023

Time to visit the Desert again! 

Anza Borrego Cactus Trail 2023

We been planning with 2 other couples to visit them in the desert and finally we managed to get a weekend where it work out for all 6 of us =) 

It has also been a really wet winter in California and flowers are blooming everywhere creating a superbloom condition. 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/us/california-superbloom-flowers-climate/index.html

I am excited to see the desert through the eyes of someone who live and love it there. Going there as a tourist for a day trip, I just never seem to find the appeal of the desert. 

But after seeing the stars at night, knowing how the local live, and hikes/nature are a few minutes drive away, I can see why people love it there. 

We got there after work on Friday and settled in our friend's new place before we head out to Gene/Mary's RV site. 

Finally! we got together in Anza Borrego!

Gene and Mary had bid and won a French dinner for 6 and arranged it on Friday night and we are all looking forward to it. After relaxing with some champagne, we had our first course of marinated wild salmon with brown sugar, dill, vodka etc.. Served with frozen vodka

Table setup by Mary and our first appetizer course with the frozen bottle of Vodka

 

The 2nd appetizer course of shrimp with tomato that's very good. 

Main course of duck with potatoes and carrots with Inuit bread (which taste very similar to soda bread) 

A cheese course of brie and cow milk cheese, followed by blueberry cheesecake (heard it's kosher but not sure what that mean) 

Yummy dinner 

The 2nd day we had breakfast at home with Matt and Colleen (lovely strata with homegrown grapefruit juice) followed by a hike at cactus trail and another area

Matt and Colleen on the cactus trail

We saw a lot of blooming flowers in the cactus trail and it's just amazing to see the choyas sprouting beautiful flowers while still looking deadly. 

Blooming cactus

More flowers and ocotillo blooming

The entire hillside has plants sprouting yellow flowers that transformed the desert hills to yellow

After the hiking, we beat a hasty retreat before it gets too hot and spend some time at the pool cooling off. 

Cosmo on a floating pad in the pool

For dinner, Matt and Colleen had a zinfandel tasting of 4 wines and it's very interesting seeing Primitivo from Italy that has the same DNA as Zinfandel tasting so different than Zin from the Sonoma Valley,  central coast and Fiddletown. 

4 wines Zinfandel tasting

Matt and Colleen has prepared an authentic Santa María tri tip roasted on a traditional Santa María grill, served with traditional sides. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria%E2%80%93style_barbecue#:~:text=In%20the%201950s%2C%20a%20local,of%20Santa%20Maria%2Dstyle%20barbecue.

After a nice breakfast on Sunday at Kendals, we drove home after a lovely weekend at the desert. 

Breakfast at Kendal

Singapore 2023

Chinese new year in Singapore 2023

 Fountain in Jewel Changi Airport

Finally Singapore has lifted all covid constraints and Bill joined me for a trip to Singapore for Chinese new year. 

Jewel Singapore

It has been a couple of years of covid shutdown and my family hasn't gathered for 2 years. 

Mum's family got together on the first day of Chinese new year

Ya, this is just half of my family =) 

Took about 3 tables to Lou Hei (see Wikipedia explanation for adult playing with food =))

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng

The idea is the higher you toss the salad, the more fabulous is the upcoming year. Needless to say, we all moved outside and gave plenty of room for the mess

3 tables for Lou Hei fun 

This is my immediate family with my youngest uncle, minus my 2nd brother family as he was late. 

The red color certainly stands out =) 

Bill and I also had a chance to take a trip to Singapore Republic Yacht Club to visit the facility as they have reciprocal privileges with San Diego Yacht Club. We also did a burgee exchange with them so that we can fly their burgee at Oasis. 

Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

Our Lunch with a view! 

Bill and I took lunch one day at Skar which is the 70th floor of Stanford Westin hotel 

Our 3 course lunch

https://www.skai.sg/

It gives a nice view of the Marina Baysands and Collyer Quay 

SDYC Burgee at Marina Baysands and Merlion

We also went to the science museum in the Baysands and it's pretty trippy. It's meant for kids but we had fun in there

Science museum in Baysands

In Singapore, one must visit the National Orchid Garden and we survived the humid trip through the botanical garden to get to the Orchid display. 

Beautiful orchids

Only picked a few out of my photo collection to showcase here

Hey it's a lawn mowing rebot! 

And seafood esp Chilli crab and Black pepper crab are national dishes that Bill has to eat before he leave Singapore

Jumbo.. Yum

The fried fritters, scallop yam ring

I also took the chance to try all kinds of local food that I miss in Singapore. Japanese food is always a favorite of mine and going back to Singapore I try to get as much of it as I can

Kiwami Ramen in Singapore Jewel with Catherine.. good soft shell crab bao too!

A foodie friend enjoying Jap Izakaya 

Good toro Sashimi, Uni sashimi and yakitori. Will pass on the tofu and kama next time

And yes.. a night out with Kim Hwee for wine

Kim at Paya Lebar for wine

Meeting with my first HP team for our annual meet up after 3 years. 

RoadRunner and Montmelo Team Meet up

 

These are little local dishes that are not easily found in the US. 

Kao Yu with my brother's family 

Kway Chup.. and yes, it's braised pig intestines 

Prawn noodle and Gor Hiang at Mosque street

Beautiful little cafe 

Cakes and coffee places

Vegas baby! 2022

Vegas trip 2022 

Back to Sin City again...

Iconic views of Vegas from Bellagio Fountain

 

Bellagio fountain

It's always fun, easy to drink too much and no lack of good food. 

Went with another couple (Dave and Jenn) who booked the Grand Hilton Vacation Club Elara and invited us on the trip. So off to Vegas again! 

Jenn and Dave in the piano bar @ Fremont

This is the room/living room/kitchen in Elara. Very trippy red tinted windows that is fun to look through, but everything starts to look green after a while outside the red zone. We have the view of Paris and Planet Hollywood on one side and Aria & Cosmopolitan on the other. 

Elara room and view from the room 

Before checking into the room, we went straight to a birria place that was on Tacos Chronicles Season 2. El Campo Birria. https://www.facebook.com/birriaelcompalv/

Great Jalisco style birria, fall-off-the bone meat that make great tacos. Good consommé too. 

Birria at El Campo and lamb tacos

After that we tried to walk around the art district and poke our heads into the different art gallery/Artists studio in the artist factory. There are a lot of places not open, maybe it's winter season and maybe it's too early.

The art district area in Vegas

I think they still have more to develop in the area esp in the day time. But it's nice to do something in Vegas that's not related to Fremont or the Strip and involve drinking. 

Some art and paintings and photos in the Art Factory

That night we went to Fremont and listened to concerts, watch the street performers and hang out at "Don't Tell Mama" piano bar and had a good time. It's the first time that i had Tokyo Tea. Twist to Long island tea with the Japanese melon liqueur.. I need to make this. 

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/tokyo-tea/

Having a good time at "Dont Tell Mama"

Street performer balancing on 1 finger in Fremont

We had pizza first at a bar call Evel Pie. Turns out it's a memorial to Evel Knievel so they shows his stunts on tv and a logo "Live hard ride fast eat pizza" lol.. But they have very good pizza including a vegan one with mushroom. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Had Evel Pie that is a restaurant named after evil 

The other entertaining thing about Fremont is how frequently people got stuck in the zip line. And need to be rescued. This time there's a rescuer that needs to be rescued. So a 3 person tow line =) 

Anybody else need a ride?

The next morning we went to Hoover Dam via Lake Mead.

Panoramic view of Lake Mead

The hike is quite cold.. Brrrr... 

It turns out Lake Mead is a national recreation area and has a marina. So we went there for brunch before heading for a hike to Hoover Dam from Lake Mead. 

Decent brunch, view priceless, dead bodies - didn't find any

Lake Mead is at one of the lowest point in history and it's interesting to see how low the water is. There are news of dead bodies being found as the water level keeps getting lower. 

We also think the marina has to shift every time the water gets lower. 

The hike is interesting as we go through 5 old train tunnels that used to bring building materials. 

I love the perspective of 2 train tunnels behind me

But it was certainly a good 8 mikes round trip hike that took over 3 hours. Great view of the lake too. 

Not ready to give up yet!

The hike ends at Hoover Dam and we can get a good view of the dam and the bridge. 

The view at the end

Random pics of the hike, including hat on car!

After the hike, we went to Buddy V restaurant in Venetian as we were quite impressed with the food when we did the last food tour. So wanted to try more of their normal menu 

https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/restaurants/buddy-v-ristorante.html

Great dinner at Buddy V

Bellagio has their xmas decoration up this year and it's fun and super crowded. Looks like a toys theme this year and a train running around their huge Xmas tree. 

Bellagio Xmas Decoration

The next day is World Cup Finals! Woke up early to catch the game and it's a pity that France played less stellar but Argentina certainly deserve to win the game. 

After the game we went to the Mob Museum before heading back home. 

The entrance of the museum which used to be an old post office

I was half distracted by the extra time into the soccer game so didn't take as many pictures. But the museum is interesting that it tells the story of the rise and fall of organized crime in USA with the Prohibition increasing the profits of alcohol smuggling. Subsequently they came to Vegas as casino is legal and a "cleaner" profit. 

We ate a quick lunch at Pizza Rock before heading home.