Coronado with the Dogs

Decided to make an overnight trip to Coronado with the dogs. We stayed at the Loew's Coronado Bay Resort which sits right next to the ocean and they allow dogs. It's a pretty nice hotel, and the dog fee for two pets is just $25. Coronado is a really dog friendly town, with lots of dog friendly restaurants, a dog beach, and just a lot of nice areas to walk around with your dogs.

They obviously don't know there's a 2 hour car trip ahead of them.


At Petco Park Stadium waiting for Sophy to pick up Carne Asada Fries from Lolita's (1 of 2 trips within 24 hours)


At Loew's Coronado (they don't get to do this at home)

At the Coronado Dog Beach

Sheldon and Lui are quite curious about this whole ocean business. Sheldon's been to the dog beach, but this was Lui's first time.


They've realized the water is there to attack them.


Couldn't outrun the water


They've made it away from the water and Sheldon definitely does not want to go back.



The end result is dirty dogs.




After wiping off the dogs, we took a walk around the Hotel Del Coronado.

Behind us is the Beach Village  at the Del, which sits right in front of the ocean and apparently costs about $1000 a night. 



After walking around the shops and restaurants, we went on the other side of the island to the Coronado Ferry Landing. Again, lots of dog friendly shops ad restaurants.

Here's a picture of Sheldon and Lui with downtown San Diego in the background.

The next day we did a little more walking and eating around Hotel Del Coronado.


After a long 24 hours, this was the ultimate result.

Strawberry Festival

Went to Oxnard to check out the Strawberry Festival this year. Take a quick shuttle from Camarillo Outlets to the festival.

If you're into arts and crafts, that stuff is always there. The more interesting parts of course are the food...


What we tried:

Deep Fried Strawberry



Strawberry shortcake



Strawberry beer
Strawberry wine
Strawberry funnel cake


What did we not try?

Chocolate covered strawberries
Strawberry smoothie
Strawberry pizza
Strawberry popcorn


Festival's not bad, though I probably wouldnt go every year.

Trout: Fished and Cooked

Went fishing again in Big Bear, but this trip didn't see as much trout as the last trip. Ended up coming home with 5 Rainbow Trout.


Went home and tried a very simple pecan crusted fish recipe. Blend some pecans, mix it with a little bit of panko and drop the fish in the mixture. Fry it in a pan for a few minutes and it's done.

Thank you again Ellen!

Made it onto the Ellen show again and this time, got a $100 Visa Gift Card, 2 AMC movie tickets, a book on the making of the movie "Chimpanzee," a couple DVDs, a Power Bag Backpack (backpack that can charge electronic devices), House of Marley headphones, aaaaand a 2012 Specialized Vita bike.

The cool thing is Sophy got the same stuff and so we got two of all that! haha

Thanks Ellen! also I guess I should say thank you to Mrs. Meyers cleaning products who sponsored the show haha.

Call of Duty: Airsoft

For Manuel’s birthday, we went to Jericho Airsoft in Lake Elsinore. I’d beeen paintballing a couple times, but this was my first time trying airsoft, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The bb’s don’t really hurt when you get hit, unless you’re up close.

The place we went to was pretty cool. We got to try 3 maps, the first of which was a whole bunch of trenches. We basically split up into two teams and shot each other until there was one person left.

The second map was probably my favorite as it had more “buildings” and other random objects like a big bus in the middle. We played here for 30 minutes and whoever had their flag raised at the end was the winner.

Eh, I’ll spare the details unless you’re more interested. For now, here’s some pictures.

Trenches

Just shot Manuel after he raised their flag lol

Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana

I think Settebello Pizzeria has moved its way to the top of my list of favorite Pasadena eateries.

Apparently, there's an Italian based association called Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN), whose purpose is to protect the integrity of pizza making from some 200 years ago when it began in Napoli, Italy. So what does this mean for us in Pasadena?

It means really good thin sliced pizza haha.

I tried the Pizza Carbonara which had a nice light crushed tomato sauce, fried egg, and pancetta. Sophy tried the special Pizza Spinaci which had spinich, mozarella, ricotta, prosciutto, and roasted almonds on top. What a strangely good combination.

On top of it, the pizzas are made in about 90 seconds in this wood fired pizza oven where one guy was rotating and cooking several pizzas at a time and at a frantic pace. Sitting at the "pizza bar" gave us a front row view of the cooking, and it probably added to the intrigue of this restaurant.

We also had an appetizer which had arugula and goat cheese wrapped with prosciutto in balsamic reduction. Finished dinner off with some Italian donut type things that were filled with nutella.

Can't wait to go again.

Lake Arrowhead

Went to Lake Arrowhead for our anniversary. Stayed at the Lake Arrowhead Resort which was really nice, had a real woodsy feel to it haha.

Went around Lake Arrowhead Village for a bit, did a little fishing, lots of eating, and a bit more fishing.

Went to BIN189 which was the hotel restaurant, and I'd probably give it 4 stars if I was a yelp user. What was really interesting was our breakfast at Belgian Waffle Works. Had a S'mores Belgian Waffle. Basically had chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge, graham cracker crumbs, marshmallow. and the waffle itself. Unique breakfast to say the least.

And, on top of it, Sophy caught a fish.

Heading up the mountain

View from the room (room was really nice, shoulda taken a picture)