Anniversary Trip Part 2: Trip Summary

It was such a quick, short trip to Orange County. Originally we planned on staying around the resort, but we ended up venturing out to other parts to meet up with friends. So we ended up not staying at the resort area much. We didn't even get a chance to check out the pool!

As usual, we always eat well in SoCal. I think Korean food still appears to be our favorite and something we always try to hit at least once when we're in the area.

We really liked the resort and wouldn't mind staying there again in the future, and hopefully next time we can stay put and enjoy the resort facilities more.

This was also my last full week of my personal leave before I had to go back to work. It's been fun traveling to Indonesia, Chicago, and Orange County these past few weeks...but I guess eventually I had to go back to reality. :)

We made one quick stop to a Hawaiian shave ice shop in Irvine before driving back to John Wayne Airport. It was surprisingly quite good and so refreshing on such a hot day. And with that, our trip came to an end.

Until next time....

Anniversary Trip Part 2: Tapas, Brunch & BBQ in Orange County

This is a continuation of our Orange County Anniversary trip. You can find the full trip itinerary here.

K'ya Bistro

1287 South Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(949) 376-9718

For our first night's dinner, we didn't want to drive all the way to LA, so I checked on Yelp for some good local suggestions and settled on K'ya Bistro - a tapas lounge located not too far away from our hotel. Since we didn't make reservations, we were seated inside - which was fine (if you made reservations, you could reserve seating at their rooftop terrace with sea view). The inside lounge was very noisy and dark, and the tables were very close together.

The prices seemed quite decent, and we ordered a couple things to share. First was the grilled flatbread with hummus and feta. The dish was actually quite good. The flatbread was served warm, but the potato, cheese, and arugula were served somewhat colder. It made for a refreshing dish.

Wild hawaiian ahi poke with onion, seaweed, avocado, spicy soy

The second dish was the wild Hawaiian ahi poke, served with crisp chips. The sweet soy sauce was a bit strong but overall still was a very good dish.

Grilled filet mignon with spinach ,organic polenta, and blue cheese

The filet was not bad for a non-steakhouse place. It was cooked medium and served with polenta, blue cheese, and spinach. We also shared their famous lobster & mushroom risotto, which was probably my favorite dish from this place! It was a bit heavy, so creamy and cheesy, but I LOVED it! :)

Overall we thought the place was pretty good if you like tapas style food, where you can actually try more dishes since the portions are smaller. Prices were not bad although we did end up spending quite a bit because we ordered a couple of things which added up.

Stacks Pancake House

34255 Pacific Coast Highway #110  

Dana Point, CA 92629

(949) 429-2222

This breakfast place was located very close to our hotel, so after checking the reviews on Yelp, we decided to give this place a try.

A lot of people recommended ordering the Captain Crunch French Toast, and I was so glad we ordered this! The Captain Crunch crust was very crispy, and the inside of the bread was warm and soft. It was really good.

Since I got a sweet dish, Dan ordered the loco moco fried rice. Talk about a heavy breakfast! It was not quite like the loco moco that we got in Hawaii, but it's honestly not too bad. 

We were happy we tried this place; the Captain Crunch French Toast was definitely a winner!

Mo Ran Gak

9651 Garden Grove Blvd 

Garden Grove, CA 92844 

(714) 638-1177 

We always try to get our Korean BBQ fix whenever we're in the LA area. We didn't want to drive all the way to Koreatown, so we found a place in Garden Grove that was rated pretty high on Yelp called Mo Ran Gak. We had to wait around 20 minutes for a table during lunch, which wasn't too long.

Typical to most Korean restaurants, we got a number of ban chan side dishes which were all pretty good. We ordered one of their BBQ packages--$34.95 for 2 people which included thinly sliced beef brisket (cha-dohl-bae-gi), short rib (galbi), and the black pork belly (sam-gyup-sal), as well as a soybean stew and steamed egg dish. We also ordered a side of naeng myun (Korean cold noodle) for only an extra $5 add-on to the BBQ package.

The BBQ package for 2 was definitely PLENTY for us. Food was pretty good, and I LOVE eating the meat with the Korean rice paper (duk).

Overall we liked this place. Quality was similar/comparable to Shik Do Rak, another popular place in Garden Grove. Dan mentioned of another place called Gen that he tried recently that was really good as well. Definitely there's not a shortage of good Korean BBQ place in SoCal. I wish they would have similar places here in the Bay Area!

Next Post: Trip Summary

Anniversary Trip Part 2: Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa

This is a continuation of our Orange County Anniversary trip. You can find the full trip itinerary here.

The Laguna Cliffs Marriott was probably one of the nicest Marriott hotels that I have ever stayed in. It felt more like a Ritz Carlton than a Marriott. Although I've never stayed at a Ritz, so I don't really know. :p  But it was a really nice Marriott. The hotel had a Cape Cod style, and even though the buildings were a bit older, the whole hotel just completed renovations not too long ago, so everything still felt pretty new.

The one thing we didn't like about the hotel was the forced $29.00 daily valet parking. We tried to look for street parking but couldn't find one, so we ended up doing the mandatory valet parking. The valet attendants all looked very young--made me think that they were on their spring/summer break or something. :p

The lobby area was very nice and there's this glass wall with water trickling down.  The property was not quite beach front but it was close to a pier. Around the area there were other really nice properties such as the Ritz Carlton and the St Regis, and I think those resorts were beach front.

Since we booked via Priceline, we got the lowest level room which was a resort view room. The receptionist asked if we wanted to upgrade to a partial ocean view room for a fee, but we decided to stick with our resort view room.

The resort was actually pretty big. We had to walk a LONG way to get to our room. I really liked the color scheme of the room, beige/soft blue/white, which was somewhat similar to the color scheme at our house. :)



The King bed was HUGE and there's a flat screen TV, desk area, and a small balcony. The bathroom looked a bit dated (maybe they skipped the renovation on the bathroom?) - but it still looked fine overall.

Our balcony overlooked some parking area and the city of Dana Point. We didn't spend too much time outside, but it was nice to have a balcony.

We actually didn't try any of the on-site restaurants, but there was an outdoors tapas/bar area that would be nice for an afternoon snack and drink.

Thoughts:

Overall we really enjoyed our stay at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott. We actually didn't get to enjoy the pool.  We ended up venturing out a lot and didn't get to experience the hotel much. The Marriott appeared to be one of the more reasonably priced hotels compared to the other high end hotels in the area, although the downside was that the hotel was not a true beachfront hotel. It's still a really nice hotel and we would recommend it if you are around the area.

Next Post: Tapas, Brunch & BBQ in Orange County

Anniversary Trip Part 2: Orange County Trip Planning

I am usually the travel planner for my family's travel needs. So when we went for our Mediterranean cruise last September, I booked the entire cruise trip via Priceline, and scored some hotel vouchers from booking through Priceline. We used some of the hotel vouchers to book a stay at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point, which looked like a great resort. As mentioned previously, since we had just gotten back from South Africa, we wanted to go somewhere close for our anniversary, so we thought we would get some beach time in Orange County.

Due to the timing of the trip, we actually tied this trip together with our Chicago trip, so we flew directly from Chicago to Orange County. Because of that, we really didn't plan much for this trip. Actually, I didn't book any activities or restaurants prior to the trip, which was a first in my book! We were just going to take it easy and enjoy the hotel and the surroundings. Or at least that's what the original plan was. :p As usual, we ended up doing a bit more than we planned...he he.

Laguna Cliffs Marriott

Here's the breakdown of our trip:
Orange County Trip Planning
Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa
Tapas, Brunch & BBQ in Orange County
Trip Summary