Mendocino Weekend Getaway

We wanted to get away for President's Day weekend and decided on Mendocino. We both wanted to try staying at a Bed & Breakfast (I got the idea after watching Tori & Dean season 1 where they managed a Bed & Breakfast). I found a cute B&B in downtown Mendocino called the Headlands Inn for a pretty reasonable price. One of the reasons we booked this place was because the breakfast was supposed to be pretty good!

The drive from our place to Mendocino was around 4.5 hours. We arrived really late at night due to the long drive, so didn't really do much the first day. We booked Annie's Room, which is located towards the back of the first floor. The room itself was a little small but enough for two people. It also had a small table/eating area. Since this was our first time staying at a B&B, we didn't really know what to expect. We could kind of hear the people upstairs and their conversations a little bit, so it really felt like we were staying at someone's house.

The next morning we woke up in time for our breakfast! Breakfast was delivered to our front door around 9AM. Portions was huge, and the food was yummy! We got french toast topped with fruit and powdered sugar and filled with creme filling on the inside, grapefruit halves, and a side of sausage patties. We also got juice, coffee, tea, and the Sunday newspaper.

Breakfast - 1st day

After breakfast, we walked around "downtown" Mendocino, which was really small. There were several trinket stores, art galleries, and small restaurants. We then walked towards the cliff to see the ocean. The view was very beautiful. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. A couple of friends recommended Cafe Beaujolais, so we decided to go there. It was a short walking distance from the inn. The restaurant was very small and cute! Food was good and reasonably priced.

Mendocino Coast

We were so full from lunch we went back to our B&B room to take a nap. Afterward we had afternoon tea and cookies on the second floor of the inn. From watching Tori & Dean, I had the impression that people who typically stay at B&B like to socialize with each other, so we made the effort to go to afternoon tea :p

Because of the big lunch and then tea and cookies, we were not hungry until around 9PM. We walked around the downtown area and found most places were closed, except for this one small pub that was still open and serving dinner. The pub definitely had a local feel to it, and it looked like we were probably the only tourists there. Everyone else looked like they lived/worked in the area.

For breakfast the next day, we were served baked eggs and cheese in a taco shell topped with salsa, sour cream, and black olives. It was pretty good! After our meal, we rested a little before checking out. We met with the B&B owner, Denise & Mitch. They were really friendly and nice! We couldn't believe our trip was almost over.

Yummy breakfast - 2nd day

On our drive back down south, we tried to grab lunch at Rustic @ the Coppola winery in Geyserville, but the wait was 1.5 hours! Fortunately Yelp came to the rescue and we found another place close by, Diavola Pizzeria. This place was pretty busy also, but we got immediate seating upon arrival. The burata cheese was sooooooooooo good! It had been a while since we last had burata cheese. :D

LOVE Burata!

Overall, it was such a nice, relaxing trip! I usually over plans and pack too many activities into one trip. But this time, we decided to not do anything, and it was actually nice. :)
Staying at a B&B was definitely an interesting experience. We think we still prefer staying at a hotel, but we would not rule out another stay at a B&B.

Valentine's Day Weekend

We originally didn't have anything special planned for Valentine's Day. Dan suggested steak dinner and that we should celebrate Valentine's on February 13th instead of the 14th since it's cheaper...he he. Being the understanding wife, I agreed :p

On Saturday, February 12th, I suddenly craved "high tea". High tea is an afternoon English tea time where people (mostly women/girls/ladies) gather together to chit chat and sip tea and yummy scones, tea sandwiches, and petit fours/desserts. Since it was kind of last minute and I didn't make any previous plans, I asked Dan to accompany me. At first, Dan hesitated (as most guys would), but being the wonderful husband that he is, he reluctantly agreed!

I found this really cute place in Pleasanton called the English Rose. We managed to grab a last minute reservation at this place. The place was really cute! Loved the shabby chic decoration and the soft pink/green color combo (just like our wedding color combo!).

Poor Dan, he was the only guy in the whole room! :) The place was packed with all kinds of females ranging from 5 year old girls to grandmas! I think that Dan secretly enjoyed the experience...he he.

Dan ordered the "Serene Green" tea and I ordered the "Strawberry Kiwi" tea. The food finally came in a three tiered tray. The scones were sooo good (served warm). Almost everything we tried was pretty good and hopefully Dan will accompany me again back to this place!

The next day we went to Forbes Mill Steakhouse in Los Gatos for our Valentine's Dinner. The restaurant was packed with nearly all couples. They had a Valentine's special which was not too bad price wise. The food, however, was a little disappointing. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't awesome. The Kona Coffee creme brulee was pretty good though!

Oahu (Hawaii - Part 2)

My family wanted to get together over Christmas holiday, and after some back and forth on where to go, they decided on Hawaii. The funny thing is we just got back from Maui a couple of months earlier. But, how can you say no to Hawaii?

Considering my family big appetite for shopping, we decided on Oahu. We felt that they would be super bored on the Big Island or Kauai.

Waikiki Beach

We didn't realize how commercialized and city-like Oahu would be, especially around the Waikiki area. We wanted to stay around Waikiki since it's closer to the shopping malls and also close enough to the beach. The majority of tours also provide free pick up from Waikiki hotels, so we thought it would be a nice base since we were not renting a car.

Here's our trip report:

Day 1

We arrived one day early to relax. Since we decided not to rent a car for this trip, we took the Roberts Hawaii airport shuttle, which was easy enough (around $15 pp round trip). We booked the Waikiki Parc hotel, which was in a great location, but the hotel was a bit older than the pictures. It truly was in an almost perfect location though, close enough to the beach and only one block away from Waikiki shops.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, the food adventure began! First stop was Puka Dog. I saw Puka Dog a couple years ago on Food Network and had always wanted to try it. Basically it's a hot dog with fruit relish. The bun is also slightly different than a regular hot dog bun (the hot dog is inserted inside the bun). It was....interesting :) After Puka Dog, we found a takoyaki place just around the corner, which was just ok. We realized that there was a lot of Japanese influence in Hawaii, especially in Oahu. There were tons of Japanese restaurants and Hawaiian people of Japanese descent.

Originally we wanted to go to Alan Wong for dinner, but did not make reservation. Should have known better :p We were not able to eat there and went to eat at Hula Grill instead. Hula Grill is very touristy, and the view was wonderful but food was just blah. We should have done more research and booked somewhere else beforehand.

Day 2

My family arrived in the morning. After they checked in, we decided to go to lunch at Morimoto Waikiki, which just recently opened in Oahu. Morimoto Waikiki is located at the Waikiki Edition hotel, which is a very modern, luxurious hotel. It's located at the other end of Waikiki, but the hotel itself looked fantastic! It was a bit too far to walk, so we decided to take a cab from our hotel. Much to our surprise, the hotel concierge booked a stretched limo taxi for us. We were nervous on how much it would cost, but it was surprisingly affordable (cheaper than taking 2 taxis). My family had fun riding the limo and took so many pictures inside and outside the limo :p

In front of our limo

Food at Morimoto was ok. Maybe we had really high expectations. Price was actually not bad for lunch. After lunch we went to the Ala Moana Mall for a few hours, and then rested and got ready for dinner at House Without a Key (HWAK) at the Halekulani hotel. The Halekulani hotel is actually the sister hotel of Waikiki Parc where we stayed. It's just across the street and the hotel was absolutely beautiful. HWAK's setting was beautiful. Truly made us feel that we were in Hawaii, although the food was just so so.

View from House Without a Key

Day 3

We decided to wake up early morning to do the Diamond Head hike. My older sister is the only one in my family who is somewhat active...haha...so she wanted to come along for the hike. Everyone else preferred to sleep in. The hotel concierge told us that we could just take the bus to Diamond Head. WRONG! We waited for probably 30 minutes until we finally decided to just take a cab. We didn't wake up early enough to see the sunrise, but the hike was still beautiful. Try to come earlier in the day so it's not too hot. The hike itself is not that hard. We were done in maybe 1 hour? There were lots of stairs to climb toward the end, but wasn't really too bad. The view from the top was beautiful.

View from Diamond Head

We were back at our hotel around 9 AM, just in time to wake up the rest of my family :) We walked to Eggs N Things for brunch. The line was sooooo long and we finally got a seat after waiting almost an hour. Food was pretty good.

Eggs 'n Things

Afterward we went on a half circle island tour with Polynesian Adventure Tour. It was a pretty good tour. We didn't want to do the full circle island tour since it's a full day and would be tiring. On this half circle island tour, we stopped by a couple beaches, and several scenic stops. The drive was beautiful. The tour also made a stop at the famous Hanauma Bay. We didn't get a chance to snorkle there but it would have been so much fun!

Hanauma Bay

Day 4

We went on the Pearl Harbor Tour in the morning. Dan really enjoyed this particular tour. We were done around 2 PM and then rested for a little bit before heading to a luau. When trying to book the luau, we really wanted to find something economical since there were the 8 of us. When we went to Maui, our luau costed around $100 per person, which was definitely not doable for 8 people! So I found this really economical luau at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki for $50 per person, which is unheard of! We read the Yelp reviews and it was decent. After having been to one of the best luaus in Maui (Old Lahaina Luau), we were underwhelmed with the experience at Hale Koa. You only get one watered down drink (vs unlimited at Old Lahaina), and the grounds of the luau was a garden setting (vs beachside at Old Lahaina). Food and entertainment was also very disappointing. However, due to the price, we did not complain :p

Hale Koa Luau entrance

My mom made a comment that the food tasted like "cafetaria" food and that the show reminded her of a wedding in "kampung" - (kampung is traditional village in Indonesia). All in all, we had a great time, but we probably would not repeat this particular Luau experience :)

Day 5

We rented a car for the day so we could go to North Shore, as well as visit some of the food places that were not around Waikiki. We went to the famous Leonardi's bakery to get malasadas (sooo good! especially when it's warm). Next stop was Rainbow Drive Inn. This was by far our best meal in Oahu (try the loco moco). Very low key but food was awesome. We stopped by Dole Plantation on the way to North shore and went in the world's largest maze. It was boring (We think it's really for kids) :p Next stop was Matsumoto Shave Ice. It was disappointing. The syrup was just ok and the ice was rough. Ululani in Maui is MUCH better. Next stop was Giovanni's shrimp truck. It was really good and oily! There were TONS of shrimp trucks all around North Shore, but from what we've heard, Giovanni's is supposed to be the best.

Shrimp Scampi - Giovanni's

Afterwards we continued our drive to North Shore, and attempted to park at a beach. We were not able to find ANY parking and in the end decided to head down to Waikiki to swim at the beach there. So much for renting a car to go to the North Shore beach :) The Waikiki beach that we were in was very rocky, lots of corals, and the water were not blue (more like brown ish :)
But we still had fun!

Oh so this was Christmas Eve, so we wanted to have a nice dinner. We somehow managed to get a last minute reservation at Nobu via Open Table. Dinner at Nobu was excellent! My favorite was the miso cod and the mochi ice cream dessert. Mmmm.....

Day 6

Last day in Hawaii. The week went by so fast! We booked breakfast at Ocean House at the Outrigger Reef Hotel which was just across the street from our hotel. The view was beautiful. Food was not bad, HUGE portions (definitely enough to share!). It was a good place to spend our last meal in Hawaii.

Time to plan our next family vacation :)

Some tips and recommendations:

• Oahu is a big city. Lots of high rises (around Waikiki and downtown). Not really what you would think of Hawaii. We recommend you getting an ocean front hotel. Our hotel was only a block away from the beach, but it was not ocean front. We realized that not having an ocean front property really made a difference. We felt that we could have been anywhere in the world and not necessarily Hawaii.
• Must try Leonardi's, Rainbow Drive Inn, and Giovanni's. If you want something fancy then try Nobu. Everything else we tried was mediocre.

Maui Wowie

We just got back from a great trip to Maui, Hawaii. We decided to go on this vacation, not only because we needed it already, but also because we wanted to use some of our airline/hotel miles before they expired. We knew we wanted to go to Hawaii. I had been to Oahu before, so we decided to go to Maui since it seemed to have a great mix of relaxation and activities.

Immediately after the wedding, we started to do some research on Maui. We got some great suggestions on activities, restaurants, and other general tips from friends and also from my trusted travel site, TripAdvisor.

Maui had an abundance of activities: snorkeling, biking down the mountain, sunrise tour, helicopter tour, road to Hana, etc.

A couple tips:
* If you do the Haleakala sunrise tour (which means leaving your hotel at 3 AM), do it the very next day after you arrive (while still adjusting to the time difference). Also, wear LAYERS and bring hats and gloves since it's really cold up in the mountain.
* Try to do activities in the morning. The trade winds pick up in the noon-afternoon time, and it got VERY windy around the island.
* Go to Ululani shave ice as many times as you can!
* Take dramamine for snorkeling tour, road to Hana, or helicopter ride (as needed).

Without further ado, here's our trip report:

Day 1

Finally the day we had been waiting for came. It felt like it'd been so long since our honeymoon, although really it's been only three and a half months :p We got an early flight at 9 AM and arrived in Maui at 11 AM. The airport was FULL (since it was Labor Day weekend). When we got to Maui, we picked up our luggage and went to the car rental to pick up our car. The line was SUPER long. Thankfully it moved pretty fast, and we were out with our car soon enough. We decided to get a convertible since a lot of friends suggested this option. We're glad we did! It was nice to be able to drive with the top down!

First stop was the Geste Shrimp Truck in Kahului, which was really close from the airport. We got the Spicy Pineapple shrimp, and it was excellent. In fact, it was Dan's most favorite food of the whole trip.

Maui's best shrimp truck

Spicy pineapple shrimp

Next stop was Ululani shave ice. This place was the top rated shave ice place of all Maui, and it totally deserved the honor. The ice was SOOO soft, and the toppings were home made.

THE BEST Hawaiian shave ice

Sooo soft!

Day 2

We wanted to do the Haleakala sunrise tour since it seemed to be one of the activities unique to Maui. We decided to do this early on our trip while still adjusting to the time difference. In order to make it to the top of the Haleakala crater by sunrise, we had to leave our hotel by 3 AM. We decided to do the tour so we didn't have to do the early morning drive. We went with Polynesian Adventure Tour and were pretty happy with the experience. Haleakala is the fourth tallest mountain in the world and the sunrise view was pretty amazing. There were a lot of people at the top of the mountain waiting for the sunrise. It was really cold, and thankfully we came prepared. We saw some people wearing sandals and shorts...not smart! :)

After the sunrise trip, we went to lunch at Da Kitchen Express in Kihei and got the Loco Moco, which is a traditional Hawaiian dish: burger patty with eggs and sauteed onions topped with gravy. And of course with a side of rice and macaroni salad. Talk about heavy! It was sooo good though! I've heard that Da Kitchen has the best Loco Moco and they totally delivered.

That night we decided to splurge on dinner and went to Spago at the Four Seasons, which is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I was quite excited to try and I read about this early bird promotion for a $49 three course prix fixe menu (between 5:30 PM-6:00 PM), which turned out to be perfect because we also saw the sunset. We were both not that impressed with the food at Spago, but we did enjoy the ambiance and the view.

Day 3

Another early morning for us! We decided to do the AM snorkeling tour with Trilogy, and we had to be at the harbor by 6:15 AM. The crew at Trilogy were AWESOME and very friendly. They also served good food. We LOVED the cinnamon bun that they serve in the morning. Snorkeling was fun! We went to Molokini crater and turtle town. The water clarity in Molokini was amazing! We didn't see very many fish, but some, and the experience was great. We then went to turtle town and saw a turtle swimming very close to us.

Aboard the Trilogy snorkeling tour

Look at how clear the water was!

That night we went to the Old Lahaina Luau, which is supposed to be one of the best luaus in Maui. The seating is reserved based on when you made the reservation. We booked it a couple months early and got great seats! Food was buffet, and they served traditional Hawaiian food. The show was pretty good, although I think after a couple of performances Dan and I were pretty bored :p Overall we would recommend this luau though. Everything went very smoothly...great food, great ambiance.

Old Lahaina Luau

Beautiful grounds!

I liked the Lava flow (on the right)

Traditional Hawaiian food

Day 4

Everyone said that the Road to Hana is a "must-do". We heard that the drive was brutal (600+ turns), and many one lane bridges. Neither Dan nor I wanted to drive, so we decided to ride in a tour. We heard Temptation Tour does a combo Road to Hana/Helicopter tour and decided to do this option. It was definitely pricey, but considering that it included the helicopter tour, we thought it was worth the price. The van was quite luxurious and carried only 6 passengers. The road to Hana was definitely beautiful, but it was pretty similar to what we've seen in other tropical places. On the way to Hana, we stopped by this place called "halfway to Hana" that sold great banana bread. Delicious. Definitely stop by if you do the drive.

On the way to Hana

Black sand beach

After lunch, we were off to our helicopter tour. We were both so excited since this was our first time. We were originally supposed to do the Hana/Haleakala tour for around 40-45 minutes. However, the Haelakala crater was closed that day due to cloudy weather :( so we only got to do the Hana helicopter tour. We got the front seat (yay!) which was great since I was not sure how much we could see if we got the back seat. The pilot actually assigned where to you sit based on weight.

So excited for the helicopter ride!

View from our ride

The views from the helicopter were absolutely amazing! The tour ended a little early though (I think it only lasted 30 minutes), but oh well, we still had a great time.

After the helicopter ride, we went to Ululani shave ice (again) since it was close to the airport :) We tried the Haleakala flavor which is a combination of coconut milk and lychee. Mmm...

That night we went to Sansei sushi for dinner. They have a 25% off special if you have dinner before 6 PM. We'd heard rave reviews about this place so had pretty high expectations. Food was good in general but not out of this world.

Day 5

Wow. Time does flies when you're having fun! Couldn't believe our vacation was almost over already. We planned a pretty "chill" day. We had breakfast at Kihei Caffe (love this place!), and then went to the pool in the morning to relax. Afterwards we got ready for our couples massage at Spa Grande, at the Grand Wailea hotel which was just next door from our resort. The Grand Wailea was a HUGE resort, almost had a disney-esque feel to it, but definitely beautiful! Spa Grande has been rated one of the top 10 spas in the world, so I had high expectations. The spa was definitely beautiful and had lots of amenities, but was a little older than expected. Nevertheless the experience was still great.

Breakfast at Kihei Cafe

After the spa, we decided to visit the "west" side of the island (Lahaina/Kaanapali). We went to the Whaler's Village and visited the Whaling Museum. After that we made a quick stop to downtown Lahaina, which was a cute town with character and saw the huge banyan tree. We also got the ice cream sandwich at Hula Cookies.

Mama's Fish House

For dinner, we went to Mama's Fish House. We made dinner reservations a couple months ago and requested window seating. The view was so picturesque. Food and service were good. Their menu is printed daily, and they even included the name of the fishermen that caught the fish that day. It's that fresh!

When we were waiting for our valet car after dinner, we saw Paris Hilton and her boyfriend. I wanted to take a picture with them but Dan said no :( so we just took a picture of them from afar. That was definitely a pretty interesting experience.

Day 6

Our last day in Maui :( We didn't really have anything planned except for trying to eat as much as we could...ha. We started off with pancakes at Kihei Caffe, which were delicious! We then checked out of our hotel, went to Zippy's to get the hot Malasadas (doughnut), lunch at Da Kitchen (Hawaiian plate and deep fried spam musubi - which was EXCELLENT), and then Ululani for our last shave ice before leaving. Needless to say, we were both VERY full and happy :)

Fried spam musubi

Hawaiian plate

In summary, we had a great time on our first trip to Hawaii, filled with lots of food, activities, and good times. Where to next? Hmmm...

Our First Home

We finally bought our first home! It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1100 square foot condo in the South Bay. We had been looking for a number of months, and we were so thankful the timing worked out. We closed about a month before our wedding. Before moving in, we repainted the interior walls, replaced the carpet in the bedrooms, and upgraded the living room and hallway carpet to laminate flooring. It was pretty hectic because we coordinated the renovations while finishing up wedding planning at the same time. The renovations were completed 5 days before we got married. Talk about cutting it close!

Here are the details...

Paint

We went with the painter our agent recommended and were very pleased with the timeliness, quality of service, and reasonable/competitive cost. They repainted all interior walls, doors, inside closets, and baseboards.

Selecting the colors took the most time for us. It was difficult because there were so many colors and shades to choose from, and the swatch sample cards did not look the same as the actual paint color on the wall. After narrowing down our selections and going back and forth, we went with the following colors for each room:

Living room, hallway, breakfast nook, kitchen: Wise Owl (beige)
Master bedroom: Plymouth Gray (blue-grayish)
Master bathroom: Sierra White (white with a hint of blue)
2nd bedroom: Sycamore Green (sage)
2nd bathroom: Navajo White (off-white/cream)

Flooring

We replaced the carpet in the living room with laminate, and also put in new carpet in the bedrooms.

Getting HOA approval to put in laminate flooring took the longest time. Once we got approval, carpet was done in a day, and laminate was done in 2 days.

The carpet we chose was Shaw New Idol, Balsa color. Surprisingly, it was very similar to the original carpet color (light gray).

For the laminate flooring, we selected True Timber Premium Laminate, Steinway Cherry color.

In the end, we were satisfied with the results of both.

Blinds

For window coverings, we bought white faux wood blinds from justblinds.com and installed them ourselves. The very first blind we put up ended up being a good 4" too low. We used a manual screwdriver to put up our blinds which made it much harder than it needed to be. So we went to Target, bought a motorized screwdriver, and used it to re-position the first blind we put up.

Before and After

Here are a couple of pre- and post-renovation shots of our new home.

Before: Carpeted Living Room with original paint

After: Living Room with new paint and laminate floor

Before: Breakfast Nook with original paint

After: Breakfast Nook & Main Entrance with new paint

Furniture
After countless trips to many, many furniture stores and outlets, we finally made the following purchases:

Henriksdal bar stools with backrest from IKEA

Bjursta brown dining table from IKEA with Ann Glenn side chairs from Scandinavian Design

Kensington bisque sofa and chair from Macys

Now that we have the main items taken care of, we will move on to the smaller things like an ottoman, accent pillows, curtains or vertical blinds for the living room sliding door, and perhaps a few other detailed touches over time. In the meantime, we are so grateful for and are fully enjoying our new home.