Mama was gonna let the pictures do all the talking...well...there were some 350 photos in this post. wahahahha...
ok we were leaving San Francisco, some last photos of the landscape
Bye, our gorgeous hotel, room 469
We never did try the cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory, what a pity
On the long...erm i though we took some 11 hours to get to Los Angeles, with all the stops and insane jam packed traffic...ok the initial part...papa wanted to go to Monterey Bay, where the Naval Postgrad school was. He was offered an opportunity to study masters there for 1.5 years...erm...as of yesterday, papa had tendered his resignation and given up the chance. mama thought it would have been a fantastic chance for us to live overseas, you two would be able to attend preschools in USA, with their wide verdant sprawling school grounds, interesting festivals, parades, activities, things that we would never get to enjoy in Singapore...
we were so tired...we all fell asleep...sneaky papa took this photo to amuse himself...
but an opportunity arose and papa decided to take the plunge and went into HR instead in Semp Corp. He felt he would have greater opportunities there. As of now, we could not be sure where this all would lead to, I hoped we would have a great story to tell when we looked back at this posting, and papa would attest to that it was a good choice and God had provided exceedingly above all our expectations.
tong was asleep so I stayed in the car with him while Dad bundled the awake xun to explore the sea town. The air smelled salty, it was quaint and quiet...balmy weather, beautiful sights...would have been a lovely place to stay...
You brought crepes back for us, they were absolutely delicious. We wanted to have breakfast there, too bad, tong was sleeping.
The NPS school
We pit-stopped at Pismore Outlet. The kids were getting restless, so we had to take turns to shop. Well...papa shopped and mama was taking care most of the time. papa bought an entire suitcase of clothes, he changed his entire wardrobe! On this rare occasion, mama was buying sneakers from Coach and papa took you to play at the joy ride.
Zipping to Los angeles again. After a thoroughly grueling drive, we finally reached, like 9 plus in the night...oh my goodness....
THe FIRST DAY IN LOS ANGELES - SANTA MONICA BEACH
Beach town...
mama had her fortune read. I used to like to play on these machines in my secondary school days.
Though the sun was shining, the water was chilly and wind was howling. It was actually cold to be standing on the beach while it was hot walking in the beach town just next to the beach.
Ate hotdog buns and found them most delish, the buns were so soft and tasty. Had seafood at one of the restaurants, but the lobsters were too expensive so we did not have that.
Route 66, which was featured in the Movie "Cars", we did not know Oklahoma was part of route 66 too!
spying on the people who were fishing...
There was even an amusement park, we did not go in as the rides were mainly for adults. Biaoyi winnie said many movies had been shot at this beach...
Whoops of joy could be heard when we finally headed to the beach. Though disappointed that you could not play in the water, you were content with frolicking in the sand.
the audacious seagulls! They even tried to open a packet of chips, ha but they were unsuccessful.
Then they actually swarmed to where a bunch of girls were having picnic and attacked the food! The girls fled in fright. hahaha...
When they hovered in the air, they were like just suspending in mid air, it was an amazing sight.
xun built a sandcastle, eh..she put some plants on the tippy top to mark it.
talking a walk to see the beach houses...
spotted a helicopter...
and ending the trip on a high with going to the carousel!
Well...told biaoyi at the end of the day that we had an immensely enjoyable day. She remarked that we were not very typical singaporeans, her friend came and did not really like the beach, remarking the carparking was expensive, the beach was not scenic and the clams were very cheap. Her brother did not like it too much too. Biaoyi wished we had taken the chance to live in USA, she felt we really deserved to come as we would enjoy living here, coz we relished having a slow pace of life and immersing ourselves in experiences...
DAY 2 - The happiest place on EARTH, Disneyland.
As Uncle Roger worked for Disney, we could get FREE admission! WOOOO that saved us like 250 usd! Taking a photo of the train station and mickey mouse lawn behind.
Taking the train ride to tour the place, it was one of the few rides we managed to take as the place was filled with a sea of people. The ride was amazing, they did all the different scenes painstakingly to make them look so realistic...
There was even an indoor part where we saw re-creation of the prehistoric period.
Alright, to conquer the place by walking...
Caught Mickey and pals on a car...
Later on, we went on this boat ride too, the Mark Twain ship
Caught a show, Rapunzel. Their shows were greatly entertaining, better than the ones we paid for to watch in Singapore!
Saw Belle, but the queue was way too long...
The picture looked almost surreal, just look at the bright cerulean sky. You know, Microsoft had this rolling hill and blue sky picture, it was the default set up picture and purportedly unedited at all. I did not believe how a picture could be so perfect. Erm...well, looking at this, yeh...indeed, I supposed it was possible...
Went to Goofy's house...
This zany piano played nonsensical music...
Donald Duck's boat house which he named "Daisy"
Met Goofy and we decided to line up...
Orrrrrr....goofy Goofy, get it?
Chip and Dale's treehouse...
Wanted to go into Minnie's house but the queue was so tediously long...you were disappointed : (
Caught another fantastic show, featured lots of princesses so you thoroughly enjoyed yourself...
Rushed for another show of Beauty and the Beast. They were hilarious.
Then the moment we had been waiting for, the PARADE!
It was a feast for the eyes, such an extravaganza...
Now the line for "meet the princess" was shorter, so we went!
oh, one of your favourite princesses, Aurora...
Then Cinderalla...
And Ariel...how blessed we were..orrrr...
On Board Mark Twain...
You kids were exhausted...we did not want to wait for the fireworks, fearing the mad rush after the event. So...we headed home...mama mused to papa about how it could be the happiest place on Earth when parents had to constantly deny the kids' desires for the fanciful but oh so exorbitant toys and rides which had snaking queues...ha...it was also sweltering hot on that day...oh well, but it seemed like the two of you enjoyed it immensely..so...any pain was worth it, so long it put a smile on your angelic faces...
SUNDAY
First, biaoyi brought us to the Farmers' Market...
Too bad we did not take a photo of the piping hot sweet corn we had, we had like 3 or 4 cobs? Ooo, sweet blueberries for sale...yum yum...
Enjoying yourselves on the bouncy castle. They had a strange rule, you could only go down the slide twice and that was about it. It was really silly and unfeasible, mama felt, we did not care and just let you all play...till the guy who was guarding the inflatable got fed up..ha
A Cousins' shot...wai po said the two of you looked like "pia kias"...
on the cow ride.
exhausted tong taking a siesta in the wagon
xun was smitten with Daron kor kor, she kept following him around. Daron's bro teased Daron that he was xun's special fren...hahaha...
Having snacks while being pulled around by Daron kor kor, mama and dad had a leisurely time just trailing behind...
Aunt michelle's 3rd son, Mao mao...who was slightly younger than jie jie...
Eating more snacks!
Dillian kor kor, which was 8 but just half a head taller than xun...
Fulfilling the promise to tong that he would get to ride in the train...
then playing at the sand pit...i liked how they had all those bulldozers...Daron kor was such a sweet and patient big brother, and he loved the two of you soooo much, the two older brothers were fighting to carry tong tong...
biaoyi even did a video for us...
<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=645279042185798" data-width="466"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=645279042185798">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Winnie-Triplets-com/174510452595995">Winnie Triplets .com</a>.</div></div>
We went to hav dinner at a Korean restaurant and had to bide farewell...well they would be visiting Singapore soon so we would see them again!
AT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO
The very place of creativity...the very mecca of imagination...
It was like going to an art gallery, there were rows upon rows of paintings, sketches, models...
Taking a lunch break with Uncle Roger. He had so graciously applied for passes to let us in and spent an afternoon just showing us around!
Lee, Stan, some famous guy...
Xun was ecstatic to see this... UNcle ROger said we had come too late, previously there were huge props all over the buildings on "Frozen". But they were working on a new animation and we could not take photos in many areas as it was not allowed...So we missed the Frozen stuff and could not capture memories of many of the areas we went to : (
Ooo movie costume sets!
Definitely a visit that was mind-blowing. Uncle Roger also brought us to the Disney store where there were many bargain merchandise, so now xun and tong had many disney teeeeessss...hahaha.
well, after the trip, we went to the outlets again at CITADEL. no photos...but yup, bumper harvest yet again.
DISNEY ADVENTURE WORLD
So, biaoyi deliberately came to meet us after her lesson ended so she could sign us in for free again! Ha, we caught a really fun show at Disney Clubhouse...
It was very interactive, with bubbles, confetti, golden papers swirling around...
And we visited CARS LAND, tong was jubilant, finally something that was not princessy...
ooo, Mcqueen, one of tong's fav characters...
the cones motel we saw in the movie, ha!
Flo's v-8 cafe...
and luigi's leaning tower of wheels...it was really fun
Took this amusing wheel ride, we had to lean in different directions to make it move...
Lunch time...
OH MATER. you two loved how he went backwards in the movie and was always so cheeky, with scaring of the tractor cows and talking nonsense...
Mcqueen went off, and Mater came to the photo spot...eh..but the queue was toooooo long.
Loved the backdrop. There was a ride that was under maintenance, it must have really scenic views...
Oh the shy fire engine...
Going to another area, thought BUGS land or something?
Taking the acorn ride...
jie could go for the bumper cars but tong was too short...to his dismay, so mama brought him for the caterpillar ride again..
Lastly, at King Tritan's carousel of sea creatures...
Tong was so sad when he had to leave, see him weeping here? His little heart was broken...
went went to Denny's with biaoyi and family for dinner. As fate would have it, children dine for free on that night! haha...so we had a roaring good time...went home and pack as we were gonna set off once again!
Cute tong in action, hmmm could not recall when we took it, probably while waiting for daddy when he was shopping...
the room we slept in at biaoyi's house...
we really missed her and family...
“当我们同在一起，在一起，在一起，当我们同在一起，其快乐无比！”还记得小时候总喜欢与表兄妹同在一起。周末我们都会到阿嫲家聚会，大人们打着桥牌，我们几个小不点就玩闹起来。但随着岁月的流逝，我们渐渐长大后，就甚少相聚了，有时一年就只在新年、生日聚会或婚礼宴会上见一两次面。移居到美国后，我们就更少见面了。所以当表妹一家来美国旅游时，我们便安排他们在家小住几天，好重温当年我们在一起的快乐时光。
表妹的四岁大女儿“薰薰”与两岁小儿子“桐桐”，和我们家那三个小瓜年龄相近，不一会儿就玩在一块儿。表妹牺牲了自己在事业上的发展，把大部份的时间都奉献在养育孩子上，而孩子是家长的一面镜子，家长的一言一行都会在孩子身上反映出来。所以仅四岁的薰薰说了一口流利的英语，仅两岁的桐桐竟能滔滔不绝地说话，令我们夸目相看。这几天的相处也让我在表妹与孩子们的互动上，学了很多技巧，如当他们发脾气时，不但不责骂，反而要与他们沟通，了解他们的心情，让他们的情绪平复下来后，他们就自然不闹了。这让我重新考虑是否要成立网上事业，一边在家办公，一边陪伴孩子们成长，多花一点时间在他们身上。
不一会儿，我们相聚的时光就过了，期待回新旅游时，我们再相逢吧！
No comments:
Post a Comment