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So, like, a couple of weeks back Jian & I took our little bean back to Los Angeles to spend time with our ever-expanding extended family. Since Jian doesn’t have much vacation time saved up yet, he took this opportunity to turn our visit into a work-slash-family trip. Also, this gave him a prime chance to snoop around his company department’s newly renovated Los Angeles office. While Jian worked during the day, I would take our little bean out on little excursions around town or go & visit relatives (namely my aunt, who is one of my little bean’s favorite family members).
This recent trip was unlike any other trip we have gone on before. Sure, I have previously tagged along with Jian on a few of his work trips to Vancouver, BC, but I had already been used to spending my free time alone & doing things for myself, like making appointments for specialty manicures at my favorite nail salon, getting impromptu tickets to an art museum, or hopping on the subway to explore a semi-distant neighboring town. On this trip I had to plan my days around my little bean, making sure I had easy access to family style (a.k.a. changing-table accessible) bathrooms & kid-friendly eateries. I also had to take into account my little bean’s napping schedule. After all, I didn’t want to be stuck out at some inconvenient place dealing with a half-asleep, cranky toddler all by myself.
Usually as a family unit, we prefer to book a stay at a Marriott branded hotel. We get lots of perks & an advantageous friends & family discounted rate. However, on this trip we stayed at a different hotel (courtesy of Jian’s company corporate discount) in a completely different area of Los Angeles that we’ve never stayed at or explored much before. On this trip, we decided to stay at the hotel recommended by Jian’s company (mostly for it’s corporate discount & walkability to Jian’s L.A office) in Culver City, which turned out to be a great idea. Jian was able to take an 8 minute walk to & from his office every day, & I was able to have free access to our family car so I could take our little bean on daytime excursions.
For this trip we stayed at The Shay hotel, & though it was extremely close to Jian’s L.A office, it was not so convenient for us if we wanted to take a quick trip to visit our relatives who mostly live in the San Gabriel Valley region. Although, visiting my older brother in his little beach town in the South Bay was much easier for us.This location turned out to be a good fit for our little family’s work/vacation hybrid trip. There were just enough things to do immediately around our hotel to keep my little bean entertained, while allowing Jian easy access to his temporary office on his work days.
I had meant to take first photos of our hotel room, like I had previously mentioned in my last post. However, with such an active little kid in tow who just happens to love hotel rooms, I completely forgot to take any photos until after we had already settled in. Our room was not very spacious, but not small either. It was very adequate in size for just the three of us. Jian & I have experienced the more smaller layout hotel rooms in Asia (mostly in Japan), & our hotel room in London was super compact, so we don’t necessarily mind the size of our rooms as long as they are functional to our family’s needs. I would say this hotel’s room layout was very functional & well designed, & we loved the decor aesthetics.
The front entryway of our hotel room consisted of a semi-long hallway/passageway of wall-to-wall mirrors to the main bedroom area. My immediate impression was that the hallway was a wasted space. They could have taken out one mirror panel & extended the countertop space where the dresser/mini-fridge is to add in a dedicated desk space. That way, there wouldn’t be such a bulky round table in front of the sofa-bench area which seemed a little too big for where it was originally placed & a little unnecessary for the room anyway. However, we were able to make use of the long-ish hallway by parking our stroller near the doorway & lining up all of our thoroughly used shoes to keep organized.
As I have probably said in previous travel posts, when I stay at a hotel, one of the first things I scope out is the bathroom; the size, the layout, all of it. One thing that really bothers me about staying in hotels, is when the entire layout is all out of proportion. For example, when we stayed at the EDITION Hotel in London, our bathroom was cussing huge, as in as big as a walk-in closet huge. Yet, the sleeping area was practically the size of a broom closet. The room’s overall layout was totally out of whack. (Who makes the bathroom bigger than the sleeping area? I mean, the towel rack doesn’t have to be 50 feet away from the shower.) So that one experience is why I get very picky particular about the bathrooms when I stay at hotels. The bathrooms should be functional, yet proportionally sized to the room.
I was very satisfied with this hotel’s bathroom situation. At first, when I saw the extra vanity space I was a little disappointed. I don’t do my makeup or hairstyles requiring more than 3 steps, so I initially felt the vanity was unnecessary, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. We ended up using it to store all of our extra toiletries & kids bath-time gear. It proved to be valuable counter space after all. I don’t think I need to go into further details about the rest of the bathroom. It was all quite standard & very suitable for our little family.
Our hotel room was considered a balcony suite, & it did feel like a suite. It was very spacious & comfortable room. The closet wasn’t very big, but it was deep & had enough space to fit our jumbo sized Away suitcase. There was ample lighting throughout the room, & even the bathroom had a motion sensor night light (a convenient amenity for my frequent nighttime bathroom trips). There was no in-room desk for Jian to work remotely, but there was a rather large round table next to the sofa bench, which I thought was kind of a waste of space. The desk was heavy & hard to move out of the way, but where it was positioned made it a little clumsy to get around to the other side of the very comfortable bed. One thing I really liked about this room was there were more than enough USB ports & plug outlets next to the bed & around the room in general for everyone’s electronics.
This balcony was such a luxury. We probably used it only 3 times during our entire stay, but when we had used it, it was great. I had lost the other photos taken of this balcony, so please bear with me as I try to fumble my way through a proper description using just this one photo. To the left was a single patio chair & side table that we never sat on. To the right was a semi-comfortable patio sofa/bench. We borrowed the throw pillows from the seating inside our room to make the outdoor seating more comfortable.
Surprisingly on this trip to L.A, it wasn’t very hot every day, so we didn’t have much opportunities anyway to enjoy the outdoor patio. Occasionally, while my little bean was napping, I’d make myself a very lackluster Nespresso coffee pod drink & sit out on the balcony whilst playing games on my tablet. I’d like to say that my little bean was on ‘vacation mode‘ & that’s the reason why she was having a hard time taking her daily naps, but she’s been having trouble with her usually consistent napping schedule for quite some time & even more after that. This balcony was great while we used it, but we hardly were able to use it. We never brought our little bean out on to the patio for safety reasons. I had once tried to snoop out the apartments across the way from us, but almost all of those apartments had their shades fully drawn. Shucks.
So that was a phot review of our moderate & cozy hotel room during our work-cation. This particular trip with our little bean was one of the most fun L.A trips we’ve had in a long time. It was a perfect balance of Jian working during the day & meeting up with the two of us in the afternoons, while I spent quality one-on-one bonding time with my little bean. I really tested my limits, improved my skills in taking care of & handling my little bean without any help, & let me tell you that I am a very co-dependent person who relies on Jian for a lot of hand-holding help. On this trip, I had to take care of my little bean & myself…all by myself. I really felt like a mom who matured & built up my self-confidence by at least 5 to 10 percent.
I am so happy that my little bean loves to travel & explore new places. I also love that she doesn’t need any time adjusting to hotel life, compared to other kids who practically have to make the room an exact replica of their home bedroom or else they can’t get sleep. My little bean is an adventurer. I can’t wait for the many adventures we’ll embark on as a little family unit in the future. Which reminds me…in three weeks, we’re going on yet another trip. It’ll be Jian’s birthday, & we made plans to take our little bean on a glamping trip. I will talk more about it in an upcoming post. Until the next trip, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Woo-Hoo! The time is almost near. Tomorrow I’m going to a concert performed by my all-time favorite Ska band SAVE FERRIS. This while be the first time in nearly 20 years since I’ve last seen this band perform live. I’m so super excited, but I’m still feeling the lingering effects from my cold, so I’m kind of bummed that I won’t get to fully sing along with the band tomorrow night. However, I still plan on fully enjoying myself & dancing along to all my favorite songs, & groove to the new songs from their new album Checkered Past.
The day after tomorrow, I’m heading off to Los Angeles to celebrate my niece’s 7th birthday. I’m bummed out that I didn’t get to do my usual “aunt thing” & go hog wild on a massive birthday present for my niece this year. Jian made me stick to a budget & only get my niece a small gift. I love spoiling my niece & nephew, especially splurging on birthday gifts, so it was especially hard for me to keep it simple this year. I’m really excited to be celebrating my niece’s birthday with her this year. Usually my niece & nephew only want to have a party with their friends, but this year we are having a family celebration as well.
Shortly after I come back from Los Angeles, I have to unpack & repack my suitcase, so I can jet off to jolly ol’ England. I still cannot believe I’m going to London! I’m excited & freaking out at the same time. I’ve always wanted to visit London & never thought I’d get the opportunity, but it’s all really happening! Being able to check something off of my bucket list has such a rewarding & fulfilling feeling. I know I am going to fully immerse myself in this experience. I’m going to take it all in & fully enjoy myself.
I also want to let you in on a secret. Lately I’ve been listening to more ASMR audio & watching more ASMR videos. Okay, that’s not the actual secret here. The secret part of this fun fact is that I’ve been particularly drawn to a very specific genre of ASMR audio/video. The genre I’m referring to is highly mature themed & risqué, & that means the theme is one you would put a parental control on if your kids were in the room. I don’t want to get into too much specifics about what I’m listening to; that is wading into an extremely personal area I am not comfortable sharing with you. I will say one mor thing about these ASMR audios/videos before I move on. After listening to these audio files, I feel so much more lighter & happier. My daily mood has turned in a very positive direction. I’ve been smiling more, & I’m definitely more upbeat throughout the entire day. I can’t wait until the sources I follow will update new content for me to listen to. One of my biggest inspirations for going back to listening to these audio files is a person who means something special to me.
My inspiration.
Before I finish this post, I’d like to add one random thing. There was a slightly older gentleman who was sitting across from me at the communal table at the big box coffee shop. I took notice of him almost immediately after he sat down because I thought he looked attractive. Hey, before you get any silly ideas in your head, I was not stealing side glances at him the entire time (just partially), & I was not stalking him. I first took notice of the gentleman himself, then quickly observed (snooped at) what he was doing while drinking his coffee. He was writing very meticulously in his neat & tidy notebook while reading from a slim reference book & glancing at notes on his smartphone. The first thing I noticed was how impeccably neat & precise his penmanship was while he was writing in his notebook. That attracted me more than anything. Listen, if a guy has neat penmanship, that’s a win in my book, or should I say, that’s a turn on for me. The second thing I noticed was this gentleman was writing some sort of mathematical/scientific equations along with his notes. This guy was pretty incredible, which is what I gathered from my short notice of him before he packed up & left. Man, I can’t stop thinking about this gentleman’s clean handwriting & feel envious. I’ve made it well known that my handwriting looks like chicken scratch. No matter how much I practice my writing, I always feel like my handwriting is so sloppy & looks too masculine for a lady, but too childish to be considered masculine. It’s just blah penmanship. I kind of wished at that moment that I had nice handwriting like that gentleman. The only good thing I can say about my penmanship is that it’s legible. I’m not going to forget this gentleman anytime soon.
This is just for reference, to paint a picture of my scenario. I’m NOT a creep, I promise.
Ok, lastly, I must sign off with my usual send-off. Cheers, mate.
Today’s song of the day:
First of all, I want to say that I’m so excited to be going on another vacation at the end of this month. Although I have proclaimed many times in the past that I’m a lover of traveling, I am getting a little burnt out from all of this back-&-forth flying & packing/unpacking. I am extremely appreciative & grateful that I am able to travel (regardless if it’s near or far), I’d just like to say that here & now. I love what I do, & I want to express my sincerest & humblest of gratitude & appreciation.
During this past long weekend, when most Americans were celebrating Fourth of July/Independence Day (also jokingly referred to as #Amexit on the Internet), Jian surprised me with an impromptu road trip to Los Angeles. He was somehow itching to go on a long drive, & he was throwing out random ideas like driving to Portland, Oregon or perhaps Las Vegas, Nevada. While I was all for driving to Portland, I didn’t want to spend too much time driving & not enough time exploring the city. So, I threw out the random idea of driving to Los Angeles. It’s far without being too far. Jian absolutely loved the idea, & we pretty much pulled this hair-brained idea out of our derrièrs at the absolute last minute.
Once we had our weekend mapped out, we pretty much had one goal in mind, well, actually two goals: 1. to revisit all of our favorite hang-out spots from our college days, & 2. to visit the California location of Lady M Café. Yes, our minds were pretty much blown away when we found out Lady M Café opened a location in Los Angeles. Our minds were blown even more (if that’s even possible) when we found out that this shop was only 5 blocks down the street from our hotel. Needless to say, being a huge cake lover, I made several trips to this shop, & I do not feel one bit guilty for eating so much cake.
What makes Lady M so special? Well, they specialize in various delicate cakes, but their absolute specialty & signature cake is the infamous Mille Crêpe Cake…a cake so delicate & delicious that I would do just about anything for a slice of this creamy crêpe heaven.
What is Mille Crêpe cake? Well, it’s a French invention, but has been popularized around the world by the Japanese. It’s basically a stack of thin crêpe sheets with thin layers of soft cream in between the sheets of crêpes. These cakes, in more recent years, have expanded from the traditional vanilla flavor to other flavors (i.e. matcha, coconut, chocolate, etc.). My favorite flavor will always be the classic vanilla flavor.
This is a sample of the various cakes we bought for our friends. From Top Left: coconut crêpe flavor, Courrone du Chocolat, matcha crêpe flavor, strawberry Mille Feuille. Bottom Right: signature flavor.
Over the years, Jian & I have tried various forms of this cake, but we could never find anything as comparable to the first place we ever experienced this golden unicorn of cakes.
Café la Voie in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo is where we first encountered this cake. It is so beautiful & delicious, I nearly burst into tears every time I eat Mille Crêpe cake at this café.
HARBS is also another famous high-end cake shop in Tokyo that has their own crêpe cake recipe. I tried this chocolate explosion just to compare the flavor to the original. This one is very, very sweet, so proceed with caution if you’re not a sweets fan. This cake was also particularly dense, which I was not used to.
We’ve had various crêpe cakes from here to there & everywhere in between. Some of the the chain coffee shops in Tokyo have Mille Crêpe cakes that are also as delicious as the high-end cake shops. Chain shops like Doutor & Excelsior (which are like the Starbucks & Peet’s equivalent in Japan) have some of the best inexpensive crêpe cakes.
Back in the States, I’ve had my fair share of ups & downs with this elusive cake. Many years ago, there was a Japanese restaurant that had opened in Japantown. The pastry chef that worked at that place specialized in Mille Crêpe cake. Jian & I were so ecstatic that there was finally a place near us where we could eat this cake again. Sadly, after 2 years this restaurant closed & the pastry chef moved on.
There have been other American restaurants all over the city that have attempted to serve their version of the Mille Crêpe cake (eg. Café des Amis, Cockscomb, & Hog&Rocks), but somehow they weren’t able to quite grasp the light, airy, soft texture of the cake. Some of the cakes were just too dense, too hard, too sweet, too dry, &/or too over-the-top in avant grade flavor for such a delicate cake recipe. I just cannot wait until I go back to Japan at the end of this month & will be able to try the original cake recipe once again. Yessssss!
In other news, like I’ve said in my previous blog, I’ve decided to decorate my new backpack, & I’ve already begun the process. So far, I’ve only added two things to my backpack, a keychain & a pin, but I’m in love with the progress.
I chose this Rilakkuma bird keychain because it fit with the yellow color scheme of my backpack. Also, I liked how it was a small discreet size without being too tiny to notice.
I chose this Victory V hand emoji pin because I using this emoji often on all of my social media accounts. It’s my favorite emoji icon to use.
Well that’s just about all I have to say for now. I’m sorting through all of my things to pack for my next trip. Three weeks will really sneak up on you fast. Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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