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It has become a recent family tradition to go to Disneyland every year after Thanksgiving. My older brother, who is both unmarried & completely single, has no children of his own to lavish his money & attention. Therefore, he turns to my sister’s children, to whom he spoils like crazy. I never imagined my brother to be so good with kids, but he is an absolutely wonderful uncle.
Even though he spoils my nephew & niece rotten, he also helps them with homework, teaches them about various things with patience, & helps my sister cook meals for all of them. He is a great role model, but also a slightly naughty uncle spoiling the kids with sweets & frequent trips to the shopping mall. As for me, I’m more of a “motherly” aunt. I also teach these kids manners & teach them about life lessons. I also play with them, help them get dressed, & take baths. My nephew even told me once that he thought of me as his second mom.
Usually I am not a fan of theme parks. I don’t like to ride roller coasters or other theme park rides. I get motion sickness rather easily, & a nearly critical childhood accident traumatized me against getting on rides at theme parks. That memory still haunts me to this day. My family thinks I’m overreacting, but I don’t really mind it at all. My nephew & niece are learning how to ride more advanced rides at the theme park, & they always want the entire family to ride along with them. I always make an excuse not to ride them such as, taking photos with my camera or carrying everyone’s jackets and bags. I will often stand in a ride’s line with everyone so we can all be together, then when we reach the front of the line, I will quietly walk out of the exit door & wait for them outside of the ride.
Not being a fan whatsoever of roller coaster rides has turned me off from going to theme parks, even if they do have fun laser water musical shows, extravagant parades, & plenty of junk food. When I’m in a group who is planning on visiting a theme park, I find it hard to get excited about the event. Sometimes, I even dread it. However, seeing how my sister’s kids get so excited to visit Disneyland doesn’t make me cringe at the idea of going to a theme park. I love seeing the pure joy & smiles on their faces. However, it’s more than just going to Disneyland for these kids. My sister’s kids are deeply sentimental, & more than anything, they enjoy being surrounded by their close family & friends. Their most happiest times are spent with their mom, uncles (a.k.a. my brother & Jian), myself (their favorite aunt), & my mom (their favorite grandmother). These kids, especially my nephew, would rather be surrounded by all of us for the whole weekend doing everything together.
So, going to Disneyland (& California Adventure) the day after Thanksgiving has become a new found family tradition, thought up by my brother. This is my brother’s way of spending quality time with our family as well. He loves spending time with his mom, two sisters (although…he favors me more than our sister, due to a major sibling quarrel), nephew & niece, & spending time with Jian (whom he has gotten close to over the years). So, my brother does all of the planning: getting the park tickets for both Disney theme parks, booking hotel rooms, & making reservations at all the restaurants. We usually spend the entire weekend at Disneyland. My brother will try to book two side-by-side rooms or one large suite at one of the Disneyland resorts. Then, he will make lunch & dinner reservations in advance, so we will be guaranteed a table & not have to wait in line for 1.5 hours on the wait list. He also gets all of the theme park passes for all of us. My brother really spares no expense when it comes to our annual Disneyland tradition. Of course, we all try to help him with the costs, but my brother always insists on treating us all, just to see our little children happy & full of wonderful memories. To say that I’m excited to visit Disneyland this year is something new to me. I can’t wait to spend time with my most favorite children in the whole world, & to make more memories with them. It’s going to be fun. Cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
A few weeks ago I took a small trip to Washington DC. I accompanied my mom to DC so she could attend the wedding of a friend’s daughter. Now that my mom is widowed, she often does not like to go to places by herself, especially since she used to have a very special person to do everything with & now suddenly doesn’t. My other siblings are all much older now living in far away places, married, divorced, with children of their own, or often traveling for work. My mom lives with me, & I take care of her (a.k.a. keep her company). I enjoy all the time I spend with her, especially since we get along so well, almost like sisters but still maintaining that mother-child boundary. I had such a blast going with my mom to DC. We turned her wedding invitation into a small sightseeing trip. We tried not to let the soggy weather bring us down.
Well, what an eventful trip we had. Before we left home, we checked the weather forecast & knew that there would be rain on most of our days in our nation’s Capitol. However, we were not fully prepared for the looming hurricane (named Joaquin) supposedly meant to barrel right into the east coast states. Lucky for us the hurricane was first predicted to hit our region on the day after we were flying back home. Then, later it was reported that the hurricane didn’t even touch the region we visited at all, & instead the hurricane hit other south-eastern regions. Needless to say, we still got hit by a case of the rainy day blues. We prepared by bringing our own umbrellas & raincoats. I thought I had brought the proper pair of boots for the rain, but after three years of owning these cheap H&M brand water-resistant shoes, it gave up on me. It just happened to be on the big day we were planning on visiting the Smithsonian’s history museums.
We started out our morning by first visiting the National Monument. (We had no idea you had to reserve tickets months in advance if you want to go to their observation room.) Everything was going great with our umbrellas out, our raincoats zipped up, & our feet warm & dry in each of our boots. Out of nowhere, I felt a rush of coldness overtake my feet. That’s when it hit me that my socks were soaked through & the insoles of my shoes were getting soggy. It was the most uncomfortable, unpleasant experience for a neat freak like myself who always has to keep her clothes clean & must always wear clean socks. I thought the rest of my day was going to be ruined until the museum gift shop saved my life (figuratively). My mom felt bad for my situation (& I think she was getting sick of hearing me whine about my wet feet), so she bought me a pair of American flag themed socks. The socks looked so tacky, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I generously & graciously wore the socks. Surprisingly the cheesy socks were thicker & much more comfortable than the original socks I had worn…& THEY WERE DRY!!! I also had to stuff my shoes with paper towels to dry them as much as possible. 
After that wet socks fiasco, we had the most amazing time at the MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY. This was by far our most favorite & memorable museums. I could spend an entire day in this place & never be able see everything. I would definitely come back to this museum again & again.
OH MY GAWD!! IT’S JULIA CHILD’S KITCHEN!!!
Let me interject at this point by saying we didn’t take many pictures on our trip. (I know…what a shame, since there’s so much history to be captured on film.) Every day we encountered wind & rain, loads of city construction, hoards of obnoxious tourists blocking everything with their unnecessarily oversized cameras & country bumpkin mannerisms, & it was hard to take pictures in museums with a camera phone in one hand & an umbrella in the other hand.
At the last minute we decided to rent a car instead of using Uber &/or public transportation, so we could get around in the rain easier as well as have the freedom to go to more hard-to-reach places. We truly got to explore a more local side of Washington DC on this trip. We took my mom to restaurants & shops she would normally never set foot inside of, let alone hear about. One of the restaurants we got to try out was called Succotash. It was across the street from our hotel & had only been open for two weeks. That was my mom’s first time trying authentic Southern cooking.
Another memorable eatery we visited was Maketto. It’s one part restaurant, one part clothing store, & one part coffee shop. I would like to pause here & say that I have never met people more friendly & warm than the employees working at Maketto. They really made our soggy day feel good. We made a pitstop to have a cup of coffee, & for Jian to browse through his favorite Japanese clothing brands (he broke down & bought a great t-shirt). The coffee barista mixed up my drink order, so he graciously offered me a complementary pastry. Their hospitality made my day.
Other notable places we visited…one I must mention is The Round Robin Bar at the Willet InterContinental Hotel. This bar is nearly 200 years old, the oldest existing bar in all of DC, & has been graced with the patronage of many presidents past & present. We first heard of this bar from watching a show on TV, & were quite surprised we were able to get seats at the counter even when the hotel was hosting a busy Republican National Convention event. We had a few cocktails & snacks, chatted with a retired couple sitting next to us, & sped off to have a quiet Thai dinner at a restaurant called Rice in the hip Logan Circle neighborhood. We found an awesome ice creamery (Dolcezza) that served Portland, Oregon’s famous Stumptown Coffee (but these beans were roasted in NYC, not PDX). That’s how we capped off our night. Handmade craft gelato & Stumptown coffee.
Along the way, we visited two more Smithsonian museums: Air and Space Museum & Natural History Museum. My mom got her biggest wish granted. She finally got to take an up-close look at the infamous Hope Diamond. It is so beautiful, but looks a lot smaller in person than it does in pictures & on TV. I’d still like to own one for myself…an un-cursed one of course. While walking through the aquariums & the oceanography exhibits at the Natural History museum made us all crave seafood, so we made a beeline to Sushi Capitol for some delicious nigiri-style sushi. Hey, that’s kind of what happens when you see all those fishes swimming around in their tanks while on an empty stomach. I ended up eating 21 pieces of sushi all by myself. My all-time sushi eating record is 22 pieces. There’s a popular sushi restaurant near my house that once had a customer who ate 90 pieces of nigiri sushi in one meal. They challenged me to beat that guy’s record, but I don’t think I could do it. Not even my dad could do it, & he’s the only person I know who could match my sushi eating record. Let me add in that it’s not easy to eat so much sushi, even though they look bite-sized…especially with the extra fatty pieces. Those types of fish tend to stick to your stomach & make you feel fuller, faster. All that sushi rice only adds to the fullness too.
Finally, the wedding day comes around. The daughter of my mom’s best friend is getting married to her law school sweetheart. My mom has been friends with this family for over 40 years, since before she immigrated to the United States. Even I know this family well. I was born at the same time as this couple’s son. We grew up together. I babysat this boy & his little sister. Now she’s getting married. She had a quaint, small wedding in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. While my mom was celebrating & dancing the night away, Jian & I took the opportunity to visit the popular Jack Rose Dining Saloon. We also heard about this place from watching TV, & learned that this place houses well over ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED bottles of bourbons & whiskeys. Jian & I are diehard, hardcore whisky/whiskey/bourbon fans. (My dad would be so proud.) Next to Multnomah Whisky Library on the west coast in Portland, Oregon…this place is our east coast Mecca. Our eyes nearly bugged out of our heads when we browsed through their extensive (for lack of a better word) phone book sized alcohol menu. We had a whisky tasting experience to remember for a lifetime. Plus, I got to eat my all-time favorite dish: Scotch Eggs!!! I take my hat off to our whisky sommelier. I want a job like hers some day.
I tried a whisky I’ve been wanting to try for a very long tim: Kavalan Whisky by King Car Group. Hailing from Taipei, Taiwan and a two-time 2015 Whisky Magazine award winner, this whisky was crisp, sweet, a little smoky with a spicy ginger aftertaste. I thoroughly enjoyed this dram even though I’m not much of a spicy whisky fan. The bottle I tried was called Kavalan King Car.
We capped off our evening by looking for a coffee nightcap. Jian found a place called Slipstream, a hybrid coffee shop & bar. Yes, I said coffee AND cocktails. Needless to say, we chucked the coffee & desserts idea & drank more alcohol. No, Jian was NOT too tipsy to drive. He kept his composure & alcohol consumption to a reasonable amount. He’s not a reckless drinker, no matter what. [INSERT STERN GLARE HERE] i, on the other hand, let loose because I wasn’t driving that night. I got a little tipsy & kept texting my mom in Chinese. We all had a great evening & end to our trip. I was not looking forward to packing my suitcase in a tipsy state, but. I powered through it anyway.
I am looking forward to the next time I get to visit Washington DC again. I had a great time. Cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
I got back from my cousin’s wedding in one piece. Thank heavens! Usually when I go on vacation, I like to take an obscene amount of photos, but it was just too damn HOT & HUMID to do anything other than sip cocktails in the air conditioned bar or lounge around in the pool. Well, at least my aunt took enough photos on her camera to share with everyone.
I had a great time in Puerto Vallarta. My cousin had a super chillaxed wedding. It was full of celebration, love, family, & a huge bright pink elephant in the room known as drama. I’m not going to address the “pink elephant” whatsoever, other than to say it was there in full effect. That is all. My cousin looked beautiful in her white dress & veil. I was a little taken aback by the bright emerald green ties & navy gingham shirts worn by the groomsmen & the dark gray strapless dresses worn by the bridesmaids, but otherwise, the decorations were simple & tasteful. My family really knows how to eat, drink & party hard.
The hotel my cousin & most of our family stayed at was aptly named Villa Amor. It was a rustic hotel nestled on a small cliff side, overlooking the beach. The place I stayed at with my mom & brother was a modern all-inclusive resort 10 minutes away from my cousin’s hotel. When I say the resort was all-inclusive, I mean that all food, drinks, & amenities are included in the price of the vacation package. All you really needed to pay for was gratuity & the resort’s private taxi costs. It was easy to get around town & explore as well as lounge about on the beach.
Despite the muggy, almost unbearable humidity, we all had a blast celebrating my cousin’s wedding. There was plenty of eating & drinking, as well as tons of dancing, games, karaoke at a local dive bar, & golf cart riding. There was even a small Lip-Sync performance during the rehearsal dinner. Seeing my male cousin wearing pink socks & singing along to 80s music is pure comedy!
I am so burnt out from this trip. I still have a load of laundry to wash, a dress or two to dryclean, & a suitcase to put back into storage. No, wait. I still have to use my suitcase. In 3 weeks I’m heading off to San Diego for ComicCon (a.k.a. SDCC). I’m going to spend a few extra days in SoCal before & after ComicCon, just to avoid the rush of traffic from all the travelers heading to San Diego for this epic event. I am very excited for ComicCon, but I’m not exited about the packing experience. I feel like I just finished packing & unpacking from my trip to Mexico. Oh well. Here we go again. Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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