Winter is not my jam. Snow, cold, rain, wet, all of the above, I don’t love….you know? However, the girls are fond of the rain and especially the snow. So to get it out of their systems, we had a snow day.
We drove far enough East until we hit snow and we let them run free.
After some snow angels, little snowmen and a lot of exploring….
A couple of hours later, they had had enough.
Perfect little snowy escape.
I much prefer to sit in the sun with a book…cat sometimes included.
Oh and off topic, if you are looking for a new cookbook that you’ll want to cook your entire way through, this is it.
Another one that I am obsessed with right now is this.
The girls are on a Korean BBQ/Bulgogi/dumpling kick so this book has done the work for our weekly dinner plans.
I am making a few of Jet’s recipes this week, I will report back.
Consistency is not my strong suit when it comes to this blog, I’m sorry. I have excuses, are they good, probably not so I wont bother with the whys.
I went to an ECE (early childhood education) beach retreat and it was a really great experience. There is no end in learning how to create new and challenging learning environment.
I also had a birthday, sigh. Turns out I am older than I thought. 46 WTF?
I was spoiled with pressies, cake, balloons….and tacos!
We went out to dinner and had a nice meal, cake pop for the win!
Not about food:
The girls are new aunties to two pups. Let me introduce to you Tony and Frankie, brothers rescued from TJ who now live their best life in Coronado.
Our final day of the trip was spent on the beautiful streets of Ensenada.
Definitely not beautiful.
We didn’t get into town until noon or so, we were all watching the docking process from the decks above. Eagerly wanting off of the rocking ship.
This guy here was the best. Alvin was the assistant cruise director and he was a hoot!
We hopped on a bus that took us to the main drag of town. We just wanted lunch and drinks, nothing special on our minds.
Clever name huh?
We were heading to Hussong’s, apparently the oldest bar in Ensenada when we took a wrong turn and was coerced into a bar with free shots, blue shots.
It was a little iffy but the guy promised us that we would be ok and why would he lie to tourists? We really need a sarcasm font.
After our drinks we found our way to Hussong’s, imagine that.
I wanted to pop into this place when I learned that it was established in 1892. It’s also apparently where the margarita originated and it’s still standing. Did I order a margarita? No I did not, but Shawna did and it wasn’t great. Just a basic lime margarita.
I went with the timeless favorite….
The place was a tourist trap, it wasn’t as crowded as the other chain, Papa’s and Beer, that place was PACKED.
The bathrooms were interesting. The toilet paper was meant to be grabbed before going into the stall.
Very sanitary.
One drink and we were out. Then I found out that there is a Hussong’s in Vegas, WTF. We could have found a way dingier dive bar had we known that, sigh.
Time for lunch. We chose El Corralito for no particular reason than it was there and some people eating, that’s always a safe bet.
(One time long ago I got really sick after a day in Ensenada and I have some major PTSD).
You guys, the food was INCREDIBLE. Probably the best meal of the trip, aside from my Indian dishes. The sad thing is, we ordered what we normally do at our local Mexican places at home, ha. Cheese enchiladas, crispy chicken tacos, rice and beans. Can’t go wrong with those..Oh and mango margaritas…Why are they so good?
After lunch we hit the 7-11 for M&M’s because one can only try so many bad desserts in a row. Then went back to the ship.
Last dinner, last late night of mediocre entertainment.
I don’t think we ate dinner that night, but I could be wrong. I know that we went back to the martini bar for two last espresso martini’s.
We listened to some music and said goodbye to new friends and the best server in the lounge.
Then we played Roulette and probably ordered room service one last time because we didn’t eat dinner.
And that’s it, that’s the end. Well almost. We kept our luggage in our room so Saturday morning we just woke up, got dressed, grabbed our shit and walked off the ship. Our car was waiting for us and we were home by 9:30.
Reflecting on our trip, I don’t think there is any need to sail with Norwegian again. Next time we want to try Princess or Celebrity, advice welcomed. I would also like to hit the Panama Canal or Western Caribbean.
We woke up Tuesday morning to a Royal Caribbean ship docking right next to us in Puerto Vallarta.
Our plan for the day was to get to Los Muertos beach, eat lunch and lay in the sun.
We walked around until we found a place that had some open chairs on the sand and that place ended up being Burros Bar.
We ordered margaritas, I had a Cadillac and my babe got the mango, and apparently it was two for one.
For food we ordered the shrimp aguachile to share, a shrimp quesadilla and a shrimp burrito. Her burrito was the best and I really wish had ordered the snapper, food regrets are the worst.
After lunch we walked down to the beach and laid out for awhile.
After a couple of hours we found ourselves ready to head back to the ship where we could lay by the pool and the drinks were already paid for.
We stopped for some ice cream at one of the ports shops, dropped our stuff in our cabin and situated ourselves by the pool.
Before heading back to our room we watched the Royal Caribbean ship depart port.
After dinner we decided to watch a show called “Rock you Tonight” It was bad, if we were watching a high school performance then it would have been pretty good, but for cruise ship entertainment it was really not good. The entertainment in general was poor. I ended the night not feeling very hot so we went back to the room and said goodnight to Tuesday.
Wednesday was Mazatlan and sadly we were only there from 7:00 to 2:00. We got off the ship around 9:00, took a cab to a beach somewhere, and then we just walked until we found a man who offered us a couple of lounge chairs for a small fee.
We had an alarm set to make sure we allowed time for lunch.
We walked back down the beach until we hit Joe’s Oyster bar and popped in there.
Once again we ordered ceviche and shrimp tacos.
The shrimp in the tacos were fried, and they were SO DELICIOUS!
Our time was up so we went back to the ship and to the pool which was already crowded. We spent the afternoon swimming, drinking and meeting new people.
We took that night off, brought dinner down to our room and just watched a couple of movies. Oh, I forgot to mention the food at the buffet. It was set up by different stations, salad, pizza, entrees, desserts etc. But every day one side of the entree station had four or five Indian dishes, plus condiments such as chutney and raita. You guys, it was the best thing on the ship. Every dish, each day was phenomenal. Anyhow, that is what I had dinner that night.
And just like that it was Thursday which was our last day at sea. When we woke up we were rocking and rolling, we peeked out our window and this is what we saw….
Obviously, we wouldn’t be outside so we looked at the daily schedule of events to try and plan an inside day. Norwegian didn’t have as many fun ‘at sea’ activities as Holland America did. I am not sure if it was the actual games, the cruise staff or the guests, maybe all of the above, but it was all just blah.
We wandered around, popping into the bridge.
Played a little basketball in the arcade.
We watched a dance class from the safety of the back of the lounge while sipping Dirty Shirley’s.
Then we saw the sun really making an effort so we bundled up, grabbed our books and went to the pool deck.
But we couldn’t hang. The wind was ICE. So we took that as a sign to just go read in the room until dinner. We had reservations at Le Bistro that evening. I opened last years birthday gift to enjoy while getting ready.
It was DELICIOUS!
We both ordered the Escargot Bourguignonne, I got the Coq au Vin and my babe got the Duck de Canard. I guess I only took one photo and it was of the escargot, so voila!
The dinner was pretty good and after we headed to Bliss lounge to watch Karaoke and that was a lot more entertaining than the rock show, that’s for sure. The next day was our final day and we spent it in Ensenada.
We said adios to 2022 while cruising down to Mexico. The cruise deals lately are phenomenal, I highly recommend taking advantage if you can. Most cruise lines are now offering unlimited drink packages which are really hard to beat, if you like that sort of thing. Since flying anywhere lately is not only expensive but also a shit show, we decided to go back down to the Mexican Riviera but on a different cruise line. We were really spoiled with our Holland American cruise last year, very few people, ZERO children and great musical entertainment so there were big shoes to fill. We decided on Norwegian because it was a first for both of us, the dates worked out and the price was really easy on the pocketbook.
The itinerary had us leaving San Diego on New Years eve and hitting Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Ensenada, then back to SD.
We arrived at the port mid day and had a very simple embarkment. Unfortunately, new years eve was a cold and drizzly day, not an ideal way to start the trip. Pool deck activities don’t hit the same when it’s cloudy and cold, but we still gave it our all! Once we found our cabin, we hit the Lido deck for lunch, took a stroll around the ship, grabbed a couple of adult beverages and snagged a couple of pool loungers for people watching.
Norwegian’s selling point seems to focus on freestyle cruising. That means they give you more freedom from the OG of cruises. Instead of fancy dinner attire in the dining room at either the early seating or later seating, they have multiple dining rooms where you can go eat at anytime. While you can’t show up in board shorts and flips, you can wear pants and a t-shirt. However, I feel like most cruise lines offer that now, on Holland we went to dinner when we wanted to not at a certain time each night. Besides the two main dining rooms, there were also a handful of places to eat that were included. A buffet on the pool deck along with a poolside bar and grill. There was also an Asian restaurant and a 24 hour diner type place called O’Sheehans. It looked like a Hennessey’s but the food wasn’t great. The 24 hour part was exciting as we really needed that on our last cruise, but it turns out we didn’t need it on this one.
The view wasn’t bad.
These days the cruise lines have a few extra restaurants that you can dine at but for a price, some may have a fixed price and some are priced by entree. The Jewel, which was the name of our ship, had six to choose from. Italian, French, Sushi, Teppanyaki, a steakhouse and a Churrascaria. When we booked the trip, our package included all beverages $15.00 and under, wifi, one excursion and one alternative dining choice.
The captain pulled anchor at 4:00 and… we were off like a prom dress. Then the wind kicked in, so we bid a farewell to the pool deck and went to see how the casino was doing. Maybe we played some Roulette, and then we went to get ready for dinner and some dancing.
There were two dining rooms to choose from and honestly neither of them were anything grand and sadly, either was the food.
After dinner we chose to go to the Spinnaker lounge where the house band was playing top hits and then a DJ was going to count down the night. This would be the place we went to end each night, sadly it wasn’t anything great either.
We woke up to a new year but the weather was still in 2022.
Knowing that the sun was in our future, we spent the day playing Battle of the Sexes, Majority Rules and Bingo.
We tried the other dining room for dinner and this was a clear look into Norwegian’s “free-style” dining. Some guests did not care about what they wore, ordered or acted at the dining room. Classy is the opposite of what we saw. The night ended the same but we ordered room service and watched whatever we could find on the tv until we fell asleep.
We woke to sunny skies in Cabo San Lucas.
We were excited to head back to Medano beach and just lounge with food and drinks with our toes in the sand. That was all we wanted to do in each port. We walked around the marina, stopping for a couple of margaritas.
Then we walked through town to Medano beach seeking out The Sand Bar.
The beach was packed so we weren’t going to be able to lounge on the beach, the holiday brought ALL of the people. We were lucky enough to find a seat at the Sand Bar but then we proceeded to wait forever to be served. Sadly they were out of the octopus so we ordered a spicy shrimp ceviche, fish and shrimp tacos. Nothing was memorable aside from the view and the weather.
When we were finally able to wrap up our meal, we hit the street and got a cab to take us back to the main drag. We were going to pop into Cabo Wabo (don’t be judgy) for a drink but with three cruise ships in port, that was a HELL NO. So we asked around for a place with a good margarita and we were sent to The Monkey Bar.
This place was literally just an outside bar with about eight bar stools and a handful of tables. We chatted up a couple who just moved to Cabo and met a man who was a tour guide. We got his card for when we head back in June, hopefully he can hook us up with some fun activities.
The margs were pretty good.
When our glasses were empty we hopped on the tender and went back to the boat. We soaked up some sun at the pool, had dinner and then tried our luck at the martini bar.
Two days into the trip we knew that this cruise wasn’t going to live up to our Holland American cruise, sadly.
Is the earth spinning faster than normal? Is that why time is going by at lightening speed? Wasn’t it just Halloween and now it’s Thanksgiving, I don’t understand.
This will be a catch up of whatever has happened in the last month. My memory has been failing me lately..I made a delicious curry paste from scratch and then made an even better chicken curry but I can’t for the life of me, find the recipe I used. It’s like, poof! Gone from my memory and apparently my search history too.
I do know that we took the girls trick or treating, I remember that. It was our first time since Covid and it was a lot more quiet out there than it used to be. Dark houses and the lack of kids could have been because it was a Monday, I don’t know why we can’t just dedicate the last Saturday of October to Halloween.
Like I mentioned, I made a fresh curry paste that was super flavorful and very spicy and then made a chicken curry. If I ever find the recipe, I will make it again surely. I think I served it with coconut rice but who really knows, not me.
We took the girls rollerskating with their friends and I made the most delicious Snickerdoodle sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting. These, you guys, are ridiculously good.
Oh and we finally made it to Cutwater Spirits tasting room. The drinks were delicious, the food was just ok. Next time, because there will be a next time, there are still so many cocktails to try, we will just sit at the bar.
I also made Chrissy Teigen’s broccoli salad with cashew dressing, and it was SO good. I will post that next time.
And obviously we are watching ALL OF THE SOCCER! The World Cup is such an exciting time, especially since we finally made it back into the tournament! Big match Friday, where will you be watching our USMNT?
We kicked off the spooky season with my first visit to Knott’s Scary Farm.
We went straight to an amazing looking roller coaster. The lights were all lit up and it looked like a boardwalk. The ride was so fun we did it multiple times. The downside, the exit took us into clown alley. Yes, I know that I am an adult, but I have an irrational fear of clowns…sigh, I am not proud. It took all that I had to not look them, even when they came running at me head on…Otherwise I would have cried.
We had a such good time, rides at night are just better. Parts of the park were very dark and creatures of all sorts would follow us around breathing down our necks and jump out at us. A lot of them had on shoes with metal taps so when they ran and slid at you, it made an awful sound..basically scaring the shit out of us at every corner we turned.
We were walking through a very dark area with fog machines clouding our path when we realized why so many people run in the wrong direction in horror films. You know how we scream at those idiots? Well, we were them…We had a hard time figuring out where we were and where we were headed. If was legit in danger, I would have just fell to the ground and succumbed to my death.
However, it was fun and definitely something to do again.
The girls had fun at the store trying on masks.
We hit the pumpkin patch and we made it easy on ourselves this year. We went to one in Temecula, gave the girls some money, grabbed a glass of wine, and hung out while they did all of the things. Petting zoo, panning for gems, snow cones and all of the other shit that is a waste of money.
We no longer buy our pumpkins at the actual patch which saves a lot of money. We just grab them at a local store on our way home, the girls don’t care.
Then we carve them and then they die. {the pumpkins, not the girls.}
Luckily we got a few photos of our artistry before they wilted 20 minutes later.
The next day we made Oreo bats and I realized that the girls are almost too old for these food crafts. They just want to eat the ingredients rather than create. However, I MADE THEM HAVE FUN!
These are super simple using only 3 ingredients.
Oreos, bite size Reese’s and candy eye balls. We used the oreo filling as the glue for the wings and the eyes. Pop them into the fridge for 10 minutes to set or don’t and just eat them right away.
I think they turned out cute!
The girls have their costumes and we are excited to take them out Monday night, and then go right home to inspect their candy! {aka take all the good stuff}
The Lion King was playing for a few weeks at the San Diego Civic Center. Since we have an avid Lion King fan, I thought it would be a fun thing to do. I have only heard great things about the show so I for one was excited. The older girls however, were not and they originally said that they would rather stay home. So we decided just Aves and I would go, of course after the tickets were bought, they changed their minds. By that time it was too late, the seats were slim picking.
After dinner and on a school night, Averi and I headed downtown. After we found are seats we had to go back up to stock up on sweets and a drink.
Averi got all sorts of compliments on her dress.
The opening moments of the show were breathtaking. The music and life size animal puppets were incredible. As the African drums filled the room a herd of galloping gazelle make their way down the aisles followed by rhinos with flocks of birds perched on their horns. They were followed by thudding elephants also making their way to the stage. Giraffes came out on the stage as a yellow-orange glowing sunrise filled the stage all while a leopard made it’s away around the animals.
All of the characters were played by fantastic actors. The hornbill Zazu was comedic perfection and the young Simba was outstanding.
It was a great show.
The second act was a little slower, more talking, less singing. Averi knows every word to the show so if something was off, I heard about it. Zazu would joke, “this isn’t the cartoon!” Which made the adults laugh and the children question why.
Averi started getting tired towards then end, it was past her bedtime. We got home by 10:30 and she crashed as soon as she hit her bed.
It was a great time and I am forcing all the girls to go to the next show.
The second session of my cooking class was International baking. I had 4 girls, all 8 years old (it can’t get much better than that).
We started off the first week making Venezuelan Alfajores sandwich cookies, Albanian cornbread with feta and green onion. Indian Nankhatai cookies and South African Karringmelkbesuits.
Since they were only 8, they were more about the creating, than the outcome. So I would invite them to use their creativity, after we completed the recipe.
This is one of the girls hand made cookie.
Each of the girls reminded me of our Aves, she would have loved being in this class.
I decided to start each day with a different approach, than I did with my cooking class.
I would find a book on video that had a story about a country that we were going to “visit” or a food that resembled one we would be making. They loved it.
And if you don’t know about StoryLine Online, and you have kids, you have to check it out!
The next week we made Egyptian butter cookies and Lithuanian sour cream pockets.
The sour cream pocket recipe did not work, something was off…
But who cares.
Next, we made mango cupcakes, and stuffed Georgian cheese breads.
I was really excited about this next recipe.
Mongolian sesame flat-bread crackers with a cream cheese spread.
But somewhere along the way, the soy sauce was heavy handed in the spread and it was too salty…inedible
But I will make that again.
We also made a really good cheese pizza.
And a not so good Romanian Easter bread.
The last day of class, I asked them to make something from the ingredients that we had left. Chopped style. They put so much heart into it. But…
You guys, this raised my blood pressure.
I just can’t with chaos.
But, they did so great.
They all used cocoa powder and chocolate chips.
Most of it wasn’t edible.
But that wasn’t the point. The point was to give them the freedom to create, with no boundaries.
I was very lucky to have that group of girls, It was such a great experience .
The Art of Thyming 