Ha. A pathetic attempt at humor. _________________________
Anyways, some noteworthy things that I've eaten lately:
Banana and dulce de leche crepe, with a layer of caramelized sugar much like that on Crème brûlée. Eaten at Lala's Argentine Grill on Melrose, with a nice little candle to celebrate Curstina's birthday.
I've found my new favorite restaurant in terms of delicate textures and complex flavor profiles (you know, those places where "civilized" people eat). Barbecue doesn't count.
animal is randomly tucked away on Fairfax over by Canter's, with a black, unmarked storefront. It's quite easy to miss. Menu changes daily, and local ingredients are used extensively. I ate the "melted petit basque, chorizo, garlic bread." I don't want to bore you with details this time around, but I can safely say that I was pleasantly impressed.
For dessert - "bacon chocolate crunch bar, s&p anglaise." The bacon was surprisingly subtle, adding but a hint of salty bacon flavor that balanced out well with the sweetness of the chocolate. If anything, it added the same crunch of the crisp rice in a Krackel or Crunch bar. My two vices, stuck together. There's a good chance I died somewhere during that dessert. _____________________
In other news, Jordan and I headed up to Mulholland Drive to take nighttime shots.
I haven't been to Kendo or Naginata for some time now. I guess it's good that I'm keeping active this summer, with Mission Training and all that. But I do truly miss the sound of bamboo clashing, people yelling, and getting thwacked on the head. So now I'm reduced to practicing on my own free time until class rolls around.
But in the meantime, here are some pictures from Kendo that I took a while back.
Yes, I finally went. After talking about it since Freshman year, we pulled it off.
We, meaning these kids.
Anyways, I never actually thought I would go through with my Senior Trip plans. I mean, who does? But next thing I knew, I found myself walking through the gate of the terminal to board a flight to Orlando.
I have no idea how the passage of time worked out on the trip; it's all one big blur to me. So I will post a picture, followed by an explanation. Simply as that.
Tree of Life, a massive structure in the Animal Kingdom that's built around an oil rig. There is also a somewhat amusing show held in theater underneath the tree. I make unattractive faces.
Expedition Everest. Like the Matterhorn, on steroids. Even that doesn't do it justice. I want one here.
Oh no! Broken track!
Finding Nemo Musical, done with puppets. The concept sounds strange, but it's well executed and gave me quite a few laughs. There is, however, an annoying song at the end. Beware.
Ah, dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot. Beastly dinner. Started off with Candian Cheddar Soup with assorted Canadian breads. Followed that with a medium-rare salt-crusted prime rib and potatoes on the side. Ordered a skillet of baked mac and cheese, finished off with some Chocolate Moose (chocolate mousse rolled in crumbs with cookie-antlers and chocolate candies for eyes). Heavy, filling, delicious, and possibly hazardous.
Something of a splurge.
Ah, and a tiny little anecdote: at the fast pass machines for Test Track, we managed to trick the machine and end up with a buttload of fast passes. Yay for exploiting the system!
Venetian Masks. I want.
Mmm. Illuminations. What a show. And, we got exclusive seats. Nice way to end a fantastic day.
I could have stayed on these two rides all day.
But clearly, the thing that I was the most psyched about was taking pictures with Power Rangers! :D Oh jeez.
Full Montagu. Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney. Roast Beef, Provalone, Roma Tomatoes, Lettuce. Damn cheap, too!
Kitchen Sink from Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club resort. Eight scoops of ice cream, about a pound of toppings, and an entire can of whipped cream. Quarter shown for reference.
Not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous of their castle.
People thought I was crazy for taking my camera out for this shot.
Long exposure nighttime shots! :D
"Wishes" fireworks show! Very similar to "Remember..." and equally awesome. A beautiful display of shooting colorful pyrotechnics into the sky. I wouldn't mind doing that for a living.
Typical Partners statue shot. But I had to take one for myself.
Lovely trip. Endlessly exciting. The perfect Senior Trip, and definitely a high point of my summer. Now off to Indonesia!
I won't bore you with the nuances of the differences between Disneyland and Disney World. I'll save that for whoever is unfortunate enough to join me in the parks.
Seems that everyone is too busy with their respective lives to blog, which is a good thing. If you're blogging too much during summer, you're definitely on the computer too much.
Like me.
Well, at least this is worthy of mentioning.
That is, Skooby's in Hollywood.
It's a fairly famous hot dog place near Hollywood and Highland, but a tad removed from the most tourist-infested part over my the Kodak Theater and whatnot.
Chili cheddar hot dog with grilled onion was pretty dang good. Extremely generous with the cheese, chili was tasty but forgettable. The sausage had just the right amount of heat (read: a tad) and the casing had a nice but of snap to it. Onions were well-cooked and hot. The fries were also noteworthy, being a mix of normal long fries and thick cut potato chip-style bits. Hot, crispy, delicious fried goodness. The aioli (which they called "famous?") was just icing on the cake.
I'm a fan.
On a side note, I counted at least eight "RIP King of Pop" shirts, four Michael Jackson impersonators, and one person offering to give you maps to Neverland Ranch. MJ Mania is still on a high.
Hopefully, I'll be able to call more of my days epic as time goes on.
First, the fun day.
Went on an adventure with Teresa :D Drove up to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena where we made fun of some pieces, marveled at others, and in general got to stare at the works of the old masters: Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, etc. And students were free! Had lots of fun with the water-calligraphy thing-thing.
Got REALLY hungry talking about food, so we drove down to the Boiling Crab after talking about it for the past several months. 1 lb Crawfish, 1/2 lb Shrimp, Catfish basket, corn, the whole shebang. We devoured that spread like no other (and ended up wreaking of seafood in the process).
Then over to the Grove! No pictures there. But I finally got a jigger for my bar set. Success!
Aaaand on to MILK. No trip down Beverly Blvd is complete without a stop at my favorite baked goods store. Brownie Sundae for me and Teresa, and an Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie and Velvet Popper for the lovely. Took it to go, ate it in the amphitheater in back of LACMA. Notice the curvature on the spoon...
Illegally parked for a few minutes and snapped off a few shots in the LACMA light fixtures once the sun went down...
Finally, over to 3rd St Promenade for a bathroom break and some late night street performers. Definitely did more driving than I expected. Pasadena, to Alhambra, to Los Angeles, to Santa Monica. Oh dang. And my ipod ran out of batteries - always a good sign. __________________________
Now, on to my epic day.
It all started with an ASB slow clap for Kelly's birthday. She always baked goodies for us ASB kids, but we could only give her a donut -__-. Clap it up, blow out the candle, then off on our adventure!!
Hiked five miles, crossed a few rivers. Fun group of people to be with for the entire day. Funny hiking conversationalists.
Where were we going? This picture pretty much sums it up. Ohhh Jacob.
Yes, we went bungee jumping. I jumped three times. 1. Forward jump, like Superman! 2. Elevator - just lightly step off the bridge and watch the people above get smaller and smaller. Almost smash into the bottom of the bridge. Repeat. 3. Forward lumberjack. Fall forward slowly, like a tree.
Definitely an interesting sensation. Falling, then floating, then falling again. I had such an adrenaline rush that I could barely breathe! It's impossible to describe the feeling of falling unhindered for 100 feet. Try it yourself.
Ah, we also dumped water on Kelly as she was hoisted back up (just because she was the birthday girl, of course).
Finished our jumps, headed down to the river, and rock jumped into the refreshingly freezing pools of water. Hauled ass, and finished the five mile hike out in no time at all.
We were hungry. We needed to end the day on a good note. So, I suggested Jay Bee's. Everyone approved. Of course, it did take over an hour to get there, when it only should have taken 10 minutes. And we definitely almost crashed several times, and should have received a dozen tickets or so. Jacob's a crazy-ass driver (for better or worse).
We were full of barbecue and iced tea, and our stomachs hated us dearly. So, to cool our guts off, we headed to the ridiculously comfy couches of Yogurt Island. Yay for Froyo!
Bungee Jumping. Ten-mile hike. Rock hopping, rock jumping, swimming in rivers. Slurpees, Sweet Tea, barbecue, froyo, ridiculous u-turns. Epic day, indeed.
Summer has started. Viva la Upper thigh tanning! :D Except, I did it too much and now I have upper thigh burns. Figures, right?
So Jordan has had a recent interest in long exposure shots, namely, nighttime long exposure shots. So we ventured out to Redondo sometime around 1 and set up our tripods. There was a surprisingly large number of people at Redondo in the dead hours of Tuesday morning. Hmm.
Ugly shops along the pier.
Pretty boats.
I'm not quite here, myself...
I didn't feel all that inspired taking those pictures. Damn. __________________
The rest of my week involved the following: -Sleepovers in parks and 2 for 99 cent Jack-in-the-Box tacos. Anything is delicious at that hour of the night.
-Grad night. Hilarity ensued.
-Got hit in the head by a golf ball. ER trip. Three staples. Mom freaked out at all the blood. Ha.
-Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon with ASB kids and Nathan. Twelve hours of LoTR, terrific brownies, The Habit, Cider, and toasts to Legolas. Oh jeez. ______________________
-Whitewater Rafting! I don't have pictures from the actual rafting yet, but enjoy these until then.
A four hour drive slowly grew to a drive of over six hours thanks to the 405. The girls sat in the back, listening to their ipods. Jordan drove. I slept in awkward positions. Jordan took the picture of me sleeping. While driving. That can't be safe.
Both Jordan and I have a thing for rays poking out from inside clouds. I had my camera handy, so I popped out of the sunroof going 70 on the freeway and snapped a few shots. The clouds were quite heavenly.
And once we got to camp, we made a campfire, told awkward stories, and took more long exposure shots. This one reminded me of those Hubble Telescope pictures of nebulas and whatnot, but clearly not as cool.
About the actual rafting portion...I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was. Great food, amazing company, lots of awkward turtle moments, and smashing against rocks. Ha. The stories sound better when told in person.
