A Week In Los Gatos

Los Gatos is a cute little town south of San Francisco. The hotel where we stayed was surrounded by chic boutique and restaurants. Busy even on weekdays and people walking everywhere. The roads are well planned and clearly marked and motorists are polite and considerate to pedestrians and other drivers trying to park off of the street. It is nice to stay here on vacation and perhaps even to live permanently but houses are very expensive. We looked around to see how much an average 3 bedroom house cost and it goes from 400k and higher depending on areas. I started to miss our own house in Portland. We won’t be able to afford the same size of house in LG.

Town Center Of Los Gatos

Los Gatos Means "The Cats" in Spanish

We left Portland on Wednesday (7/7) at about 2pm. We planned to leave early but as usual, we were only good at planning but couldn’t follow through. It was a nice drive. The weather was perfect and not very much traffic. I always enjoy driving to different cities and looking at the scenic views. Kids did good too. Didn’t complain or whine about being bored. 12 hours later , at about 2am, we arrive at the hotel. The kids went to bed almost immediately while me and Grant stayed up a couple more hours. It’s weird to be wide awake after a long exhausting day.

Shinjo was out!

Thursday, Grant went to work. I forgot to mention that this trip is actually not a vacation. Grant had to go to a training at their office here in LG. While Grant went to work, me and the kids slept in and spent the whole day just relaxing at the hotel.

Friday , Grant took us to meet the family of his friend. They’re Filipinos but they’ve lived here in California since they were little that they are basically more American. We went out to dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant. Maila ,Robert and their son, Jacob were very nice people. I feel like I could hang out with them and not feel out of place.

Mizu Sushi Bar and Grill at Winchester Blvd,SJ

Saturday, we drove around town. We were supposed to take the kids to the beach but it was chilly and windy so we just ate our lunch at the beach and left. Back at the hotel, at around 4pm, the sun was out and it was warm enough to go for a dip in the pool. It was perfect timing too because there was nobody using the pool. At around 8pm, Grant took us to San Francisco look for a Chinese restaurant that his friend recommended. It was not easy finding a parking spot on a Saturday night. We had to circle the block a few times before we found a place to park close to the restaurant. The one hour drive from the hotel and the 20 minutes or so of circling & waiting to park was all worth it because the food was good. Just like how they made it in Hong Kong. Also, I always love driving around San Francisco.

Lunch at the Beach.Sta Cruz

Seabright Beach Sta.Cruz

Hanging out by the pool

Cannonball!

Jacuzzi

Driving Around San Francisco. Passed by AT&T Ball Park

Pier 1. San Francisco

Authentic Chinese Dinner at Hing Lung Restaurant

Broadway San Francisco.

Sunday, was a lazy day but at least I did my work out. Grant went out to play basketball with Robert for a few hours. He was exhausted and took a long nap. We ate lunch/early dinner at around 6pm and then we went back to the pool to let the kids play. We went to bed early because Grant has to go to work the next day.

Monday….it’s noon as I am typing this. I need to find a laundry mat. There’s one 4 miles away. Also, later tonight we will go out to have dinner with Maila, Robert & Jacob again. That should be fun.
More later………..

Busy 2010

Where have I been?
It's July already and I'm just now updating my blog!
There's so much stuff to talk about and I don't know where to begin.
Let's do a month-to-month update shall we? I’m just gonna write little tidbits of stuff that had happened and we’ll skip the not-so-important events.

January:
First week, college begins. I was so nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. Nearly 8 years the last time I’ve been a student and the first experience for me to be in college here in America. I enrolled at Portland Community College to get the prerequisites for the Nursing degree program. I was gonna sign up for 3 classes but Grant told me that I should take one class just to test the water. I’m glad I listened to him because even though it’s basically a high school level class there was plenty of home works. I would have been overwhelmed if I had pile of assignments to do on top of my already hectic regular days. I took Introduction to Algebra. Some of the lessons were familiar so I didn’t really struggle as I thought I would. Our instructor was very good and kept the 1 hour and a half class interesting.
Princess and Shinjo were doing just fine at their school too. Shino was transferred to a new school. Farther away but it was ok. The program suits him better.

View From School Building at PCC

Visited The Famous Multnomah Falls

February:
Shinjo turned 6. Can you believe it? I look at him and I still see this cute little baby that cry so hard when he’s hungry and chew on every toy like a puppy. I made a Blue’s Clues themed birthday cake for him and grandma joined us for dinner celebration.

Happy 6th!

Beautiful Sunny Day At The Coast In February

March:
My first term ended and I was so happy with my grade. It’s a small achievement but it sets a good start for my academic pursuit. Winter term ended and spring term begins. This time I signed up for two classes, Math and Writing. Our Math teacher was ok. Not as good as the previous. Writing instructor was a very interesting person. At first look, you’d think that her class was easy because she encourage you to think on your own. She taught us how to write in details and specifics. I knew that it was going to be a challenge for me because of the language issues but I wanted to prove that I could do it on my own so I didn’t ask for any help from Grant. First essay, I got a really low grade. I was disappointed to say the least. Well..ok…I bawled like a baby! So I decided to swallow my pride and ask Grant for help with my writing homework.
Also, my MIL and I celebrated when the Health Care Reform Bill passed after almost a year of fight among the politicians. We both agree that the POTUS brought the worst out of his opponents and it shocking to witness how vile some people have gotten because they weren’t happy about the pres.
Princess learned to ride the bike. She was so excited and we were so proud of her. It didn’t take long before she was going up & down the hill. Grant bought a trailer/half-bike for Shinjo. It’s called a “wheehoo” and we had to drive to Astoria to get it because it’s rare and only one store carry it in all Oregon. Grant also bought his own bike and it has become our regular family fun activity to go to downtown river banks to ride the bike. Me, I didn’t have a bike. I don’t even know how to ride one. So, I jogged. I jogged behind Princess and we’d go around and across the river. The farthest I did was about 5.5 miles and it felt great!

Shinjo On The Whehoo

She Can Ride.

April:
We celebrated Grant’s birthday. Like we always do, we get dinner take out and watch a movie. Mom got him an ice-cream cake. Nothing much happened this month. We were all busy with our own little world. Grant was forever busy with work. Our dining room is now officially his work station and no one dared to touch anything on his table.

Shinjo loves school so much he gets upset when I come pick him up.

May:
Somebody turned 35. I got a nice present from my mother-in-law and Grant. Spring term was almost over. I worked very hard to get good grades on both classes and Grant did a great job helping me with my writing homework. I wrote the essays and he proof read them for me. I have to say, I learned a lot from this writing class. I regretted neglecting my blog because it’s a good practice for vocabulary and thought process.

Visited Oaks Park

June:
Spring term ended and I got two awesome final grades!!! Princess and Shinjo did great in their school too. Princess turned 9 and we start with the long summer vacation. Everybody were headed somewhere to spend time with family. The weather finally improved after long months of rain.

    

Princes and Shinjo With Jiara at Jamison Fountain Park

Summer fun at the Blue Lake







July:
First week and here we are in San Jose California in this nice little hotel. There’s a heat wave going on around the entire west coast but it’s ok because we have cool AC in our room. It was a 12 hour drive but it was not as bad as when we drove to LA a couple of years ago or that long god awful drive from NY to Dallas Texas in a freezing winter. One thing you’ll notice in Cali is if you are in a nice area, then everything is nice. You rarely see a beat up car and the people that you see walking down the streets are trendy and pretty. Of course there are places here too, just like everywhere else that is run down and looks shady but we stay away from those areas. We’ll be here for a week and then drive back to Portland on Wednesday , then right after we had some goodnight sleep, we will be flying to New York and stay with Grant’s friend in New Jersey for a week. Whew..I’m exhausted already just by thinking about it.

There's no pics for now but I'll update very soon and there'll be loads of photos for sure.