Christmas and New Year 2012 Trip - Part 2

Argh, I need to keep up with the blog.  Haven't blog in such a long time.

One of my new year resolution is to blog more, but I didn't bother to keep up my new year resolution at all.

Anyway, let's move on with the trip.  I think I am starting to forget a lot of the details...

12/24

10am - Trying to fix rental car left signal light.  The light was malfunction the moment we rented it.  But we were not having enough time to fix it since we wasted so much time to even get the car itself.  Hertz - you are so disappointing!  They made us run around the town to get the signal light ourselves and refund us the cost of the signal light.  When we argue that fixing the signal light delayed our trip, they don't even budge.  WTH?!

11:30am - Finally on the road to Flagstaff, Arizona. Due to the rented car issue, we were not able to reach Flagstaff in time for lunch.  We intended to go to "The Place" for lunch, but they close at 4PM if I am not wrong.  I believe we still have 6 hours to go. Ended up eating some Asian buffet out of no where.  So mad. 

Around 3pm, it started snowing, heavy snow too.  We have to slow down due to limited visibility.  By the time we reached Flagstaff, it was about 6pm.  We drove for about 1-2 hours, then it started snowing again, and the road was so icy.  It was too dangerous to drive so ended up staying at Williams, Arizona for the night. 

You can see some icy patches on the road.  But the view is absolutely gorgeous~

We went for dinner after we have booked a place to stay for the night. 

 

Cruiser Cafe 66 is where we lay our eyes on.

 

 

So pretty~

 

The snow on the trees, and of course, it was freezing. 

 

Our barbeque meat, and baked beans, which we didn't even touch.

 

I think the restaurant is on Route 66. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see how icy the road actually is?  We drove 5mph, and practically slide to our commodation for the night after the dinner.

10pm - hit the sack. 

12/25

9am - breakfast at the Jack in the box. 

 

So pretty~ yet so dangerous.  The road was even icier. 

9:30am - hit the road again.  The highway is finally not icy like the night before. 

11:30am - reached the border of Nevada and Arizona, and Hoover Dam.  Do some sight seeing and pictures taking. 

 

Hoover Dam view from the bridge 

 

Hoover Dam under the bridge.

Opposite view.  We were on the bridge.

 

1:30pm - reached Las Vegas, Nevada, and have dim sum at KJ Dim Sum and Seafood Chinese Restaurant at Rio.  I believe we paid about $20 per person.  Didn't bother to take any picture since all the dim sum dishes look alike anyway. Also, we have to wait for about half an hour.  We were having a hard time locating the restaurant since is our first time there.  So we actually spent about one hour to locate and get seated. 

2:45pm - reached our hotel (We stayed at our friend's parents' house.  We are so grateful that our friend offer a place for us to stay).  Get to refresh a bit, then went out to watch a magic show, by Nathan Burton.  After the show, we get to walk around the hub of Las Vegas, to snap some pictures.  It's a long walk, so glad I wore a comfortable shoes.  But of course, after about 3 hours of walk, I think my legs are quitting on me.  I feel like they are going to detach from me at any time.

This is the best pic I have taken out of all other pics in Las Vegas. 

 

Pretty Christmas tree with weird white thingy.

 

Argh, my bf told me that we can actually go watch the blue men when we are in Las Vegas.  Who knows they went to TX when we are in Las Vegas, and by the time we are back in TX, they are gone...

I think this is in Bellagio. 

 

Went to Jean Philippe to have ice cream~  It's soooooooo good.  I wanted the crepe, but I didn't want to wait in line for the crepe because it was going to take forever to wait for the crepe, so we ended up just getting the ice cream, which took us almost half an hour to get the ice cream...  BTW, those are real chocolate flowing behind the glass. 

Some of the deserts they have at the counter.  I am getting hungry... 

 

Casino full of crystals.  Don't remember the name.

10:30pm - Dinner at Hikari Japanese steakhouse & sushibar (yes, dinner at 10:30pm).  It is an all you can eat sushi for $26.95.  If we go in at 11:30pm, it is $22.95 (I believe.  Don't quite remember), but for ladies only.  Didn't manage to take any picture either because we ordered and ate like crazy.  No kidding, if you see me eating, you will think that I haven't eat for days. 

12am - reached our hotel. Hit the sack in half an hour.  I was dead tired. 

That's it for now.  Night.

Mood: Hungry

Music: Cant Hold Us ft Ray Dalton - The Heist

Can never make the right decision.

I feel so dejected today. 

I bought something online yesterday with deal thinking that deals like that do not come easily, and I actually missed another deal for the same item I want to purchase two days ago.  So of course, I didn't want to miss the chance.  Who knows today a better deal comes out for the item I want to purchase. 

Never mind about this incident. 

I then wanted to purchase a packaged item on Amazon, but not knowing what exactly I wanted to purchase.  So I consulted my friend.  By the time I noticed her respond, the item with the price I wanted to purchase is gone.  So I resulted purchasing a higher price of the item, but not in a complete package.  So I went to ebay, looking for better deals, and I found the missing item in the package for a reasonable price, but way more expensive than the first deal I saw.  I thought I want to ask for a bargain instead.  It was listing for $250, and I asked for $200.  The person rejected my deal today, and when I wanted to purchase, the deal is gone again!!!  I ended up purchasing that missing item for $400 not including shipping... 

Argh!!!  All in all, I purchased items for $200-300 higher than intended over this two days... 

Rant over.

Mood: Agitated!

Christmas and New Year 2012 Trip - Part 1

I was on a trip that lasted 11 days during Christmas and New Year 2012.

We went to a few states:

New Mexico for ski and White Sand National Park
Arizona for food
Nevada for shows and Christmas celebration
California for Disney Land, and more food.

Anyway, here's the break down on the way to New Mexico:

12/22

12pm - start our trip.
1:30pm - lunch

The view is so pretty~

 



6:10pm - dinner at The Big Texan at Amarillo, TX.  It is famous for its 72oz steaks. - http://bigtexan.com/

 

 

Apertizer for $12.95 (cheese sticks, fried mushrooms, fried jalapenos, fried gizzards)

 

It took the waiter too long to service us.  But the food is good.  My only suggestion is that don't go there during dinner time, go in the afternoon instead. 

12:30pm/11:30pm NM time - Reach Santa Fe commodation.

12/23

10:20am - reached Ski Santa Fe - http://www.skisantafe.com/

On the way to the mountain.  Is so pretty when the snow covers the trees.  Sorry is kinda blurry.

 

 

You can see so many people lining up for rental.  It didn't used to be so many people. We went there two years ago, I believe we got there around 10 something, and started skiing around 10:30am. 

 



12:20pm - started skiing (took us forever to rent the ski equipment). 
6:20pm - dinner at Thai Cafe - http://www.thaicafesantafenm.com/

 

Seafood curry with rice for $13.95

 



 

Tofu pad thai for $11.95.  Too sweet.

 



Chicken pineapple fried rice for $11.95.  The rice is sweet too, but not as bad as the pad thai.

7:30pm - Too tired to have anything else plan up, so back to the hotel and call it a night.

I am going to post more of the trip in several posts.

Music:  I knew you were trouble - Taylor Swift

Foodddd...

I am finally done with my finals.  Yeah~

Got sick the day before the finals, and still sick even today...

Anyway, just want to post some food porn.

 

Mussels with garlic bread.

 

Salmon steak

 

OMG, sooo good

 

My favorite food = squid~

Steak with rice and corn



 

Shabu shabu at Korean restaurant, hence the side dishes.  Double awesomeness. 

 

The meat since I couldn't include it into the previous pictures. 

 

Christmas is coming, but I don't feel the festiveness that I used to experience before.  Is it because of the economy? 

 



Anyway, that's it for today.

 

Ciao~

November/Thanksgiving Beauty Purchases

I usually buy some beauty products for the year (yes, the whole year) during November/Thanksgiving since there are a lot more sales or gifts during this time around.

I was running out of the eye cream, and the one I got last year doesn't seems to work for the wrinkles under my eyes.  After some research and seeing some deals, I have decided to switch to Estee Lauder to give it a try.  The best thing is that this purchase comes with some gifts, quite a bit of gifts too. 

 

Here's the gifts I got for purchasing the eye cream.  It comes with the snake skin bag, which I am not a fan of, estee lauder palette, 3 mini eyeliners, mini serum, mini face cream with spf 15, which I can't use since I am allergic to the chemical sunscreen, lipstick, and 10 days mascara. 

 

 

Sephora mystery gifts with my purchases.  I bought the OleHeriksen for $48.  But I wanted the mystery gifts and not the shipping charge, so I purchase the Sephora cotton pads for $2.  Of course I got my 3 free samples purchasing online. 

 

Here's what I got for the mystery gifts: 4 Sephora foundation samples, Nars foundation, Urban Decay foundation/brightening primer, L'Occitane face cream, and Lancome primer.  By the way, the gift bag actually cost I think $1/2 online.  So just the bag itself has made up the extra $2 I purchase to get the free shipping and cotton pads. 

 

Here's how the face cream looks like.  It is super mini.

 

Here's all the products unboxed. 

 

I usually purchase a strong facial peel once a year to get rid of all the acne scars and "tough" dead skins accumulated over the years that I couldn't get rid of using regular scrubs. 

 

I used Vichy vitamin C peel last year.  It is a serum that last for 30 days (1 month), and you have to put the serum in the fridge since the vitamin c is very unstable and all natural.  It's the first and the best I have used so far.  I got it at Ulta last year, for about $45ish.  Unfortunately they don't sell it anymore  :((  So I thought I will try something else this time.  I have used OleHeriksen once since I got it, I have good experience so far.  It has this tingly sensation, in a good way (not burning feeling in anyway), and my skin feels really smooth after the mask.  The only downside for me is that I have to wash the product off my face, and I don't really know if I did clean it off well or not...  I don't have to wash the Vichy one.  Yeah, call me lazy, hah. 

 

 

I got this gifts too with the purchase of the double-wear foundation with spf 10.  Again, they have the snake skin bag again, which I don't really care for.  Also, I don't understand why they will have two lipsticks with this gifts.  But I do love their lipstick smells.  They smells a bit berry-ish, not the old lipsticks usually smells. 

 

Anyway, here are just some beauty products I bought during November of 2012. 

 

Ciao~

 

Mood: Lazy

Thanksgiving Trip 2012

I went to the beach for Thanksgiving weekend this year, since the weather seems to be pretty good, mostly in the high 70s.  Usually the weather around Thanksgiving is cold, and all you can do it eat and sleep.  But weirdly, this year seems to be pretty warm.

The trip lasted three days.  We intended to go to Corpus Christi since I have never been there.  But the weather forecast shown that it will rain on the second day of our trip, so we ended up changing our plan at the very last minute, and went to Galveston instead.  We literally made up the decision to go to Galveston when we just departed.  Who knows the weather in Corpus Christi ended up really nice...  Anyway...

11/22/2012 Thursday

8:30am - car wash, vacuum, and gas. 
9:00am - start our journey. 
9:15am - changed the plan after realizing that we will not be able to make it to Corpus Christi.
1:45pm - reached Houston, TX, and have lunch at Cafe 101

 

Fried Tofu $~6



Fried chicken nuggets $8

3:00pm - shopped at fit.  It's like Daiso (Japanese dollar stores), and they carry a lot of Daiso's stuffs, but selling at a higher price.  But the quality of the stuffs are mostly good. 
4:15pm - on the road to Galveston. 
5:30pm - check into Baymount Hotel.
7:00pm - try to find a spot to look at the Christmas lights at the aquarium, but unsuccessful after almost an hour of the drive.  We just couldn't get a close up look.  I just refuse to spend $8 for admission fees just to look at those lights. 



 

There are three pyramids, but my phone camera cannot fully catch it.  You can kind of see the triangle lines. 



8:00pm - shops at Walgreen and CVS to look for deals. 
9:00pm - went to fill up the gas.
9:20pm - bought chicken nuggets at McD for dinner.

 

McD chicken nuggets!!!  I haven't have these in a while...  They tasted so good.  $5

9:30pm - back to the hotel and surf deals for black friday sales.

Budget of the day: 
Gas $80 (including vacuum and car wash)
Food $30 (including $4 bubble tea and tax)
Hotel $60 (including tax)
Total $170

11/23/2012 Friday

8:30am - breakfast at the hotel.  Too many people, too little tables and chairs. 
10:30am - Galveston Island State Park.  $5/p
1:30pm - Office Depot for some shopping.
2:30pm - lunch at Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Grille.  We intended to go to the Clary's Seafood Restaurant, but their kitchen closed at 2pm that day.
Black Pearl has oyster happy hours from 4-7pm during weekdays for $8 rather than the normal price of $~13 but we are too full by then. 

Gumbo (including crab meat, shrimps, oysters, and sausage) for $10



 

Catfish sandwich with fried okras for $15

3:30pm - parked at the beach side and walk to the Pleasure Peer.  We didn't go in though. 
4:30pm - left Galveston to Brenham, TX.
7:15pm - bought chicken nuggets at McD for dinner $5, second day in a role.
7:30pm - checked into Super 8.  Rest for the night. 

Budget:
Food $35 (including tax)
Hotel $90 (including tax)
Gas $45 (including tax) - I don't remember if it is Friday or Saturday
Admission $10
Total $180

11/24/2012 Saturday

9:00am - breakfast at the hotel.  Decent.
11:00am - left to Austin.
1:30pm - Lunch at Salt Lick

 

Thurman's Choice $15

Beef ribs $~8

3:30pm - shopped at Round Rock Outlet
5:30pm - home sweet home

Budget:
Food $20

Although it seems like a short trip, I do enjoy it to the fullest.  I actually didn't buy much this year, and quite proud of myself for not spending so much on useless stuffs or stuffs that depreciates too fast, haha.

Mood:  Sleepy

Food Galore

Have not post anything in a while again...

Been eating out a lot lately.  So might as well just post some pictures. 

 

A dozen of oysters for $12.99 at Half Shells Oyster Bar & Grill

 

Oyster Nachos for $7.99 at the same bar

 

Crab stuffed mushrooms for $6.99

 

Blackened Rainbow Trout for $13.99

 

Seafood Platter for $14.99

(Including Catfish, fried oysters, fried shrimps, cole slaw, and waffle fries.)

 

After Half Shells, we went to Nicola's for their Tiramisu for $7. 

It's so good~

 

Anyway, that's all for tonight. 

 

Ciao~

 

Mood: Happy