Rose Garden and Butterfly Pavilion LA, April 2008

We went to the Museum of Natural History in LA, a place we have not visited for more than 25 years, and found out to our disappointment that they have the same uninspiring exhibits. It is still worth a visit...it is just that we are mentally comparing this museum with the museums we have visited in other parts of the US and Europe and it failed in comparison. Outside of the museum building there is a rose garden and a butterfly pavilion which we checked out before heading home. I took a few photos of the garden and butterflies and after lingering there for a while, we decided to hit the freeway to beat the rush hour traffic.

Newport Beach, Laguna Beach (Montage Resort) and Yorba Linda (Nixon Library and Museum)

A "watering hole" near the foot of Balboa Pier in Newport Beach.

The bike path and sandy beach are usually empty during the early hours on workdays

Montage Resort in Laguna Beach

Very few beach goer on a perfect day!

A pictorial layout of the library and museum

Hallway leading to the replica of the East Room at the While House in Washington D.C.

A docent giving the visitors a brief explanation of the display

Inside the house where Richard Nixon was born

The little tub in the picture was the family bathtub (there was no indoor plumbing in the house)

San Diego and Carlsbad, April 2008

We went to San Diego for an overnight stay at the Hyatt Hotel near the harbor. We got a nice room with a view and access to their Regency Room where they offer breakfast in the morning, all day snack, and alcoholic drinks and cold cuts in the evening all for free as part of the room deal. Our rate was heavily discounted because my wife's niece works at their Hyatt office in New York; otherwise, I'll probably be paying an arm and a leg for our stay LOL. In a place where street parking is easily available, the hotel charges $20/day if you want to park at their garage. This is cheap compared to cities like Chicago and New York. I paid more than $40/day for parking my rental car at a Chicago hotel and this was like 6 years ago. The car I rented at the airport cost me only $28/day! Talk about daylight robbery! LOL.

On our way back, we decided to stop at a Carlsbad outlet to buy some stuff and to check out the flower garden nearby. You can see the garden from a distance but to get "up close and personal", you have to shell out $7 (senior rate); more, if you are under 62. Nothing is free any more. I will not be surprised if in the years to come, we will be paying for the air we breathe.


Gaslamp area of San Diego - it's beautiful at night when all those lamps are on

View from our room on the 32nd floor

Aircraft carrier Midway, now out of commissioned and a current tourist attraction

One of the cruise ships going to the Mexican Riviera

A homeless guy sleeping in a nearby park. I ran into many of them while taking an early morning walk along the harbor. The local police try to drive them away from the areas frequented by tourists but they are not always successful. They don't bother anybody, they just want a place to hang out and sleep.

A section of Armstrong flower garden

A close up view of the flowers

Las Vegas and the Society of Seven

This is the last week that Lani Misalucha and the Society of Seven with guest star, Martin Nievera will be performing in Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. My wife and her college buddy wanted to see them before they leave on a tour. I said, "What the heck, let's drive to Vegas, see the show, spend some time feeding the slot machines, sleep in a decent hotel and head back to Orange County the next day." That is exactly what we did!

Photography was not allowed inside the showroom but after the show, the performers usually go outside and sign authographs, have their picture taken with the fans, sell their dvds and what nots. I was told by a friend that in the Philippines, the "stars" do not mingle with the fans, as well as they do here, for fear that things can get out of hand. I do not know this for a fact. However, here, the fans are well-behaved - they line up and wait patiently for their turns, "walang singitan at tulakan." LOL.

More pics from Central Europe

We took this train ride inside a small park in Frankfurt, Germany thinking that it was a good way to see the entire park in a jiffy. We did not know that halfway through we were to get off and be required to pay again to get back to where we started! What a rip-off LOL.

This is the first McDonald place I saw that charges a fee to go to the toilet!

A couple of furnaces in a crematorium at Auschwitz, Poland where the Nazi burned the corpses of thousands of Jews.

A lone bird checking out the empty tables

A group of German girls started waving when they saw me aimed my camera in their direction.

An accident at the autobahn - a high speed road in Germany where there is no speed limit.

Epcot Center, Disney World and Downtown Disney 2003

I first heard of Epcot from a young American backpacker who was on the same bus I was in. He was headed for the Everglades National Park and I was traveling on my own across Canada and US of A on a 21 day Greyhound bus pass. I heeded his suggestion to check out Epcot after visiting Disney World. I liked what I saw and experienced, I went back a second time with my family. A few years ago, I found myself in Florida again and I decided to revisit Epcot, Disney World and Downtown Disney.

By the way, a good and cheap way to see most of North America is to buy a Greyhound bus pass for 7 to 60 days, depending on how much time you want to be on the road. No advance reservation is required to travel so you are free to go anywhere and anytime you want, subject only to the places serviced by Greyhound and its affiliates and the duration of the pass. This deal is good for young travelers on a budget but not for older people who cannot coup up with rigors of long bus rides.

Epcot Center

Epcot Center

The Moroccan Pavillion at the Center

Note the signature globe in the background

A presentation near the German Pavillion

Inside the Living Seas Pavillion

Note the humongous pumpkin!

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney

An open air show at Disney World

One of the modes of transport in the Disney complex

then and now....

now...My two brothers and I took this free bus ride to the Barona casino in San Diego to take advantage of the casino's promotional offer - "If you lose $48,000 playing the slot machines, we'll give you a free cup of coffee; if you lose $2,000 more, we'll let you take home the cup." Just joking! Actually, the offer was a free roundtrip bus ride to the casino and if you play the slot machines for at least two hours, the casino will refund (in cash) your loses up to $200. They give you an incentive bonus, too.. if you win. I didn't care what it was because every time I play the slot machines (Las Vegas, Reno, etc.) I always lose LOL. I was just there for the free ride and to satisfy my curiosity.

The guy in the red shirt was the driver and the lady with the clipboard was the one-woman welcoming committee, "OK, who are here for the first time? Good! We have a lot of freebees for you and I hope you all have a good time..(I hope we can convince you to be a regular contributor to the economic well-being of our casino LOL). It was a day of fun though for us - a good way to kill the day.


then......I went on a fishing trip with some friends to Punta Colorada (a few miles north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) and this was our "harvests" for the day - a shark, a marlin and a dorado. Really nothing to crow about but we worked hard to catch one of them (not really, the deck hand helped us set the hook on the marlin and he encouraged us with beers while we took turn fighting it LOL).

Actually, while trolling you are supposed to set the hook if the marlin bites and then you "work" on it SOLO until you get it close enough to the boat to be gaffed so you can claim credit for catching it. The only credit we claimed was we provided the hotel guests with a marlin dinner that night LOL. Personally, I'd rather go for the smaller varieties of fish with a very light tackle. Try catching a 20 pounder fish with a light tackle and a 2 lbs. test line. It is less work and it is more rewarding....if you can successfully land the fish. I've lost too many of them my wife said if I were fishing for a living I'll starve to death LOL