The Adventures of a Calamari Queen – Page 37 – Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!

Big Bus Tour, Hong Kong!

Hello Friends! On our third full day in Hong Kong my family decided to do the Big Bus tour to see the HK as we were limited in time and we wanted to check out the city and other touristy places with less hassle. The tour bus was perfect in our opinion. The sisters and I were a little worried that the bus would have lots of issues (base on some reviews), but thankfully we had a good experience and found the tour comfortable. Our Tour included the Peak Tram, Star Ferry/Harbour tour, Hongkong Island, Kowloon; boat tour around Aberdeen Harbour (our boat driver was very accommodating to us / offering to take pictures without us asking him!) now that is customer service:)

There’s probably nothing special about the tour bus in general but I know my family, especially my nephews, loved being in the top part of the double decker open bus. They don’t have this in the Philippines (not in our our city) so it was neat to see them experience HK this way. If you want a comfortable sight seeing experience with limited time, I would recommend this tour. I had such a wonderful time with my family:)

The Tram was crowded as expected!

Tram Selfie!

Selfie with my siblings!

HA! this picture makes me laugh..Zach likes to take candid pics thus our faces looks funny in this! #reallife

All the Titas took pictures and they don’t know where to look!

The look on my nephews faces says they’re not impressed!

Mama!

Here comes the Bus!

About to watch the Symphony of Lights (It was Ok for us, nothing special)

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Hello Everyone! I Hope you’re all having a good weekend. We’re still recovering at home from our nasty colds and annoying coughs. I just wanted to share our Ocean Park adventures with family during our 2 weeks vacation. Me and my sisters visited this park 10 years ago, we had a great memory about our experience thus we wanted to visit it again so the rest of the family can see what it’s all about.

The Park is so big that I don’t think we were able to see the whole place. We had to prioritize what shows and places we wanted to see because we didn’t have a lot of time and also their cable car was not working that day (what a bummer). Too bad also that my nephews were too short for a lot of the rides. Maybe next time we visit that won’t be a problem!:)

Here’s a description of the Ocean Park, Hong Kong (source: wikipedia): Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong.

Bus ride going to Ocean Park!

I love this picture of my Nephew Krammy, he was laughing at himself while trying this hat (miss you Kram)!

Eboy (another Nephew) miss you Eb!

I’m the only one looking at the camera?

Lazy and sleepy Panda!

About to watch the Dolphin and Seal show ( I was disappointed honestly, I feel like the show 10 years ago was so much better)

Lunch at Terrace Cafe (disappointed at how expensive the food was yet the quality was mediocre; I guess you’re paying the view of the restaurant)

Excuse my double chin! Bad Angle! HA..

After Lunch, we’re off to the Jellyfish museum which was very cool and one of my fave in the Park.

Candid picture of my Mom, sis, and nephew! They were laughing at my older sister while Zach was giving her a hard time on one of the rides they took.

I forgot the name of this ride, it was fun watching my family act like crazy kids..

Back From Vacation!

Hello Friends! I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks because we went to visit my family back in the Philippines. We spent 5 days in Hong Kong, 5 days in Manila (Philippines) and another 5 days in my hometown CDO (Cagayan De Oro). We just got back early Thursday. We got sick on our last few days and are still recovering till now. We had so much fun spending time with family and friends Lots of memories were made for sure! Time flies so fast whenever you are having fun. We are so grateful that we were able to do this vacation (debt free!) and looking forward to our next adventures with family! Thank You Lord:)

We had Seattle to Taipei to HK trip

Up early in HK looking for starbucks and some dimsum for breakfast! Excuse our faces #hagardoversoza

with Mama and Zach;HK public transport (MTR) is one of the best in the world.

Dog Parking?

Zach enjoyed durian at our house in CDO. One of the creamiest durians ever!

My Mom made sure we had Lechon once a week we were there. The best lechon for us.

After dinner at this yummy and very affordable local Restaurant!

Gotta visit Ocean Park when you find yourself in HK

Lunch at the Terrace Cafe; expensive but OK food (the view is great though)

we checked their night market (i forgot the name)

Big Bus tour of the city

The Peak

The Sampan Boat tour!

Symphony of Lights night time show

Disneyland Hong Kong

My Nephews enjoying the Pool at Hyatt City of Dreams

Swimming at Duka Bay with cousins

with our Cousins and Auntie (my mom side of the family)

Me swimming at Luxe Hotel in my hometown.

Lunch with my friends!

Happy Labor Day!

Hello friends! Hope you had a relaxing labor day weekend. Ours was a good one! The hubs and I enjoyed sushi and Korean drama (our latest thing!) friday evening. Take out food and movie/tv show marathon is one of my favorite date nights with hubs. The weather lately is one of the reasons we prefer staying at home. We’ve been having lots of thunderstorms and Riley is always stressed when he hears the thunder. No matter what we do to comfort him, nothing seems to work.

We finished the Korean drama “That Winter, The Wind Blows”. I really like the lead stars, they look so good together but the ending of the show was a little disappointing for us.

Saturday we went to the Evergreen State Fair! Had a blast with my In laws and we ate too much fair food:)

Elephant ear! Too much butter and sugar goodness..

We went to church Sunday morning, did a little grocery shopping after. Enjoyed teriyaki for lunch and a nap and lots of cuddling with Riley. We started another Korean drama show that my friend Faye recommended (Fated to Love) which is on Netflix right now. We finished the 20 episodes in 2 days ( I think we are lightly obsessed with RomCom shows lately).

Today (Monday,Labor Day) I did a lot in the kitchen. I roasted the tomatoes that we got from our garden and prepared Rileys food for 2 weeks. I wish we “trained” Riley how to eat commercial dog food (I’m sure there’s lot of decent dog food we can get him). I’ve been cooking his meal for the last year already ( Our vet gave me some recipes to use). He’s our fur baby so it’s worth it for us to make dog food from scratch,know what’s in his food. Back to the tomatoes, I’m looking forward to using my roasted tomatoes in the coming weeks for soups and pasta dishes.

We had Mexican takeout for our dinner tonight, nachos and beef taquitos are always good! Hubs bought some Krispy Kreme donuts for us because it was a long and tiring day of kitchen work:)

Hope you all have a good rest of the week everyone!

Evergreen State Fair!

Hello friends! Hope you’re all having a good weekend. Today, me and the hubs met up with my In laws at the Evergreen State Fair (45 minutes drive from our place) and had a great time. I really like going to the fair (my personal favorite is the Washington State Fair) because it’s big, there are so many activities, and I love all the crazy things I get to see. The hubs is not so much into it, but he did it for me (according to him). We got lucky that the weather was perfect today, at least while we were there! We initially wanted to go last week, but it was raining hard and had a bad storm. We watched the animals (cows, horses, goats) but we missed the dogs, pigs, and sheep. It was a fun time with my In laws, I think everybody’s favorite about the fair was definitely the food. We totally dig the blooming onion! Till the next fair…

Jeans and light Jacket and comfy shoes #ootd

I’m digging the 1956 calendar

Bulky TV

Blooming Onion

Fresh Lemonade

Busy making honey?

Elephant ear anyone?

Eggplant in a container,so cool!

What we’ve been eating lately!

Happy September friends! Although It’s not yet “officially” fall, the weather outside seems like it is. It’s been raining the whole time and windy too. I think it’s time to get out some of my fall decorations ( I don’t have a lot), burn some fall candles, drink a Starbucks Pumpkin spice latte to really put me in the fall spirit. I love fall but the constant rain is annoying. Anyways, I wanted to share some of our meals that we’ve been having in the last part of August! We’ve eaten most of our meals at home and had take out for most weekends (we budgeted for it!). Looking forward to eating soup and stews in the coming weeks:) *Food picture overload ahead…

Bagel and lox, coffee for breakfast (we don’t eat this regularly though)

Sausage, eggs, avocado for dinner

Loco Moco (spam,eggs,beef pattie)

Spaghetti

Short ribs and polenta

Chinese take out as we celebrate 10 years together (7 years married)

Caprese salad (tomatoes and basil from the garden)

Hotdogs and caprese salad

Beef stroganoff and green beans

Fried rice

Deep fried ribs (to go with our rice)

Filipino breakfast *dried fish and eggs

Dried fish and mung bean soup

Steak and potatoes, broccolli

Braised short ribs

Spicy Garlic shrimp

Spam Musubi made by Hubs

Fried chicken (Pioneer woman recipe), corn and cucumber salad

Our take outs:

Chinese food

Terriyake beef, gyoza

Jack n the Box take out food (cheap and unhealthy meal kind of weekend)

Pizza from our local place!

We dined at the Ram restaurant with my In laws 2 weeks ago:

Enjoyed Dimsum at Dough zone after church:

Summer is almost over!

Hello friends! Happy Friday! The weather outside is starting to feel like fall. I’ve been spending time in the garden, trying to weed and “harvest” the remaining tomatoes I have left after the slugs feasted on them. Honestly, this year our garden was disappointing. I still have lots of green tomatoes, not sure if its the weather or what but summer is almost over and some of them are still green! I did try to ripen them(wrap in news paper individually) and what a pain, but so far they’re looking good. I plan to dehydrate them (sun-dried tomatoes). I’ve chopped the herbs (green onions, basil, parsley) and put them in the freezer. They’ll be useful this fall and winter for soups/stews.

Seattle Street Food Festival!

Hello friends! This past weekend, the Hubs and I went to the Seattle Street Food Festival (it was our first time) and it was such a fun event! Lots of food trucks and people (I think the sunny, great weather helped too). We ended up eating Pad Thai, Corn on the cob, a Shawarma and shared a Horchata and spiced pineapple. For dessert we had mini donuts! We devoured the maple bacon donuts, sooo good!

Special Day!

Hello Friends! Hope you’re all having a good evening and looking forward to the weekend! Today (8-14-2015) is a special day for us because this is the 10th year that my Hubs and I have known each other. 10 years ago today we “met” online, chatted for an hour (or less) and exchanged emails..and the rest is history! Thankful for Gods blessing for the last 10 years and looking forward to what is in store for us in the coming years! We wanted to have a little celebration and have dinner at John Howie because we really like the place, but the weather was not cooperating today. It’s been raining non stop with lots of thunder and lighting, we hate leaving Riley at home when the weather is this bad. He gets so nervous and scared, there’s no way we’ll enjoy our dinner knowing he’s miserable at home. We decided to take out Chinese food and cupcakes and watch the Seahawks pre season opener game. Nice and cozy time with my loves tonight!

Recent Hauls!

Hello Friends! Happy Friday:) I wanted to share my “recent” hauls for the last couple of months (some products I got around April) just because! I personally enjoy watching these kind of videos on youtube or blogs to get some ideas from the product reviews which I find very helpful. Most of these I ordered online and were on sale because, just like the majority of people, I like me some good deals!

I went to Bath and Body works for their semi annual sale (last June) because I got a good coupon and wanted to use it. I rarely use their products now (aside from their candles) because I’m trying to use more “natural” and organic products (slowly trying). I know my sister (Hello Ate!) wanted me to get her some of these, so these are for her. I bought 2 candles and I regret the Rio Red Guava because it sure gave me a headache after burning it for 3 hours. I hated it, but the hubs likes it. I will probably throw this one out, but I’ve read somewhere that you can actually return a candle even after burning it and get a new one (exchanged it) but I’m not sure if I want to do that! It’s not their fault if I don’t like the scent of the candle I picked it…smelled great at the store.

I’m trying to drink less ‘real’ coffee now (it’s so hard!) so I started drinking Teeccino Herbal coffee. It’s a great alternative to coffee because IMO it taste like coffee without the caffeine. I’ve had this before so I decided to just buy it in bulk on Amazon (I think it was on sale when I got them). My favorite is the French roast dark!

I got this on Amazon together with the Teeccino coffee, and I love the white chocolate wonderful one! A more natural version of peanut butter than what we’re used to eating at home. They’re all good, so creamy and the prices at amazon were decent too. I’ve checked it at our local grocery store and there’s no way I’m buying them there.

Henri Bendel had a summer sale last June, it’s one of my favorite brands because the quality is superb. I like it because you can only buy their products at their stores and online. It’s not “everywhere” unlike Michael Kors or Kate Spade. I feel like every woman on the planet has an MK bag or something. The prices are affordable so long as they are on sale:)

I dropped some donations at our local Value Village last weekend, they gave me a coupon that I can use in the store as a “thank you” for my donations. I checked their books section and found these goodies. I think I paid $6 after my discount. I’m looking forward to trying some recipes in the coming weeks.

Nordstrom had their Anniversary sale last month and I decided to get these Nike shoes. They got decent reviews and I’ve been wanting to get a pair of “light” sneakers for a while now. So with the sale I thought I would just get this and return it if I’m not into it. I’ve used them already and they’re so perfect for me! Super comfortable and light weight. I know I will get a lot of use out of these shoes in the coming months. Happy savings friends!

*For the month of August, I’m joining the #buynothing challenge! This means I’ll only buy the necessary (no starbucks coffee for me or things I’ve mentioned above!). So far so good for me, the first week was easy, I avoided Target and Homegoods (these stores are my weakness!). We’ll see how I will do in the coming 2nd week:)