Category Archives: Khoackie Adventures
Jackie’s 1st Birthday as a Mommy!
On Wednesday, July 18, 2012, I celebrated a very special birthday, a super duper extra special birthday because it is my first birthday as a mommy! I started my morning with tons of birthday wishes from my friends and family, and most of all my sweet baby Lily giving me a gift of her smile! Khoa surprised me with a sweet (yet chaotic but lovely) homemade card, and both Luna and Lily signed it as well, tehehehe. I them took a bunch of pictures of Lily in her pretty dress that I got her from JcPenny! She’s so photogenic and I just can’t get enough of her adorable smile and big beautiful eyes! After my paparazi-ing, we got everything loaded into the car for our fun filled day! I was already in the car, Lily in the car seat ready to go, until Khoa told me he wanted me to come back inside for a bit. He said something was suppose to arrive in 15 minutes, but as we waited, nothing showed up. Turns out, he ordered flowers and birthday balloons, and they said they would deliver it within a certain time but they were late and had the wrong flowers and balloons so Khoa refused the order. So that was a bust, but it’s ok, I was excited to eat at Goofy’s Kitchen at Downtown Disney!
We arrived at the restaurant at 1:36pm, and the front was all dim and no one was there…uh oh…turns out brunch ended at 1:30pm =(. So we decided to eat at Storytellers Cafe instead. Khoa told them it’s my birthday so they gave me a Happy Birthday Disney button with my name on it! So everywhere I went, everyone wished me a Happy Birthday! I ordered crab cakes, a margarita flatbread, and a very berry smoothie! Khoa got the corn chowder, four cheese ravioli with asparagus with whole cloves of garlic, and a red trolley. Everything was delicious, but the crab cakes really filled me up so I boxed up half my flatbread and poured my smoothie into a Disney to-go cup! We then took Lily on a stroll around Downtown Disney so she can enjoy the music, scenery, ambiance, and window shopping, but unfortunately, she remained sleeping the entire time. Regardless, I had to take pictures with her to document her first time at Downtown Disney! She’s so close to Disneyland, yet so far…soon enough she’ll share my love for Disney and we’ll go crazy in the park haha!
After our stroll, we dropped her off at her Ong Ba Noi’s (grandparents) house where Khoa set up a convenient Pack ‘N Play for her to sleep and play on. That thing really is awesome and cleverly designed! We then went to go see Pixar’s Brave! We had a little bit of time to spare before the movie, so we went to a Target nearby and I bought a cute dress that I couldn’t resist from buying and a bow headband set for our Lily pad! We then went to enjoy the movie, and since the movie’s been out for almost a month, we practically had the theater to ourselves, it was like our own private theater experience! The movie was really great and the visuals were so beautifully done! The short at the beginning of the movie, La Luna, was amazing (and not just because of the name), my favorite so far!! After the movie, I wanted to pick Lily up and take her to dinner with us, but we called Khoa’s mom and she said Lily was sound asleep, and told us to enjoy dinner just the two of us. So due to the convenience of it, we had dinner as a couple, at the Napa Rose Restaurant (thanks Kat for the recommendation) also at Downtown Disney! It’s a very fancy restaurant but the people were super nice to us and really made us feel special! Khoa really liked our waiter, he had a memorable name, Saucy (that really is his name!) and we found out he was expecting his first child soon! Of course, we couldn’t resist sharing photos of our precious Lily to him and the couple next to us, who happen to be celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary! Khoa was very chatty, that’s how we know all this stuff haha. At dinner, we got this SUPER delicious side order of Truffle Mac N Cheese, I ordered the Angus New York Steak, and Khoa got the Filet Mignon. For dessert I ordered the Blue Beach Crème Brûlée (crème brûlée that’s colored blue on top to resemble the ocean, with graham cracker crumbs for the sand, 
an umbrella and gummy candy for the sandals in the sand. I realized later that I order dessert from the kid’s menu, because later I found out there’s a real dessert menu with more choice, but I didn’t care, I wanted my beach crème brûlée haha! They brought it out with a candle and the words Happy Birthday written on chocolate on the plate! On the way out, we saw some neat vino Pixar bottles too! Too bad I don’t drink wine otherwise I definitely would have bought one as a souvenir!
On Saturday, July 21st, Khoa threw me a very wonderful birthday party! So of course, first thing I did was put Lily in her new party dress that she got from her party last week! Doesn’t she look super cute? She’s wearing the white bow headband that I bought her on my birthday too! Khoa ordered catering from Famous Dave’s BBQ and we got tons of ribs, brisket, sausage links, muffins, buns, mac ‘n cheese (my favorite from there!), mashed potatoes, and corn on a cob! They delivered to us and it was so great, they brought us serving utensils, wet naps, utensils, and ever packets of their famous BBQ sauce (Rich & Sassy and Devil’s Spit). We will definitely order from them again in the future! Later, Alvina surprised me with an AMAZING dessert spread from Extraordinary Desserts in Hillcrest in San Diego! It was so nice of her she got me a macadamia caramel cheesecake, chocolate bundt cake, raspberry strudel, napoleon, and coffee cake! Thank you so much alvina, I was so overwhelmed and amazed by it all! 
Khoa then had me open presents but in the style of secret santa. Khoa had everyone prepare their most fondest memory of me, and they took turns reading off someone else’s fondest memory and I was suppose to guess who’s it was. Then that person would hand me a present, I would open it, and then go on with the next one. The last one ended with Khoa’s fondest memory, and he of course wrote about our wedding day, and then he presented me a group gift that everyone chipped in for, which is a QVC gift card! I’m going to have some online shopping fun for sure!! The whole thing was really sweet and it really made me feel super special! Even though the party was for me, I was just so excited to show off my little Lily pad! Everyone just loved how calm she is and every time someone gives me a compliment about her, I just feel so proud! Luna was also reunited with her play buddy Bobo too! Steve brought him over to play with Luna, yay! I love all my friends and family and thank you all for making my first birthday as a mommy a super special one! 
Later that day we dropped Lily off with her grandparents again so Khoa and I can watch Ted. It’s quite a funny movie and I enjoyed my time with Khoa! I was so excited to come back to Lily though and when we arrived at the house, she really did light up her eyes and looked very excited to see us! That’s so cute!
The next day Khoa took me and Lily to get brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen! It was really fun to see the Disney Characters and Lily was actually awake during the entire time! She was really happy and smiling and she was even moving to the music and all the characters loved her! Goofy’s Kitchen is a buffet too so it was great to eat all the yummy food my tummy can hold! The food was really delicious and there was such a wide variety to choose from. They took our family picture with Goofy before you go inside, and as a souvenir, you can buy the large print along with 4 4×6 photos, and you get 3 famous recipes all in a cute keepsake folder. They sure know how to make money, but hey, we’re celebrating so we bought it for memories!
I had such a wonderful birthday and I love and appreciate everyone who was a part of it in making me feel super special! Even my cousin in laws (Chi Hai, Chi Ba, Chi Tu, Anh Hai Mike, and even Bac Ba) and Khoa all changed their profile pictures on facebook to a picture of me and them wishing me a Happy Birthday! That was so sweet and thoughtful and I felt so honored to be in their profile picture for the day! Most of all, I want to thank my love, my husband, Khoa for planning everything and making sure I’m always happy and spoiled, and for giving me the best present ever, Lily!
Khoa’s 1st Father’s Day!
Happy 1st Father’s Day to my wonderful and amazing husband Khoa! Lily only arrived just 9 days ago, but during these past 9 days, Khoa has shown to be an amazing man and father already by showing his dedication to take care of Lily as well as me! He takes on all the late night feedings so that I can rest and recover, and he never complains about her many diaper changes either! He does everything with a smile and cheery attitude and it makes my happy to see him take on these tasks like a champ! Knowing that Lily would arrive before Father’s Day, I went ahead and ordered Khoa’s gift while I was still pregnant since I like to plan ahead and be prepared. I got Khoa a t-shirt that says “I Make Adorable Babies” and a matching onesie for Lily that says “Adorable Baby” on it! The morning of Father’s Day, I changed Lily’s outfit to the onesie, and told Khoa Lily has a present for him! I gave Khoa his matching shirt and made him change into it so he can wear it on is special day! I also later made him a card that evening with pictures from the hospital that included the first time he held Lily, and pictures from today to document his first father’s day!
Since we can’t go out yet, I told Khoa he can choose any place he likes for dinner and order take out from there! However, his aunt made one of his favorite dishes, Bun Cha Hanoi, so he stopped by after church and got some food to-go from his aunt’s house instead. I then told him he can watch any movie DVD he wants, but we didn’t have enough time that night, so we watched it the next night. The movie he chose was Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was an ok movie, the ending was uneventful, but overall still entertaining. Lately he’s been really into watching American Ninja Warrior, so we were watching lots of that as well. It’s his day so we can do whatever he wanted, so we watched lots of American Ninja Warrior and relaxed with our Lily pad! I hope you enjoyed your special day my love, you deserve it!! Here’s to many many more Father’s Day! Lily and I love you to pieces, big hugs and MUAHz!
Lily’s Arrival: The Big Day!
Our precious angel, sweet baby girl, arrived on June 8, 2012, at 7:30am, weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces, and stretches 19 inches long! This entry will document my whole labor experience, so if you don’t want to know the details, then just enjoy the pictures, and don’t worry about the text. After all, this blog is for Lily to read one day, so for me and Khoa to reminisce on our adventures together!
So on Thursday June 7th, I was starting to question what “real contractions” felt like. I know everyone experiences contractions and labor differently, so even though people kept saying “you will know when you’re in labor”, I still didn’t really know! What I was feeling was really tight and hard in the stomach, so it could have been braxton hick contractions, but it felt a little stronger than before, yet it wasn’t painful. So I asked my experienced mommy friends, and they all either had pain or didn’t, so I figured I’ll just start timing and keeping track of what I was experiencing, and if it matched the criteria for the 511 labor signs (contractions being 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for a whole hour), then we shall go to the hospital. If it ends up being a false alarm, then I will at least have answers and will know if what I am experiencing was the real deal or not, better safe than sorry too! So I told Khoa about what I was feeling and so we agreed to go to the hospital after he gets home from work.
So when he finally got home from work, his mom called and wanted us to pick up some food she made for us (so nice of her to keep making us food to help make our lives easier at this point in our pregnancy!). So not wanting to cause alarm or worry, we decided not to tell her (or anyone else) that we were going to go to the hospital. We told his mom we will pick up the food later, but she decided that she will drop off the food to us instead! So we waited, but she ended up running late, no biggie since I wasn’t really in pain. When she came by, her and Khoa started to have a LONG, conversation about cars! Khoa even started pulling up cars on the computer and they had what seemed the longest discussion on cars ever! I started to get more uncomfortable and was trying to give Khoa a reminder as to what our plan was today with my eyes, and finally he got the message after 30 minutes. So finally, Khoa’s mom left, and then I was still 50% thinking this might be a false alarm, so I decided that I had time to take a shower really quick and brushed my teeth. After my shower, we grabbed out suitcase and headed to the hospital!
On the car ride there, Khoa was still excited about a car he wanted to buy, a Tesla, he totally missed the 55 FWY, so we had to take a little detour to get back on route. Khoa goes “How funny would it be if this is the real deal? haha” We both still feel it could be a false alarm, so we were pretty light hearted about this, and I said “Well, as long as we get there safely, it’s all that matters, and I’m not in pain anyways, so no rush.” We pass by a Del Taco on the way to the hospital, and I suddenly got hungry as well, and I really wanted to eat some chili cheese fries. I heard that when you’re in labor, you don’t really have an appetite, so that also made me think maybe it’s a false alarm, so I told Khoa if this was a false alarm, if we can get some chili cheese fries on the way home! He sweetly answers “Of course baby, whatever you want!” =)
So we get to Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport around 9:30pm, and all I know is that I’m suppose to go to the 5th floor and my Dr. said my file is ready to go and so they’ll just be waiting for me when I’m ready. So I get to the 5th floor, I press the buzzer and said I wanted to get admitted. We have to fill out all this paperwork, sign here, initial there, answer questions, give them my insurance, etc. I was thinking man, if I was having so much pain, how can I answer all these questions and fill out paperwork?? When we did finish, another pregnant woman came in and boy did she look like she was ready to pop! She was walking super slow and was heavily breathing and everything! Khoa was like “If she gets sent home, there’s no way we will be asked to stay!” haha! So we finally get set up in our room and they hook up the monitors on me to monitor my contractions and the baby’s heart rate. We sit there for an hour, and I was thinking about how I can really eat those chili cheese fries right now, and Khoa and I were just talking about excited this would be if this was really it! We sit there waiting, checking out the monitor and watching the peaks go up and down from my contractions, and anxiously waiting for the verdict. The nurse came in after an hour (it’s about 11pm now) and saw that with my last contractions, the baby’s heart rate dropped really low, so from that alone, the nurse announced we will be staying and having this baby soon! I was so excited to hear that, we were surprised, but thrilled because that means Lily will be born the next day, Friday June 8, 2012!!!!!!! We asked how long typically it will take for her to arrive, and they said she will probably be her by noon if everything goes well!
So now knowing this is NOT a false alarm, I realized I won’t be getting my chili cheese fries, but I will be get something better, a baby girl!! We started to tell our family the news that we’re at the hospital, and then we got transferred and settled into our new Labor and Delivery room! When we got there, they hooked me up to the monitors again, and hooked me up to an IV, drew some blood, and asked if I wanted an Opana drug. It supposedly keeps you calm, helps with the pain, but makes you really woozy and dizzy, but really helps you sleep, and is administered through the IV. So I figured even though I’m not in much pain, it could get more painful later, and I could really use the help to fall asleep so I can have energy for the pushing later on! So I said yes to the Opana, and then Khoa and I got ready to sleep! Shortly after they gave me the Opana, they came and broke my water to speed up labor, it was like a warm gush of water flowing out of me…very weird feeling I must say! I knew that once your water breaks, contractions will be infinitely more painful, so I decided to sleep while I can! After 2 hours with on the Opana, it wore off, I was 4cm dilated, and about 90% to fully effaced! I finally felt the pain of the contractions, boy did it hurt! They gave me another dose of Opana, but it didn’t really help anymore, but luckily I only had to endure about 20 minutes of pain. During those 20 minutes though, Khoa noticed I was doing the deep breathing method for contractions, so he asked if I needed him there to get through them. I told him that I’ll be ok, and that I wanted him to sleep to get his rest so that he can be there for me for the pushing cause I hear that’s the hardest part. So after 20 minutes, I finally got the epidural! I could have gotten it sooner but the anesthesiologist had to give 2 patients that were much further along than me, the epidural first. The process of getting the epidural was not so bad at all, mostly because I couldn’t see what was going on, but also, but it happened so quickly. I only felt a small sting from the numbing needle, and maybe some pressure later, but that was it! The epidural is truly magic! I felt great and slept for 3 hours straight!
The nurse woke me up around 5:30ish AM to check up on me and see how far along I was. She then asked me if I can give her a push and see how it goes. So I tried, and she goes “Yep, it’s time to push!” They gave me an oxygen mask though because the baby’s heart rate still kept going down with every contraction, so they figured maybe I needed more oxygen. So when Khoa woke up from the news that it’s time to push, he was a little drowsy and saw me with the mask and panicked, but I told him not to worry, it’s all good! So we just had to wait for the doctor, which took about an hour or so, before we began to push. Khoa got super excited and decided to record the event with my camera and with his tablet as well, to have different angles, all from the non private parts angles though, so one on my left side and one on my right side haha. Earlier, Khoa and I discussed if he wanted to watch the baby come out, and he said no, he’d rather not see that, and then didn’t seemed too enthusiastic about cutting the umbilical cord, so I thought that was plan. Oh how quickly that changed! When the Dr. arrived, (it was Dr Hargrove in place for my usual doctor, Dr. Ricci since Dr. Hargrove was already nearby), we quickly started to push. I made Khoa in charge of holding my mask in place on my face because it kept slipping. Once a contraction came, the nurse told me to push, and then right away the nurse was like “WOW you can already see her head!” Immediately Khoa dropped my oxygen mask and run over to the other end and was like “Where?!” What happened to not wanting to look? Haha! So during the break between the first and 2nd contraction, when I was catching my breathe, I asked Khoa “Can you please hang on to my oxygen mask this time?” haha! So 2nd contraction came and she ALMOST came out, so close!! 3rd contraction came and with one last push she was out, June 8, 2012, 7:30AM!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!!!!!! (check out our winking angel at only 14 minutes old!)
Our beautiful precious baby girl now laid in my arms! She big glistening eyes and eyebrows with a a ca-lick at the ends (just like her daddy), and big luscious red lips, pinchable chubby cheeks, and cute little button nose! She has long pretty fingers and toes, and long arms and legs as well! I was so overwhelmed with happiness and joy and love, and also shocked this all happened so fast, that I was just so speechless and in awe when they places my precious Lily on my for the first time, just seconds after she was born! I got really emotional and cried a little, tears of joy! Khoa almost cried as well, but the Dr. asked if he wanted to cut her cord and instantly he was like YES! Again, how things change haha. Lily weighed in at 6lbs 8oz and stretches 19inches long. They quickly cleaned her up and then Lily and I had our golden hour and we just laid there, skin to skin, blissfully in peace, just the two of us, and Khoa at our side holding my free hand. A warm sense of completeness came over me, and the word happy was a serious understatement. My heart was overflowing with love for this little angel in my arms. Nothing else in the world existed except for the 3 of us, life was perfect!
Our experience at Hoag Hospital was absolutely wonderful! All the nurses and staff were super friendly and made us feel like superstars! We had such great pampering that when I got home, I really missed being at the hospital for 3 days! haha! We got 3 meals sent to us daily (Khoa gets 1 meal but the second day he got lucky and got 3 meals too!) On the last night we were there, we got to enjoy a Celebratory Dinner and it’s pretty much just fancier food (like filet mignon wrapped in bacon) and they gave us two cute little apple cider bottles and little fancy cups too. Steve worked his charm on the nurse and managed to get us more apple cider as well, so we got 4 bottles, yummy!
Thank you to all our family and friends who came to visit us and Lily at the hospital! That also contributed to our wonderful experience at the hospital! Our private rooms were very well insulated so you can’t hear any noise from the other rooms, and they didn’t regulate how many visitors you can have at a time. Our room was like a party room with all the guests that kept coming in and out, and all the smiles and laughter that was continuously filling the air! Lily was so good to and just slept while she was being passed along, without a worry or care, what a sweet mellow baby! I got super spoiled too with having Lily in our room the whole time. I just can’t get enough of her cuteness, her smell, her cute little noises she makes, the sound of her cry, her movements, everything! I would always keep her bassinet right next to me so I can look at her all the time! I would wake up in the middle of the night and just look at my cute little angel and it just floods my heart with warm fuzzy feelings!
Before we left the hospital, we put Lily in her onesie that Alvina made for Lily from the baby shower!! As you know, auntie Alvina was the winner of the onesie contest so Lily was suppose to wear this onesie home. Unfortunately, the onesie is a size 9 month onesie, so it’s way too big for her to wear. So we still put it on her for a photo so that she can wear it at the hospital. The next photo is her actual outfit on the way home, her first outfit out in the real world!
Sunday morning we got discharged from the hospital, and I wanted to go straight to Khoa’s grandparent’s house so that his grandfather, Lily’s GREAT grandfather, can meet Lily! Lily’s first car ride wasn’t too bad! She’s so tiny, so to me she looked quite uncomfortable in the baby sit, and she cried when we first put her in the seat, but once the car started moving, she just knocked out and slept the whole way! It was a very nice moment for for the whole family, and we got to take pictures of all 4 generations! Also, for the car ride home, and having optometrists for an aunt and uncle, we had to make sure we protect her eyes from the sun, so we put on her stunna shades from auntie Jennifer and Uncle Andy! No cataracts for this baby!!
We left our house to go to the hospital as a married couple, but now we arrived home as a new family! Thank you everyone for all your love and support! We are so blessed, lucky, and overjoyed for our precious baby Lily, and we can’t wait to share our new adventures with her, watch her grow, and love her more and more each day! Lily’s auntie Jennifer made a really sweet and thoughtful video documenting our whole pregnancy experience. It’s really touching and so beautiful, I can’t wait for Lily to see this one day! Thanks Jennifer for your hard work!! Enjoy everyone!!
Lily’s Arrival from J.N. on Vimeo.
Babymoon!
Babymoon – April 27-29, 2012
Khoa and I took a babymoon locally and in San Diego to enjoy our time together as a couple before our whole world changed when our little miracle arrives! We started our weekend by eating dinner at A&J’s in Irvine Friday night and then watched 5 Year Engagement at the Spectrum. The movie was very funny and cute, we would recommend it! On Saturday, we had lunch at this place Khoa heard about on the radio that has really yummy open face tacos called Taqueria Tapatio! It’s quite delicious and the watermelon juice and horchata are REALLY refreshing as well! We then started out drive to San Diego. 
I always wanted to visit the stopping view point after you pass San Onofre, and so finally we did, it’s call Camp Pendleton Vista Point! There’s tons of squirrels there that are super friendly and a lot of people had little sunflower seeds and peanuts and bread to feed them. People gave us some sunflower seeds to so the squirrels went right up to me and ate out of my hand! I don’t know how sanitary that was, thank goodness for hand sanitizer, but they were so darn cute I couldn’t resist getting so close to them!
After stopping at Vista Point, we continued out drive and finally made it to Ocean Beach thanks to Alvina’s suggestion! It was nice little beach, pretty crowded, but it’s known for it’s pier. The pier is the longest pier in the west coast, and is in a shape of a T. The pier was not nearly as busy as the beach itself, so we enjoyed a nice spacious stroll to ourselves. After walking on the pier, we went to the side of the beach to explore as well!
For dinner we ate at Phil’s BBQ. It’s only of my favorite BBQ places and boy was I satisfied! I think our baby dragon Lily enjoyed it a lot as well =P The wait there is usually ridiculously long, so we made sure to arrive early around 4:45pm, and the line was already around the corner of the building. We probably waited a total of 25-30 mins., so we got lucky because usually the wait is double that amount! It’s totally worth it though =).
After dinner we went to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sunset. It’s a really nice scenic area with a clear ocean panoramic view! We arrived with about 30 mins to spare before the sunset, so we explored around the cliffs and got some photos. We also got lucky that it was a nice clear day with a few clouds so we got to see the sunset perfectly! Also, there weren’t that many people there either so it was overall a very nice, intimate time that Khoa and I got to share with each other. Some of the people we did walk by on the cliffs complimented me saying I look great and congratulated us on our pregnancy!! Little things like that sure makes we feel warm and fuzzy inside! =)
We went to Little Italy in Downtown San Diego afterwards to eat desserts at Extraordinary Desserts!! I’ve been wanting to eat there for the longest time but never had the chance because we were always so full after dinner! This time we had about a 1.5-2 hr gap between dinner and dessert, so that allowed us to digest and make room for all the fabulously delicious dessert we were about to experience! We ordered the tres leches cake, passion fruit napoleon, raspberry and lychee sorbet! The sorbet was SUPER refreshing and flavorful, the best sorbet I’ve ever had! I also ordered an appetizer of an avocado and artichoke truffle bruschetta and that was the best bruschetta I’ve ever had as well! Khoa ordered a macadamia nut iced coffee I got an American Beauty, which was pretty much a rose sparkling water. Our overall experience there was really great, we’d definitely come back for more!
On Sunday we had lunch at Watson’s Drugs and Soda Fountain. I had a groupon so we decided to check it out, and it’s cute little diner atmosphere 
restaurant, that even had a working jukebox! They are known for the patty melts so I ordered an avocado tomato patty melt and Khoa ordered the chili cheese eggs with home fries. I got a fancy root beer float and Khoa ordered a mimosa! The restaurant had store connected to it that sold all sorts of old fashion candies and sodas and other knicks knacks as well that was fun to browse through. After a really good lunch we took a stroll around the Orange Circle and did some window shopping. We then pampered ourselves and have a 1.5hr couple’s massage! After getting massaged for 1.5 hrs, it’s hard to go back to just the normal 1 hour massage haha! After our pampering, we went to Main Place mall and did some light shopping while sipping on one of my favorite drinks, milk tea! We then went home and started watching a movie on Netflix, The Sitter. It is not a family friendly movie, but there were a lot of funny parts in it! We had to put the movie on pause so we can go to out dinner reservations at Gulliver’s in Irvine!
Gulliver’s is a steakhouse that is based off the theme of Gulliver’s Travel (or so Khoa says). The facade is very cute with pretty flowers and the inside is really intimate and cozy! The staff were super friendly and when Khoa told them we were celebrating out babymoon, they were very enthusiastic in congratulating us and making us feel special! The food portions were humungous!!! Plus no matter what you order, they come and scoop you a huge helping of cream corn as well!! Good thing we had a groupon for that place too because it’s quite expensive, but well worth it! They also have gift certificates on restaurants.com (thanks Jennifer for the info) and so next time we go, we’ll definitely get a gift certificate to save some money! By the end of the meal, I couldn’t finish half of my meal, so we decided not to order dessert. However, they boxed us up a complimentary house special dessert anyways, a raspberry sponge cake, for celebrating our babymoon!! Yay!! After stuffing our faces, we went home and finished the movie. We had such a nice and relaxing babymoon, and I couldn’t have spent it with a more wonderful man! Enjoy our pictures, the full album can be viewed here!
Thanksgiving 2011 in New York!
Since this was going to be our last Thanksgiving with just the two of us, we decided to go on vacation to spend our first holiday away together. We did everything from visiting the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, Central Park, Battery Park, to the Rockefeller Center and more! We got to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade up close in person as well, but our favorite event was the Jason Mraz Concert at Carnegie Hall! We had such a wonderful time together and even though I will still having a little bit of morning (more like all day) sickness, it did not prevent me from wandering around eating my way through New York City! Here’s an awesome video that Jennifer made from our many video clips we too of our amazing trip! Thanks Jennifer, you do magic behind the camera!
Jackie and Khoa Do New York! from J.N. on Vimeo.
Europe Adventures 2011
Khoackie’s Europe Adventure – March 30-April 11:
We went on such an amazing trip to Europe and here are some of our favorite photos from our 12 day trip! We went to London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Nice, Monaco, and Paris! On the way back to the states, we took advantage of our layover in Chicago and did some sight seeing in the city of Chicago as well! This trip was definitely a great adventure and we are happy to share our memories with you! To see more pictures, visit our gallery! Enjoy!
Here’s the recap on all our Khoackie Adventures in Europe through the eyes of Jackie (because Khoa was too busy vacationing once again to document this trip)! (These entries are a compilation of our emails to home at the end of each night.)
Day 1 – London:
‘Allo mateys!! We landed safe and sound! When we got off the plane, I wanted to take some pictures and stuff and I got yelled at because they said I’m not allowed to use a camera inside the airport…So I told them I didn’t take any pictures so it was then ok. It took us a really long time to figure out what to do when we got off the plane. We didn’t have a sim card yet so we couldn’t look up directions to the hotel, and the first person we asked was no help and was really mean. So we walked around and went to see how much it would cost for a taxi, and it was 50 pounds (about $80) and it would only take about 35 mins. But that was really expensive and an all day train and bus pass was only 8 pounds a person, so that was a lot better. We finally figured out what trains to take, and it took us 1.5 hours to get off the train, and then we walked for about 15 and then got to our hotel! I think we could have taken the bus… But at least we know now! We bought a sim card with 200 minutes on it, so we can call home everytime we get to a new location. Also, we get all day internet on the sim card for 1lb a day, so that’s really nice too. The room is nice, it’s just like a normal hotel room and we get free breakfast at this place too! The weather isn’t too bad, it’s not raining, it’s just a little cloudy but not that cold either, so it’s good!
So for the pictures that I attached, you can see our hotel room and the view from our hotel room! I took a picture of the money here as well. The next picture is of Hype Park, just the edge walkway of it, and there’s a little lake and I saw some pretty swans! We ate dinner at this sushi place where all the food is on a conveyor belt! It’s pretty cool, the food tasted ok…but it was good experience. We also went and walked around West End and originally wanted to eat there but it was so late all the places were already closed! We did go to Picadilly Circus, it’s the famous multi-intersection street in London, kind of like Times Square in New York, and they have big giant screen advertisements and billboards. There filmed a scene of Harry Potter VII Pt. 1 here too! We then walked to Trafalgar Square where they had a lot of fountains and sculptures and it’s suppose to be really nice looking, but by the time we got there, there was no water and it wasn’t really lit up so it didn’t look as impressive at night. So we decided to head back to our hotel room. There’s also a picture of us in the train station as well. It’s easy to learn once we knew where we were going! Oh and apparently, right by our hotel is the Wembley Arena and there was a big concert going on by a UK Pop Boy Band called McFly? Apparently that band is really big because as we were walking back to our hotel, so many people were leaving the arena since the concert just ended and there was a lot of young teenage girls with their moms haha! And we found out that a lot of celebrities who have concerts there like to stay at our hotel room, like Bon Jovi! Neat huh? We will send more updates as the days go by!
Day 2 – London:
Today we did a lot of stuff! First we got free breakfast with our hotel and the breakfast here is a lot better than most continental breakfasts back at home. It was buffet style and they had all sorts of food, like sausages, ham, bacon, cheeses, toast, scrambled eggs, omelets, yogurts, fruits, potatoes, has browns, cereals, grapefruit juice, orange juice, coffee etc! We couldn’t eat meat, but everything else was good! We went to the London Eye, it’s a REALLY big ferris wheel and you can see the whole city and Thames River below you. We got to see a 4D Experience before we went on the London Eye and it was really cool, like footage and effects in Soaring at CA Adv. Afterwards we took pictures by the Westminster Bridge, Big Ben (the big clock tower) and Buckingham Palace! We then to a Coach bus, the one with the 2 levels and they have comfortable leather seats too, and went to Windsor Castle. The drive was about 1 hr. 25 minutes and we made it just in time to see get into the castle for a tour. The Windsor Castle is the oldest and I think one of the largest castles, and the Queen her majesty herself lives there 2-5 days a week! What was really cool because we got to see most of the rooms in the castle and a when the Queen is staying at the castle; they put up the Royal Flag instead of the Union Flag. So near the end of the tour, we saw the Royal Flag go up, so it was really cool that we were so close to the Queen!!! After the Windsor Castle, we went to Westminster Abbey, and then did more site seeing things like the London Bridge and the London Tower and Bridge! We then also ate some really good vegetarian Indian food right by the London Bridge Tower.
Day 3 – Rome:
Last night we got to our hotel room by 11:30 and then I was uploading pictures and didn’t go to sleep until 12:30, only had about 2.5 hours of sleep, then we had to wake up at 3:15 so we can take the taxi to the airport for our flight to Rome! I don’t know how we didn’t fall asleep rome-ing the streets of Rome but somehow we did it! Going from the airport to our hotel this time was easier because we decided to just spend the money on a taxi because there probably isn’t a train or bus that will go to our hotel since the public transportation system is also very confusing. However, the downfall was that Khoa forgot his back cushion in the Taxi! I told him before we went on the trip not to bring it because I knew he would lose it and that it would be a hassle to carry around everywhere, but he insisted! So what happens? Only 2 days into the trip and he loses it! I hate to say it but I told him so! =P He gave that taxi driver a whopping $20 tip! Anywho, the biggest challenge today was to not let our feet bother us. It hurts really bad from all the walking we’ve been doing for the past 2 days…but we’re managing ok!
Once we got to the hotel, the taxi driver was nice enough to take us to Vatican City since our hotel is really far from central Rome. We didn’t know it was really far, but at least the room is nice and cheap. We went to the Vatican Museum and was really impressed with all the art and architecture there. We also went inside the Sistene Chapel and that was REALLY amazing as well. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside there, but I managed to get 2 video clips…so maybe I can get some screen shots from that footage! We also went inside St. Pete’s Basilica and that was REALLY big and amazing too. There were a lot of bishops doing something at the very end of the Basilica and but we didn’t know what it was, but that was cool to see. We then made it just in time to the Coliseum right before they closed the gates. It was cool to see the inside of the coliseum in person and Khoa was really excited to see that. We got to see the Constantine Arch and the really big monument to Victoria. We then had dinner at an Italian restaurant, well I guess it’s just restaurant over here, and we had really good Prosciutto Pizza and Linguini Pesto Pasta. They gave us free champagne, Khoa enjoyed them both, and we got the Canoli alla Sicilian. The best part was our view though, we sat on the 2nd level right across the street from the Coloseum! Today was really cool, but definitely a big toll on our feet! Time to recuperate our feet for tomorrow! Ciao!
Day 4 – Florence:
Buona cera (good evening)! Today we took the train and went to Florence for the day! We like Florence a lot more than Rome. It’s smaller so it’s a lot easier to just walk everywhere, but it’s also nicer, more friendly and has more of a relaxing feel to it. At first when we arrived in Florence, I was wearing shorts and a long sleeve shirt, but it was really cloudy and chilly compared to the sunny warm weather in Rome. So that really bummed me so we started look for a jacket or something since it was cold. I settled on a cheap scarf that can act as a shawl for 3 euros, and we carried on with our day. 35-40 mins later…it was bright and sunny and hot almost! Good thing I only spent 3 euros on the scarf instead of 20+ on a jacket! So that was a relief!
We visited the Boboli Garden, a really BIG garden with lots of sculptures, grass, fountains, and it is really high in elevation so we had many nice views of Florence. From the garden we went on the famous Pointe Vecchio, which is a small bridge but has lots of stores on the bridge for shopping, mostly expensive jewelry, but they have tons of Gellatio places so that’s where I tried the Nutella (creamy chocolate) Ice Cream, it was nutella swirls mixed with vanilla! Khoa got the Pistachio. Both were very good but my new favorite is Nutella! We then went to the Mercato Nuovo, and that’s just a little plaza that has carts for shopping, but it was mostly all the same type of stuff you can get at Chinatown. There’s a statue of a bronze boar there if you rub it’s nose, they say you’ll be able to come back and visit Florence again some day, so we definitely rubbed it’s nose! After that, we went to the Piazza del Duomo, with is a VERY large church that is still in service today. We got to take a peek inside the church and it’s REALLY big, it can fit 20,000+ people in there! From the church, we went to Piazza della Signoria square where they had lots of statues, including the replica of Michelangelo’s David! Then we went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia where it’s a huge museum of sculptures, mostly done by Michelangelo, and we got to see the original David statue. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures again at that museum, but it was pretty cool to see it in person. Also, that museum had a museum of musical instruments and lots of religious art as well. From there we went back to the bridges in Florence and relaxed and took more pictures, then took the train back to Rome and ate some Panini’s! Tomorrow we are off to Venice!! Arrivederci (goodbye)!
Day 5 – Venice:
Bounjourno (good day)! We woke up at 4am today to get to the airport for our flight to Venice! The flight was only 1 hour 10 mins, so we got to Venice pretty early in the morning, around 8:20am. From the airport we were able to take a Boat Bus that took us to the island of San Marcos so we can visit the Doge’s Palace and the San Marcos Basilica! First off, a Doge is what they call their ruler here, and he was pretty much like a Medieval King during that time period. The Palace is REALLY huge and we weren’t allow to take any pictures inside the actual palace, but it was really cool to see it. All the ceilings and walls are really fancy with intricate paintings and gold trimmings and detailing. There were apartments inside the palace for where the government people stayed, and there was even a prison in there! The prison looked really old like what you would see in the old movies with the stone walls and only a little window, like the prisons in the dungeon of a castle or something. They opened one of the prison rooms so you can walk inside it too, so that was neat. After the Palace we saw the San Marcos Basilica. We didn’t go inside because you have to pay to get in and you couldn’t take pictures inside of it either. We were pretty tired, so we just took pictures of it from the outside.
We wanted to go on a traghetto ride, which is a cheaper version of a gondola, but we were going to take a boat ride to the train station, so we figured it’s pretty much the same thing for a lot less in price. While taking the long boat ride to the train station, we got to see the Rialto Bridge, which is also a famous bridge in Venice and it’s the biggest bridge in Venice I think, and it also has restaurants and shop on it as well. I took a picture of it passing under it while on the boat ride on the Grand Canal! The city is really nice, the water smells though because people sweep cigarette ashes and dirt and other things into the water…but the atmosphere itself is fun. We didn’t stay here too long since we’re tired from lack of sleep and we want to spend more time in Milan.
The train ride to Milan is pretty cool at first because you have to cross the water to get into the mainland of Italy. So we were just on the train tracks surrounded by water!
Day 6 – Milan:
Today was a very busy and good day for many reasons! Firstly, we got a lot of sleep last night so that really helped us recharge our batteries and have more energy for the day. We originally only had 2 things planned to do today before we take our train ride to Nice, but Khoa got a tourist guide from the Hotel lobby so we ended up doing a whole lot more!
We had a free breakfast buffet at the hotel in the morning. It wasn’t as big as the buffet in London, but it was still good. There were scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, yogurt, fruit, pastries, toast, juices, and best of all, Nutella (smooth chocolate) spread! I never ate chocolate spread on toast before, but now it’s the only way to eat toast in my opinion!! It was very yummy! After breakfast we walked to the Metro to go to the S. Maria Delle Grazie Church hoping to see the original Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. When we got there, we found out that you can only go by reservation only and all reservations for that day was full. But we got to take a picture of a copy of the last supper…and it was nice to know we were in the same area where the real thing was…! After this we went to the P. Za Castello where there was a huge Sforza Castle Museums where they had a lot of Michelangelo’s architecture there and it’s a real huge castle fortress with a moat too. It’s all dried up, but it’s still cool to see. We then went to see the Duomo Cathedral, which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world! You can go inside and go to the rooftop of the cathedral and have a really nice view of Milan, but we decided not to do that because of time constraints and we didn’t want to wheel around our luggage and be loud inside a bug cathedral. Our next stop was the Fashion District in Milan right down the street from the Duomo. It was just a few street with big stores like Louis Vuitton, Guess, and other Italian designers, but also H&M too! We didn’t shop there because everything was too expensive, and we didn’t go into the H&M since we have one back at home. We then tried to go to the outlet stores instead. We couldn’t really find it since we only had so much time left to catch the last train to Nice, so we just looked inside some stores only the streets while walking back to the train station. We mostly went on the Metro to get everywhere in Milan, and the Metro system here is pretty good and very easy to understand. I think we’re beginning to be pro’s at learning the subway system now, and it was only 3 euros for an all day pass (unlike 8 euro in London)!
So we didn’t really get much shopping done since almost everything was pretty expensive, or it wasn’t anything too special. So now we had 30 mins to get to the train station! We were walking really fast and the train station wasn’t that far away, but wheeling around the luggage slowed us down a little, but we made the last train departing at 5:05pm! Khoa used the restroom on the train, and he told me that the bottom of the flush hole of the toilet stayed open for a little bit and he saw that the water just went straight down into the ground!!!!!! So I guess next time you’re walking on the railroad tracks…just watch your step…ewww! The train ride to nice is 4 hours to our first stop, then we switch trains to the second train that will take us to Nice, and that’s for another 50 minutes. We got to Nice around 10:25pm and then take a taxi to our hotel since it’s so late we just want to go straight to our room and sleep for the next day! Now we have to switch language mode from Italian to French! Our trip is already half way over can you believe it??? Bonne nuit (goodnight)!
Day 7 – Nice & Monaco:
Today we went to the Park Phoenix, which is like a garden and zoo combined and it was only walking distance from our hotel! It was a pretty nice park, they had a big pond and they had lots of different types of ducks, birds, ferrets, even a peacock! But also, this park specialized in lots of different plants and flowers. There’s a huge pyramid that’s a greenhouse and they had a little waterfall and rainforest environment in there and they had tons of different orchids, hibiscus, cacti, and other exotic plants from all over the world. It was pretty cool. We spent most of our time there, and then took a bus to Vieux Nice (Old Nice) and went to the Cours Saleya Flower Market (Avenue of Flowers ) there. There’s tons of flowers that’s for sale, all different kinds, and they span across multiple streets just selling flowers! Nice is a pretty nice area, sorta like La Jolla in San Diego, but with European buildings. We had lunch there since there’s restaurants on both sides of the Flower Market. I ordered stuffed muscles that had a pesto tasting sauce on it, it was pretty good, and I got khoa to try half a mussle!! That’s pretty good, he didn’t like it, but he survived. After lunch we walked along the Promenade der Anglias, which is the beach along the coastline of Nice. It had a nice view of the ocean and Nice, minus the people on the beach. We then walked to the train station and took a 25 minute train ride to Monaco, and went to the Monte Carlo. We walked along the coastline to get to the Monte Carlo Casino and it looked even nicer than Nice. But Monaco is a pretty rich area, so it makes sense. We then took the train back to Nice and ate dinner at our hotel again so we can get rested up for Paris tomorrow!! The funny thing about the food here in Nice (or at least in our hotel) is that the condiments come in little jars! I attached a picture that I took yesterday, it’s really fancy to have ketchup in a little glass jay than in the little packets. The food is REALLY good at our hotel, so we get something new each time to try more things. Ok, bonne nuit!
Day 8 – Paris:
Bonsoir! Today we flew to Paris in the morning, our flight was at 8:55am, so we got to sleep in a little bit today for once! Once we arrived in Paris, it wasn’t too bad to figure out how to use the Metro system there! Our check in time at the hotel wasn’t until 2pm, we landed around 10:10am, and got to the hotel by almost 11am, so we just left our luggage with the hotel in a locked room with our name tags, and then we started our adventure in Paris. We walked along Blvd. St. Germain and had lunch at this restaurant called Loulou’ Friendly Diner. The food there was really good! We then walked to the Luxembourg Garden nearly. It’s a really big park with lots of trees everywhere and in the middle is a really big pond. There’s the Luxembourg museum there too but we didn’t go to that. After the garden, we went back to our hotel to check in and rest for a little bit, get use to the new paris maps and circle all the train stops to the place we wanted to go, and then we were out and about again!
We went to the Eiffel tower, and took a slanted elevator to the 2nd level of the tower, which isn’t that high up yet, and then we took another elevator ALL the way up to the top summit of the tower! We took some pictures from the top to show you! We spent a long time up there just looking all around us, and it was pretty cool to be really high up and see everything! After this, we went to the Champs Elysees and walked around and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. You can buy tickets to the Arc de Triomphe museum and go to the very top, but we decided not to because we were lazy to climb 200 steps of stairs since the escalator broke and we didn’t want to spend the money. We then had dinner at a place on the Champs Elysees St., and had REALLY good food there as well! That’s it for today! Hope everyone is enjoying the pictures! =) Bonne nuit!
Day 9 – Paris:
Bonjour! Today was another busy but really fun day in Paris! We got to sleep in a little bit till 9:30am, and then woke up and took a train to Disneyland Paris! It was nice, a little smaller than the one in California, but overall, it was still pretty fun! The big castle is definitely a lot nicer than ours, but we were a little bummed because they covered part of the front of the castle because they’re renovating it. But from what you can see, it looks pretty nice still! We went underneath the castle and you can see the big dragon which is really cool, and the inside of the castle is a lot prettier too. We then had lunch by the castle, and then went on It’s A Small World. It was also pretty cool and impressive like ours. We then went on Alice Curious Labyrinth which is a big maze that leads to the Queen’s castle! Indiana Jones was next and it was ok, ours is better, but it was a neat experience because the atmosphere waiting in line was cool, and the ride itself was a roller coaster. We then went to the Haunted Manor, which is Haunted Mansion and the outside leading up to the mansion was really nice and pretty, I like it more than ours. The inside was pretty similar in format too and the look was also pretty nice! It was scarier than our Haunted Mansion! The Space Mission 2 was really cool. It’s a little different in look, but the ride we felt was better than ours because of the meteors effects and stuff! We also went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and it’s pretty much the same as ours, except Buzz Lightyear had a British accent at the beginning, and the controls can be removed from the cart. The only difference that we were bummed about was that you can’t email the picture at the end, you have to buy it. Also, there’s a lot more Disney characters walking around and they really act like their character too! We saw Chip & Dale, the Queen and Twiddle Dumb and Tweedle Dee and the Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Aladin, the Madhatter walking around, and then all the other characters during the parade! The big castle though is probably my favorite there! It was really worth seeing!
After Disneyland, we stayed there for almost 6 hours, we went to Montmartre, which is like a Bohemian area of Paris that is located on top of a very big hill where a lot of the artists go to paint and get inspired. We first visited the Sacre-Croeur, which is a Romano-Byzantine church. There’s a really long stairway that leads up to the church, and once you get to the top, there’s a REALLY nice view of Paris. You can go inside the church since it is still an active church I think, but you have to be quiet and you can’t take any pictures. It’s really big and really nice and impressive! Right next to the church, there’s a long stairway down the big hill, and this is the famous Rue de Foyatier! Many painters painted these steps and a lot of people would paint on the and do their art along side these steps! Also right to so this is the Funicular, which is a little slanted tram that goes up and down the hill! Luckily, our metro tickets work for the Funicular, so we rode it down the Rue de Foyatier! After this we got dinner back in the Avenue of Champ Elysees at a different restaurant, and then went to take a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge! They still have big elaborate cabaret shows there but we had to go and take a picture in the front since Moulin Rouge is one of Khoa’s favorite movies! And that concludes our second day in Paris! Bonne nuit!! =)
Day 10 – Paris:
Bonjour! Today we went to the Marche aux Fleurs in the little Island on the Seine River called La Cite. We walked over to La Chapelle to take a picture, and then over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We got to go inside and a mass actually started when we got in. The cathedral is really big and really nice and I was able to take pictures in there! We went to a Crepe place for lunch, called Briezh Café, and the wait was an hour long because it’s so popular! So we did some window shopping while we waited. The food was pretty good, authentic French crepes! It was really tasty! After lunch, we went to George’s Centre Pompiduo, a technological museum where the exterior of the building is all high tech and is too suppose to look like a bunch of wires and tubes and stuff. It’s a really big building so it was pretty to see it, and there’s a pond on the side of the building with weird spinning sculptures too. It was interesting. We then went to a French Bakery called Pierre Hermes and bought some macarons to eat at at our hotel. The bakery was right next to the big Paris Opera house though, so walked there and took a picture in front of it! We got back to the hotel and ate the macarons in like 2 minutes! They’re really good! We then headed out again to see the original Statue of Liberty! I knew it was suppose to be smaller than the one in New York, but it looked still pretty small in person. It’s still big but not nearly as big as what the one in NY probably. Yet it’s still cool to see! You can see the Eiffel Tower from the Statue of Liberty too, they’re not too far away from each other! There’s a nice little island called Allee des Cygnes where the statue is located and it’s right it the middle of the Seine River. There’s a nice walking path there with trees on both sides of the path and benches for people to just relax and enjoy mother nature.
We then got back onto the Metro and went to eat dinner at a place we found online on yelp.com, and it’s a really popular steakhouse. They’re really special because they don’t have a menu, the only serve you bread and a salad, and then steak with a creamy mustard base sauce, and “frits” (French Fries), and they don’t have ketchup. Once you finish your steak, they pull another piece of steak and refill your French Fries for you! They only do that once, but it’s really yummy! The wait was also pretty long, almost an hour, but it was worth it for the food. The service wasn’t that great and it took awhile for us to get our food, but overall it tasted really well! After dinner, we went to Laduree, another French Bakery that’s really fancy and popular on the Avenue of Champ Elysees, and we bought some more macarons for a late snack when we got back to our hotel. Before we went back to our hotel though. We stopped by the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night! It’s really pretty and after awhile, it starts to sparkle and twinkle like Christmas lights! We took a picture before it sparkled, I think the picture looks better this way, but it was pretty cool to see it twinkling! Ok, enjoy the pictures! Bonne nuit!
Day 11 – Paris:
Hello! Today was our last day in the wonderful city of Paris! We started our day by going to the Louvre Museum and saw the Mona Lisa amongst many other things! It’s a really big museum so there were way too many things to see, so we just went to a few of of the specific things that we had to see, and went straight to those things. We were probably there for about 3 hours, but you can probably spend a whole week there because there was so much to see. After the Louvre, we went to get lunch at the Avenue of Champs Elysees again, and ate at a restaurant called George V! All the tables inside are faced towards the street so you can people watch. The food was pretty good, we got a French Onion soup, although they only called it Onion Soup =P. It was pretty good! Khoa got a ham, egg, and cheese crepe and I got a roasted chicken with French Fries (or just fries as they would call it=P), and then a nutella and banana crepe!! The nutella crepe was REALLY good! After that, we did some window shopping along the street, and then went to Laduree (the French bakery) for some more macarons and got an isaphan, which looks like a big macaron, but has raspberries in the middle with lichee and cream! It was REALLY yummy!!! The isaphan is probably my favorite French dessert, we ate it in like 2 seconds because it was so good! After the Laduree, we went to La Defense where they had the Grand Arch, which is a GIANT hollow cube! It’s so big that it can contain the entire Notre Dame Cathedral! It’s used as an office building and they hold conventions in there as well! It’s pretty modern though, built in 1989, but it’s pretty impressive! We then rushed over to the Eiffel Tower again to take one last look at it in person before we headed back to our hotel to get our luggage. We checked out of our hotel in the morning, but they let us keep our luggage in a locked up room for us while to roam the city! So we then got to the airport and are back in London! Au revoir Paris!
Day 12 – London -> Chicago -> Home:
Hi everyone!! We are finally home sweet home! Today we took our first flight from London to Chicago where we had a 6 hour layover. The flight from London to Chicago was a little over 8 hours and they gave us 2 meals, it wasn’t too bad, we got ham and cheese omelet with fruit and crackers for the first meal, and then pizza calzone and pasta with candy and crackers for the second meal. Khoa really liked the calzone! I slept a lot during the first flight but Khoa didn’t sleep that much because he wanted to watch a lot of the movies on the airplane. When we arrived in Chicago, the weather was pretty cold and cloudy, unlike the nice sunny weather in London! We got a car rental and went to the city for some sightseeing. We went to the Millenium Park and saw the Cloud Gate, which is a giant reflective bean that allows you to see all the big buildings and the cool cloudy sky above! We then had lunch at subway, oh good old American food haha! We continued the day by looking at more things at the millennium park, like the Jay Pritzer stadium, the Boeing Gallery where they had 2 interesting looking sculptures, the Faces Fountain, and the Wrigley Square. The faces fountain is a big rectangle space with 2 big rectangular blocks with screens on them. The screen shows a person’s faces and it changes expressions every so often, and then they blow out water from their mouth. The water for the faces fountain wasn’t on so it wasn’t as cool, but the images still was interesting. We then headed back to the airport to finish our long journey home!! =) Oh how good it feels to finally be home after a wonderful adventure! We love you and hope you enjoyed our emails and pictures!!
