Holidays in the West

      I was able to go home for two weeks to visit family and friends for the holiday. Nuno came along for the festivities, but Ryder stayed behind. We got there a few days before Christmas, and then Kevyn followed coming from Japan, and then Jenny from Boston. The Chung family Christmas traditions continued including way too many presents as usual. A couple of days after Christmas, Nuno and I drove to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Luxor hotel and saw the magician Criss Angel's show Believe. We also saw the Bodies Exhibition and the Venetian's Madame Tussands wax museum.
     We then returned to good old Rancho Cucamonga for a dinner at Lucille's BBQ. Nuno and I then left the next day to go to Universal Studios where we took the VIP tour, which not only allowed us to go to the front of the lines, but we got a personal back stage lot tour where we got to see the set of the television show Parenthood, the prop storage with the original E.T, and we were able to take pictures in front of the clock tower from Back to the Future (sadly the clock was being repared). At night we met up with Jenny, Jenny's brother Chris, and Kevyn for dinner in Pasadena.
     The next day was New Year's Day and we went to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, where sadly the hand prints were closed off. We took a bus tour of Hollywood, which ended up being 90% a tour of celebrities houses: this is where Michael Jackson's came out in a body bag kind of thing. We then proceeded to head to San Diego to stay at Brady and Fred's house (who sadly were in Japan). We had a nice dinner at a place called Bali Hai on Shelter Island overlooking the harbor and downtown. I was able to see many friends, and I had dinner with some at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside, Hill Street Cafe. On the last day we hit up the San Diego Zoo with my ex-coworker and her baby before heading back to Rancho.

Kimberly, Valentin, Katy, and I at Hill Street Cafe

In front of the Excalibur Hotel

At the San Diego Zoo with the pandas

E.T. is 30 years old!

Marilyn in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater

Ovlera Street churros stuffed with caramel!

     For the remainder of our trip we did some last minute shopping to take advantage of the cheap price, and on the final day took a trip around LA. We went to Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street and finally got to see the hand prints in Hollywood before heading off to the airport. Au revoir lovely Cali!