US California Trip (May 2017) – SFO to Monterey -Day 5 (Swanton Berry Farm, 99bottles and Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa)

Posted in Food, Travel Planning, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized, USA by jahbella

Day 5 and it's goodbye San Francisco for now! Time for us to head south towards LA with a few pit stops along the way. 🙂

We made a really early breakfast stop somewhere in SFO (honestly not worth mentioning) and headed straight out of the city. The kids were raring to go because we had a nice road trip pit stop planned at Swanton Berry Farm. The kids had tried lemon and orange picking in Australia last year and loved it! Link here. So how could we not incldue another fruit picking session this time around, given that it was strawberry season!!!!

The drive from SFO to Swanton Berry Farm took us almost 2 hours but wasn't that bad since it was enroute to Santa Cruz which was going to be our lunch stop. We probably would have gotten there faster if we had stuck to the highway route but our GPS told us to turn off the highway just as we were about 10 mins away from the farm. We ended up on the 'mountains', taking a circular/ scenic route before we hit the farm from the other direction. So word of caution, you will be able to see the farm on your left from the highway and will be able to turn in directly from the highway. If you don't see it yet and your GPS tells you to turn into some small road, don't! It was quite a challenge for Joel to maneuvor those narrow steep slopes/ roads in a people mover (yes we rented a 8 seater for maximum passenger comfort and luggage space). Poor Joel!

We got to Swanton Berry Farm at about 11am and we picked up an empty brown box for our pickings. We headed back out the front door and was told that we could either walk to the farm, approximately 800m away or drive over in 2 mins. We chose to drive haha but it was really nearby. The smell of fresh strawberries hit us as we got out of the car! Sweetness in the air!!

We spent almost 45 mins picking our berries and the kids just went crazy haha and couldn't stop. We filled our 2 box trays and had to bring it back to the store to weigh them out and pay for them. Honestly for the same price that we paid, we could have gotten the really sweet, plump ones that the farmers had picked themselves and were selling. But it's all about the experience isn't it?

The kids were also attracted to some chocolate coated strawberries and we were forced to buy some. We consumed them on our walk to the car. They were so divine! I belted the kids in their car seats and ran back to the store to buy a few more for post lunch dessert. Yummy!!

It took us about 30 mins to drive to Santa Cruz and we headed directly to 99bottles for lunch. As the name suggest, if they have 99 different types of beer or perhaps more but it was a treat for the adults and the pub food was pretty decent too. The kids made us order a second portion of the mac and cheese for them. I have to say that everyone was in an awesome mood after such a fun morning and yummy grub and beer. :p

Thank goodness for the good mood too because we had another 2 hour drive left to go before we got to our hotel in Monterey and we also had a laundry stop to make.

So in case you are wondering how we dealt with our laundry for our 17 day trip (without any AirBnB stays) we made laundry stops throughout our trip and space them out so that we would have enough clothes to last us between stops. When I say laundry stops, I don't mean spending 1-2 hours at a laundromat doing coin wash. Honestly, I would prefer a 2 hour nap than a 2 hour laundry run and also there is no way my kids are sitting nicely in a laundromat while we wait for our laundry. So I made sure that the places we stopped at, had what they call Wash and Fold Services where you dropped off your laundry for them to wash and literally fold it and you either collect it or it gets delivered to you in about 24 hours.

We dropped our laundry off at Sudz Cyber Laundry (10 mins drive away from our hotel) and we picked it up the next day at about the same time. Clothes were nicely folded when we collected them. 5 days worth of laundry for 4 people and it cost us about $50. I know it seems like a lot but I figured we were paying for convenience, zero tantrums and clean clothes..well worth it! The place has coin machines too if you prefer that and I think they may even have the option of someone watching your machine for you but we didn't explore that.

It was almost 4pm by then and the kids were in need of their nap (and so were the adults). We checked into the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa which came highly recommended by a friend. And you can totally understand why you are paying a premium at this hotel. It has a really nice harbour/ ocean view, rooms were spacious and they even had decent room service which we enjoyed every night that we we were there. Hot chocolate with whipped Cream every single night! Trust me, it's hard to get decent room service in most hotels in the US, even the big names we are so used to in Asia, only offer very basic service. So this was definitely quite a treat.

Needless to say, after a long day on the move, everyone was wiped out and in need of some good sleep on those plushy double beds before we continue our exploration of Monterey tomorrow….zzzzz

JahBella's Mummy

Next Up – Monterey Bay Aquarium and Lafeyette Bakery Carmel

1) How we survived flying 15 hours with the kids and coped with jetlag

2) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 1 (GoCar & Pier 45)

3) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 2 (Lori’s Diner, Cable Car Tram and Koret Children’s Playground, Hog’s Island Oyster Bar)

4) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 3 (Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and Children’s Creativity Musuem)

5) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 4 (Mama’s on Washington Square and California Academy of Sciences)

10Jul2017

US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 4 (Mama’s on Washington Square and California Academy of Sciences)

Posted in Eating Out with Kids, Food, Holidays, Travel Planning, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized, USA by jahbella

I had many breakfast places listed for our time in San Francisco, IHOP was after all only a skip and a hop away (pun intended) and Boudin’s Bakery was also not too far off. However when a friend gave us a very timely recommendation on Facebook, the night before our last full day in SFO, we decided to give it a try.

Mama’s on Washington Square opens at 8am but we read that many people come up to an hour before opening time to queue for the first seating. An hour was too ambitious for us so we decided to take a chance and arrived at 730am. The queue was already long and we were 2 tables short of the first seating. While the wait was long, it was rather pleasant because they had a very good system going. We were ushered into the restaurant at 825am but soon learnt that that was not the end of our wait. We queued along the counter and were tempted by all the baked goods. We finally got to the cashier where we could place our order at 840am and then we were seated shortly after at 850am. The reason why we had to queue to place our order is because they try to only take your order as a table is being cleared for you. It took another 20 mins for our food to arrive but I will tell you that it was soooo worth it! Mama’s French Toast, Banana Pancakes and Dunguness Crab Benedict! It was so good that we wanted to come back again tomorrow before we head out of the city but it was a pity that they are closed on Mondays. Next time for sure!

We headed to California Academy of Sciences after breakfast. Thankfully they opened at 11am that day, we were running really late for their usual 10am opening time because of breakfast. Haha and you know how I can’t stand to deviate from schedule :p We joined the longest queue we saw which was for the ticket booth but my very observant husband noticed that the self service machine had no queue and told me to try it! Voila! So yes, please use the self service machine to buy your tickets 🙂

We were initially contemplating whether to drop this attraction and try something else. We weren’t sure how interactive it would be and whether it would capture the kids’ attention. I will tell you now that this is an absolute must do! I am so impressed by how they curated their content in a way that appealed to all age groups. There is literally something for everyone and each subject matter is presented in a way where you can simplify it for the young ones like Jah and Bella, yet still impress and wow the old cynics/ parents who think we have seen it all 😉
My advice to you would be to head straight in, to look for the planetarium show ticket queue as the tickets for shows run out very quickly and they have different shows for different times. There is also a show for smaller kids in a smaller auditorium in case you think your kids can’t cope with a long show.
We learnt about earthquakes and entered an earthquake simulator. Climbed up the Rainforest exhibit which is kind of like our Cloud dome at Gardens By the Bay but ends up with you being at the top of the Rainforest surrounded by free flying butterflies. We went through this exhibit 3 times!!

The kids also discovered dinosaurs, tickled starfish and stared at scary alligators. We were there till almost 4pm and yet we could not finish everything! Oh how we wished we lived in SFO. The kids asked to come back again but we had to break the news to them. Sorry kids, this is our last day in SFO on this trip but I promise you guys that tomorrow will be even more fun! 😀

JahBella’s Mummy

Next Up – Swanton Berry Farm and Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa

1) How we survived flying 15 hours with the kids and coped with jetlag

2) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 1 (GoCar & Pier 45)

3) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 2 (Lori’s Diner, Cable Car Tram and Koret Children’s Playground, Hog’s Island Oyster Bar)

4) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 3 (Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and Children’s Creativity Musuem)

5Jul2017

US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 3 (Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and Children’s Creativity Musuem)

Posted in Food, Holidays, Tips with Kids, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized, USA by jahbella

Our main attraction for the day was the Children’s Creativity Musuem. After spending the day running outdoors yesterday, it was now time to take it back indoors. But of course we needed some place to settle breakfast first and given that the Musuem only opens at 10am, we had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast. I decided that it would be fun for the kids to experience a farmer’s market in the US. They did visit one in Margaret River, Perth last year but the rainy weather kind of put a dampener on the overall experience. So yes, Take 2 it is.

We got to the Ferry Plaza (where the Hog Island Oyster Bar which we visited last night is also located) at about 830am. It was a short 3 minute Uber ride from our hotel. The initial plan was to take the bus/ tram but honestly Uber is so so easy there that we decided to not go through the hassle. I was also hungry.

There were fresh produce and hot food for sale at the Farmer’s market and the kids were super excited that they were pointing out all the things that they wanted to buy. There were many wooden benches along the pier and we quickly settled down. Bella and I hung out and made sure we secured our seats while Joel and Jah went around and bought our food for us.

They came back with the most awesome grilled cheese sandwich we ever had and it was also one of our best meals on this trip!! The sandwich was a Honey Lavender, Bacon, Farm Egg and cheese sandwich from The Farmer’s Wife Sonama. Yes just reading the name of the sandwich is Omg!! In fact we ended up ordering another portion of it on top of all the other muffins and cakes we bought.

With full bellies, these happy people headed to the Children’s Creativity Musuem (in an Uber). The Musuem as its name suggest is all about exploration, creation and creativity. It is not your typical ‘musuem’ but really a place for the kids to play with materials and create artwork, learn concepts through play and express their creativity through stop motion animation and music.

The kids spent a good amount of time just sitting at the art table – cutting, pasting and drawing. I realised then that we were not going to leave this place for at least another 4 hours.

After a while, we managed to convince them to move on and explore other areas. They found themselves at a table containing kinetic sand. Yeah kinetic sand, no big deal right? But then I realise the Musuem had combined the use of kinetic sand and augmented realiy to teach geography and the concept of mountains, land, valleys and ocean. Even the adults were secretly having fun!! Oh yes and we were stuck there for quite abit too.

The main reason we came to the Children’s Creativity Musuem was because we heard that they had a section/ studio where they taught kids how to do stop motion animation. For those who are not very familiar, just Google Lego Star Wars on YouTube and you will see many stop motion animation videos. Jah is crazy about these videos and wanted to know how it was done. I was initially concerned that it would be too complicated for him to understand but the concept was really simple! We spent about 30 mins creating our own clay models from scratch and then we chose a backdrop and were taught how to create different scenes. It was really a case of moving your characters really slowly for each ‘frame’ and then pressing the record button each time. Oh trust me, this takes a lot of patience!! We completed a simple 13 seconds! video but it took a lot of effort to stop the kids from rushing through it. The good thing was that the Musuem would email you a link to the completed video 🙂 Check out the video on our Facebook page and Instagram but please excuse the shaky hands as it is a handphone video of the video clip.

It was almost 1pm by the time we were done with the stop motion studio and we still hadn’t explore the 2nd level. We headed up and Bella wanted to star in her own music video haha she barely sang but totally enjoy being a music video star. The 3 mins music video was also sent to us via an email link. Check out a snippet of it on our Social media channels too 😉

It was hard to get the kids to leave but we had not eaten our lunch yet (thank goodness for the full breakfast that sustained us for so long) While there are malls within walking distance of the Musuem, there isn’t really a proper cafe there for good hot food. So I would suggest doing some research of where u might wanna eat around there. Jah and Bella wanted to do some shopping (toys) so we crossed the road to a nearby Target and they got their shopping fix there. By then, we were honestly too tired to eat and figured the kids would be too cranky to survive through any proper meal so it was Starbucks to the rescue and we headed back to our hotel at 3pm for a much needed nap.
I have to admit that it was a pretty fun day and life changing too (the grilled cheese sandwich that is) :p

Next Up – Our last day in San Francisco (California Academy of Sciences)

1) How we survived flying 15 hours with the kids and coped with jetlag

2) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 1 (GoCar & Pier 45)

3) US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 2 (Lori’s Diner, Cable Car Tram and Koret Children’s Playground, Hog’s Island Oyster Bar)

13Jun2017

US California Trip (May 2017) – San Francisco Day 2 (Lori’s Diner, Cable Car Tram and Koret Children’s Playground, Hog’s Island Oyster Bar)

Posted in Food, Holidays, Travel Planning, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized, USA by jahbella

After spending almost a day being cooped up on a flight, we decided that the kids needed an outlet to release those pent up energy. So we decided to spend the first full day of our time at San Francisco at a park.

We headed to Lori’s Diner at Ghirardelli Square for breakfast. The Diner was about a 10 mins walk from our hotel but the kids were more than happy to oblige us especially Jah who was looking forward to visiting an American Diner which he learnt about in school recently. So yes off we went for pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs and of course milk shakes!

After breakfast, we walked across the street to the start of one of the cable car tram lines to begin our journey. There were of course other cheaper public transport options to take us to The Golden Gate Park where the Koret Children’s Quarters are but we figured that the kids would love the experience on the cable car tram. They were both scared and excited to be sitting on the exposed side of the cable car tram and were thoroughly thrilled by the view that they got of the streets.

We rode the cable car tram to the end of the line at Mason & Powell which always meant we got our money’s worth 😉 From there, we got onto the local Muni & Judah train and it took about 15 mins to take us to the USCF/ Paranssus station. Once we got off, we followed our phone GPS and walked another 5 mins till we got to the Golden Gate Park. The Koret Children’s Quarters was very close to the entrance.

The kids were so happy to be out in the open space. Running, climbing and swinging! The park was quite crowded for a Friday late morning and we noticed many daycares or school kids there with their teachers. Come early if you want a picnic spot because they tend to grab all the shaded areas but if you are happy to be just running around the playground then it’s fine and there were more than enough stone benches.

There was also an ice cream stand and an old school carousel ride nearby. Of course we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream and a couple of rides after a crazy time at the playground.

By the end of it, the kids and us were famished and we decided to take a walk back towards the entrance we came in through. You would be able to find tons of restaurants a few streets down outside the park (9th Ave being one of the streets) and of course the phone GPS came in handy again and we found ourselves some lunch rather easily.

We didn’t think the kids or the adults could cope with another multi transfer public transport ride to get back so we got ourselves an Uber and it took us back. The 20 mins ride cost us about US14 and we were all ready for our afternoon nap. Yes for those who don’t know we all still do afternoon naps even when we are on holidays. :p

We got up at 6pm from our nap and the urge to skip dinner or have room service was almost too hard to ignore. But I persevered and dragged everyone out of bed. I even insisted that we head to the Ferry Building where the Hog Island’s Oyster Bar was located at. I don’t know what possessed me to choose that restaurant for dinner, on a Friday night of ALL nights. The kids were pretty cranky the entire way and when we saw the snaking queue we were ready to give up. It was already 730pm and it didn’t look like we would get a seat for at least another 45 mins. But for a lack of better option in the vicinity, I was unwilling to give up. So Joel very bravely brought both kids to Starbucks while I stood in line. Thankfully the queue moved pretty quickly for a table of 4 as most people were there in big groups. We were also willing to take a table at the bar which fortunately gave us a good sunset view and a view of the food being prepped 🙂

We ordered ourselves a raw oyster platter, some raw halibut, the best clam chowder we have ever had and will have on this trip and a grilled cheese sandwich. Actually we ordered ourselves 2 oyster platters because the kids absolutely loved the raw oysters and we found Jah polishing off half a dozen of them on his own!!! Blue cheese and raw oyster lovers, what kids are these?

By the end of the night, everyone was in high spirits from the wonderful food and that’s when Joel and I realised how much these kids are like us! 🙂

Stay tuned for Day 3 at the Kids Creativity Musuem!

JahBella’s Mummy

12May2016

Phuket Holiday (March 2016) – Food and Activities with Kids

Posted in Food, Holidays, Phuket, Thailand, Tips with Kids, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

So what do you do when on a beach holiday in Phuket, Thailand? Laze in the sun and eat all the Thai food you can of course! If anyone tells you that eating Thai food with kids in tow is not possible and that you have to settle for Western food or Fast Food, don’t believe them! We had Thai food every single meal and the kids ate fine.

The Orchid – Opposite Katathani

If you decide to stay at Katathani like us, don’t miss the awesomely authentic Thai food found just across the street from our hotel at a restaurant called The Orchid. In fact we only discovered it on the 2^nd day after trying some other cut-throat restaurant on the same street, which was catered more to the Western palate and currency conversion. Their Tom Yum Goong, Beef Fried Rice, Curry Powder Prawn/ Crab, Fried Banana with Ice-cream and sundaes became our staples for every lunch until the day we left. We wished we had found the place earlier and the kids were happy to have their local beef fried rice plus a sundae of their choice at every meal. :p Come on! It was a holiday after all! 🙂 Everything was really value for money!

Perfect with lots of little green chilli padi!

Curry Powder crab!

1 sundae a day, keeps the tantrums away..:p

Goreng Pisang with Ice cream and honey…looks are deserving because this was awesome!

Tuk Tuk Rides

Because we spent the day just lazing about in the pool and enjoying the waves in the sea, we could only afford to explore Phuket in the evenings. We would take a cab from the hotel to the places we wanted to visit in order to get an estimate of how much each trip should cost and use that gauge when ‘bargaining’ for a Tuk Tuk on the return. The fortunate thing was the fact that we met very reasonable taxi and tuk tuk drivers on this trip and no one tried to fleece us. We found that we were always quoted the same/ correct rate for the return Tuk Tuk ride and it made the entire experience a lot more pleasant. The kids were also really thrilled to take their first Tuk Tuk ride of the trip and they were very intrigued by the fact that some Tuk Tuks were more fancy than others (loud hiphop music + colour changing lights). Unlike the smaller Tuk Tuks in Bangkok, the ones in Phuket can sit 6 adults comfortably so we only had to hire one since we had 4 adults and 2 kids. Definitely a must do with the kids if you head to Phuket!

Bella with her Aunty Tabitha..look at that smile 😀

Kata Night Market

Our aim on this trip was to allow the kids to experience some of the night markets/ food markets without being caught in a human jam. We ended up at 2 different markets on 2 different nights.

We made our way to the Kata Night Market on our first night and have to say we or I was slightly disappointed. Things were rather quiet and we later realized it was probably due to the high supply of night markets all over Phuket. Nevertheless, the kids were very happy that they got to pick their own fruits choices to ‘create’ their own fruit juice. Jah picked a grape + lime combination which somehow turned out better than what the adults chose. We got our fruit juices and took a customary stroll through the market, picked up 2 t-shirts for the kids and then tried to find a place for dinner.

Brain freeze anyone?

Thank goodness for our mobile wifi and toddler carriers which came in super handy. It allowed us to navigate our way through the streets of Kata with the kids safely on our backs and head to dinner. We even found a Pancake stall near the restaurant we had dinner at, yummy!!!!

Our Tulas to the rescue

Malin Plaza Patong

The 2^nd night we headed to Malin Plaza Patong which was more of a food market. There were shop spaces for souvenirs and clothes etc but very few of them were open. We decided to make a zipline for the food and also to look for a table to settle down at. Yes the nice thing about this market is the fact that there are tables and chair set up for you to consume the local street food bought from the stalls. We picked up some local fried food, Pad Thai for the adults, non spicy noodles for the kids and desserts all round. It was a nice experience even though the food may not have been the yummiest we have had or the most value for money.

Nice spacious seating under the stars at Malin Patong Plaza

Waiting for his dessert at Malin Patong Plaza

This might not be the most adventurous Phuket itinerary for families but it was certainly something a little different for us. Perhaps the next time we head to Phuket, the kids will be old enough for an island hopping tour..although I’m hoping it doesn’t happen too soon. We definitely still appreciate our afternoon naps and are perfectly happy to just laze on the beach and load up on Thai food 🙂