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)

20Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 3 Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Perth, Travel Planning, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

We have been to a few weekend markets/ farmer’s market in Singapore and overseas, over the years. However I can tell you that there has been nothing like the Margaret River Farmer’s Market. While MR is a tourist town, the weekend farmer’s market was anything but touristy. In fact it felt like one of those small town weekend markets that you see on your US TV series. There were stalls selling coffee, baked goods, vegetables, meat, crepes, soup, noodles and burgers etc and we were really spoilt for choice.

The market is held on school grounds so there are some tables and benches around as well as empty grass patches where you could set your picnic mats on. Most of the patrons were locals who were picking up fresh produce and a quick coffee. There were also many families having a quick breakfast bite. It was truly a breath of fresh air for us and so much fun! We only left because the rain cut short our breakfast but thank goodness we were almost done. Perhaps it was just as well that it rained so that we could move on to our next activity at the Yallingup Maze before it got too late.

We got to Yallingup Maze at about 1030am and it was bright and sunny. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the maze since we attempted one during our last trip 2 years back but oh what a difference 2 years make. There were simple maze challenges that we could attempt and the kids were excited to set off.

We allowed Jah to take the lead as we manoeuvred through the maze. We actually did pretty awesome and completed the entire maze (found 4 pit stop towers) in 1 hour flat!

We headed back out to the main counter and cafe where they also sold lots of puzzle games and board games but they were pretty pricey so I would suggest strategising on how to say no to the kids when you walk through there. There is also a bouncy castle, playground and some mini mazes in the open fields in front of the outdoor seating. Joel had a lot of fun with the kids there while Mummy chilled and waited for our refreshments.

We had a really fun time at Yallingup Maze and I was really surprised that we didn’t have to ‘quit’ halfway. Looks like we have equally competitive little versions of us. :p

We headed to somewhere really special for lunch after, one of our favourite vineyard lunch spots in Margaret River, The Watershed. This place holds special meaning for us because this was where we celebrated our engagement, post proposal on 16 September 2007. So it was really nice to be back as a family of 4 🙂 Check out our ‘before kids’ and ‘after kids’ photo! :p

Everyone finished lunch in extremely good spirits that day..at almost 3pm! A really special Day 3 for us. 🙂

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 1 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 2 – Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

JahBella’s Mummy

12Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 2 Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Holidays, Perth, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

Day 2 has got to be one of the best days of our entire trip! We headed to the Wonky Windmill Farm bright and early and the kids were really excited to get upclose and personal with the animals. Ok well Bella was really excited up until the point when she had to feed or go up close then she freaked out and changed her mind :p

We got to the farm at about 1030am (post breakfast at Sails Cafe) and we were just in time to feed the goats their breakfast and to play and feed some of the smaller animals (rabbits and guinea pigs) before the 11am Orchard Picking Tour. If you happen to get there earlier, you can visit the rest of the farm and feed the bigger animals before heading for the Orchard Picking Tour. Our entry fee included a bag of food for the big animals each and access to the Orchard Tour.

After spending some time with the little animals, we were all ready to pick some oranges. However it started to pour and we had to wait for the showers to pass. Bummer! Thankfully the rain clouds passed somewhat and we were able to make our way to the Orchard with a brolly in the drizzle. The rain completely stopped by the time we neared the Orchard and the sun was out in all its glory!

This part of the farm visit was definitely the highlight of our trip. Our guide Denise took us through the Orchard and we were introduced to the various trees (oranges, mandarin oranges, lemons and lemonades). The lemonades taste like lemons but look like oranges on the inside. Interesting! We were taught how to identify which were ready for picking, how to pick them and we tasted and ate many of them while we were at it.

We were also given a bag to hold the fruits we wanted to buy and the kids went crazy! Our bags were later weighed back at the counter and it cost us $5 per kg.

The fruits were so fresh that we managed to bring our loot back to Singapore with us and mind you this was from Day 2 of our 10 day trip. The kids loved picking the fruits and running free in the Orchard. The weather was also somewhat kind to us because it started to pour only just as we were wrapping up the tour and we made a dash through the Orchard and through muddy puddles to get to our umbrellas. Such good fun! Yes mummy would never allow that in Singapore :p

The rain subsided by the time we got back to the main building and the kids were still very pumped up about touring the farm to see the bigger animals (it was almost 12pm by then). We saw and fed goats, cows, llamas, kangaroos and more. Jah had lots of fun with the kangaroo and even patted him on his own accord. Whilst Joel got the raw end of the deal and got spat on by a alpaca . My bad for not telling him about the little warning we got from the staff. :p

The kids almost didn’t want to leave because they having so much fun but we had to feed our rumbling tummies. So off we headed to feed our tummies with an awesome brewery lunch (the brewery even had a fenced up playground) and some post lunch chocolate desserts 🙂

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 1 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 3 – Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

JahBella’s Mummy

6Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Holidays, Perth, Tips with Kids, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

I had worked out many itinerary permutations before the trip and finally settled on one that would see us driving straight to Margaret River (MR) after being fresh (no pun intended) off a red eye/ 5am landing. This would allow us to only break up the trip once and be back in Perth after 5 days in MR.

Travelling with kids on a road trip called for a lot of advance planning eg. Where would we be stopping for meals or breaks? Unlike the couple road trips where we could do many spontaneous stops or leg stretches. With kids, we had to ensure that we got to the destination in the least amount of time possible but still having sufficient meal breaks and possibly even an ‘entertainment’ or ‘attraction’ break.

We landed in Perth at 5am and proceeded to bundle the kids up in their winter jackets + ski gloves. Yes we looked ridiculous and kiasu in that airport but I reckon we looked really smart and warm :p once we hit the 5deg cold to get to our rental car.

It was going to be a 4 hour drive and so we decided to stop enroute at Rockingham for breakfast. The drive was about 1.5hours long because we had to travel pretty slowly in the rain and with foggy windows (took us awhile to figure out how to get the anti fog on).

We settled for a warm ham and cheese crossiant and hot chocolate at Lulu’s cafe. It was nice to be out of the cold and in a warm toasty cafe with a electric fire place next to our table. Almost didn’t want to leave. There is also a nice playground across the road from the cafe which would have been an ideal run around for the kids if the weather was warmer.

With our tummies full, we continued our drive towards MR and intended to take a lunch and ‘entertainment’ stop at Busselton Jetty.

We drove another 2 hours before we got there, thankfully the kids dozed off on that leg of the journey. We normally don’t allow sleeping in the car but this time we were glad they were getting some rest and we were getting some quiet and were able to focus on the road. And I honestly enjoyed the adult car conversations we were finally able to have without a child either interrupting us or having to have ‘speed’ conversations or updates while on our way to pick the kids. No guilt, the kids were in the car (asleep) and we had 2 whole hours of conversation time. 🙂

We got to Busselton just in time for the 11am jetty train ride. The train ride about 2+km down the jetty would take about 45 min there and back with an approx 8 mins stop at the end of the jetty. You can also choose to walk if you like. It started pouring almost as soon as we got out of our car so we were super glad that our beanies and gloves were all accessible in our handcarry and not packed away. Yes even for the adults! Phew! The kids love the train ride and the cold didn’t bother them as much as it did us.

Everyone was ready for some lunch after our little train adventure and we headed to The Goose which is a restaurant right next to the jetty. We have been to this restaurant many times over the years. It used to be a restaurant that serves tapas but serves mostly your usual mains now.

We only had a 1 hour drive left from Busselton to MR after this (easy peasy) and we got to our accommodation just shy of 2pm and just in time for our afternoon nap. If your kids don’t need a nap then you would still have lots of time to explore some vineyards or taste some local produce.

So this was pretty much how we survived 18 hours on the ‘road’- from leaving home at 8pm till we settled at our MR accommodation at 2pm the next day. To be honest it was really an awesome Day 1 with these kiddos and we couldn’t wait for Day 2!

JahBella’s Mummy

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 2 – Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 3 – Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

More coming up…:)

29Oct2015

JahBella’s Tokyo Adventure (Jul 2015) – Tsukiji Market and Hakkuhinkan Toy Park with Kids

Posted in Holidays, Japan, Travel with Kids by jahbella

When I told people that we were intending to holiday in Tokyo with the kids for 11 days, most were surprised and then skeptical. After all what was there to do in Tokyo with 2 kids under 4, besides the whole Disney thing and that definitely does not take 11 days. For those who are wondering or who are even considering Tokyo as a holiday destination with kids, I can assure you that we found some absolutely kid friendly stuff to do and were able to adapt some adult stuff to suit the kids. In fact we found a lot more kid friendly stuff than we eventually attempted.

Our first morning (after a full day flight and a good night’s rest) brought us to Tsukiji Market. Yes Tsukiji Market! 🙂 Joel and I really wanted to visit the fish market but were unsure if the kids could cope in that bustling, wet and chaotic environment. We decided that we did not need the ‘full experience’ of a fish market early morning auction but just really wanted to take in the touristy ‘retail’ market part of it.

We travelled relatively light with only a backpack that contained our raincoats, 2 toddler carriers as well as the spare clothes, diapers, pee bags and wipes needed by the kids.

We headed out pretty early and reached the Tsukiji Station at about 9am, from there it was a slow 5 to 10 minutes’ walk to the market. We actually took the longer route that morning because the rain threw us off and I couldn’t get my bearings despite having my Google Map in hand. I was too busy adjusting our raincoats and ensuring that everyone was as dry as they could be. However we did managed to take the shorter route when we came back a week later. 🙂

We chanced upon a ‘fast food’ joint near Tsukiji Market and stopped for a very early brunch during our 2nd Tsukiji Market visit

Simple kiddy sets and curry rice for Bella who discovered her love for curry rice in Japan

Simple kiddy sets for Bella who discovered her love for curry rice in Japan

Running out of cash on our 2nd last day and was saved by the Suica card (similar to our EZ-link card)

We finally got to Tsukiji Market and what is known as the Outer Market which is where all the retail touristy stuff take place. I was quite surprised that Jah and Bella were quite adventurous and were willing to try out random food that we passed.

Not so chaotic right?

Now what about this? :p

Mummy!! They sell jelly beans at the fish market! Can we buy?

Ice cream!!!!

Perfect for a hot day! Yes the 2nd trip to Tsukiji Market was blazing hot!

We taste tested Tamagos (egg) from random stalls (these stalls are a dime a dozen) and we were so intrigued by an old couple grilling huge scallops that we had to stop to try. It helped that the stall was well-sheltered and we could take our time to finish our piping hot scallops. Jah loved it so much that he slurped every bit of it including the ‘sauce’. In fact, he loved this new found taste and food so much that we had to later stop at another shop to order a second round. This time round, we had scallops in butter as well as large oysters that were super cheap. This shop was connected to a restaurant so we were able to order drinks and beer to go with our food and we stood around a huge barrels which acted as tables. Quite the experience for the little ones! In fact the reason that we came back a second time (aside from the fact that Joel and I wanted more yummy scallops), was because Jah and Bella loved it so much that they wanted to come back too! Who would have thought right?

Bella and her tamago

Aunty adding uni to our scallops! There were crab claws in there too!

Time to cook it!! Yummy!

Mummy can I eat it already?

Scallops! Oysters! Beer!

Savouring his scallops…we lost count of how many he had but we know he had most of our share

We proceeded to a random restaurant for lunch after, even though we were already quite full from all that snacking. This is supposed to be Sushi/ Sashimi restaurant paradise so I wasn’t leaving until I had my sashimi lunch. However our random lunch turned out to be really disappointing and expensive so I guess nothing to rave about here.

It was almost 11am by the time we were done with our early lunch and Jah was insisting that we proceed to something that he wanted to do. :p A toy shop visit! So with my Google Map in hand, we made it back to the train station and headed to the Hakuhinkan Toy Park at Ginza.

Hello Little Red Riding Hood

Say fish!

Time for the Toy Store! Yay!

Tsukiji Market Trip – Mission Accomplished

Oh yes I have to share that we survived this trip by using the Google Map on my hand-phone. I used to print out hardcopy maps and pre-indicate the routes we would take. But the real-time GPS map came in very very handy! Of course you also need an internet connection which was no problem for us because we rented a wifi dongle from Changi Recommends. I love technology! :p

By the time we made it to Hakuhinkan Toy Park (It was a really long way *sweat*) It was almost 12pm and there were levels and levels of toys at the Toy Park so needless to say the kids were occupied for quite abit. There was even a car race track that you could pay I think approximately $1 to $2 to play for about 15 minutes. The kids loved it and wanted to go many times over.

Oh wow..where do we begin?

Choose a car..pay for your game and race away!

Bella could not resisit a few rounds too!

Jah having an absolutely tough time…

We eventually left Hakuhinkan Toy Park at about 2pm with our hands quite full and our pockets quite empty! :p So you have been warned! We also had to take a cab back to our hotel because there was no way I was going to struggle with cranky kids, tons of shopping bag and multiple changes at the train station. So yes if you decided to risk it and enter a toy shop like Hakuhinkan Toy Park, please be prepared to pay for a cab ride ‘home’. We paid about $60 for a 15 minutes ride from Ginza to our hotel (Hilton Tokyo Bay). We used one of those cab fare estimator website to prep ourselves so that we wouldn’t faint at the cab charges when we got to our destination. :p

More of our kid friendly Tokyo Adventure coming up soon…

In the meantime, you can read about…

JahBella’s Mummy