We have not yet posted our blog or photos for our trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls, but here is Elia describing our first full day at Centreville, a little amusement park on the Toronto Islands. Her first car and pony by herself. Erin was quite nervous and proud. The video is four minutes and exceeds our media upload limit, so click here.
Kula in Torrance, the new best sushi conveyor belt restaurant
So we loved the now closed DC Union Station Yo! Sushi, a conveyor belt restaurant chain based in the UK so much that we pilgrimaged to NJ to go to the one there but it was not as impressive and seemingly more expensive. We also love Kula in California which is $2.25 for every plate, and as good or even better variety. Well we went to the Torrance location yesterday with Maximillian and were blown away at the remodel.
Let me try to explain the picture, normal sushi conveyor belt but the plate covers pop up out of the way when you pull on the plate. When you are done you put the plate in a slot at your table which adds it up on the iPad/tablet. If you put in 5 plates an ongoing story line plays as a cartoon. If you put in 15, you get a surprise toy dispensed from the machine up above (which Curie loved – Elia was asleep). But ostensibly the coolest part was the second high speed conveyor belt between the normal one and the tablet. You order on the tablet, and the food shows up next to your table, we had to order things just to have them zip up to the table. Julie and Steve, this is by far our favorite seafood restaurant now.
Weekend at Lake Ackotink and the Zoo
Sadly Albert lost the Zoo photos, we will post if we find them. We also had Yemmeni food for the first time, it was delicious, the kids loved it.
We found the pictures! Woo hoo!
Thanksgiving 2015
Great Country Farms 2015
Stribling Orchard with Bella and the Tamanahas
We had a great time at Stribling Orchard with Annabella, we ran into the Tamanahas there. There are many many many more pictures of the day on our gallery. Thank you Annabella for taking care of the kids!
Stribling Orchard, a favorite of many for apple picking and apple baked goods. Truly, Erin inhaled the apple turn-over, and we discovered that while we are snooty honey crisp people in our city personas, when in the orchard in the absence of the honey crisp, the golden delicious fresh from the tree (not the mealy supermarket variety) is unsurpassed and quite lovely indeed.
Look at all of our smiles in our family picture, life is good indeed.
New Orleans with Bernard’s Family
You never know if you can vacation with another family, especially when kids (and protective parents) are involved. Add to this that we are “bottom feeder foodies,” whose vacations are essentially food crawls AND we like to eat across the spectrum from hard to pick shellfish to stranger parts of plants and animals, it is with a bit of trepidation when we go on vacation with others. So it is with great satisfaction that I can say “Success!” to the joint effort between our families in New Orleans (and Slidell). Click the picture to read the whole vacation.
Thomas Land at Edaville
We went the second week it opened and they were not ready for prime time yet. Many buildings unfinished, no concessions really, restrooms not constructed yet, and a few rides not open- it’s no Disneyland – but from the kids’ perspective? True magic.
Having each of the engines or characters in full size was pretty cool. The adults did spend a huge chunk of time talking through how they could have done it better and made more money.
Magic for the kids, both were young enough to be totally into it. We did have amusement park meltdown at the end, but that was not unexpected.
Erin’s parents treated us to the park and the kids loved being with them.
The Beach at the National Building Museum
July 4 Vacation Julie and Steve’s Birthdays
