Tuesday, April 25, 2023

A Fun April

 


Getting some much needed yard work. New sod, aeration, thatching, valve replacement. It is all very pricey!

Always fun to have a cousin in town. 

Put her right to work mowing. She didn't even get a chance to set her bags down before Auntie Ev put her outside!

Chaperoning 6th grade trip to Sisters, Oregon with teacher Ken!



Salmon Summit




Bubble tea in the mall


"before and after camp" hahaha

Spring Soccer

Photos taken by Ev. So far their team is 3-2. Their best start yet!





 

Monday, April 17, 2023

April odds & ends

 

Study buddy. It’s so nice to live close by


Day after trip: everyone asleep but I hear lots of pots downstairs and come down to Olin wide awake and he said it’s one of the least tired he’s ever been. While jet lagged, go figure! He’s usually the most tired in every scenario. (Besides me! Ha.)

Babz’ tie for school pictures. Folded over triple and safety pinned in back. 

Friday, April 7, 2023

Singapore

Singapore could be summed up, in our 48 hours, as hot, humid, cheap, fun, and very clean! A winner!

The subways were very long. Or, at least we were able to see the entire train until the end, from the inside. We were able to scan our credit cards to pay for each ride which was so convenient. The only catch was each of us had to use a different credit card. So we used two debit cards, our Chase, and Costco visa. Rides were pretty cheap, maybe $1-3 per ride

These were everywhere! We opted for the local food stands but we did look at the menu here and there were some different items. No pork xiao long baos, only things like pork + shrimp. And no spicy chicken wontons although there were spicy wontons.

Our hotel (Swissotel the Stamford) was attached to a very large mall (Raffles City), an MRT station (City Hall) and this underground food center area which was awesome.

The famous Marina Bay Sands hotel with the 'surfboard' on top known as the hotel that was in Crazy Rich Asians final scene, I think.

Olin as the Merlion

Took the MRT everywhere

First night satay at Lau Pa Sat hawker (food) market. This tray of satay was around $20


These Kopi and Teh were all over so we had to text Dae's Malaysian partner and she and her husband said the Kopi O is black coffee, the Kopi is sweetened condensed milk added and the Kopi C is half sweetened. Would seriously never have figured that out. 


Besties




We were very tired and hot when we finally made it to Raffles hotel. We had been out in the heat all morning. Dae and I were hoping to have a Singapore Sling in the famous hotel but the line for Long Bar was way too long so we walked the block back home.

Strangely, quite a few stores did not take Visa. Only Amex. And they would ask us to scan a QR code in order to pay by App, which we weren't really keen on doing, so we ended up going over to an ATM to pull out more cash to get our hands on these bubble teas.

The line at the xiao long bao vendor at Chinatown Complex Food Centre Hawker Stalls

Yum

So we made do with Singapore Slings from our hotel. They were good! We had two each.


Dessert. They were out of the red bean unfortunately so we had black sesame, a few peanut, and all of them in peanut soup. So good.


Night Show "Spectra" at Marina Bay Sands. Nice show but I like Bellagio better. haha.

These popiah were really good and freshly made

All sorts of breads for breakfast one day. The Texas Toast looking bread was yummy. As was the 'Apple Worm' on both their trays.

Playing around on Orchard Road.

More Orchard Road


So many escalators up and down to the metros

Definitely a highlight for the boys and Babz - we happened upon and got tickets for an Audi show showcasing a concept car. 

The concept car was so cool

Another very popular stall selling Fish Porridge at the Amoy Street Food Centre (Chinatown). The fish porridge was good.

And then I got a spicy beef noodle soup at a neighboring stall

haha

yes please, black sesame filling and black sesame outside

Changi airport. So cool, it was like a rainforest. 

Photographer

Some sort of Dr. Strange thing that they all knew but I didn't have any idea what it was

Welp, business class was an absolute dream. None of us was ready for the 15 hour flight to be over. LOL


Camp & Crutches

One boy went to camp Lutherhaven for the week (4 nights) and the other went to a track meet Wednesday, suffered an avulsion fracture, and is...