Hello, hello !
It's been a while since I posted, but know that I've been well & just busy trying to balance school, some fun, and some sleep. Typical college student stuff.
Nothing really noteworthy (or should I saw blogworthy hehehe ?) has happened since I last updated. I've had a lot of family & personal relationship stuff going on over Christmas Break, but nothing that I want to remind myself of. But everything is now well and I'm looking forward to a more positive rest of 2015!
It's been two weeks since Valentine's Day (and my boyf's & my 22-month anniversary~) and I haven't had the time to blog about the adventure my boyf and I had in Orange County. I spontaneously was craving Boiling Point (one of the food places in OC we actually went to) in mid-January, but we could not go at the time. So we kind of planned our Valentine's Day around that craving and the fact that the boyf hasn't been there before.
The first place we went to was the Orange County Great Park Balloon! It is not a hot air balloon since the balloon is attached to the ground with a wire, but it's the closest thing to one. I was really scared that it was going to be crowded, since it's Valentine's Day and seems like a romantic spot to be, so we left San Diego bright and early and got to OC at around 9AM. To my surprise, there were not a lot of people there! So we only had to share the balloon with a handful of other people.
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| We went up there! |
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| A selfie from up above. |
(Yes, I bought a selfie stick so we wouldn't have to ask other people to take our picture LOL)
After exploring the park for a little bit, we went to an asian fusion brunch place called Break of Dawn. There was a ~25 minute wait but it didn't feel that long since we were distracted by the "Me & Bae" filter on Snapchat & bragging about the places we were going on Facebook. I got the "Mac & Cheese," which was this block of macaroni with melted cheese & egg on the top and braised ribs/bacon in the middle and some asian-y slightly spicy red sauce at the bottom. The boyf got "Bacon & Eggs," which was tempura poached egg and pork belly bacon. Both were delicious. Kind of $$$, but it was Valentine's Day and the only time we'd probably go there so we had to go big or go home.
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| Mac & Cheese |
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| Mac & Cheese cut open |
We then went to UCI! I wanted to stop by this one market and get edible cookie dough but it needed to stay refrigerated and there was still a long day ahead of us, so no go on the cookie dough.
I've never visited the campus before, so I wanted to walk around for a bit (and get ourselves hungry for the next place). It's cool how there's a park right in the middle of campus and how the school is circular-shaped, but I was exhausted walking across back-and-forth trying to find cool places to go on campus. We were so tired we sat in a study room inside the library for about half an hour; I watched Gossip Girl on Netflix & the boyf took a nap. Visiting the campus made me appreciate UCSD's campus even more, since we have a lot of things to see. I struggled finding some cool spots apart from the park in the middle of campus.
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| This isn't Geisel?!?!?! |
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| Infinity Fountain ???? |
Then we headed to Boiling Point just before their lunch time was over. Boiling Point is a personal hot pot restaurant. We didn't have to wait too long, but there were a handful of people waiting since we came half an hour before their lunch time was over (and lunch = cheaper price!). I went here for the first time two summers ago when I visited my best friend in OC. Not sure why I was craving it in mid-January (it was cold, I guess?), but I'm glad I had my craving fulfilled.
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| Free Green Tea Ice Cream Macarons! |
Despite just having ice cream macarons, I still wanted to try this ice cream place called Creamistry. They use liquid nitrogen to make their ice cream in an efficient but time-sensitive manner. As a former chemistry major, things like this still make me freak out. We got cookie butter with marshmallow fluff. It was their #1 recommended combos, and I can see why.
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| Look at the smoke from the liquid nitrogen *___* |
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| Typical. But I was seriously nerding out. |
We were going to hit up a self-serve boba place called Class 302 Cafe, but I was craving the love cream with sea cream from 7 Leaves so we decided not to go there. Although I get 7 Leaves every chance I get (even when just passing by the area), I cannot pass it up even once because it's too good. Next time, next time.
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| Love Cream with Sea Cream & Boba |
After taking a small rest in the car, we headed to Pokinometry, one of two places we went to for dinner. This was recommended to me by one of my closest friends I've made in college. I enjoy sashimi, so this was the perfect place to go. The restaurant specializes in raw fish bowls & is styled like Chipotle, where you choose type of bowl then you get to choose a number of fish depending on the size of the bowl, then the toppings.
After Pokinometry, we explored the area for a bit since we had like 45ish minutes left for parking. We explored a hipster branch of the thrift shop Goodwill called Rare. They had more trendy clothes and a lot of vintage items, like record players and old cameras.
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| I was so tempted to buy this since it was only $10, but I wasn't sure if it would work or not. |
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| The boyf playing with one of the record players on display. |
For part two of dinner, we went to the Anaheim Packing District. It's basically this old train station house converted into a hipster food court. It was so pretty... my kind of place (since I like hipster things hehe)! It's super bright and open (when not crowded by people). The center had plants hanging from the ceiling. Each store within the Packing District had its own style. The Kroft was more rustic, with wood walls and accents. We had braised rib poutine.
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| This section of the Anaheim Packing District had jars for lights & wood panel walls! #hipster |
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| Braised Rib Poutine |
And that was the end of our adventure ! We decided to skip on Snow Monster because we were just too tired and full. We drove home blasting High School Musical songs in the car and singing along quite obnoxiously to fill the 1 1/2 hour drive. You can kind of see how perfect we are for each other, hehe.
In addition to the pictures above, I compiled all the videos I took throughout the day into one vlog ! My attempts at becoming YouTube famous have been inconsistent, but I enjoy editing and creating these cute videos I can look back on when I'm feeling nostalgic.
I'm really glad I got to spend this food adventure fueled by the power of love (otherwise, I would not have had the stomach for all that food) with the person I love :) Look out for more adventures the boyf and I will have (& I will hopefully post about) !
