The Book of Mormon and Adventures in Hollywood

Hey, Adventurers! With The Book of Mormon leaving LA this weekend, I thought it'd be fitting to blog about my adventure watching this hilarious musical and exploring Hollywood.

Pantages Theater

California Adventure: The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA

With Mother's Day just around the corner, why not do something unexpected and early this year? Usually, people take their moms out to eat and bring her some flowers. But this year, why not bring her to the flowers?

The Flower Fields

Located in Carlsbad, CA, The Flower Fields are 50 acres of blooming colors. My mom learned about the fields on TV and desperately wanted to see them so we stopped by The Flower Fields before our trip to Legoland.

An Adventure to Legoland California

Legoland California

Hello, Adventurers! Today, I'm talking about the rest of my trip to Legoland California! (If you missed my post on "The Lego Movie Experience," be sure to check it out HERE!)

You see, the last time I went to Legoland was over a decade ago - around the time the park first opened! I remember there was only a handful of rides in the park and it seeming more like a museum of lego models. Fast forward to today and there are substantially more rides! However, I didn't end up going on any big rides because the lines were way too long! All the interesting rides had wait times of at least an hour, which I just wasn't really up for. (As a sidenote, Legoland really needs to make the signs for wait times a lot bigger. You basically have to walk up to the end of the queue before you can see what the little number says so it'd be nice if you can just see the wait time from a distance.) The only ride my brother and I did end up on was the BIONICLE Blaster, Legoland's version of the spinning teacups, and that was only because the ride had a 10-minute wait.

MINILAND USA

Legoland - Painted Ladies in San Francisco

Aside from missing out on most of the rides, I did enjoy Miniland USA, an area of lego models of major US landmarks. It was my favorite part of Legoland when I went as a kid and it still remains one of my favorite attractions.

Legoland - Golden Gate Bridge

They have a mini San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge.

Legoland - Las Vegas

There's a mini version of the Las Vegas strip.

Legoland - Capitol Building

And a model Washington, D.C. as well as other major cities like New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and the New England area.

STAR WARS MINILAND

Legoland - Star Wars Miniland

One of my brother's favorite areas was Star Wars Miniland, where the Master Builders recreated scenes and planets from the Star Wars movies.

Legoland - Millennium Falcon

My favorite had to be the fallen AT-AT.

Legoland - AT-ATs

GRANNY'S APPLE FRIES

Granny's Apple Fries in Castle Hill

My family and I ate lunch at Costco (right outside the park) to save money, but we did splurge on Legoland's famous Granny's Apple Fries located in Castle Hill.

Granny's Apple Fries Price ($5.45)

These apple fries are made with Granny Smith apples, dusted with cinnamon sugar, and served with vanilla whipped cream.

Granny's Apple Fries

The tartness from the apples mixed with the batter and cinnamon sugar made it seem like we were eating a deconstructed apple pie, but without the thicker pie crust. I've never had anything like them before.

SEA LIFE AQUARIUM

Sea Life Aquarium

Our 1-Day Park Hopper tickets included admission to Legoland's Sea Life Aquarium - an attraction that wasn't there when Legoland opened years ago. (A quick Google search revealed that the Sea Life Aquarium opened in 2008.)

Lego Submarines

Inside, you see tanks of fish, sharks, jellyfish, stingrays, and other sea creatures with lego divers and submarines.

Lego Diver with Stingray

The entire aquarium takes about an hour to walk through and includes some interactive tide pools and trivia questions.

Lego Submarine with Shark and Stingray

I personally prefer the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, but it was interesting to see lego models in an aquarium.

Overall, Legoland California seems like a great place to bring kids. Most of the kids I saw were 12 and under and you could see they were having loads of fun! I wish Legoland would instigate some sort of Fast Pass program so the wait times don't seem as long for rides though. However, "The Lego Movie Experience" pretty much made the trip worthwhile for me so be sure to read about that part of my adventure!

The Pain of Stepping on Lego Bricks

For now, I leave you with this hilarious collage of a dad stepping on lego bricks - something most parents can relate to. Seriously, the Master Builders at Legoland have a great sense of humor.

Catch Pokemon on Google Maps on April Fools' Day!

One of my favorite things about April Fools' Day is seeing what fun pranks Google comes up with. Guess what, Adventurers! You can now catch Pokemon on Google Maps! No joke!

Google - Pokemon Challenge

There's 150 different Pokemon (both new and original) distributed around the world. After you update Google Maps on your Android or iPhone, click "Search" and then you can embark on your quest to be a Pokemon Master! How cool!

Pikachu was caught!

Now if only we could pokebattle too!

UPDATE: I finally caught all 150 Pokemon!

Complete Pokedex with 150/150

After you collect all 150, you unlock Mew! It appears that Mew is found in different locations for different people, but for me, he was at 0.23899, -50.411 (NE Brazil). It took me forever to find him!

A wild Mew appears! (Finally!)

Mew was caught!

Once you catch Mew, your Pokedex updates to show it is complete.

Pokedex complete with Mew!

Now that was a long quest... Did any of you complete it? Where was Mew for you?

The Lego Movie Experience @ Legoland California

CAUTION: This post is picture heavy! :)

Adventurers, who saw The Lego Movie and LOVED it!? Did you know that you could see the actual movie sets at Legoland California? It's all in "The Lego Movie Experience" and yes, EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!

The Lego Movie Experience

I was lucky enough to go to Legoland over spring break with my family and one of the first things we went to see was "The Lego Movie Experience."

Welcome to Finn's Basement!

The sets were so elaborate and truly amazing.

Restaurant Adventure: ShopHouse

If you guys haven't heard, ShopHouse is Chipotle's Southeast Asian sister restaurant where you order custom rice and salad bowls. They draw their inspiration from Indonesian, Singaporean, Malaysian, and Vietnamese cuisine. The setup is just like Chipotle where you choose your base (rice, noodles, or salad), protein, vegetable, sauce, garnish, and topping as you move down the line. There's only a handful of restaurants currently located in California, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., but fortunately for me, there's one located in Westwood, CA near UCLA so I got to check it out!

ShopHouse - Westwood, CA

ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen
1059 Broxton Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024

ShopHouse - Meatball Bowl

If you're curious, you can check out the full menu on ShopHouse's website. On my first visit, I ordered the following for my bowl:

• ½ cold rice noodle/ ½ brown rice: I thought the brown rice was a little hard. I slightly preferred the noodles.  
• Pork & Chicken Meatballs: These seemed a little on the fatty side. They were mainly salty and you couldn’t really taste the herbs that were in them. 
• Green Beans: I was originally going to choose the broccoli, but it looked yellowed like it had been sitting in the window too long so I chose the green beans tossed with caramelized shallots instead. The green beans were too “blistered” for me. There were several fully burnt pieces! I really didn’t like how they didn’t remove the stems and fibrous ends on all the green beans. 
• Tamarind Vinaigrette: The sourness somehow brought out a bitter taste. Maybe the burnt taste of the green beans?  
• Green Papaya Slaw: The flavor of this kind of got lost with the vinaigrette. It was more for textural contrast in my opinion. 
• Herb Salad: The guy threw a little bit of cilantro and Thai basil on each bowl, even if you didn't pick it for your garnish. I like Thai basil so I thought it added a nice burst of flavor to the meatballs. 
• Crushed Peanuts: Self explanatory. :)

Overall, this wasn't my favorite combination. The flavors just didn't mix well and I couldn't get over the fibrous green beans.

ShopHouse - Chicken Bowl

But I didn't want to completely rule out ShopHouse because they had so many other choices so on my second visit, I opted to try a different combination of food.

• ½ cold rice noodle/ ½ jasmine rice: I liked this combo a lot better than the brown rice. The jasmine rice was soft but still firm and went really well with red curry sauce. 
• Grilled Chicken Satay: The meat was really tender and cooked perfectly. It reminded me of the chicken from Chipotle but with different spices. I definitely liked this way more than the meatballs. 
• Charred Corn: Again, the broccoli didn't look appetizing because it was yellowed so I went with the corn. It added slight pops of fragrant sweetness and was even perfume-y at times. 
• Spicy Red Curry: I'm a fan of Thai red curry so I enjoyed this. It was spicy but creamy from the coconut milk. I wish they had given me a bigger scoop. 
• Pickles: I opted to try this instead of the Green Papaya Slaw. This was made with carrots and cucumbers and tasted like the Vietnamese carrot and daikon (white radish) pickles you'd get in Vietnamese sandwiches. These are kind of sweet and not your typical sour pickles. 
• Herb Salad: See above. 
• Toasted Rice AND Crushed Peanuts: This time, the guy let me add multiple toppings.They both added crunch, but the Toasted Rice offered something completely new to me. It was like eating tiny hard bits and I can't say I enjoyed this texture. I'll probably skip the Toasted Rice in the future.

Overall, I liked this combination a lot more than the first one. The flavors just worked better together and, aside from the Toasted Rice, didn't have any major problems.

ShopHouse - Wall of Sriracha

I also wanted to mention that if you're a fan of Sriracha, ShopHouse has you covered. There's a whole wall of it free for the taking! No shame in dousing your bowl in sriracha if you so desire. There's plenty for everyone!

On the whole, ShopHouse offered a unique fast food experience with flavors not typically seen in fast food places. I can't see myself craving it like I would with Chipotle, but I wouldn't mind going back if a friend wanted to try it. I just know so many better Vietnamese, Malaysian, and other Southeast Asian places that ShopHouse would get lost in the mix.

Travel Adventure: San Francisco Sights

I've been to SF several times so I've gone to the big touristy places - Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, etc... This post is not going to be about them. The internet is already full of information about these destinations so I thought I'd focus on a few of my favorite lesser known shops.

DAISO
(Japantown)
22 Peace Plz
San Francisco, CA 94115

(Financial District)
570 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94104

(UC Berkeley Area)
2369 Telegraph Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704

Daiso in Japantown

Daiso was one of the stores on the top of my must-see list. In Japan, Daiso is famous for being a 100 yen shop. They carry everything from kitchen knick-knacks, bento accessories, and ceramics to school supplies and home decorations. In the U.S., they are mainly located in NorCal so I knew I had to check it out while I was in SF.

I absolutely, positively love love LOVE bento and kitchen gear and Daiso did not disappoint! I was so obessesed with Daiso that I went to all 3 of the closest Daisos to me. Although they all carried similar inventory, there were slight differences between the stores. Japantown's Daiso was by far the largest. They had the widest selection and a huge area for ceramics (bowls, dishes, plates, etc...).The Daiso in the Financial District was smaller, but they had the tall flan/pudding cups I've been searching everywhere for. (All 3 stores carried the shorter, wider flan/pudding cups though.) Berkeley's Daiso was the smallest out of the 3 and had a smaller inventory, but I did find some paper embossers that I didn't see (or maybe missed) in the other 2 stores. After going to so many Daisos, my suitcase was packed with bento boxes and soy sauce bottles and other random accessories. If making bentos is something you're interested in, be sure to check out Daiso! Their prices really can't be beat when it comes to items like these.

JAPAN VIDEO AND MEDIA, INC.
(Japan Center Kintetsu Mall)
1737 Post St
San Francisco, CA 94115

Japan Video and Media, Inc. - Giant Totoro

While shopping around Japan Center, I stumbled across this anime/Asian drama shop. What caught my eye was the GIANT Totoro at the entrance! I've never seen a Totoro this big! It made me want to just run up to it and hug it! Inside, they had other anime plushies, but I didn't really browse around. There were a few other shops in Japan Center I wanted to visit and time was running out so I didn't even look at their selection of anime, but if you're a My Neighbor Totoro fan like me, you'd get a kick out of seeing a giant Totoro!