Great America

Another day when we were in San Jose a group of us went to Great America (myself, Brandon, aunt, uncle, cousin Rich and Emi). This was Emi's first time at Great America and she had a blast. She loved riding the roller coaster, she has no fear. She went on several rides and couldn't get enough. She enjoyed meeting her favorite cartoon character Dora and Diego. She took pictures with them a few times. Rich and Brandon went on several rides together. The 3 of us went on Invertigo, luckily the ride did not break down when we were on it. This past Saturday I heard people were stuck on this ride high in the air for up to 4 hours. That's just crazy! Brandon won 2 basketballs and Rich won 1. Emi even won a Dora ball in the kid games, so that was cool. That's the best prize she could have won. We went to see a Ice Show while we were there, that was cool too. We stayed there from open to close, I didn't think we were going to stay that long. Emi took her nap on time and so she was good to go all day. By the time we all got home after we had dinner at Boogie's, we were all exhausted. Oh and by the way the weather was perfect. Couldn't have been better, it was overcast when we go there and warmed up a bit after. The rides were not that crowded I think that was due to the weather and also that we went on a Thursday. Overall a great trip.

Brandon on her 1st ride of the day

Me and Brandon waiting to go on the "Psycho Mouse" ride

Brandon and Emi on the "Taxi Jam" roller coaster

Emi with Dora and Diego

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

The 2nd day we were in San Jose Brandon and I went to Santa Cruz with my aunt, uncle and cousin Ron. We went to the Boardwalk. Brandon and I went on one roller coaster "Giant Dipper", the roller coaster was cool. Of course I screamed while on the ride like always. Brandon and my cousin Ron played video games in the arcade for a while the had a blast like always. My uncle played the chicken in the pot game and won 2 cute monkeys for his granddaughter Emi, she loved them of course. Brandon won a glass and a shot glass at the dime toss. I love winning cups. We have a collection of them at home from their. The weather was nice and we had a good time.

Giant Dipper Ride

Brandon and I going on the ride

The Beach

Trip to Monterey

Last weekend Brandon and I went to Monterey for Jill's (my cousin) birthday. We started off by going to her house in Oakland early Saturday morning to meet her new dog Lucky. She is adorable, but did not warm up to us as we hoped. She is really attached to Jill. We stayed there for about an hour and then headed to the Oakland airport to pick up Jill's best friend Monique. Then we went to Mountain View to eat some delicious ramen. We went to a store afterwards then we went to my cousin Rich's house in San Jose to drop our stuff off since Brandon and I were going to stay with his family for a week after our trip to Monterey. From there we went to Monterey, and checked in our hotel when we got there and then did some site seeing before dinner. We had dinner reservations at Passionfish, food was excellent. For dessert we went across the street to an ice cream shoppe. Brandon of course got some but I was too full from dinner. It was pretty late by this time so we all went back to our hotel and rested for the next day.

Sunday morning we all got up early and went to eat breakfast at Toastie's. They served delicious breakfast dishes. I will definetley go back the next time were in Monterey. Then we all headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and had a great time. We split up into groups after we saw the tuna and baracuda feedings which was cool to watch. The seahorse exhibit was one of the coolest exhibits at the aquarium, they did a good job putting this exhibit together. We met for lunch afterwards and had some delicious Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. That is one of my favorite dishes. We all split up again when it was time to go home. Brandon and I stayed in Monterey for a 1 hour and 1/2 since he wanted to climb on rocks. He loves to explore and climb on rocks, so I figured we had time so why not. I on the other hand is not a big fan of doing this so I watched him and took pictures until he convinced me to join him. I was scared but did it anyway. By the time we got to San Jose it was after 7pm, traffic was really bad. But overall our trip to Monterey, was great. Too bad we couldn't have stayed longer. Thanks Jill for suggesting this trip hope to do it again soon.

Me and Jill

Brandon and I at the Passionfish Restaurant
Me and Brandon at the Outer Bay Exhibit

Seahorses

Me up on top of the rocks

Brandon on the rocks