Month: August 2016
PF Changs – A Restaurant Review
By Kiran Jayasinghe
July 31st was our grandmother’s birthday. I’m not going to tell you how old she turned, but I can tell you that we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to PF Changs, at the Pike, in Long Beach. The restaurant is right by the water, and you can see boats go in and out of the little harbor. The Pike is a very busy place, so it’s best to get Valet Parking. After the car was taken, we met our uncle inside. That was one of the highlights, because our uncle is almost always out of town, or at work, and we never get to spend time with him! The restaurant wasn’t crowded at all, and we got a table quickly. To drink, we three (Kiran, Simran, and Svara) had water, and so did our uncle. Our mom, grandpa, and grandma had virgin Pina Coladas, and our dad had a beer. Since we love Pina Coladas, we each had a few sips from our mom’s. We all agreed that there was a little too much coconut, and we’ve had better. While we were tasting Pina Coladas and talking like food experts, our dad was ordering food. We had white rice, noodles, firecracker chicken, sweet chicken, garlic beans, and Mongolian beef. Although we expected the firecracker chicken to be spicy, it wasn’t spicy at all, and it was delicious. The Mongolian beef was great, and our mom and dad just loved the garlic beans. All of us cleaned our plates, and we had to order another dish of Mongolian Beef, firecracker chicken, and noodles. But there was still something to come, even after all of that – dessert! The staff served our grandmother a scoop of ice cream with fried banana. None of the other adults had dessert. The three of us had a “great wall of chocolate” , a huge slice of chocolate cake with 2 scoops of ice cream and raspberry syrup. It was very rich, but we finished almost all of it! We all loved our visit to PF Changs (as we always do) and I think you will too!
Olympic Trial Trip – Day 6
By Simran Jayasinghe
We woke up at the Embassy Suites hotel in Kansas City Nebraska. Today was the last day of our trip. We hurried down to breakfast because we knew that Embassy Suites provided an excellent breakfast.
We packed all our belongings, and drove to the Kansas City airport. We turned in our rental car, and took a shuttle to the terminal. We had to wait about an hour before boarding our plane.
We were in boarding group C, so by the time we finally got on the plane, there weren’t any seats together. All the aisle seats and the window seats were taken. Only, single middle seats were available. I had to sit in a middle seat with two strangers on my right and left, my sister Kiran had to sit in a middle seat towards the front of the plane with two other strangers. My little sister, who is only 7, did not want to sit alone, and my mom did not want her to either. Finally, after a stewardess asked people many times if they could move to a different seat and make room for my mom and Svara, one person moved and they got seats in the front part of the plane. My dad was seated near enough to me that he was able to ask me with hand signals if I was okay or not. Although Kiran and I were fine, our mom said that she was worried the whole three hour flight back to L.A. my Mom said that she will never fly Southwest again!
Olympic Trials Trip – Day 5
By Kiran Jayasinghe
We woke up in St. Louis after dreams of the Gateway Arch and standing in the rain, which is what we had actually done the day before! After helping our mom pack the suitcases, we took the elevator down to the lobby for breakfast. We had porridge, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausages, fruit, juice, and cereal. You can always count on a good breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn! Then, we went back to our room and relaxed for a bit, before we checked out and left for Kansas City. The drive was supposed to take around two hours, but we took around four, since we stopped at Ozarkland for fudge, Arby’s, and a rest stop.
We were staying at an Embassy Suites for the last night of our trip. The hotel was located on the outskirts of Kansas City. It was beautiful, with a huge lobby, a restaurant, free breakfast, and even an evening snack! We came just in time for the evening snack, so we ate celery, carrots, chips, and dip. Then we unpacked our luggage from the car and settled down in our spacious room. Or rather – two rooms. We lounged on the two queen beds and read books, and watched the cooking channel. Then, we decided to take a dip in the indoor pool. While we soaked in the hot tub, we watched the July 4th fireworks. We didn’t have a very good view of them, but we did see some. When the fireworks were over, we went to our room and watched TV again. We ordered dinner from the restaurant in the lobby, and then fell asleep for the last time on our trip.
China Wokery – A Restaurant Review
By Simran Jayasinghe
I love Hot and sour Soup. My parents love Hot and Sour Soup. Everyone in our family loves hot and sour soup. The go – to place for our family to have hot and sour soup is China Wokery, at the Restaurant Row in San Marcos. About a week ago, we were celebrating our parents 18th wedding anniversary with our grandparents, and of course we had to go to China Wokery! When we got there, we were expecting it to be busy because it was a Saturday night, but there weren’t many people, probably because it was 8:00 o’clock at night and most people had already had dinner. We were seated quickly. We ordered Fried Rice, White Rice, Singapore Noodles, Kung Pow Chicken, Orange Chicken, and of course, a big pot of Hot and Sour soup to share. Our parents and grandparents loved the Singapore Noodles, and my sisters and I loved the Orange Chicken. These are dishes we order every time we visit! We had a wonderful dinner, and hope to come back many more times!
Epic Rollertainment – A Review
By Simran Jayasinghe
Some time ago, we wanted to go rollerblading, but the nearest one to our house, Skateworld in San Diego, only had a session from 7-8 p.m. We decided that we didn’t want to go to such late session, so we went to Epic Rollertainment in Murietta which had a public session from 5-8 p.m. Epic Rollertainment is located at 39809 Avenida Acacias, Murrieta, CA 92563. It cost $7 to skate since we took our own rollerblades. If you need to rent rollerblades or roller-skates it will cost an additional $4. This cost is about the same as the other rinks we have been to.
The inside was huge! The roller rink took up the whole right side of the building, and on the left, was the skate rental counter, the snack bar area, and the game arcade. They also had a lot of chairs for people to sit and relax. There was a big screen on one side of the rink playing music videos, the music was good! The session that we attended, was a little crowded, but that might have been because there were a couple birthday parties. Every so often, they would stop the skating and play games, and the winner(s) got glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. We all agreed that Epic Rollertainment is more modern than Skateworld in San Diego. I hope I will be able to visit Epic Rollertainment many more times over the summer!