Once I get settled in to our new apartment, I promise I’ll update like craaaaaazy.  haha….

Hello, Irvine, here we come!Similar Posts:

• Still in Vacation Mode
• Moving…. and How?
• Mexico Here We Come!
• 我的Blog開放全宇宙參觀！
• Recent Update….

Save 70% off of $25 Gift Certificates when you use code SEVENTY.Pay $3 thru 7/13/09 only at Restaurant.com.Similar Posts:

• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $4.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $5.00
• Deal of the Day
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $2.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $3.00

We had been walking in the Wild Animal Park for 4 hours.  Our feet started to feel tired and our stomachs were in desperate need of food.

We went into to Thorntree Terrance to get lunch.  There were quite a few food stands inside the Wild Animal Park.  Each one has its own specialty.

Thorntree Terrance specializes in burger, sandwich, and wrap.  The price was a bit high, just like most touristy places.  But knowing the money will go back to the zoo toward the animals, we didn’t mind spending a little bit more money at all.

Corona ($6.49)

I didn’t know they sell beer in the zoo.  Dr. P got an order of Corona.  It came in a little plastic cup.  It was very expensive for $6.49.  But the cold beer was sure refreshing.

Cheeseburger ($7.19)

Dr. P got a cheeseburger.  It was a simple burger and Dr. P really liked it.  The burger also came with French fries.  I like the fries.

Greek Chicken Wrap ($8.69)
A delicious low carb alternative with grilled chicken, feta cheese, black olives, red onions, and green leaf lettuce all wrapped up with tasty cucumber yogurt sauce.

I ordered Greek Chicken Wrap.  This was one of the specialty items at Thorntree Terrance.

I loved this chicken wrap.  It had my favorite, feta cheese, in it.  The grilled chicken was tender.  The cucumber yogurt sauce was tasty.

When we were eating, a lot of bees came to visit.  They didn’t bother the people too much.  But they loved ketchup.  Also a lot of birds were walking around.  Everybody was being good and didn’t feed the birds.  After our relaxing lunch, back to the zoo to see more animals…. (to be continued)

Similar Posts:

• [Baldwin Park] [Fast Food] In-N-Out Burger
• [Pasadena] [輕食] Rock Island Wraps
• San Diego Wild Animal Park (Part 1)
• San Diego Here We Come
• [El Monte] [Fast Food] Original Tommy’s

I visited San Diego Wild Animal Park once when I was about 11 years old.  I was still living in Taiwan and came to the U.S. for a family vacation.  I remember sitting on the tram for the tour and fell asleep.  That was all I remember about the zoo.  I have been talking about visitng the zoo again with Dr. P for quite sometime.  And Dr. P got me a pair of tickets for Christmas!  I took too many pictures so I am going to write about the zoo in 2 parts.

San Diego Wild Animal Park is about 1 hour away from Coronado, where we were staying.  We got to the zoo about 10am.

As soon as we entered the zoo, there was the bird exhibit.  There were so many birds in this zoo.  We saw this one bird with super long beak.  I wonder if it gets in the way of… I don’t know… doing things?

We hopped on the giant rhino for some pictures.

This chameleon is huge!

Cutest baby cheetahs in the nursery.  They don’t have spots when they were born.  The spots will appear when they get older.

Is this an ant eater?

There were ducks everywhere.  Some of them were resting in the shade.  Some of them were napping under the sun.  They weren’t afried of people at all.  They didn’t even wake up when Dr. P got this close to them.

“Hi hi ducky.  May I sit here with you?”

I wanted to take a picture of the ring tailed lemurs.  I said, “look over here!  look over here!”  And the lemur did!

At the petting zoo.

I saw this little sitting at the corner by himself.  So I went over to pet him.  He has the prettiest eye with really long eyelashes.

He only has one eye.  I wonder what happened to him.  But he’s so sweet and cute.

The axis deers are cute.  I remember seeing lots of them in the zoo in Taiwan.

Crazy meerkats.  They were all running around like they were really busy going somewhere.

Gorilla!  I still haven’t gone to LA Zoo to see the new gorilla exhibit.  Gotta go visit soon.

Dr. P is almost as big as a gorilla.

I like comparing myself with the gorilla because then I actually feel skinny for once.

Our ticket included the Journey into Africa tour.  The tour is about 30 minutes.  There was a tour guide giving us a lot of information about the animals.

These two were northern white rhinos.  There are only 8 of them left in this world, and San Diego Wild Animal Park has 2 of them.  The tour guide said this specie mostly likely will become extinct in our lifetime.  Another interesting fact that we learned is that rhinos only reproduce when there are at least 2 females in the group.  The female rhino will only mate when she has a “girl friend” around.  Therefore, these 2 are very unlikely to mate.  But the zoo has saved some cells and sparm/egg from the rhinos.  Hopefully in the future they can try artificial insemination with a surrogate rhino or even cloning when the technology becomes available.

I like how they feed the animal.  They tied the leaves to the tree so the giraffe still thinks he’s eating from the tree.

We caught a vet checking up on this rhino.

Lots of antelopes running around.

Some zebras.

And ostriches.  On our way to the Wild Animal Park, we passed by a few ostrich farms.  The ostriches were raised for their meat.  I really enjoyed the tour.  This time I didn’t fall asleep!  23 years later, I can understand English now haha.  I found the tour very fun, interesting, and informative.

After the tour, we went to see the lions.  We caught a male lion jumping to the top of the roof of a car for a nap.  Then a female lion follow and went into the car to lie down.

Another view of the lions.  The lions can actually see the herbivore animals from the Journey into Africa tour running around.  But there were electrical fances around the lion habitat.  Also the zookeepers probably keep the lions full and content so they don’t get the urge to hunt I guess.

Here’s a silly moment of Dr. P!  haha….

We passed by an animal show and went in to check it out.  We only caught the end of the show.  This lady was showing a prairie dog.  They look just like squarrel.  So cute.

Porcupine!  So pretty!

They are actually kinda cute.  I want one!  haha….

It was about 1:30pm.  Time for lunch…. (to be continued)

Similar Posts:

• San Diego Here We Come
• Shambala Preserve
• [Escondido] [Fast Food] San Diego Wild Animal Park Thorntree Terrace
• Franklin Canyon Hike
• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 3: Migrino Beach ATV Tour

Take 50% off of $25 Gift Certificates and check out our new inventory when you use code FLAG.Pay $5 thru 7/6/09 only at Restaurant.com.Similar Posts:

• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $5.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $4.00
• Deal of the Day
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $2.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $3.00

It was second day of our San Diego trip.  Our destination was San Diego Wild Animal Park.  We wanted to get a quick breakfast then eat it in the car while driving.  We passed by Bruegger’s Bagels in Coronado.  There was a parking spot right in the front.  So we just stopped by here to grab some bagel for to-go.

This bagel shop was pretty busy on a Monday morning.

Believe it or not, it was actually my first time at a bagel shop.  I don’t know why I’ve never been to a bagel shop before.  Maybe…. I always just get my bagels from Costco?

Egg & Cheese with Sausage Bagel ($4.19)

I ordered the standard Egg & Cheese breakfast bagel and added sausage on a onion bagel.  It was tasty, but just very standard.  I could easily make this at home.  But it really filled me up.

Western Egg Bagel ($4.29)

Dr. P got the Western Egg on a regular bagel.  It had egg, ham, tomato, avocado and some kind of creamy sauce.  This breakfast bagel was great, definitely better than mine.

Do you guys go to bagel shops?  Where do you usually go?

Similar Posts:

• Loews Coronado Bay Resort – Room 3307
• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 7: Versailles Main Restaurant Lunch
• 2008五月好禮相送&四月得獎名單
• [Culver City] [Japanese] Tokyo 7-7 Coffee Shop
• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 7: Versailles Main Restaurant Breakfast

Our plan for the first night in San Diego was to find a restaurant that is not too far from our hotel, have a nice dinner, go to the pool/jacuzzi, and go to bed early.  We had to wake up the next day to go to the zoo.  We found a cute little French restaurant, Chez Loma, about 5 minutes away from our hotel.

We parked our car on the nearby street and walked around the neighborhood.  The houses in Coronado are just beautiful.  This city definitely got the beach city vibe.  We found Chez Loma located on a resedential street.  It looks just like a house from outside.

We were seated on the outside patio area.  This restaurant is indeed converted from a historical house.

We got to the restaurant at 5:30pm because we planned to have their prix fixe early dinner.  The price is $24.95 for a 3 course meal.

Bread

The meal started with 3 different types of bread.  Olive, rosemary, and baguette.  My favorite was the rosemary one.

Olives & Sun Dried Tomato Olive Oil

No butter.  Just olives and sun dried tomato in olive oil.  I love the sun dried tomato olive oil.

Captivating Cabs Wine Flights ($14.50)
Ruherford – Beringer – Educated Guess

We could order a glass of wine.  But why only one when you can try three for the price of one?  Chez Loma offers many different wine flights for people to try a variety of wine in one setting.  Dr. P got the Cabernet flight.  2 were great and 1 (in the middle) was so-so.

It’s Got To Be Chardonnay Wine Flights ($14.25)
Toad Hollow – Stags Leap – Laboure Roi

Dr. P knows I like white wine better and chose the chardonnay flights for me.  The pour was very generous.  I also thought 2 were great and 1 (in the middle) was so-so.

Soupe a l’Oignon
Normandy Style Onion Soup, Creamed with Cider and Baked Gruyee Crouton

For our first course, Dr. P picked the French onion soup.  You gotta have French onion soup when dining in a French restaurant.  The soup was heavenly good.  It was salty like most French onion soup I’ve had.  There were tons of gooey cheese.  The caramelized onion was sweet.  This soup was too tasty and we wish they use a giant bowl to serve it.

Chez Caesar
with Whole Leaf Romaine Hearts, Creamy Dressing, Shaved Parmesan, Anchovies and Fougasse Croutons

I got the Caesar salad.  This wasn’t your typical Caesar salad.  The romaine lettuce was served whole leaf style.  You would need a knife to eat this salad.  The Caesar dressing wasn’t the creamy kind and it tasted so good.  Dr. P loved the anchovies in the salad.  I loved the Parmesan cheese.  We were so pleased with the first course and couldn’t wait to try the main entree.

Boeuf Bourguignon
Angus Sirloin Beef braised in Red Wine, Onions, Apple Wood Smoked Bacon and Mushrooms with Roast Garlic Whipped Potatoes

Dr. P’s main entree was braised Angus sirloin beef.  Unfortunately, we didn’t like this dish.  The beef was tender, but it was salty, almost too salty to eat.  The Apple Wood smoked bacon was too hard to chew.  The potatoes were good without the super salty red wine sauce.  It really was just too salty and we left this plate unfinished.

Canard Roti
Half Duck roasted with Cherry-Port Wine and Burnt Orange Sauces with Herbed Rice

My main entree was roasted duck.  The duck was amazingly good.  Definitely one of the best duck dishes I’ve had.  The meat was juicy and tender.  We loved the cherry port wine sauce and the orange sauce.  Portion was huge.  We got half duck in the plate, but still just couldn’t get enough of the delicious roasted duck!

Coffee ($2.95)

Dr. P got the French pressed coffee to go with dessert.

Creme Caramel
Classic French Vanilla Custard topped with a Caramel Sauce

He got the French vanilla custard, and yes, I ate most of it.  The custard was silky smooth and on the light side.  We like this dessert a whole lot.

Two Chocolate Cheese Cake
New York Style with White and Dark Chocolate

I got the Two Chocolate Cheese Cake.  It was really good, but a bit heavy.  With the heavy main entree, I actually preferred a lighter dessert like the custard rather than cheesecake.  But still, this was one good piece of cheesecake.

Cute little French bistro.  Great service.  Really like the atmosphere.  Delicious food, except the beef of course.  We would definitely return here again, but probably won’t order the beef next time.

If you are visitng San Diego, or live in the area, I highly recommend Chez Loma, especially the early dinner prix fixe menu.  It is truly a bargain for the quality and the amount of food you get.  Next time we visit San Diego, we will come back to have the roasted duck again!

Similar Posts:

• [Culver City] [Italian] Fraiche
• [Rosemead] [French] La Vie French Restaurant
• [Los Angeles] [Chinese] Hop Woo Seafood Restaurant
• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 7: Versailles Main Restaurant Lunch
• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 2: Le Bistro Dinner

Dr. P got me San Diego Wild Animal Park ticket for Christmas last year.  We planned to take a trip to San Diego when we both finish our semester/quarter in the summer.  I found a great deal at Loews Coronado Bay Resort from TravelZoo.  Loews Coronado Bay Resort is a 5 stars luxury hotel.  The regular price for a Luxury King room is $350, but we got the room for $99/night!

Coronado is about 10 minutes drive from San Diego downtown.  This is the San Diego downtown view from the Coronado bridge. “The City of Coronado is a small beach community, with an island feel. Incorporated in 1890, Coronado has a rich history and exceptional community assets in a village atmosphere. Surrounded by the San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, Coronado offers a unique lifestyle enjoyed by residents, and has also welcomed visitors from around the world for nearly 120 years.” – from City of Coronado website.

We stayed at room 3307, a King Luxury room.

With our special $99/night rate, our room was supposed to be courtyard view.  But the nice front desk girl upgraded us to a partial oceanview room.  Nice!  We spent a lot of time on this balcony during our 3 days stay here.

Cute little sitting area, but we never used the chair.  Ice bucket, glasses, and bottle opener provided.  They also provided a bottle of water for ONLY $6.50/bottle.  That’s some expensive water!

We LOVE the king size pillow-top bed.  It was so soft and comfortable.

This sand/shells lamp is so cute!

I used this area to get ready in the morning.

TV with built-in DVD player.

I used this machine to make coffee and green tea every morning.

Robes, iron and iron board in the closet.

Really spacious and beautiful bathroom.

big bathtub.  Too bad we didn’t get to use it at all.

Separate shower area.

We love this hotel and love our room.  It was super comfy.  In the morning, we stayed on our balcony to drink coffee/tea and read newspaper (provided free by the hotel).  At night, we sipped champagne/wine and just chatted all night in the ocean breeze.  It was so relaxing.

I really like Loews Coronado Bay Resort.  If they ever have a big sale again, I’ll definitely plan another San Diego trip!  For all of you travelers, I highly recommend the website TravelZoo.  You can find some really great deals there.

Similar Posts:

• NCL Mexican Riviera Cruise Day 1: State Room 8576
• Monte Carlo Resort & Casino
• Mammoth Mountain Inn
• [Coronado] [Bakery] Bruegger’s Bagels
• Minaret Vista, Hot Creek Hatchery & Crowley Lake

Today (6/26/2009) only, from 5 pm to 9 pm receive a free Pinkberry Yogurt at participating Pinkbery stores.Similar Posts:

• Free Scoop Day at Haagen-Dazs
• Free and Discounted Food on Tax Day
• [Los Angeles] [Dessert] Pinkberry
• [Los Angeles] [糕餅甜點] CeFiore Italian Frozen Yogurt
• [Los Angeles] [糕餅甜點] Pinkberry

Save 70% off of $25 Gift Certificates and receive $10 certificate when you use code RECIPE.Pay $2 thru 6/30/09 only at Restaurant.com.Similar Posts:

• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $4.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $2.00
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $5.00
• Deal of the Day
• $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates for $3.00