Happy 5th birthday to our son

Today, our son is celebrating his 5th birthday. Finally, we made a small celebration party at his kindergarten. It was a kind of sudden preparation for us, since we thought that he has joined the school for 2 days only and there was no chance that school would conduct a special party for him. Nevertheless, when I picked my son up, the principal offered me to make a small birthday party and we, the parent decided to go for it. During the H-day, all teachers and friends, even from grade1 and grade 2 were joining the party. Best wishes to our son, may God always protects and leads him forever.

Dinner with friends

These are dinner moments with my colleagues at two separated places. First is the Princess Pub at little Italy in downtown SD, and the other one is Sala Thai restaurant nearby SDSU. Surprised by seeing many asian faces there ? the answer is my class (SDSU MBA Spring'05) consists of about 30 percent of international student. They came from India (the most), Thailand, China, Malaysia, Turkey, Vietnam, Taiwan and me from Indonesia.

Visiting aerospace museum, SD

The museum is located inside the Balboa park. It displays airplanes collections from Wright brothers era, WWI, WWII, and vietnam war. There are a few collections that belong to recent models. Other than that, you can also see the the history of space shuttle including the apollo 9. Your kids also have oppurtunity to fly a miniature of propeller airplane which is positioned inside a wind tunnel. Shift the flight stick that available ouside the tunnel and the plane will make maneuver as your stick movement.

Visiting railroad museum, SD

The museum is located inside the Balboa park. You can observe the original model of railroad system in San Diego. The 'mini' train is alive and one of it even yield smoke from its chimney to impress you as a steam locomotive. The railroad neighbourhood is well designed to look like real. The museum also has railroad model that built from legos to appeal your kids.

Back to San Diego, Balboa park

Balboa Park is located in downtown San Diego. It is extremely huge and there are some museums built on it such as natural history, automotive, aerospace, botanical, art, theatre, etc. You can walk around the park or enter the museum with relatively cheap admission fee. Absolutely a beautiful park which is green and well maintained, designed with sense of art, relaxing your mind, and also functioned as sources of knowledge.

Visiting Hollywood hill, LA

Climb up as high as you can to see the hollywood sign. It is not easy surely but a lot of people enjoy hiking up to the peak of hill.
However, if you can't reach the top of it, you still be able to enjoy LA sightseeing from the hill. If you have spare time, visit the observatorium or theatre nearby are your alternative. Pls notice that the road up to the hill will be closed at sunset, so be prepared to go there earlier.

Visiting Rodeo dr, LA

Rodeo dr is a favourite place for Hollywood celebrities to shop. There are a lot of specialty stores such as fashion and jewelry with world famous designers name behind it. If you think spending thousands of bucks is easy, pls go ahead to shop in this area.

Visiting Venice Beach, LA

Venice beach is located in western LA, a place for surfing, riding bike or lying under the sun. It is such a long beach but finding parking venue is difficult and costly. There is a special wall nearby the beach which dedicated specially for people with spray painting talent. You can also find a lot of traditional stores to buy souvenirs.

Visiting Walk of Fame, LA

Walk of Fame is located along hollywood blv, LA. It consists of hand & foot print of famous hollywood celebrities and red star with celebrity name printed on it. The red stars are spreaded one by one along the walking curbs (I'm not really sure but I think it spanned for few blocks along hollywood blv). In front of Chinese and Kodak theatre, people who costumed with special hollywood famous characters are ready to be your picture object. See the supergirl and the zorro in the picture ? They could even say 'Apa Kabar' fluently. Don't forget to give a little tip after taking picture with them.

Visiting Chinese Theatre, LA

The Chinese theatre located in Hollywood blv, LA and become one of the most tourism destination in LA. This picture was taken in front of it.

Visiting Universal Studios, LA

Universal Studios and City Walk are located in Universal City, LA. The universal studios offers you a wide range of entertainments, from on-site movie locations, thrilled riding & simulators, nickelodeon water park, studio tram tour and stunt shows (using waterworld stage). It was awesome experience. Everything designed with 'a Hollywood skill', so real and as seen as movies.
In additional, you could enjoy varieties of foods and music entertainments at City Walk that located outside the theme park.

Visiting the Groove Mall, LA

The Groove mall & Farmer market are located in the same place. In the groove mall, you can see the famous dancing fountain which can be synchronized with music played by the controlling room. It was really cool attraction during the night. About farmer market, you can taste many kind of foods served with affordable prices.

Ready goes to LA

Powered by Dodge Neon '04 matic, we were ready heading to LA. Ready to get lost and trapped into LA traffic ? We didn't really care.

Watching baloon parade

The baloon parade is located along pacific highway in front of maritime museum. A lot of people stand by from early in the morning to fit their best position watching the parade. The parade itself is to celebrate beginning of Pacific life's holiday bowl at qualcomm stadium in mission SD. The parade consists of marching bands from schools and football teams and shows many giant baloons reflecting enterprise's mascot or cartoon character. About the marching band, they did prepared well either from their uniform or their attractions. We met many fans of Oregon "Duck" and Oklahoma "Sooner" at that time.

On board USS Midway

San Diego is one of the biggest US naval base station. No wonder that it has a USS Midway museum, an aircraft carrier that served the nation from WWII until the gulf war, and public are allowed to get on board the ship, exploring crew cabins, engine control room, lower & upper deck, and super structure island (centre command facility on the ship). It is truly a worth experience to be there.

Visiting Coronado

Still in San Diego, another beautiful beach is located at Coronado, a bay that connected to downtown San Diego with a toll road built on a few miles long bridge. The legend in this area is Hotel Del Coronado that was build 2 centuries ago and is still used until today. Beside the hotel, you can find long white sands shore and sometimes you can see navy jet fighters or coppers which heading the naval base about 10 miles from the area. Intersting in golf ? the hotel has it own field ready for you.

Visiting Wild Animal Park

Wild animal park San Diego is located in Escondido. You can ride a tram to see the whole park or you can walk to explore closely. The newest features are Lion camp and sky baloon ride. Don't forget to see the giant gorrilla there.

Visiting Legoland

Looking for amusement park for your kids instead of Disney's parks ? You can absolutely consider legoland that is located in carlsbad, CA. A lot of rides for kids, U.S cities miniature which are built from legos, water park, and boat ride are some of fun cativities for whole family. It was fun, but maybe not so many people ever heard of this place compared with its rival, Disneyland.

Visiting La Jolla Cove

It is beach time ! The most beautiful landscaped beach in San Diego is La Jolla cove. The view is very beautiful and you can find coral shore, white sands, sea lions, and people who surfing or kayaking. A lot of starred hotels and huge grassed park are available for family activities. Other famous beach for surfing, lying under the sun, bicycle riding, and beach volley ball are mission beach and pacific beach.

Visiting Sea World SD

Next amusement park destination is Sea World SD. A lot of things can be done there, enjoy the Shamu, a giant killer whale show and also the dolphin shows with hillarious presenter, see off-shore acrobatic circus , walk through sea creature aquariums, add-up your adrenalin with some thrilled simulators & rides, watch music & dance show at open stage, and finally ended with fireworks party at night. Be prepared to get soak, for selected areas.