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January 1 – 3 (Anaheim, CA USA) Thursday 
Happy New Year. We watched the Rose Parade and of course the Rose Bowl Game. Fight on! Go Trojans!! Sim was rather bored with it all but endured. We are going up to Apple Valley tomorrow or the next day to see my son Joel and our Granddaughter Angelina.
Friday
January 4 – 10 (Anaheim, CA USA)
January 11 – 14 ( Anaheim, CA USA) The Noodles were o.k., but our waitress made our dinner pleasurable. Sim took home a doggie bag. She said the food was good but it just not as delicious as she anticipated. I guess we won't be going back to the Olive Garden for a while.
Tuesday
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is Sim's favorite. Lots of adrenaline gets generated in the up and down ride. The trip to the theme park today was a good healing method for Tuk. Sim said the thrill rides had killed Tuk's sickness. Tuk has not been feeling well since 2 days ago and had to take some Tylenol. She had a runny nose and cough this morning, but they disappeared after just one thrilling ride.
Drove to Camarillo and spent the night at Eric and Jessica's place. It was a nice drive up 101 to Camarillo. Eric got off work early, and we prepared dinner. Well Eric prepared and I watched. We cooked up some salmon and tuna and also the chicken satay that Sim had prepared the day before. The dinner and conversation lasted to late in the evening before Eric and Jessica has to go to bed. Some people still work for a living.
January 16 – 18 ( East Palo Alto, CA USA) One hour later, we stopped at San Luis Obispo for lunch. A few years back my brother, sister and Sim arranged a surprise birthday for me in San Luis Obispo. We stayed at the Petit Soliel Bed and Breakfast and rented a limousine and driver to take us on a wine tasting tour. We like the charm of this town. It was our one last opportunity to enjoy the town once more before our Thailand departure in March. We arrived at Homa and Farshad's home in the early afternoon. We will be staying with them here in East Palo Alto for 3 days before moving over to Sunnyvale. Sim got the idea that she should cook for Homa and Farshad tonight. Homa has mentioned to her that their favorite Thai dish was the dish that had eggplants as the main ingredient. Eggplants are used in many Thai dishes and Sim had no idea what dish Homa referred to. She picked one to cook and hoped it was the one Homa and Farshad liked. Homa didn't want Sim to cook as she thought Sim was tired from traveling the whole day. But, Sim insisted the trip didn't wear her out and she was going to cook dinner. Farshad didn't come home until 8 pm. While waiting for Farshad, the girls prepared dinner, and I watched TV while sipping fragrant delicious Iranian tea and eating dates and nuts. Homa is an excellent host.
Saturday
Sim and Homa decided to plant narcissus and daffodils in the front yard after breakfast. I helped Homa plant some narcissus in her big decorative bowl. I just put rocks and water and let the bulbs sit on the rocks with the bulbs just sitting in the water. Hopefully, they will be bloom during Iranian New Year which is at the end of March.
Tonight we are having dinner with Albert and Donna at their house in Morgan Hill. Albert and I worked together at Sanmina. He has been a staunch supporter and vicarious traveller with us over the past two years. Dinner was marinated chicken cooked perfectly on the Bar-b-Q with veggies and bread. We played with their Wii Rock Band for a while and although I was really bad and got kicked off the stage numerous times, it was still fun. Sim tried her hand at the drums and learned that it was not as easy as it is seen.
Sunday I drove over the mountain to Mary's home in San Gregorio. I arrived around 10:00, and Mary and her husband Neil graciously invited me inside. We had coffee and cake and talked about family. Mary showed me some of the keepsakes she had from the Sheahan side of the family. James Washington Sheahan, founder of the Chicago Times is our great great grandfather. We went down to the local cafe and had some lunch, and reminisced more before I said that I needed to get back in time for the party. It was fun seeing a cousin I had never met.
The menu for tonight was Lamb stew with celery sauce, Homa's famous Iranian rice (as per Sim's request), Salad, cucumber yogurt sauce, and egg rolls for main course, promoganates and oranges for fruits, and four different kinds of cheese cakes, and Iranian sweet for dessert.
Ba and Thao arrived with their two children, Brandon and Brian. Sim met Thao at an English class 12 years ago when she first got to the U.S. That is also where Sim met Homa. The three of them have been fast friends ever since. We didn't wait for Nick and his family as they were not sure whether they could make it to dinner. They went to Lake Tahoe for the weekend. We all were hungry for Homa's famous delicious rice and we weren't disappointed. After we finished our dinner, Homa received a phone call from Nick saying that he and his family were on the way to Homa and Farshad's house. We still had plenty of food left enough for them. Sim and I met Nick and his wife eight years ago at Farshad and Homa's house. Nick is a friend of Farshad and he is Thai. The world is getting smaller. Sim is a friend of Homa and Sim is Thai. Therefore, Sim and Nick clicked well in a short period of time. They talked like they knew each other for a long time. I think it was probably their out going personalities that helps them in making new friends easily. Ariya, the 9 year old son of Homa and Farshad is growing up really fast. He is as tall as his mother now. He was not around home much while we were there. I think we saw him only one night and one morning. He had a pretty busy social schedule during that week. He stayed overnight with his friend on our first night there. The next day his other friend's mother called Homa to see if it was O.K. for Ariya to come to play with her son. The day after that, another friend's father called Fashad to see if it was O.K. for Ariya to go to the basketball game in Berkley with them. He must be well-liked in school. Ariya got the fun to be around personality from his parents. Both Homa and Farshad have outgoing personalities. Farshad is a very cool guy and is very fun to be around.
January 19 – 24 (Sunnyvale, CA USA) T-Mobile is not the best cell phone coverage in the world, for sure. Many times we don't get good reception. There are so many blind spots where T-Mobile cannot provide service. While we were up on the hill heading to X and Steph's house, Sim got a phone call from her niece's husband's secretary asking her to call her niece. Sim feels uneasy whenever she receives a phone call from home. This time even worried her more since her niece didn't call her directly. She could not make an international call as our phone service doesn't cover international. So, she had to wait until we got to X and Steph's house to use a computer to skype her niece. Every thing was o.k. back home in Thailand. Phew! Her niece tried several times to call her, but she failed to reach our phone, so that why the secretary of her husband called Sim.
Wednesday
Sim has never ridden the Cable Car so after we finished our yogurt we headed down the hill to a Cable Car stop and waited for one to come up the hill. It wasn't long before we jumped on a car and headed back to towards the hotel. Interestingly, no one asked us for fare on the ride and as we exited the Cable Car we waved goodbye, took a picture and were on our way free and clear. Maybe it was “Give the Tourists a Break Day”.
Thursday
Sim had a Get-Together Pot Luck Dinner with her Biltmore Hotel friends at Marie's house in Milpitas tonight.
I spent the evening with my buddy Ed. I met Ed six years ago at Shoreline Park one afternoon while I was out sailing my first RC Sailboat. I gave Ed the controls to sail the boat and within two weeks Ed had acquired a boat and we sailed together at the lake for 3 years. Ed and I were the founding members of the Shoreline Model Yacht Club, which by the way is still going strong today: http://www.shorelinemyc.org/index.htm
Friday Jua called Sim while we were shopping for Theo. Jua is the owner of two Thai restaurants in Sunnyvale. He wanted us to come over to his new restaurant to meet someone who was preparing to retire in Phuket. We learned that Dina, an Indonesian woman, and her husband Bo, who is from Holland, are building their home in Phuket. They are going there this February to check on the progress of their house. So, we made foreign friends before we even got to Phuket. Cool. Sitting with Dina was Oy, a Thai woman from southern Thailand. Sim learned that Oy's family has a rich history in Phuket. Oy is married to a Vietnamese husband whose family owns a food distribution company. Sim, Dina, and Oy exchanged their contact information before they left the restaurant. We had dinner with Jua that evening. It looks like his new restaurant is doing very well as we saw a steady stream of customers coming in.
Saturday Sim demonstrated cooking her famous Pad-Thai to Liduan, Weiting, and Huy. They said they had better learn to cook their own Pad-thai since Sim was leaving the U.S. Liduan cooked six different dishes for the five of us. The steamed sea-bass was excellent. Besides the sea-bass, she had a shrimp dish, a lamb dish, a chicken dish, a pork dish, and a vegetable dish, plus the Pad-thai. We spent four hours at the dinning room table. She also cooked a scrumptious red bean dessert. Her secret on cooking the red bean was doing them in a crock-pot over night. The ingredients are simple: water, sugar, red bean, Chinese white Almond, and tapioca. Sim said she was going to cook the red bean dessert for me when we get back to Anaheim. Liduan has a cute little daughter named Amelie. Her socialization skills are very good for a three year old child. She asked us our names and then said “Hi Jim, Hi Sim, my name is Amelie.” She listened and took orders quite well. Weiting has a daughter and a son. Her daughter, Jessica, is a teen. So, she didn't have anything to do with adults. The son, Alexander, is about 6 or 7 years old. He was very shy and quiet. Sim has met him several times and attempted to make conversation with him, but has never received any response. We were told that he was excellent in drawing and other forms of art. Perhaps, he is a gifted artist boy who has his own world. Who knows he may become a well known artist when he grows up.
January 25 – 26 (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
Back at Michael and Yings, preparations for the afternoon birthday party for their son Theo were well underway. Theo is going to be 3 years old on Monday.
Lots and lots of kids showed up for the party and everyone had a great time. Also, most of our Thai friends were coming to the party. It was nice to see Sri, Na & Ken, Polly , Kim & Kate, and Nueng & Jeff. Sri made papaya salad on the scene. Na brought every one Kaffir leaves. Nueng brought spicy pork with stingy nuts dish for Sim & Ying. Ying, Nueng, and Sim are from southern Thailand although they are from different provinces. The stingy nuts is a well known dish in the south of Thailand. So, Sim was in heaven.
Ying & Michael made lots of food and dessert and of course they were all delicious. One of the desserts was Ying's famous un-sweetened apple pie. Sim loves Ying's apple pie and always looks forward to it when staying with Ying and Michael.
After almost all of the guests left the party Sim went out with her friends Vasuki and Cherbill. Sim didn't know what they were going to do or where they were going. She said it didn't matter because she was sure she would have a great time with them no matter what.
They took her to a massage parlor in Santa Clara and they all had a one hour whole body massage.
It was Sim's first time, so she selected to have the soft
Sim must have liked the massage very much. She told me that we needed to add a massage room to our house in Phuket. All right, now we are in the same page. I love any kind of massage especially a Thai massage. Who wouldn't love a massage?
January 27 – 31 (Anaheim, CA USA)
Tuesday At last we arrived home at 4 p.m. Remember the fruit plate, the avocado, and the orchid plant? We walked inside the house and the first thing we saw was our orchid in full bloom and looking gorgeous. Brother Bill passed the orchid nursery test. Next, we saw a very dehydrated black skined avocado sitting in the basket untouched. Lastly, the fruit plate. Yeah! it was gone. Two out of three tasks. Very good! We were impressed to see clean dishes sitting on the wooden rack too.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday They went to the Citadel Outlet Mall and spent the whole afternoon there. Sim and I have driven past this outlet many times, but we have never stopped there. Sim said it was huge and if you walked in and out from one store to the other, it would take the whole day to complete all of them. Sim and Tuk came home after dusk. Sim cooked noodle with gai-lan (chinese broccoli) for a main dish and Agar with fruit cocktail for dessert. Dinner was great as usual. Tuk stayed overnight with us. Sim plans to take Tuk to Balboa Island tomorrow morning.
That is it for January.
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We said goodbye to Eric and Jessica and headed north to San Jose. We stopped over at Eric's workplace on the way out of town and got a quick tour of the company facilities. Because we spent the night in Camarillo we were on highway 101 and so we continued up 101 all the way to San Jose. It is really a much nicer and more scenic drive than on the 5 freeway although it is slower. We stopped at one of the State Parks by the beach, the name escapes me right now to use the restroom and stretch our legs. It was a pretty day and the temperature was about 70s. We lingered at the beach twenty minutes or more before hopping in the jeep and continuing on with our trip.
We had Iranian tea, fresh fruit, Iranian flat bread, three kinds of cheese, Iranian cream filled pie, and European ham for breakfast. Unlike Americans, Iranians take their time to enjoy breakfast. We didn't finish our breakfast until almost ten. Farshad has a soccer game every Saturday morning, so he left home around 7 am. He has an orange colored motorcycle and rides it every where. Sim got to ride with him and she enjoyed it.
You would think Sim and Homa would have been busy preparing dinner. Wrong. They went shopping at the famous Stanford Shopping Center. Sim said she spotted a swimsuit she thought would look good on her. She didn't buy it because the price was over her budget.
We arrived at their home, which is located just off a golf course in a redwood forest, and soon enough we all piled into Kent's car and headed off to Monterey. We stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch at Tacos Moreno, one of Kent and Stephs favorite taco joints. As we walked up to the store the scene looked vaguely familiar and I was thinking we had been here before. We ordered our food and while we were sitting and chatting I looked up and there stood Ying.
At first I was not sure because she was wearing a hat and we were pretty far from Sunnyvale. We are staying with Ying and Michael tonight and for the next week or so. They had come over to Santa Cruz for the day with the kids, Adena and Theo, and stopped into Tacos Moreno for lunch as well. Now I remembered that it was with Ying that we had come to Tacos Moreno during a beach trip to Santa Cruz when we stayed with Ying and Michael last year. We bid goodbye and see you tonight to Michael , Ying, Adena and Theo, after lunch and headed off the the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We spent the next 3 hours walking around admiring the exhibits and looking at the wildlife displays. Sim's favorite exhibit was the jelly fish and the sky rocketing gigantic kelp. The aquarium never gets old and is always a fun place to go for the day. It was getting close to dinner time and the sun was low so we found a nice restaurant on a pier. We ate, drank, watched the otters play in the kelp and the sun set on a really fun day.
Sim and I are heading up to San Francisco for the day. We got going about mid morning. Originally we were going to take the train up, but decided that it would be cheaper and more convenient to drive, even though the hotel were charged $36/night for parking. We got to the city and first went down to the Embarcadero area. They have a nice waterfront walkway and we spent some time walking along the water and watching the boats come and go. Next we went off to get a closer look at the Golden Gate Bridge. We found a place just south of the bridge near a marina that had free parking an also had some access to a beach. Lots and lots of people were there walking their dogs. We spent an hour or so walking around until it started to drizzle. It was getting close to check in time at the hotel so we headed off to the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn. Mark, the Director of Human Resources at the hotel is a friend of Sim's so he arranged to get us a really nice room on the 23th floor at a reduced rate. He also got us complimentary parking as well. We got checked in to our beautiful corner room where we had view on both sides. Then we headed off for lunch at a restaurant suggested by Mark and to Chinatown. Chinatown was only about 10 blocks away so we decided to walk. We walked up and down both sides of the streets in the main part of Chinatown. What an amazing place. Everything you can think of is for sale here. It was drizzling rain and cold, but we tried frozen yogurt in the heart of China town anyway. It cost $4.50 for an Asian sized scoop (it was much smaller than an American scoop). The $5 one gigantic scoop of ice cream in Bar Harbor, Maine, which we thought it was over priced, was really a good deal compared to the $4.50 of an Asian sized scoop of frozen yogurt in SF.
We stopped into a high end furniture store run by a guy that was from Eastern Europe. He never did tell us which country. His family has had this store here for a 100 years. He took us upstairs to a private viewing floor and tried to sell Sim a crystal chandelier. We finally had to tell him we were late for an appointment, so we could gracefully exit. In another 10 minutes, we would have owned a chandelier.
We checked out at noon and walked to the Indian-Pakistanis restaurant recommended by a stranger walking on a street yesterday. San Francisco is truly a liberal city. People talk to strangers with no hesitation and volunteering offer suggestions and recommendation with no problem. My dish was good and nan was excellent, but Sim's chicken Tandoori was a bit dry. Over all we like the restaurant atmosphere as you could see your dishes were made. One last spot we visited before leaving charming SF was the famous Lombard street. We drove on it twice; the first time Sim rode with me, and the second time Sim waited for me at the foot of the hill off the road so she could take pictures of me driving on Lombard street.
Before going for the pot luck dinner, she stopped at the Biltmore Hotel to say hi and good bye to her former GM, managers, and staff. She didn't come home until after nine p.m.
We need to go buy a toy for Theo. He will have his birthday party this coming Sunday. Theo has been playing with his Thomas train track ever since we have been staying at his house. So, that made the choices much easier as to what we should get for him. We headed off to Toys R Us in the afternoon. Since he is into trains right now a new engine and coal car seemed appropriate. They had lots to choose from at the store, but I had to go back to the house and borrow a piece of track from Theo's train set to make sure the new engine and coal car would fit properly. We picked a blue-gray engine named Spencer for him. We were sure that Spencer would be his all time favorite toy.
This morning we are off to have breakfast at a coffee shop in downtown Sunnyvale called the Bean Scene with two friends of Sim. Rebecca and Margaret both attended San Jose State University with Sim. Elizabeth, another friend did not show. We met Rebecca and Margaret and got caught up on all the happenings over coffee and bagels. World traveller Rebecca fell in love with Rome. She was an expat two years there a few years back. She is planning to pursue her Masters degree in Rome, and possibly live there afterwards. Margaret is happy living in Silicon Valley and enjoying traveling now and then. They now have Phuket penciled in on their Bucket Lists.
style while Vasuki and Cherbill had medium style.
Then, they went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee although Sim does not drink coffee.
She ordered tea with a fancy name ( she already forgot the name) that was supposed to be good. She didn't like it as it came sweetened. After a cup of coffee, they took Sim to an Authentic Indian restaurant. They had vegetarian dishes tonight as Vasuki does not eat meat. Good food, great service, superb ambience, and excellent friends. Sim didn't come home until after 9 p.m.
When I was over at my friend Ed's house I could not help but notice he now has a Lionel train set up that now take up his entire living room. The track is 3 levels high and he can run 3 locomotives at once. Theo has to see this. I tried to call Ed to make sure he was home, but I had written down his number wrong in my book. We drove over anyway with Theo on the chance that he would be home. He was not. I left a note for him. Theo was disappointed so I started to look for a Hobby Shop that might have trains. We drove to two locations that were on my GPS but neither was still in business. Back at the house, we got a call from Ed. He had just gone out for a bite to eat. We plied back in the car and headed to Eds. Theo was awestruck. It was a little loud for him at first, but soon Theo was instructing Ed as to which engine to run, which cars belonged behind which engines and so on. We all had a great time playing with Ed's O gauge setup.
Brother Bill and I played Wii all day. Tuk and Sim went out to the LA area. Tuk took Sim to her favorite Asian grocery store. Sim is impulsive when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables. We just went grocery shopping 2 days ago and she bought a lot of fresh veggies and fruits. She bought more when she was with Tuk because they were so good looking and fresh. Sim, however, never wastes her vegetables. She plans our menus well and knows how to keep the fresh greens fresh for a couple of weeks.