Huntington Beach Cultural Festival

Today we went to the Huntington Beach Sister City Cultural Festival in Central Park.  We arrived about ten minutes early, but apparently that was not early enough!

There was already a loooong line for the infamous Original Ramen Burger.

Undeterred and determined, we had D stand in the line while the kids and I wandered the festival.  There were several booths for kids, including the one where k and n made the fish kites above.  We also heard some taiko drumming and watched some Japanese dance performances.

 

We supported Fugetsu-Do, which is based in Little Tokyo.

We were also curious to try a Samurai Burrito.  They are basically really big sushi rolls wrapped in nori or soy paper.

The kids absolutely loved the Rockin’ Daruma roll which had shrimp tempura inside (along with  lot of other ingredients).  It was a little spendy though, at $10. 

I also stood in a long line for okonomiyaki with cheese.

Interesting concept, but our least favorite of the day. Half of it is still in our refrigerator.  The price was fair at $5.

Finally, D made it to the front of the line, after an hour and a half of waiting—crazy, I know.  Turns out they were trying to turn out 1,000 ramen burgers on this one small grill, as their other grill was giving them problems.  D seemed to be enjoying chatting to the people next to him in line, so I did not feel too bad. 

Was it worth it?  Well, it definitely had a rich umami flavor.  The noodles were nice and soft, but somehow stayed intact.  The price was fair, at $8.  I don’t think we will ever wait in line for it again, but it is one hamburger we won’t forget anytime soon!

There was even a small group of cherry blossom trees in bloom to add to the atmosphere. 

Volunteering With Second Harvest

Last weekend, k had the opportunity to volunteer with her Girl Scout troop at the Second Harvest Incredible Edible Farm at the Great Park in Irvine.

The girls were assigned to gleaning the green onions first, and then oranges.

The green onions were hard work!

The oranges were much easier.  They even let us take a couple of oranges home.  They were nice and juicy!

Happy 5th Birthday to n!

On n’s actual birthday, we celebrated as a family, at home.  We tried to duplicate the ice cream nachos from Farrell’s that he loved so much last year.

For his birthday party, he invited a small group of friends and we went to BrewBakers in Huntington Beach for a root beer and pretzel party.

The place is quite small, and there was another large party scheduled right before us.  There was too much “down time” for my liking, but it all worked out in the end.  Here the kids are rolling out their pretzels.

Next came the brewing of the root beer!

They had the kids play “kick the keg”.

Next we were shown how to bottle the root beer.

Finally, we sang Happy Birthday and ate skateboard-themed cupcakes that I made for the occasion.

We let the kids enjoy some of the root beer at home.  It was really good, probably the best I have had.  The flavor had a lot of depth.  I’m still having a hard time accepting that n is really five years old!

Joshua Tree: Hidden Valley & Hadley’s

After hiking Skull Rock, we drove to Hidden Valley and ate our sandwiches from Park Rock Café.  There were plenty of picnic benches surrounding the parking lot.

This was the turkey sandwich on cranberry bread.  For some reason, we really liked the ranch dressing that came with the accompanying side salad.  Maybe it was because we were Hidden Valley.    Afterwards, we did the Hidden Valley trail, which was another nice, easy walk.

Some climbers were preparing for their ascent.

We named some of the rocks.  Above: “Whale Rock”.  Below: “Kiss Rock”.

Afterwards we returned to the Visitor Center so that the kids could turn in their junior ranger workbooks and receive their badge.

Our final stop on the way home was Hadley’s for the famous date shake.

It was a sweet way to end our trip, and the trip home was thankfully much shorter than the way there.