The San Diego Wild Animal Safari Park

One of the benefits of being a member of the Zoological Society of San Diego is unlimited admission to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Safari Park. So MH and I went to the Wild Animal Safari Park for President's Day. Since we got a little bit of a late start, we didn't make it to the park until after lunch and it was the most crowded we have ever seen it. We had to park in the last row in the parking lot!

Once inside, we headed straight for the Africa tram tour and luckily the wait wasn't too long. It is always fun to see what the animals are up to. This baby rhino was enjoying an afternoon snack with his mom.

Afterward, we hung out in the Lion Camp, watched the Cheetah Run, and MH caught this awesome photo as she passed by! It was a good thing that he has some practice shooting fast animals because there is no way I could have captured a shot like that on my camera.

It was a fun President's Day activity.

Happy Hearts Day!

I was feeling crafty this Valentine's day and made these treats to celebrate the day. Spearing cake bites is quite the challenge and much more difficult than I anticipated. Even though they turned out okay, I don't think I'll be making these again.

Hope someone made your heart happy today!

Shenanigans At The DMV

Since my motorcycle permit expired, I thought it was a good idea to kill two birds with one stone and renew my permit and change my name on my ID at the same time. So I filled out all of my paperwork, stood in line at the DMV, and waited patiently for the gal at my window to process all of my forms and send me on my way. However, when I didn't receive my new ID after two months, I called the DMV to follow up and discovered that since I processed the two requests together, the issuance of my new ID was pending me passing the motorcycle driving test!

I don't drive my Vespa too often and didn't pass the motorcycle driving test on my first go. Thankfully you can take a California motorcycle saftey course (Basic Rider Course) provided by the California Motorcycle Safety Program and obtain a Certificate of Completion of Motorcycle Training (DL389) which waives you out of the motorcycle driving test.

So, MH and I enrolled for the Basic Rider Course with the Academy of Motorcycle Operation last weekend and attended the two classroom sessions and two range days, and then passed the 50-point multiple choice test and skills evaluation. Within 10 business days we should be receiving our DL389 forms. Then, we can head over to the DMV with our forms and hopefully our new IDs with my new last name and our M1 classification will arrive shortly thereafter.

Birthday Treats

Birthday celebrations are always a great reason to bake! I was asked to bring a carrot cake to a friend's kid's first birthday party this weekend and I happily obliged.

Unfortunately, I forgot to tape the cake down to the plate, and when we transported the cake to the party, it slid around a bit and a few of the side crumbs fell off. Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened and the cake still looked pretty good when we arrived.

Here is my friend's secret family recipe birthday cake. It is quite the treat and has layers and layers of cake and chocolaty goodness inside.

Since my friend was worried there wasn't going to be enough dessert, I decided to bring some lemon ricotta cookies too. I've been holding on to this recipe for a while and was glad to finally have to chance to try it out. The cookies turned out very well and were fluffy and cake-like. I think they would be perfect for picnics or with your afternoon tea. Next time I think I'll add a little bit more lemon zest to the batter to get a stronger lemony flavor though.

A New Take On Cupcakes

I typically prefer sweet over savory, so I'm not sure what to think about this one...

In spirit of the Super Bowl this weekend, Coccadotts Cake Shop invented chicken wing cupcakes! A cornbread cupcake with bleau cheese frosting and a chicken wing on top.

What will you be eating this Superbowl Sunday?

An Awesome Tote Bag & Clutch

As much as I love this bag and clutch, they definitely fall into the want instead of need category...

Got to love Kate Spade!

Los Angeles Museums Free For All

From MuseumsLA.org, "[i]n a joint effort to present the arts and culture to the diverse and myriad communities in Southern California, the Museum Marketing Roundtable announces the seventh annual ‘Museums Free-ForAll’ Saturday-Sunday, January 28th and 29th, 2012. The museums—presenting art, cultural heritage, natural history, and science—will open their doors wide and invite visitors free of charge."

Check out the list of participating museums here: http://www.museumsla.org/news.asp

MH has been wanting to visit the Hammer and I've been wanting to see the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball!

Secret Menus

If you're from Southern California you most likely know about In-N-Out's not so secret menu. However, if you don't know about it, you can find it on In-N-Out's website here.

Anyways, the point of this post is that I just learned about a secret menu at Starbucks! I'm not an avid coffee drinker, so I doubt I'll ever try any of these, but they are still fun to know about. If you're interested, you can check out the story and secret menu posted by thedailymeal.com here.

All About The Bread

MH was looking for a good meatball sub, so we tried All About The Bread based on Los Angeles Magazine's recommendation for '17 Great L.A. Sandwiches'.

Their meatball sub is pretty solid. The sub has a great bubbly bread crust, tangy tomato sauce, and nicely seasoned meatballs. It's awesome that they are located somewhat close to our house too (La Brea & Melrose). The only downfall is that parking can be a pain, so if you go, be patient and look around for street spots.

In other somewhat related matters, we thought it was a little odd that for a place called 'All About The Bread' all of the subs came on the same bread and there wasn't a variety of bread options. It isn't a deal breaker since the bread they have is pretty good though.

Hola Tijuana

After seeing an episode of Rick Bayless's Mexico-One Plate at a Time featuring Caesar Cardini's famous Caesar salad, MH decided a day trip to Tijuana was in order. So over the weekend, we jumped in the car one early morning and headed toward the border.

Since we weren't interested in buying car insurance for driving in Mexico and didn't want to chance it, we parked in a lot by the border and walked across.

View of Tijuana Crossing the River

Tijuana is famous for their "zebras" and you can find them set up on almost every street corner. I wonder what they use and how long it takes to paint the stripes on the donkeys? The even have stripes on their ears, poor donkeys.

Tijuana Zebra

Caesar's Tapas and Bar is located in Downtown Tijuana on Revolucion Avenue between 4th and 5th street. There is a giant "Hotel Caesar" sign on the front of the building and a Carl's Jr. on the corner so you can't miss it.

Our lunch at Caesar's ended up being highlight of our trip. MH and I both ordered a Caesar salad and shared a combo plate that came with carne asada, cheese enchilada's, and chili relleno. Our salads were made and served table-side, and were fantastic. The carne asada that came on the combo plate was also the best we've had in a long time too!

Caesar Salad

The buzz kill for our trip was the horrendous line at immigration to get back into the states. It took us almost two hours to get back across the border and if it weren't for that, I would recommend a day trip to Tijuana just to visit Caesar's Tapas and Bar.

On our way home, we stopped at the Tijuana Estuary National Park in Imperial Beach. We checked out the visitors center and strolled along the trail for a bit before we decided to turn back since there was no end in sight.

Tijuana Estuary National Park

All in all, it was a great day and another fun adventure to add to our collection!