Vacation in a Beach House

Posted on 22 June 2011 by christao408

For our vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces, we opted to rent a three-bedroom house in Hermosa Beach, just two blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Not only did this work out quite reasonably financially – roughly $400 a night – but it gave us a lot more room than a hotel would have, plus the ability to easily cook our own food and do our own laundry.

Tawn leads a junior yoga class, which was surprisingly effective at helping the girls calm down, focus, and not get into squabbles with each other. Maybe we should sign them up for daily classes?

Actually, we didn’t rent one house, but two. The initial house was booked for our final three nights but the property manager had another similar house just three blocks away, so we moved into that one. I have to really credit this lady, she was super friendly and very helpful. If you are ever looking to rent a vacation home in Los Angeles, I’d be happy to recommend either of her two properties. (This is the first house, a 3br/3 ba and this is the second house, a 3 br/1ba.)

We did a little less cooking at home than I had anticipated, but we did eat at least breakfast at home each day, allowing for some cost savings. As soon as we moved in I made a big (2 pound) batch of pizza dough and kept it in the refrigerator for use in a couple of meals. Who doesn’t like pizza? Here’s the girls shape their own pizzas.

And there’s the finished but not-yet-cooked product, ready to go into the oven. Their dough ended up kind of triangle shaped, huh?

And of course there was room for everybody to pitch in with cleaning up and loading the dishwasher.

Once you do that, we can bundle up (it was chilly by the beach in the evenings) and head to Pinkberry for some dessert.

The second house we were in had TVs in each room, something I wouldn’t approve of at home but certainly fine for a vacation home. That provided everyone with the opportunity to lounge in bed in the morning and watch cartoons. As you can tell from this picture, we had already gone to Disneyland and everybody (including Tawn) had their stuffed animal.

A view of Tawn walking along the Strand, the 22-mile class 1 paved pedestrian/skater/bicycle path that stretches along pretty much all of Los Angeles County’s western coast from Pacific Palisades to Torrance. This grey overcast was a fixture of our vacation, at least when we were near the beach.

Two Visits to the Happiest Place on Earth

Posted on 19 June 2011 by christao408

The main objective for our vacation in Los Angeles was to take my nieces, ages eight and five, to Disneyland. They have never been to California, nor to any of the Disney parks, and the last time my sister went was at least two dozen years ago, so it seemed like the right time.

At their California location, Disney now has two theme parks: the original Disneyland and California Adventure, which is more geared to the Pixar characters than the classic Disney ones. Since there were two parks, we decided to get a two-day park-hopper pass. One thing we learned was that you do not have to use the passes for consecutive days. This is helpful because going to an amusement park can wear you out. Doing it two days in a row with young children can be overwhelming. As I observed while walking around the park, Disneyland may be the “Happiest Place on Earth” but it is also the most tearful!

We arrived a few minutes before opening time the first day, a Thursday, tickets already purchased online and printed out at home. Thankfully, the typical Southern California weather pattern known as the “June gloom” lasted most of the day, giving us cool temperatures (around 70 F) and an overcast sky that made walking around the park a pleasant experience.

Crowds were not too heavy and we used the FastPass system to secure tickets to the most popular rides – the recently reopened Star Tours, for example – so that we did not have to wait in line for a long time. One thing we learned is that when the park opens, most people head to their right into Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, and not to their left into Frontierland, Adventureland, and New Orleans Square. If you want to beat the crowds, head to the left and do those rides first.

I was shocked to discover a sign leading into Mickey’s Toon Town that has a spelling mistake! Do these things really happen in the Disney organization?

For lunch we ate at Cafe Orleans in New Orleans Square. For amusement park food, it was pretty decent eating. I may write a post with the pictures of the food later on. For now, I will share a picture of the Mickey Mouse shaped beignets.

Among my niece’s many objectives was collecting autographs from the various characters, including the princesses. At the back of Fantasyland is a Princess Pavilion, which offers various princess-themed activities as well as the opportunity to meet princesses from the different Disney films throughout the day. Ava and Emily met Belle, Cinderella, and Mulan (pictured above), to name just a few. I’ll give credit to the young ladies who play the princesses: they do an amazing job of being tirelessly friendly, gracious, and engaging for their young guests.

Something fun to do at Disneyland is to look for the hidden Mickeys. These are representations of the Mickey Mouse silhouette that are intentionally, but subtly, placed throughout the park. Can you spot the hidden Mickey in the above picture of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?

Our first day at the park went very well. We were there about twelve hours – from opening to closing – and except for one minor bit of lunchtime moodiness by niece number one, everyone was in good spirits the whole day. Above, the section of the It’s A Small World ride that is themed after Thailand.

The following Monday we headed back to Anaheim, this time to spend most of our day at Disney’s California Adventure. This newer park is themed around various areas of California, including Hollywood, the aviation industry of Southern California, the beach boardwalks and amusement piers found along the coast, etc. As you can see from the above picture, it was a sunnier day. While the temperature was only about five degrees higher (75 F), the intense sunlight made it a much tougher day for everyone.

There is an area of the park called A Bug’s Land, themed around the Pixar animated film, A Bug’s Life. It offered a number of fun rides that were perhaps just a little too juvenile for our nieces. The above ride is called Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, named after the caterpillar in the film with an insatiable appetite.

On the Hollywood Studios Backlot, the girls pretended to talk to each other on a variety of different phone booths ostensibly used in different movie sets. With the hot sun shining on us and a greater amount of open space reflecting that heat, we experienced some after-lunch defections. Tawn left the park and went to the next door Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment district to seek out some air conditioned comfort in a movie theatre and my brother-in-law and older niece went back to the Disneyland park, which has a bit more shade.

My sister, younger niece, and I persevered, though, and took a ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This drop tower thrill ride is a lot of fun and my adventurous five-year old niece (who is only an inch taller than the minimum height requirement), announced upon exiting from the ride, “Let’s go again!”

We concluded our visit to the Disneyland parks by stumbling into Mickey Mouse back on Main Street USA, letting the girls collect their most prized autograph of all. Hindsight being 20-20, I think we could have stuck with just a single day of Disney, visiting Disneyland and not the California Adventure park. But it was a fun visit nonetheless and was probably the highlight of the trip.

The Main Event – Kari and Nathan’s Wedding

Posted on 12 April 2011 by christao408

The main reason we were in Kaua’i was to attend the wedding of my cousin Kari to her fiancee Nathan. They exchanged vows on Sunday in the late afternoon along a beautiful stretch of Shipwreck Beach near Poipu, which is on the south shore of the island. There were about two dozen family members who had made it for the ceremony, probably a few more than Kari and Nathan had originally anticipated. Needless to say, it was a beautiful ceremony.

Tawn comes prepared for the occasion with a nice hat.

My cousin Brad and his wife Silvia. Brad is Kari’s younger brother. The cliff in the background served as a focal point for the ceremony.

Tawn and I pose for a self-portrait.

My uncle Dick and aunt Sandy and their first grandchild Tommy. Dick is the older brother of Kari’s mother.

Orchids are strewn along the beach, marking the path along which the bride walked.

As is probably increasingly the case these days, it seemed everyone (myself included) was trying to get pictures of the ceremony rather than just witnessing it!

We needn’t have worried, though, as the official photographer did a marvelous job and made these photos available on his website. I will say that if you are ever looking for a great wedding photographer, for the Hawaiian islands or elsewhere, I would recommend Gelston Dwight.

The lighting of these photos was really spectacular. They have a “Hollywood-esque” quality to them and capture the couple’s glamor as it looks in everyday life!

This is about half the group – just Kari’s side of the family. From left to right, cousin Bill, his son Tommy, his wife Alex (also my cousin), Tawn, Me, my mother, my cousin Kelly (Kari’s sister), my father, Nathan, Kari, Kari’s mother Pat, father Carl, brother Brad, his wife Silvia, and my uncle Dick and aunt Sandy. Probably more than you needed to know, right?

My cousin Alex designed the invitations, menus, and all the other printed materials. She’s quite a talented designer and you can see more of her work at her website. Fresh local pineapples made the perfect centerpieces. The reception was held at the nearby Plantation Gardens Restaurant.

My contingent – father, mother, husband, and me. That shirt my father is making? My mother made that in 1980 for a trip to Hawai’i the family took. In fact, she used matching fabric to make shirts for both my father and me and mumus for her and my sister. Of the four of us, only my father still fits in his outfit!

Some concoction my cousin Silvia was drinking.

Appetizers – called “pupus”

Kailani farms arugula salad with local mango, papaya, cherry tomatoes, onion, avocado, and a lilikoi cider vinaigrette

Lobster bisque with garlic croutons

Grilled beef tenderloin with gorgonzola mashed potatoes, local green beans, sauteed mushrooms, and merlot reduction sauce.

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Fresh local fish with mango and avocado salsa, pan fried green beans and black bean sauce. Can’t remember what type of fish it was.

There was also a seafood lau lau – fish, shrimp, scallops, and vegetables steamed in taro and ti leaves. The picture didn’t turn out, though.

When it came to the cutting of the cake, there was such an explosion of flashes that I ended up with several of these “ultra-exposed” shots.

A picture of the beautifully garnished cake. This was a lilikoi wedding cake (lilikoi = passionfruit), a white vanilla cake brushed with passion fruit syrup and filled with passion fruit butter cream. One of the tastiest wedding cakes I’ve had.

Saturday Cooking Part 1

Posted on 19 February 2011 by christao408

Saturday a week ago, the one before Valentine’s Day, was a full day spent cooking. There were two separate events, both of which will get their own blog entry. The morning event was the soft opening of the Seagull Cooking Cafe, a cooking school that the makers of Thailand’s premier line of stainless steel cookware products have opened on Sukhumvit Soi 63.

The menu was Linguine Carbonara, Chocolate Truffles, and a mocktail called the Cinderella. One of Tawn’s cousins, Wan, is friends with the daughter of the family that owns the Seagull company. In additional to inviting her two sisters, Wan also invited Tawn and me to participate.

Tawn comes from a big family – he is number 35 out of 38 grandchildren on his father’s side of the family. Keeping track of all these cousins is a bit of a challenge, especially those cousins here in Bangkok. While I’ve met several of Tawn’s Bangkok cousins once or twice before in passing and am connected with some of them on facebook, this was my first opportunity to spend any significant time with them.

This opportunity fit perfectly with my plan to build connections with the rest of the family, in anticipation of the day that Tawn’s father, who regards me with something akin to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, either changes his mind or is no longer a factor – to put it delicately.

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The school is on the top floor of Seagull’s headquarters in a large and brightly lit space. There are fifteen working stations, each with stainless steel tops (no surprise there!) and all the other equipment you would need. Tawn and his cousins were at the front of the class.

We started by making the chocolate truffles as these would need to be refrigerated. Here, Tawn poses with Som and Wan as they squirt chocolate ganache from a pastry bag onto parchment paper.

My partner for the cooking was Pueng. Despite her good humor and many talents, her ganache came out looking like little chocolate poos.

See?

After refrigerating the chocolates for a bit, we were able to shape them by hand, ostensibly rolling them into balls. In practice, this didn’t work out so well.

The end result of our efforts? Some damn ugly and unevenly-sized truffles.

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Som’s two-year old daughter, First, was there as well, spending most of her time playing with her father. Tawn was playing with her but she seemed a little shy.

While not officially involved in the project, Chef Ian Kittichai (who has several famous Thai restaurants in New York, Barcelona, and Mumbai) had chefs from his organization conducting the class. Tawn has appeared on his local TV show before as a guest (just chat with the chef and help as he cooks) and also knows his wife through common friends. Had a nice chat with him about the challenges of managing restaurants around the globe and he provided some assistance with our truffles. All the ones that are actually round were rolled by him!

Next up was the Linguine Carbonara, which actually was not a Carbonara sauce since it contained milk and cream. Nonetheless, Pueng practiced her technique of putting the pasta into the boiling water, twisting a standing bunch of dry pasta so is splays out.

Somehow, partners were swapped during the course of the cooking so Tawn ended up helping me finish the pasta.

Looks quite pretty, doesn’t it? I hadn’t cooked the bacon as crispy as I could have and didn’t salt the water sufficiently. Nonetheless, it was tasty.

Pueng, Tawn’s elder, feels compelled to help him eat his pasta.

I poked my head into the adjacent kitchen to see the cleanup process. This being their trial run, they had tons of staff on hand and still seemed a little overwhelmed. I think they didn’t anticipate just how much counter space they will need to handle the cleanup from fifteen cooking stations.

It was a fun experience and I enjoyed the chance to spend more time with Tawn’s cousins. It is fun watching them interact with each other and I look forward to the day when I can be a part of family events.

Innocence Lost

Posted on 4 January 2011 by christao408

This is a story of innocence lost. It is also a story of hope.

Five years ago, when I moved to Thailand, Tawn’s father established a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with regards to me. He acknowledges that I exist as a part of Tawn’s life, but he doesn’t want to know anything more about me and he doesn’t want me involved with his life. I’ve made my peace with that.

The story of hope is that while Tawn’s father isn’t warm and cuddly towards me, plenty of other members of his family have been. Over the eleven years we have been together, Tawn has introduced me to many of his relatives and I’m friends with what seems like half his cousins on Facebook. Of all these relatives, one family in particular – an aunt and uncle in Los Angeles and their three sons – have been particularly welcoming, ever since Tawn first brought me to dinner with them some eight or nine years ago.

I keep up with those cousins, their wives, and children (who are about the same age as my eldest niece) as regularly as I do the cousins on my side of the family. Especially with regards to the joys and challenges of parenting, I follow along, offer my support and encouragement, and laugh at the pearls of unvarnished truth that tumble out of their children’s mouths.

And that is where this is a story of innocence lost. One of these “first cousins once removed” is eight-year-old Jessica. She’s just a little too sharp for her own good and is ceasing to believe in the things that make childhood such a magical time.

On Sunday, Jessica lost a tooth. As her father tells it, before she went to bed she started questioning the existence of the Tooth Fairy. Last November when she lost a few teeth, she wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy asking for a photo of her. Thankfully, her father explains, the Tooth Fairy produced the evidence in a future visit.

When Jessica’s father went to look under her pillow Sunday night, he found this note asking the Tooth Fairy to sign her name in receipt of the tooth.

So while I get the joy of being a part of Tawn’s extended family, it seems that at least one of them is growing a bit cynical with age. And it isn’t Tawn’s father I’m talking about.

Grandparents’ 90th Birthday Reception

Posted on 23 July 2010 by christao408

The big event during the weekend family reunion was the Saturday evening reception. This was for family only and we had about fifty people gathered in the church’s fellowship hall to celebrate my grandparents’ 90th birthdays and 67th wedding anniversary.

Jennifer and the girls made these mints as party favors and packaged them with cute little ribbons and paper flowers.

Helping hands on the assembly process. There was a lot of bickering about who was getting to help out more, since it was essentially a one-person job.

The catered dinner was very nice. While I don’t have pictures of it, I do have pictures of the cakes that were on the tables for dessert. Very pretty, no?

The highlight of the evening was a 20-minute video I had created in collaboration with my mother, sister, and cousin Alex. Over the past three years I’ve been scanning old photos from my grandmother’s well-organized albums. I’ve also been conducting audio interviews with them and also my mother, trying to capture stories, memories, and anecdotes to craft into a family history.

The 20-minute video was just the first stage of a larger project, but I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. Since 20 minutes is too much to upload and you probably don’t want to see lots of pictures of four children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren you don’t know, I’ve created an edited version of the video, just 9 minutes long, which focuses on how my grandparents met and were married. It is quite an interesting story, and I hope you enjoy it!

When Tawn watched it before I left for the US, he had tears in his eyes because he wanted to be there to see their reaction. As expected, my grandparents and all the relatives were very pleased with it. So much so, in fact, that Sunday morning cousin Bill and I were burning copies for everyone to take home with them!

My grandmother had some words to say afterwards, thanking everyone for being there and for being a part of their lives. How wonderful is it to be able to live to such a ripe old age and to still have your faculties about you? We should all be so fortunate.

I think I’ve written enough about the anniversary and birthday celebration over the last week, so I’ll let this be the final entry on the subject. Let me just conclude by wishing my grandparents many more years of good health and great happiness together.

The Unofficial Post-Reunion After-Party

Posted on 21 July 2010 by christao408

Greetings from EVA Airways’ lounge in Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport, where I am enjoying a three-hour layover on my way from Los Angeles to Bangkok. The outbound flight was kind of a challenge. First, it departed at 1:50 am, which is just a really late departure time, all the more so when considering that I am operating on Central Daylight Time, making it feel like a 3:50 am departure.

To top it off, as much as I like EVA I think that their economy class seat cushions are uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time. After a few hours, my butt bones hurt. The person sitting next to me made the same observation, so I’m not alone. The final thing that made the flight kind of tough was a combination of sleeplessness – I only dozed for a short while before I would wake and shift myself into a new position – and an inaccurate air map. For some reason the data on the map froze just before the halfway point of the flight. So each time I would wake up and try to determine how much longer we had left in the flight, it seemed that we had not made any progress. In my dazed state, this was very… disorienting.

All in all, though, it was a fine flight. Leg room is good, the food is decent, and service was friendly and attentive. For the price, it is still a good value.

I’m skipping an entry on the main reunion event, as there is some video material I want to post. In the meantime, I’ll share with you the unofficial post-reunion after-party, which we held Sunday evening after the public reception at the church. Most of the more immediate part of my family (my mother’s siblings and their children and grandchildren) made it over to Jennifer and Kevin’s house. We stopped at the market to pick up some meat and salad makings and just had a casual meal.

Still quite a few people hanging out in the living room of my sister’s house.

Cousin Alex braided my niece Emily’s hair while her son Tommy looked on excitedly.

Cousin Brad from New York and his father Carl.

Uncle Dick and his son Michael enjoyed the warm summer evening as my cousin Bill (Alex’s husband) manned the grill.

Cousin Silvia (Brad’s wife) took care of the grilling, which went fine until…

We started getting some flare-ups after the chicken was finished. I was worried that Kevin’s grill might spontaneously combust. Thankfully, grillmaster Bill was able to get the flames under control.

Two KC Strips and two Rib Eye steaks on the very hot grill. I was looking for some grass-fed beef at the local store but couldn’t find any. These seemed to be the best alternative, “vegetarian” fed (isn’t grain vegetarian?) with no “sub-therapeutic antibiotics” (what?) and no growth hormones. That all struck me as kind of meaningless phrases along the lines of “all natural”. But the beef did taste good.

Finished Italian sausages and chicken.

Charred steaks. Ostensibly, two were done rare and the other two were supposed to be medium rare. Despite five extra minutes of cooking, the second two still looked rare when cut into. Thankfully, I like them that way.

Dinner – chicken, sausages, and steak (did I mention it was rare?), with beans and salad. Yummy.

Are you my first cousin once removed or my second cousin?

Posted on 18 July 2010 by christao408

The family reunion’s first full day went very well. We had about fifty people in town and started with a reception in the afternoon at the church, a chance for everyone to visit. It is kind of funny that when I’m at these events with extended family, I’m sometimes confused with my brother-in-law, who also has a goatee. If I’m standing near my sister and nieces, people will come up and say, “Hi, Kevin!”

Usually, I just play along. The next day, one of my great-uncles came back up and complimented me on being such a gentleman and not correcting him. I guess someone else corrected him.

After the reception, we gathered in the church sanctuary for photos. This is always a fun process. Several family members also had their cameras so I was able to quickly capture images without having to take any on my own. How convenient is that?

My grandparents with all of my cousins, minus two who weren’t there. I’m the oldest of the bunch.

One side of the cousins – Bradley, Kelly, Kari, and Silvia. Brad and Silvia live in New York City and we visited them there in March.

The great-grandchildren, Tommy, Emily, and Ava.

The entire extended family. I won’t give you the names and relationships of everyone because you probably don’t want quite that much information. But, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t always clear on those details. This led to a conversation with some of my cousins, trying to understand the difference between first, second, and third cousins, and relatives “once removed”, “twice removed”, etc.

So we googled it. And it turns out Wikipedia has a very useful article and a great graphic.

So you if you were confused, now you know the difference between them. More later…

Lemonade Stand

Posted on 12 July 2010 by christao408

Made it into Kansas City Saturday afternoon, greeted at the airport car rental return by two excited nieces. By late afternoon the girls decided they needed to set up a lemonade stand. Tray tables were set up by the curb, a pitcher of lemonade and a stack of cups placed on them. Two handwritten signs advertised the goods and a portable stereo provided the tunes.

Just opened for business with two enthusiastic entrepreneurs.

Eventually, boredom sets in. Few cars passing by and those that do, smile and wave but don’t stop to buy lemonade. A neighbor walks by with her dogs, stops to chat for a while and donates fifty cents to the cause.

Eventually, dad is pressed into service. Another two neighbors come over and buy two cups of lemonade, paying a dollar and leaving their change as a tip.

Eventually, Jasper is left to work the stand, looking forlornly for customers. The day’s take: $1.50

My Parents’ Response

Posted on 15 October 2009 by christao408

Most of you (some 200+) had already read the final installment in my coming out saga by the time my parents left a comment. Instead of pointing you back to that entry, I’d like to share their comment with you here. My mother wrote it:

Me and my parents in December 1970

“It’s my turn to respond. The thought that one of our children would have this sexual orientation was the farthest thing from our minds when you sat down to tell us. Your readers need to know, however, that our Christian beliefs led us to understand that if we are to follow the teachings of our faith, we must love each person in our lives for who they are, not because they fit some pre-condition that allows them to be loved or not to be loved.

“When you came out to us, while unexpected, it was not something to reject you for, but to realize that we had a journey to take together…you needed to continue your self discovery; we needed to discover how, as your parents, to support you while allowing you the space for your own discoveries. Once Dad and I became comfortable with our place in this journey, we were then able to take a stand with the rest of the family and invite them to join us or go their own way.

“You shared several things I didn’t know, but am happy that you felt comfortable sharing them. We would have been devastated if you had followed through with that suicide attempt. I wasn’t totally oblivious to a struggle going on with you, but probably chalked it up to being a teenager. Could we have helped if we had known what you were experiencing? I don’t know. Our individual road sometimes needs people helping us along the way other than our parents…hard to take as a parent, but we are too close to the situation most of the time for objectivity. Fortunately, you made choices that led you to a full life, including seeking out people to walk with you.

Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for the opportunity to add my ten cents worth.”

I was going to ask them to guest author an entry, but they beat me to it by commenting.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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