June 24, 2010

Jimmy's Graduation

The last of the siblings has finally graduated. Much congrats to the baby bro!

Nice family reunion with Cuong, Lien and Andy in town.

Pictures of family and food...





Congrats to all the 'lil cousins!


Ladies of the Van and Pham family & Brandi


The Grad with the folks


Siblings


The resemblance between the three is ridiculous!!






Spoicy Good!


Fobstar!




Dim Sum at GH.



June 23, 2010

Dinner Date: McCormick & Schmick's

Another dinner date with the gals a couple weeks ago to do some catching up. Julie suggested McCormick & Schmick's. It was our first time there. A nice quaint restaurant located behind Somerset Collection. We ordered and shared a few dishes from the Happy Hour menu.



Potato Croquettes


Buffalo Chicken Tender w/ Crisped Onions


Mini Cajun Salmon Sliders w/ Fries. Yummy


Spinach Dip & Pita Chips. Always ordering spinach dip when its on the menu...


Spicy Chicken Quesadillas (too spicy for me!)

The above dishes, two No-jitos, a berry Mojito, and a Half Pound Cheeseburger to-go for $40 bucks? Good Deal!

June 16, 2010

Shapshot 1


I love this picture. Jimmy is a monster compared to Brenden.

Memorial Weekend Get-a-way: Chicago

Only 1 post last month? That's terrible. Work is still a little hectic, but I'm managing. Maybe that's the reason why I'm slacking. No more excuses, lets revisit May.

When planning a small trip, even if it's just for a day and a half: plan ahead. A few of the siblings and I thought it would be nice to visit Chicago during Memorial Day weekend. Being the procrastinators we are, most of the planning was done Saturday night. We tried squeezing in as many activities within the time frame as possible, knowing it was a holiday weekend, not knowing how much walking we'd be doing. Tapping my brain as I write this to recall what we did...



Driving into the city...the buildings are a beaut.


First stop: M. Henry. We waited outside for an hour before being seated. I ordered the fresh fruit crepe which the waitress forgot. When it come out, I ate a little of the crepe not drenched in the sauce and all of the garnishing nectarine. Of course she didn't charge us for the dish and even gave me a free oversized chocolate chip cookie. The crepe was too sweet (first time having crepes), but that cookie...sure was good!


Great Lawn and Pavilion @ Millennium Park


The infamous "Bean" @ Millennium Park


Nice.


Crown Fountain

Walked down Michigan Avenue to the Magnificent Mile to do a little shopping. The walking and beating from the Sun was taking it's toll...we got tired..checked into the hotel...rested for a few minutes then made our walk to the Navy Pier.


Seadog Speedboat Ride on Lake Michigan. Much needed. Being on the water was refreshing, cooling on such a hot day, and fun .

We caught a sub taking us into Chinatown to check out this Joy Yee's Noodle restaurant and see what all the rave was. We got off in the middle of nowhere requiring another 10 miles on foot before we actually reached the restaurant. Hot, tired, and nauseous, I ordered a bowl of pho...because Pho cures everything. The 'bowl' came out and the thing was humungeous. It could've easily served 3 people. I stared at it and realized I was no longer hungry. Too tire to eat or walk...I just wanted to sit. That's when I realized that I was TERRIBLY out of shape. Need to hit the gym asap.


Springrolls. The only picture I got because I was too beat.

Hailed a cab (a first), hoped on the sub, walked a little more and we were back at the hotel.

The next morning, we were all aching. Good laughs. haha

Spent the last few hours in Chinatown and Viettown. We ate dim sum at Pheonix Restaurant. Am I crazy to say that the dim sum at Pheonix taste better than Golden Harvest's? =0 Friendly service too. After breakfast, we went to Ba Le Sandwiches to get a few banh mi for the ride home. Lisa and Phuong went in while the rest of us waited in the car. They came out an hour later. Madness!

Chicago is a really beautiful city. Although I can't imagine myself living there. I'm already a terrible driver and the whole bumper to bumper parking deal just won't do. Chicago, see you again?