The Gang

It was 1991. Six single gals. All going to the same church. All part of YAF (Young Adults Fellowship). All wanting to connect with fellow 'sisters' in a deeper level. So we decided to start a Girl's Bible Study group at the House (3 of the gals lived there). That's how the Gang started.

Mid 1990's

1999

Yes, we actually did study the Bible together. Regularly in fact. We met weekly. We studied the Book of Romans. It took us three years for us to finish that book. After Romans, we studied the Books of Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Titus. Then we mixed it up and studied some Christian books such as Practicing the Presence of God and Revelation-Illustrated & Made Plain.

Then it was the year 2000 and life had drastically changed for us. Many of us were married; moved; had children; and/or attended different churches.  But the one thing that did not change was our sisterhood bond to one another. No matter how long time had passed we can still reconnect as if it was just yesterday that we saw each other. And that still exists today.

Whenever I'm in a jam and need advise or another point-of-view; whenever I need to vent on anything and anyone; whenever I need a shoulder to cry on; whenever I need someone to laugh with so much that I end up crying; whenever I need help remembering a fact or a memory that I can't seem to remember; whenever I need a prayer warrior(s), I contact one, two or all of these gals.

Having true 'sisters-in-Christ' can be the most precious relationships you can ever have!

Oops.. the two guys. Yes, can't forget to mention them. Other than hanging out at the big House, we also hung out at one of the guy's tiny apartment. Both had been an integral part of YAF and have become an important part of our young adult years at church and outside of church.

1994

2011

I have been privileged to be a part of everyone's lives watching their ups and downs in their jobs, relationships, and family life. And boy, are there lots of stories to tell. I'd love to share them just so I can get it all down in writing before I forget but I think I might lose some of these precious friendships in the long run so I'll just drop some 'memories'.

- Stu and Perry's rendition of Javert and Valjean's "The Confrontation" in Les Miserables
- Lots of 'coffee break meetings' with Marty when we both worked in the City
- Sus picks up total strangers and drives them to the City just so she can go on the carpool lane; I still can't get used to it whenever I'm with her
- One early morning (it was still dark) when I was staying over at the House(for the weekend) I was
shockingly awakened by loud noises of clanging right outside my bedroom window. Since I was on the ground floor, it looked like someone was coming to break in. I flew upstairs to wake up Sus to tell her about it; she sleepily said it was the garbage man and went back to sleep. Now why didn't she tell me that earlier?!?! Before I had the heart attack!
- "Open.. Open.. Open!"
-  The 'Terminator Eye'
- Sweating hot/cold stomach aches
- Marj & I saw Connie Chung at the Pebble Beach Tournament but were too chicken to go ask for an autograph. She was only a few yards away. (darn!)
- Sus and Dave's wedding had over 600 guests. The biggest wedding I had ever coordinated.
- Sus gave birth to a baby boy on Koreen and Kevin's wedding day.
- First Girls' Getaway 1999: Las Vegas; this is where I fell in love with the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Sus was pregnant

- Second Girl's Getaway 2006: Norwegian Cruise from SF to Vancouver and Koreen was pregnant

- Third Girl's Getaway 2009: Trip to celebrate Lis' Birthday and No one was pregnant

- We're hoping for our next Girl's Getaway is to celebrate Sus' 50th birthday.. in Hong Kong!!

We now try to 'all' get together twice a year: once for a BBQ in the summer and once for our Christmas Dinner. It's tough since two of the gals aren't in the Bay Area anymore. The last time we all were together was in 2009. Since the group has grown so big,  we alternate from my house to one of the guy's beautiful home in the Hills for the annual gatherings.

All of us minus another baby addition since '09

Below all of us (minus 3 gal's, their families and one husband) were in attendance for the summer BBQ. We hope that during Christmas we can gather all 29 of us together again!

Today

We always talk about when we become old and gray; our kids are all grown and left the nest; and are all retired from our jobs. We plan to sell our places, buy a huge ranch-style ranch house (no stairs for old people remember) with many many rooms. We'll all move into this place together and live as we were in our young adult years and take care of each other and our spouses until it's time to go to heaven. And then we'll eventually all meet in heaven and do it all again.. except we'll be in Jesus' huge mansion of a home!

Phil's Fish Market

After the Elkhorn Slough Safari Tour, we went down the street to a highly recommended restaurant, Phil's Fish Market, which celebrity chef Bobby Flay had a throw-down with it's owner in January 2009.

You can check out the famous episode here: Throwdown with Bobby Flay - Cioppino

But before I talk about Phil's, check out this automatic pancake maker from our hotel's breakfast buffet...

You just press a button...

...and out came two hot pancakes! Ingenious!

Okay.. onto Phil's Fish Market. It had a long line, find your own seating, does not take reservations, indoor and outdoor seating and the parking lot is so tiny that everyone parks out on the sidewalkless streets.

This restaurant specializes in seafood... fresh seafood from the Monterey Bay. And we all agreed that the dishes were fresh and the portions were huge!

We first had the calamari which was what was recommended as the freshest catch! I love the tentacle parts!

I've been hunting for the best steamed clams.. and this was the best one to date! Huge clams and the key was the broth. It was filled with diced tomatoes and garlic.. so yummy to dip your bread in! I could have just eaten this as my main dish!

A specialty of Phil's was fried artichoke hearts... nothing big to me but I'm not into artichoke.

Manhattan clam chowder is the red version of clam chowder but this was not red at all but orangey and it was delicious!! The best 'red' chowder I've ever had. Other versions are too tomato-based but this was more creamy. I loved it so much that I bought some frozen to take home.

The Cioppino.. what Bobby Flay came to check out! It was deliciously filled with fresh clams, mussels, squid, fish and scallops.. but the topper was the broth. Not too tomatoy.. which is what I prefer!

Now.. all of the above dishes was what my husband and I ordered for lunch! Below are dishes our friends ordered.

Our friends had grilled salmon with green salad, garlic bread, and rice.

Artichoke Provencal sauteed scallops, shrimp, garlic and wine

Combo Seafood  Sliders (blackened scallop slider, sauteed shrimp slider, calamari steak slider, & grilled salmon slider)

Very FULL customers.. who will be returning soon!

Another Safari.. The Water Kind

After the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we ventured onto another Safari.. the boat kind. Owned by Captain Yohn Gideon, the Elkhorn Slough Safari in Moss Landing provides a great view of wildlife of sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions and hundreds of birds. We boarded a pontoon boat for this 2 hour tour.

We meet the Captain at their van in the harbor parking lot.

We all put on life jackets (even though the ride was very smooth and not very fast.. just my style!)

The younger kids got to look for specific animals and the older kids played Safari Bingo. Hannah was in charge of looking for sea otters. Which we saw almost 100!

As we were leaving the harbor we spotted many pelicans. They are aggressive and very sharp birds. They dive quite quickly for fish in the water and more than once we saw something wiggling in their pouched mouths. They definitely remind me of 'Nigel' from Nemo.

These are brown pelicans who catch their prey while diving into the water and scooping the fish up into it's beak.

These are American white pelicans, who unlike the brown pelicans, catches it's prey while swimming.

This is a 'raft' or group of male or 'bull' sea lions. (the term 'raft' sure makes sense here). The sexes usually are segregated by choice. The females are with their 'pups' at another location. We saw over 300 sea lions during this tour.

This is a blue heron. I was in charge of counting them during the tour. I saw only 5.

This is a snowy egret. We saw over 20 of those up close....

...and there were probably hundreds more up in the eucalyptus trees.

These harbor seals were so cute! We saw almost 100 of them. A group of seals is called a 'harem'.

The shore was so shallow that these seals were just lying on the muddy floor.

Now you may ask.. what is the difference between sea lions, seals and otters? I didn't know until I saw a lot of them and then I noticed very distinct differences. Sea lions have big front flippers, a longer neck area and are extremely vocal with their dog-like barks, are brown and much larger than seals. Seals, on the other hand, have smaller and shorter flippers, are gray or tan and spotted and are very quiet making minimal, if any, sounds.

The otters looked just like the pictures on postcards I see in the aquarium. Many of them were on their back with their feet and paws up out of the water. They do this to keep their extremities warm because the water makes it very cold. Their fur is much 'furrier' than the seals and sea lions and they have long slim bodies with short limbs and webbed paws. Their two-layered fur is very soft (under layer) which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hair.  This traps a layer of air and keeps them dry and warm under water. Many of these otters were eating up a storm! They used a rock or small hard object to crack their food open.

When you look closely at each of these sea animals faces, you can definitely tell that they were very different. Sea lions, seals and otters faces do not look the same.

We saw over 60 otters!

This one loves his clam!

We also saw about a dozen huge jellyfish. This is the sea nettle.. I never saw one in the wild. So it was amazing to see it right off the boat's edge. The captain said that this was one of the first days this year that there were so many jellyfish at one sighting.

This is the egg yolk jellyfish.. it was really huge! I was so glad I was NOT in the water because both of these can sting pretty badly!

After the older kids got black out on their Bingo at the end of the tour, they each got a Junior Ranger Naturalist Certificate and a special treat.. but only if they became 'bird-like'. Here's Shawna doing her best bird imitation!

The Open Sea

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of our favorite places to visit. We go at least once a year and if we get the membership it'll be 2-3 times a year.  But for some reason, we didn't go the past two years. I think with me working so much during that time I didn't plan a trip down there. But who can think of  a vacation when you're working 24/7 right?

2004

Today

2006

Today

So this summer, we headed to the Aquarium to check out their new remodeled Outer Bay, renamed the Open Sea, with our vacation friends the H. family. Supposedly MBA replaced the glass to be stronger, more resistant to decay etc.. They had to transport all those living in that tank to other aquariums until the remodel was finished. Unfortunately quite a few of the huge tunas did not survive the transition. Overall, the tank looked the same with less huge fish but the humungous sun fish is still there along with a very large sea turtle.

Also, my husband got me a new camera for my birthday and I tried it out the first time at the aquarium. I still wanted a small point-and-shoot camera (not one of those huge ones like his) but I wanted one that can take really good pictures in low-light. So he got a Canon Powershot SD4000IS for me.

Below are some pictures I took without a flash at the aquarium.

a Moon Jelly

A Sea Nettle Jelly

Sunfish in the Open Sea

Cuttlefish

Leaping blennies that blend right into the rocks and actually 'leap' from rock to rock.

Giant Red Octopus

Mermaid's Purse (aka Skate Ray Eggs)

Leafy Seadragon

Not bad huh? Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the quality of pictures in low-light and no-flash.

Now below are pictures taken by my husband's fancy-shmancy camera..

This sea turtle was quite large and kept swimming across the window.

The sea horse exhibit is one of my favorites. These are potbelly seahorses.

If you look close enough, you can see the tiny dorsal fin fluttering.

Spotted Jellyfish

The Aquarium did add a few 'new' exhibits since I was last there. This one was about recycling. An artist use plastic bottles to carve out intricate kelp and sea plant designs to show how easily other animals (such as the sea turtles) think that they are eating plants but in actuality are eating plastic.


They also had an interactive display where you can click on an environmentally-friendly acts such as riding your bicycle instead of driving or bringing your own bags instead of using the retailers plastic/paper ones, or sending a letter to your government voicing your concerns about non-green living in your city. The computer takes your picture and it's transposed into a little cute video which is displayed on their huge screen and emailed to your computer. How fancy is that? Can you guess which 'act' my husband chose?

After exploring the whole Aquarium, we were famished, so we headed to have tepannyaki at the Wharf. The food was much better here than the time we had it in Florida and the chef was more creative.