Down the Rabbit Hole

Anna, Donan, and I watched  Fleet Week  from Fort Baker last year . Since we enjoyed our experience, we organised a trip to see it again from the same point this year. After Mass and lunch, we drove to Sausalito, intending to take the exit that would have taken us to Fort Baker. However, the queue for that exit was close to two miles long; we missed the exit because I had thought that the queue wasn't for that exit just yet. And so, as we passed by our supposed exit, I quickly decided that we were going to watch the Blue Angels from an even better area: Crissy Field ! The Blue Angels whizzed past us as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge . Anna and Donan had a great time watching them fly by as I tried to concentrate on watching the road. Some pedestrians on the bridge stopped to take videos of the aerial presentation. As I entered Crissy Field, I realised there was an even worse traffic jam because cars were parked on the road (the drivers and passengers just hopped out to watc...

As a public health microbiologist trainee last year, I learned a mnemonic:  D irty  F ingers  B ring  S higella . The first letter in each word helps me remember the different groups of  Shigella , which coincide  with the species names: Shigella d ysenteriae (Group A), S. f lexneri (Group B), S. b oydii (Group C), and S. s onnei (Group D). S. sonnei accounts for a significant proportion of cases in the USA.  This mnemonic came to mind while listening to a presentation on extensively drug-resistant (XDR)  Shigella during the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors (CAPHLD) Annual Institute. This bacteria is a big concern for public health professionals in the United States because it is easily spread (mainly) by consuming contaminated food (it only takes 1–100 Shigella cells to get sick with it). It causes both domestically acquired and travel-associated acute inflammatory diarrhoea. Infections with XDR strains are made w...

Yan ang tanong sa akin ng mga magulang ko pag napapansin nilang may lakad ang mga kapatid ko kasama ang kanilang mga kabarkada. Si Biboy may mga kaibigang mahilig mag-capoeira. Si Anna naman may mga nakabarkada na na kapwa Pilipinong bagong salta sa California at mga ibang lahi na naging katrabaho o kaklase.  E ako: Ang taong bahay na laging ang anak ang bitbit sa pasyalan. Ang aking mga kaibigan dito sa USA nasa Southern California o sa East Coast karamihan. Walang nakatira sa Bay Area. Kaya naman nung pumunta kami sa San Diego, sinigurado kong kausapin ang aking mga kaibigan sa Southern California upang malaman kung pwede kaming magkita. Dahil biglaan ang pagbyahe naming pamilya, dalawa sa tatlo kong kaibigan galing UPRHS ay nasa ibang lugar. Si Noah, nagkataon na walang lakad o pasok, kaya nakipagkita sa amin sa Chino. Nakakatuwa ang pagkikitang yun kasi ang tagal na naming di nagkita. Huli ata kaming nagkita ay 2019 pa; pareho kaming nasa Los Banos . Kaya ang kwentuhan namin a...

Our trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of the places on my bucket list: the San Diego Zoo (I've always wanted to visit since I was in grade school). Initially, I planned for us to be there all day on our second day in the city. However, Mommy and Daddy wanted to listen to the organ recital in Balboa Park, so we scheduled the zoo trip right after visiting the USS Midway . Visiting in the afternoon was a good idea because the crowd was smaller, the bus queues were shorter (yes, there are buses in the zoo!), and the gondola lifts were much shorter. We saw elephants playing, lions and tigers napping, koalas hanging around, giraffes munching, camels people-watching, and flamingoes walking about.  We even saw an artificial tar pit with a few bones, which Donan enjoyed staring at.  We saw most of the zoo on the bus tour and the gondola lift (for a bird' s-eye view); however, we didn't visit the animals whose enclosures were away from the tour's ...

One of the places we  had to see while we were in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum because Donan has been interested in fighter jets since we saw the  Blue Angels  last year. I wanted to show him different aircraft types (the FA-18s aren't the only aeroplanes in the sky), and  a museum was the best place to see such a variety of aircraft. Et voila!  The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier on active duty from 1945 to 1992 (yes, that's from World War II to Desert Storm). Currently moored at the Navy Pier in San Diego, it is one of the largest museums I have ever visited. Just see how big the ship's island (tower) is from the dock! We had to take a ramp and an elevator to reach the red, white, and blue banner on the lower right of the photo! However, we only stayed in the hangar for a quick rest for Mommy because Donan wasn't comfortable in the big, dark space. We skipped the exhibit about the Battle of Midway, a major battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War I...

We drove for about three or four hours (~250 miles) en route to San Diego when we decided to take a stretch and snack break. We happened to be close to San Luis Obispo, so we searched for any familiar coffee shop franchise with vacant parking spots. After driving around the downtown area and not finding a suitable place to stop, we headed back towards Highway 101 and discovered the House of Bread Bakery and Cafe. The interiors smelled delicious! Just outside the open kitchen area, there was a good selection of freshly baked breads and pastries. The staff had us try several of their bread samples, which were so yummy! I ended up buying the chocolate zucchini bread. It contains unbleached flour, zucchini, and cocoa. Donan had no qualms about eating the bread despite the presence of zucchini because of the rich chocolate flavour. The texture was soft, chewy, and easy on the palate after a long drive. Mommy, on the other hand, got a prairie bread. It contains a wheat and rye flour blend, h...