Down the Rabbit Hole

After two weeks with my parents, brother, aunts and uncles, and cousins, it was time once again to fly out and go home. The past few days were like a dream. While approaching the queue for the security check at the San Francisco International Airport, I just had to look back at some of the highlights: I went into discount shopping boot camp. We mulled over the mysteries of defying gravity. We became Cirque du Soleil fans. We walked on the edge at the Grand Canyon west. Daddy's car went off-road for the first time, ever. I went around the world through food. Some fog, finally! In some ways, going home was like waking up... or driving through fog. When the fog cleared, I was back in tropical Manila, jetlagged but raring to go back to work, back to driving through heavy and chaotic traffic, and to heat and humidity.

I kept wondering why there were lots of displays of vegetables and fruit at the Bellagio's Conservatory at this time of year when we toured the Las Vegas Strip . The pieces of the puzzle fell only when Thanksgiving Day arrived: this holiday is the USA's version of a harvest festival!  This was my first Thanksgiving celebration. And I celebrated it with relatives (plus a whole lot of people who I've met for the first time -- they're mainly my cousin's girlfriend's family) in Sacramento. So basically, what I witnessed was the Fil-Am version of the holiday. As with any feast, there was an abundance of food and of beverages, just as I always see on tv shows. But instead of having a sit-down dinner, we celebrated it less formally: with the food presented buffet-style over lunch and with everyone eating where there's a spot to sit on... very much like the way parties with lots of people are done in my family back home. On tv, the turkey was the star of th...

The Lion King is one my favorite cartoons of all time. So when I saw that the musical version was being presented in Las Vegas by Disney Theatrical at Mandalay Bay, I just had to convince either (or both) of my parents and my brother to watch it with me... the other option, which was also good, was Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage. The Lion King eventually won because my mom opted to go shopping that afternoon and LOVE did not have a performance before my brother's flight back to San Francisco. One thing I noticed about The Lion King musical: it was a crowd-drawer. Families came in droves to watch it! No surprise there. The puppetry and the costumes were great; the stage decorations and the lighting did not draw attention away from the characters; and the actors -- particularly those behind Timon, Rafiki, Simba (the cub and the lion), Scar, and Zazu -- were superb. Then there were the songs; aside from Timon and Pumbaa's "Hakuna Matata" and ...

I love watching travel shows on tv, "The Lonely Planet". A few years ago, I was watching a feature on San Francisco (with Justine Shapiro, if I remember it correctly) and an ice cream shop was featured in that episode. I eventually forgot the name, of course, but what struck me was that this particular shop served ice cream where some of the flavors are of Philippine fruits. While planning my California vacation this year, my mom supplied the name: Mitchell's Ice Cream . Yes, that's the one! I was curious because it's also in the to-do list for San Francisco tourists and residents alike.  It must be so good. Luckily, on this third visit, I was able to drop by the quiet corner of 29th Street and San Jose Avenue on that cold evening after I ate at Asmara  with Biboy and his friends. Even at the late hour we arrived, people were still lined up and others still were on their way! I was becoming more convinced that the ice cream must really be yummy: people o...

I've tried African food at Le Kilimanjaro in Newtown, NSW as a student at the University of Sydney a few years back. But I could not remember if the items in the menu were identified based on the regional divisions of such a big continent. And so when Biboy told me that we were eating Ethiopian food, I did not know what I was in for. I just guessed that coconuts would somehow be involved. Diego and Lisa, Biboy's friends, went with us. The first restaurant was closed when we stopped by so we drove on to Asmara Restaurant in Oakland, CA. The first thing I noticed was its Central Asian feel (or at least what I think is a Central Asian feel): dim yellow lights, dark wood tables and chairs, and the strong smell of spices. The vivid colors of the paintings, however, reminded me that we're supposed to be in Africa... to be in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in fact. Ethiopian food The food was as colorful as the paintings. We got an appetizing platter of a number of items cov...

road trip to the Grand Canyon West , a set on Flickr. The Hualapai Indians have ring side seats to some of the breathtaking views of the Grand Canyon! I'm happy that they are sharing these to tourists. One of the highlights of my 2011 visit to the US... definitely.

A theater experience that defies the laws of gravity. That description got me curious about the show we were flying all the way to Las Vegas for. And so a few days after we saw Totem , I was in queue to watch my second Cirque du Soleil show this week: KA . It's my first time in Vegas. Although I've seen the city several times on tv and in movies, it was still a different experience to be actually in it. For instance, the venue of KA , the MGM Grand, lives up to its name. The building is huge! Nothing about it is small: the golden lion statue, David Copperfield's intent stare, and Twin Brother's sideways glance are all larger than life.  The MGM facade, as seen from Excalibur (across the street)   At its core, KA 's story is about siblings who got separated and lost their home. Thrown into the "real world", they learned about life and love, ultimately fighting for the home that was stolen from them. A usual story about going against all od...