Mother’s Day Weekend: the Prado

Mother's Day Weekend: the Prado

Hi Mom,

It takes a special person to raise a child, and L and I have had front row seats to a very special mom for a very long time. We can only hope that our actions display how much we appreciate what you do. 

To borrow a line from a great lyricist, “For a lifetime of service in the name of love, we wanna say THANK YOU”.

Love,
L & L.Hui

This weekend highlighted for me the full range of who mom is. The funny and quirky things she does including bringing down a huge sack of rice for my sister and oranges from our back yard. That stuff isn’t light. Demanding my car be washed despite 100% chance of rain in the afternoon (which I did…and yes it did rain). To scrubbing down my whole house because…frankly, she’s a clean freak. yup that’s my mom! I find that in the slightest ways that’s rubbed off on me. I’m cleaner, healthier, and live a far better life because of her.

She’s got that old school edge to her that’s unmistakable when she means business. Yet a split second later she can joke with the best of them. She comes from a strong line of women and I see that being carried on in my sister. Young gunners beware. She’s got great command of the English language but still blushes when prompted to speak. She’s got such a wealth of knowledge but submits to the authority of the Word. Yup, that’s my mom =D

This was a great weekend!

Mother's Day Weekend: the Prado
Mother's Day Weekend: the Prado
Mother's Day Weekend: the Prado
(left) rib eye (center) seafood paella (right) braised short rib
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love how my mom tolerates these pics (last year’s)

Mother’s Day Weekend: the Cottage

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A beautiful recommendation from my sister, we decided Mother’s day would start off with a bang. Tucked away in a corner of La Jolla downtown is a nice little restaurant that sells great breakfast. My sister had previously been here with some friends and gave it raving reviews.

They do not take reservations so we made sure to arrive a bit early in anticipation of the mother’s day line. Surprisingly, there really was not too many people waiting and we were seated after ~20 minutes. On a side note, we noticed quite a few mothers being celebrated…brought a smile to my face.

The menu is pretty simple, there aren’t too many dishes to chose from. We settled on a Tuscan omelette and a Baja Chicken Hash. The portions were large enough for two dishes to be split and the Cottage staff was pretty nice about splitting up the plates for us. If the portions seem smaller in the following pics, they’re half sized.

All in all a very nice, quiet, professional place. We never felt rushed or super cramped. There’s good ambient noise but never felt like I had to raise my voice or anything to speak. Coffee was organic and had a more muted taste (said mom and sis) and we really appreciated not feeling like we just ate a tub of lard. Felt healthy.

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Baja Chicken Hash
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Tuscan Omelette

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Mother’s Day Weekend: Point Loma Seafood and NTC Promenade

Mother's Day Weekend: Point Loma Seafood and NTC

With a relaxing weekend ahead, my sister thought, “let’s do a picnic”! Seafood + serene surroundings of a relatively little known area should make for a peaceful afternoon.

Point Loma is a beautiful part of San Diego that is home to a lighthouse with a stunning view, a Nazarene University, tide pools, Rock Church, 5 guys, a naval training center and so much more. It really is a gem of SD. At the NTC park there are such wide expansive fields with such few people on saturdays, future events here for sure. Continue reading

Mother’s Day Weekend: Home-made breakfast

This year my sister and I decided to switch it up from previous years. due to scheduling conflicts, we decided to fly mom down and make it a mother’s day weekend mini-cation in San Diego. A special weekend for a special mum! 

It was going to be good…we’d get to spend some quality time with mom in sunny San Diego. too bad the sun decided not to poke it’s head out this weekend. no matter. here’s a recap of the weekend.

many thanks to J.Chen for lending the waffle maker. J.Lee and J.Wu for helping out and making it awesome!

breakfast menu:
eggs
waffles
fresh strawberries
bacon
strawberry jam
banana/strawberry/orange/mango smoothie
Mother's Day Weekend: Home-made breakfast
Mother's Day Weekend: Home-made breakfast
J.Wu made the strawberry jam on the far left. hit of the morning!
Mother's Day Weekend: Home-made breakfast
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image courtesy of L.Hui
mom brought oranges picked from our tree back home
 

Mother’s Day 2010

Mother’s Day 2009


Since college I’ve started a tradition of making mother’s day a pretty special day for my mom. She’s a really special lady and every year my sister and I try to show her how much she means to us.



Last year was an epic one. A few friends and I decided to clump mother’s day and father’s day into a single celebration and it was a blast. Borrowing some ideas and the concept from GAP 2008, we put on a spectacular night of classy dining for our parents.

Appetizers: Bruschetta and lox on baguette
Salad: Caesar salad
Entree: King Crab with asparagus and steamed vegetables
Dessert: Opera Cake 



Mother’s Day 2010


Now as with any event, escalation can quickly get out of hand so I make sure not to top everything I do. So to that end, this year was a bit of a step down. I was thinking a trip home for mother’s day weekend would something my mom could enjoy in itself but I was pretty stumped on what to do or get for my mom. I hated the thought of getting her just flowers. Completely randomly, the night before I flew up to norcal, my housemate was playing with origami and showed me a really cool flower design! Thanks to Jessalyn, the idea was hatched and the plan under way.

Kusudama Flowers: made from simple office supplies


Paper flowers last forever and a reed diffuser means the flowers smell great for longer


Happy Mother’s Day!