Our week long celebration was as spectacular and memorable as always. I love how Henry’s birthday is only five days apart from my own. There is always a big celebration every half year. =D
*07/15, Wednesday – Happy Birthday to me! I had work this day so Henry came to visit me for lunch and treated me to a restaurant of my choosing – Wendy’s =P. It’s a regular lunch location for me but I like it anyway. During work, I received a beanie gift that my older sister especially made for me. I was impressed, it looked like a nice beanie. It was nice of her to put effort into a gift for me.
After work, Henry drove to pick me up from work and he treated me to dinner at our favorite Chinese Xiao Long Bao restaurant in China Town – Yeah Shanghai. There, he surprised me with a gift that he worked on for months – a custom tshirt with one of the best StarCraft flash videos ever, the Four Zerglings. He had been spending time watching the video over and over, recreating the graphics, and researching how and where to print the shirt. He even added a “H <3 M” on the back of the shirt. I was deeply touched by how thoughtful the present was and how much effort he put into it. I love my shirt!
After Chinatown, he drove us to Cold Stone in Times Square so we could use our free birthday ice cream coupons. Yay Ice Cream! Later that night, Henry and I finished off all the set lists presented to us in Guitar Hero: World Tour. It was great to be able to play it again and even more, to finish the game as well.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8971667_hzPSS
*7/17, Friday – Happy Summer Birthday Friday to me! Thankfully I had the Friday between mine and Henry’s birthday off so Henry and I decided to spend it at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. We used a coke can coupon to get half off and we decided to go on a weekday since it was cheaper then. Our goal of course was to go for the big rides. The place wasn’t too packed. The lines went quickly. We set our sights on Superman and Nitro.
Although Henry couldn’t go on a lot of rides because the rollercoasters were affecting him, we still managed to ride the best rides that made it all worth it. Superman gave us the great feeling of flight. We sat on the rollercoaster but our seats went back so that we faced the ground. It was an amazing feeling going through the tracks. After Henry got some rest, we rode on Nitro, which was also an awesome ride. The drop on that coaster was so steep, I was overcome by the adrenaline rush.
Later on, we saw a bunch of characters gathering around the fountain. Henry wanted to take pictures with his favorite cartoon characters – Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil. We found that the dance party was coming up soon so we stayed to watch Mr. Six dance with a group of dancers and Tweety and another cartoon. Tweety was the most amusing as it was funny to see him do the macarena and the cha cha.
Towards the end of the night, Henry and I found a replica of the Exploratorium from San Francisco, Six Flags style. We went in there and saw their technological stuff to play with. It was a fun day at Six Flags.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8971695_nZNVi
*7/18, Saturday – Welcome to Medieval Times! I’ve had the idea to go to Medieval Times for a while ever since I saw Cable Guy. I thought it would be a good celebration for Henry, especially since it’s related to a movie. Some of our friends had also mentioned wanting to go there someday and I thought it was a good time for it.
Whenever Henry and I mentioned this celebration to our friends, we would get laughter as response or an eager wish to go as well. I know its a big celebration for kids but since we never did it before, I knew it would be a memorable experience. Thus, we gathered our friends together at Medieval Times!
Right when we got there, we were treated like royalty, being called Lord and Lady. We took group pictures and then entered into the medieval hall where they sold costumes, weapons and armor. This was also where they “knighted” people.
Walking around, we saw collections of great swords used by great names in history – Prince Valiant, Knights Templar, Barbarian, Christopher Columbus, Robin Hood, William Wallace, etc. They had a speaker with a great voice who announced what was to come. Henry and I had a blast just taking everything in.
We were assigned to the blue team, rooting for the blue knight, Casa Valiente. There were children in the rows in front of us. The arena were lit in different colors according to which knight each section rooted for.
They served food throughout the whole show. The “Bill of Fare” consisted of Garlic Bread, Tomato Bisque Soup, Roasted Chicken, Spare Rib, Herb-Basted Potato, Apple Pie Pastry, and Pepsi.
The food was good! And the food was abundant! There was so much food that I couldn’t finish it. There were no utensils so we had to eat with our hands. I mostly used napkins though =P. There was no need for knives as the chicken was so well cooked that it fell right off the bone.
Our friends who joined this medieval celebration:
Mike, (me, Henry), Norman, Chris, May, Allen, Ed, Mike, (later Helen and Steve)
Although our blue knight was a sucky newb, the show was entertaining. There were enough pauses to eat in between and there were a lot of filler horse riding, hawk tricks, and knight games. There were plenty of great photo opportunities as well. Chris C’s photos looked amazing!
The day ended well and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was great having our friends come out to celebrate with us. Later, after we dropped everyone off, we topped off the night with some lovely gaming – Call of Duty World at War – at Allen’s place in New Jersey.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8971818_T4URs
*7/19, Sunday – I told Henry to meet me after my lyrical dance class because I had a surprise in store for him. I changed into my summer dress and we walked over to Times Square to eat Chicken and Rice from the Halal Guys. Henry had been craving this for a while now so I knew he would want it for dinner. After dinner, Henry asks me, “so what musical are we watching?” I shrugged it off but he already knew what I was up to =P. I took him towards the Richard Rogers Theater to watch In The Heights, a musical he had kept mentioning that he wanted to see for quite some time now.
It was a good musical. I couldn’t help but think about how I could apply what I saw to our dance ministry skit. I liked how the background dancing flowed seamlessly into the action on the foreground and it didn’t distract from the main character’s dialogue and story. One thing that did surprise Henry was that he knew the lead guy, someone who had previously tried out to be part of Dance2XS but didn’t make it. And he was good friends with one of the actresses/dance captains – Stephanie Klemons. We met up with her backstage after the show. It was funny leaving the theater at the same exit as the actors. A lot of people from the audience crowded around us, wondering who we were, but Henry and I just walked by as if nothing happened.
I would put this in a category of good musicals, although it doesn’t compare to the top ones I’ve seen. I would rate as follows: Miss Saigon (I have yet to see it but I’m rating it up there), Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Wicked, Rent, Jersey Boys, Spring Awakening, In The Heights.
*7/20, Monday – Happy Birthday, Henry! Henry’s Birthday fell on a weekday but we made the most out of it. I knew I wanted to treat Henry out but I had a hard time figuring out where to bring him. Henry ended up wanting to surprise me for his birthday! I guess its okay as long as it makes him happy =). I wore the shirt he made me and met up with him near City Hall. He brought me to the Brooklyn Bridge and told me that he had never walked across it before and it was his first time doing so with me.
The weather was perfect for the walk. It was nice and warm. The breeze cooled us so it wasn’t too hot. The walk across was relaxing and it was nice to be able to walk it with Henry.
Henry also had a place in mind for dinner. Under the Brooklyn Bridge was Grimaldi’s – one of the top pizza places in New York. Its fame leads people to line up for long periods of time just to get a taste.
The pizza was good. We ordered Sausage and Garlic. Henry rates it as one of his top five. After dinner, we made our way back to Queens. We stopped by the Baskin-Robbins close to our apartment but to our dismay it no longer sold ice cream. In our eagerness to get our birthday ice cream, Henry drove us to the Baskin-Robbins at Path Mark and we got a taste of our long awaited Baskin-Robbin’s ice cream. They didn’t have cookie dough, sadly, but their flavor of the month, Oreo Outrageous, wasn’t a bad substitute.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8988059_3KmCa
*7/21, Tuesday – Helen treated us to Rizzo’s the next day after work. Thank You, Helen! This pizza place was conveniently located very close to her apartment so we met up with her there. She introduced us to perfectly baked thin crust pizza. We ordered the Golosa – chicken, spinach, bacon, no mushrooms, and onions on one side.
It was good pizza! So good that it rose above Grimaldi’s on Henry’s top pizzas list. I liked it as well but I didn’t like the dry mouth feeling that the spinach gave me after. Henry called me a veggie noob. Oh yeah and they also have a specialty dessert called Pizzetta Nutella (thin crust pizza topped with a rich chocolate hazelnut cream, dark chocolate chips and powdered sugar) which was also good. I will definitely go back but I’m removing the spinach from my pizza next time.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/9049336_sBsB4
*8/03, Monday – Andrew and Amy treated us to Lusso today as a last bit of birthday celebration for the both of us. Thanks Andrew and Amy! They got us a Groupon coupon for $50 worth per table at Lusso. Henry and I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara and Hangar Steak. The Carbonara was well made and delicious. The Hangar Steak and potatoes with the melted butter was so flavorful that it was such a treat to our mouths! The food was so good and filling. We also had Tiramisu for Two for dessert which we shared with Andrew and Amy. With the $50 discount, the food only came out to 2 bucks! We paid a tip worth the full price. It was a treat to be able to eat such good food for such a good price.
Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/9151526_eAXXP
