Gavin graduated UCLA with a Computer Science and Engineering degree but decided that he didn’t want a desk job.  Using the knowledge that he knew about computers and programming, Gavin started our photography and videography business in May of 2006.  This book highlights how Gavin successfully built our first website — Gavin Photography, and how important the internet has been for helping our clients find us.  I always tease Gavin about being “the Master of Lighting” and an “Internet Guru.”  And reading this book, my feelings are validated even more.  He’s more than just a business man with an expensive camera, Gavin is an artist that dedicates his time to taking care of each client and creating artistic photographs.  In the short 5 years that we’ve been doing wedding photography (& videography), we’ve been blessed by many beautiful moments and friendships!!  I’m so excited for our feature …

Guess who Gavin spotted when our flight first landed?  That’s right… Sinbad (stand-up comedian/actor) was in Jamaica as well for a relaxing vacation.  Here’s Gavin posing for a picture with Sinbad.  =)

Our flight wasn’t too long, but it seemed forever since we’re both so anxious and eager about the trip.  We finally landed and wow… what can I say besides, “I love it”!!  As soon as we walked out… booze awaits our arrival.  LOL.  I was surprise to see that Jamaica was very similar to my motherland, Vietnam.  There were lots of greenery, the weather was hot and humid, and the architecture and colors couldn’t have looked more like Vietnam.  All it’s missing are little mopeds and scooters.

We booked for an all inclusive 8 days and 7 nights stay at the Grande Riviera in Ocho Rios.  That’s right… all inclusive!!  This means all you can eat… all you can DRINK baby!!  The Grande Riviera Sandals in Ocho Rios, Jamaica has two distinctive settings:  Beach-side and Manor (Mountain) side.  We booked for a room on the beach side since online research said the Manor Side was undergoing renovation.  However, both sides were accessible to all vacationers.  There are frequent shuttles that takes us from one side to the other when we wish to go back and forth.  Speaking of renovation, that’s one of the disappointments from this vacation!!  Gavin and I came to Sandals for a quiet and relaxing vacation… but we are very disappointed to find that there were construction on BOTH sides of the resort!!  During our get-away, we enjoyed thoroughly soaking up the sun but at the same time we were constantly pestered by the construction that was going on… specifically the jack-hammer!!  OMG… it drove us (and many other vacationers) crazy!!  I’m sure that if we had gone during another time (when their done with the renovation) we would have enjoyed it much more because the Grande Riviera Sandals Resort is beautiful place… i’m not gonna lie.  =)

Gavin and I would love to be wedding photographers for the Grande Riviera Sandals in Ocho Rios.  In fact, we saw a few wedding photographers at the Grande Riviera, Ocho Rios. Seeing other wedding photographers (in Ocho Rios) at work makes me have the itch to grab our cameras and jump in to photograph the wedding as well.  There were so many beautiful spots for photos!!  It was definitely a wedding photographers playground.  I hope that one of these days we’ll book a wedding in Jamaica and be photographers at the Grande Riviera Sandals in Ocho Rios.

Here are some pictures that Gavin took of the Grande Riviera Sandals.  It’s definitely beautiful!!

This is the main Lobby.

This is our room.  We had a nice garden view.  Sandra, our housekeeper was great!!  She was always so pleasant and sweet to us.  Each day, she would make me a new animal out of towels.  Below are a few of my favorites.

An elephant… a bouquet of flowers… and a snail??  LOL… I don’t know what that last one is.  You tell me! =)

This is the popular salt water pool.  The water is absolutely clear and warm.  I love love LOVE it!!  I spent a few good hours sun-bathing on that float below.

This is one of the smaller pools on the manor side.

This is the big and most popular pool on the resort.  It’s also located on the manor side so we had to take the shuttle each time.  It’s no big deal though because the shuttles are very frequent.

Isn’t it just gorgeous???  I love the swim-up bars!!  Kudos to the genius that thought of it!!

I’m not too sure what these are, but it looks interesting.  =)

This is one of the Jacuzzi on the beach side.  Right next to it is the beautiful Neptune pool.

The Neptune pool with a swim-up bar.

I guess it’s off-season this time of year so there weren’t many vacationers there.  It was actually really nice because the Resort was not too crowded.  I just love laying out and soaking up the sun.

Isn’t it so cute how they have this on the cabanas?

The Grande Riviera Resort has lots of activities from rock climbing to nice game of chess to many many water activities.  There were snorkeling tours, wind-surfing lessons, kayaking, stand-up paddle… just to name a few.  Gavin and I did it all and we absolutely love it!!  I have to say the stand-up paddle was a bit challenging for me.  I have absolutely no balance and would always paddle myself into the pier!!  It was quite embarrassing but, my excuse, “it’s harder than it looks”!!  LOL

I just had to add a picture of this kitty cat.  It’s so so cute… reminds of me our babies (Powder and Button).  Poor thing.  It was a stray and was hungry for some food.

You’ll have to excuse the quality of some of the pictures since it was taken with our under-water point and shoot.  This is me… floating around enjoying the sun and a little too much alcohol.  All the bartenders were AWESOME!! Jamaican do not joke when it comes to alcohol!! LOL… these guys are there to mess you up!!  =)

This drink is a Bob Marley.  It looks pretty, it tastes nasty, and it’ll mess you up!!

I was on a desperate search for coconut juice as soon as we got there.  I love coconut juice!!  It’s really cool because the resort has coconut trees all over.  I was told that whenever I want one, simply ask one of the gardeners to climb up and pick one for me.  Sweeeeeeeet!!  Do you like my coconuts?!?!?  LOL

This is one of the nights where we went a nice restaurant.  FYI- some of the restaurants requires close toe shoes!!

Gavin and I did a couple of excursions.  One of which is horse back riding… IN THE OCEAN!!!  It was my first time EVER riding a horse and it was AMAZING!!!

We started the tour on a sugar cane plantation where we learned about the history of the property as well as the various vegetation grown there.

We then galloped our way to the beach where we rode into the ocean.  And I’m not talking about riding along the shore… I’m talking into waist high water!!  One word:  AMAZING!!

Gavin’s horse is named Monday Evening.  It was the only horse that threw a funny tantrum and kept stomping it’s foot the entire time!!   We all couldn’t stop laughing and joked that it’s pissed because of Gavin’s weight!! LOL.  My horse was named Sensation and she was a gem!!  The entire time, she was gentle and cooperative.  I was told that all the horsed used were rescues from the racing tracks.  At one point, they were all racing horses.

Here and there Sensation doesn’t want to move and so our tour guide gave me a stick to whip her.  OH HECK NO!!! I can never do that… never!!  So what did I do??  I used the stick to scratch/rub her neck!!  I’ll be posting videos soon.

Ewww… I just had to show how huge this spider was.

We celebrated Halloween in Jamaica with a delicious intercontinental buffet.  I learned that most Jamaicans are Catholics… thus they do not want to celebrate Halloween.  No dressing up and no trick-or-treaters.  We did have a fun pumpkin craving contest!  =)

There was a roasted suckling pig at the buffet!!  And the funny part… no one ate it because it was “too exotic”!!  Gavin and I went to town on that poor pig!!

Our year 2011  Halloween picture.  This ghostly picture of us was achieved by using a 30 second long exposure.  Isn’t it cool??

Star-gazing is always very romantic.  There were so many stars there.

The next day, we went on our second excursion… the ”booze- cruise”.  It’s basically a catamaran that take us to the famous Dunn’s waterfall where we will climb up the 600 feet waterfall.  No booze were served on the way to the fall — for obvious reasons!!  However, on the way back… ohhhh man, we partied like rock stars!!  =)  During the 45 minute boat ride, I had 5 beers, two shots and then I lost count when they came around pouring shots straight from the bottle into our mouths!!  I have some videos to share later.

On the way to the fall, we stopped for some snorkeling.  Here’s what’s UNCOOL about it!!  Gavin and I got stung by a jelly fish.  Mine was worse than Gavin’s!!  It FREAKIN hurts A LOT!!  It’s an uncomfortable burning sensation that just would not go away.  The tour guide said, “just have your husband pee on it”!!  My response… “It’s ok… I’ll bare the pain”!  LOL  I’m not joking!!

I vowed that when I get back to California, I’m gonna get back at those darn jelly fish by eating them at dim-sum!!  I’ll show them who’s boss!!

So… we finally made it to Dunn’s River Falls.  This is a very popular tourist attraction in that we get to climb the fall.  We all had to hold each other’s hands creating a human chain as we climb the fall.  I guess this is to ensure that if one person goes down… we ALL go down!! It was super fun… one of the best attractions and we highly recommend it!!  Along the way, visitors enjoy the cool plunge pools formed naturally in the river rocks and the waterfalls. Some parts of the fall are very gentle while other parts are quite challenging due to the raging water.  Pictures doesn’t really do it justices right now, so I’ll post videos soon.

The climb was about 45 minutes long.  It’s a great and refreshing feeling once we got to the top!!  I can totally do it again!!

We spent the remaining days at the Grande Riviera just bumming it and enjoying each other’s company!!  This trip was amazing and was well-deserved for both Gavin and I.

I made friends with this hammock the very moment I saw it!!  It was my best friend during the trip!!  =)

Gavin and I will definitely be visiting Jamaica again!!  The island is beautiful and has so much to offer!!

Happy Wednesday!! Yay… I’m finally done with our wedding blog!!  Woot woot!!  It’s such a cliche when one hears “…my wedding day went by SO FAST!!”  Well… I didn’t actually believe it until it was MY turn!  Our wedding day indeed flew by, but I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding.  Thank you so much everyone for sharing this joyous occasion with us.  I had such a great time looking through all the pictures and reliving our special day!!  Thank God for photos & video!!  Seriously!  As I’m looking through the tons of photos we got, I was like… “What?  When did I do that?!?!  OMG, how embarrassing!” Hahahaaa.

I also would like to take this time to thank each and every vendor.  While most brides/grooms get to meet only 2 to 4 of each vendor (i.e. DJs, Photographers, etc.) in their selection process, Gavin and I see about 40 to 50 a year.  With this, I know that all the vendors we used were the best of best and that’s why we trusted them with our own wedding.  Thank you SO MUCH guys, Gavin and I couldn’t have done it without you all!  We couldn’t have been any happier with everything!!  We definitely recommend any of them without reserve.

Lead Photographer:  Doug Chan of Furious Photographers  626.755.7248
2nd Photographer: Danny Nguyen of Danny Nguyen Photography 626.731.0144
Extra photos Courtesy of our good friend Steve Hoffmann Photography 714.315.6106
Extra photos Courtesy of our good friend Phebe Hosea
Videographer:  Joe Rosenberger of Today’s the Day Wedding 714.443.1216
DJ/Lighting:  Huey Le of Platinum Peaks Entertainment 714.595.2892
Photobooth:  PictoBooth 888.838.0399
Make-up/Hair:  Vivian Tran of All Made Up Team 714.203.4556
Wedding Venue:  Stephanie Dinh of S Fine Dining 714.898.5092
Wedding Cake:  Stephanie Dinh of Final Touch Bakery 714.894.3393
Florist:  Cat Chu of Three Petals 949.735.3897
Hair Piece:  Chin-Lu Hoffmann of Chinny LuLu Designs 949.307.1089
Dance Instructor:  Kristy Rivers 626.272.6186
Magician:  Danny McKinnon of Danny Magic 800.597.3252
Poker Dealers:  Daniel deMaio of Dad’s Poker Night 866.502.6638
Wedding Dress:  Designer is La Sposa and the Style is Martina

Gavin and I entered the wedding planning process know exactly what we want.  Our biggest goal was for ALL our guest to have a great time.  We wanted it to be more of a party than a traditional wedding celebration.  With that, our top priority was entertainment for our guest!!  As you look through this blog entry, you’ll see that we had many festivities to keep our guests entertained.  The biggest compliment to us was when everyone told us, “wow… it was definitely one of the best weddings they’ve been to!”  YES… Mission accomplished!!!

Our day started out in the morning (around 9am) when I woke up with butterflies!!  ”WOW, it’s finally here!” I thought to myself.  We both got ready at our house… it didn’t matter to us whether we saw each other or not prior to the ceremony.  In fact, Gavin took pictures of me and my girls getting ready prior to Doug’s arrival.  In case you didn’t know, Doug is a very good friend of ours.  He’s also our business partner in our High School Photography business.  Gavin and I are very lucky to have Doug and Danny photograph our big day!! We are also blessed to have  Joe Rosenberger of Today’s the Day Wedding be available to be our videographer.  Joe is fantastic!!  He’s very professional, responsive, and a joy to be around.  He does great work and I can’t wait to see what he’ll do for us!!

Everyone knows how much I love taking pictures of rings!  Well… here’s my ring and I LOVE how Doug took it!!  I can’t believe it’s my turn to be on the other side of the camera.  LOL… kinda feels weird.

My hair and make-up was done by the talented Angelina and Julie of the All Made Up Team.  I’ve worked with the All Made Up Team numerous times and they do an absolutely stunning job each time!!  Vivian Tran and her girls are punctual, professional, and easy to work with.  They listen to what I want and gave me exactly what I asked for (if not more).  Thank you Angelina and Julie!!

First shot of the day… and it’s only 10:00 am baby!! LOL…

This is my beautiful baby girl… Powder!!  She was so excited, running around and being a part of all the festivities as we were getting ready.  She so cute, she hopped onto the stool and watched as I got my hair and make-up done.  Awesome eyes huh??? Gotta love her!!

Doug knew how much I love lash pictures so he took one of me… for me!!  I love it!!

And here is Gavin…

LOL… boys will be boys!!

Nice hair do babe!!

And of course… shots shots shots and more shots!! I think they lost count by the time our ceremony rolled around.

We got each of our groomsmen Van’s shoes.  A few days prior to our wedding, I personally checked each box to make sure it’s the right size and wrote their names on the box .  When I got to the last one, I assumed it was for the remaining groomsmen and just wrote his name on it.  Come the wedding day, one hour prior to heading out, the Best Man (Ken) opens up the box and says, “ha… you guys joking right?”  OMG!! it wasn’t the correct pair of shoes!! It was some funky blue color suede with a red lines through it!!  BUT remember what I said… STAY CALM!!! LOL…  My cousin quickly took the box and ran to the mall to see if we could exchange it for the correct ones.  I was not hopeful at all because our wedding was the day right after Christmas and the mall was packed!!  OK… so I thought, worse comes to worse, Gavin can wear those and stand out a little bit.   Fortunately, they came back with a correct pair.  See what I mean… things happen!! So… NOTE:  please check ALL attire a few days prior to the wedding to allow for wiggle room. =)

Yes… boys will ALWAYS be boys!!

And we drove off for bridal party pictures.

Everybody… meet the Holt Family!!  LOL  Yup!! That’s my family!!

The girls…

The boys…

The bridal party…

You may wonder why there are no pictures of me and Gavin alone.  It’s because we already had two photo sessions and so we wanted to take it easy on our wedding day and spend more time with family and friends.  We plan on doing a trash the dress session when the weather is warmer in May.  If you haven’t done so already, please check out our previous bride and groom session here:

Vietnam Destination Wedding Photography – photography by Aidan Dockery of Eden Images

Orange County Wedding Photography – photography by Doug Chan of Furious Photographers

My flowers were done by the talented Cat Chu of Three Petals in Costa Mesa!!  I’d have to say I was in shock when she personally delivered the flowers to our place.  I absolutely LOVE them… so beautiful!!  Three Petals never ceases to amaze me, Cat does an amazing job!!  She is professional, understanding and more importantly super accommodating!!  I probably drove her nuts because of my indecisiveness but nevertheless, she was able to take my restrictions (small budget) and created a clean and elegant solution.   She gave us extras of everything to make sure we were covered.  We got lots of compliments on our flowers.  Thank you Three Petals!!

Chin Lu of ChinnyLuLu Designs (who is married to our good friend Steve Hoffmann) made my beautiful head piece for me.  Chin Lu is incredibly talented when it comes to arts and crafts.  All her couture hair accessories are hand-made.. check them out on her website.

Our ceremony was about 15 minutes long… a quite emotional 15 minutes though.  I am such a cry baby… really!!  I started bawling the moment I started walking down the aisle.

I love my daddy…

Yeah… we were both cry babies…

There was a slight problem getting Gavin’s ring on!  We bought it over a year ago and it didn’t seem to want to fit his finger!! LOL… I MADE it fit!!

I am so happy we decided to do a sand ceremony.  The colors turned out great and it’s a piece of memory that we can keep forever.  More importantly, I thought the significance of the sand ceremony is very meaningful.  The two vases represents two individuals, but once the sand is poured into the unity vase and co-mingle, it represents the coming together of two lives… two families.  The grains can never again be separated no matter how hard one tries.

And of course… our first kiss as husband and wife.

Introducing… Mr. and Mrs.  Gavin Holt!!

I love the look on Gavin’s face in this one!!

Our ceremony and reception was held at S-Fine Dining in Westminster.  This sensuous and stylish restaurant is a definite MUST try!!  The food is amazing!!  We’ve got SO MANY compliments on how delicious everything was and how superb their customer service was!!  LOTS of our guests told me they will definitely have to come back and dine with S-Fine Dining again at their leisure.

Our place cards mimicked ID cards.  It’s got the guests name, picture, and location (table name) on it.  Boy did it take forever to find a picture for each guest.   Each table name was a city that Gavin and I had traveled to together.

Our cake was phenomenal… the BEST I’ve ever had!!  Final Touch Bakery (also owned by Stephanie Dinh of S-Fine Dining) is well known in the Orange County Area.  We decided to go with 2 flavors.  Red Velvet (of course) and mixed berries!!  There was nothing left by the end of the reception… seriously… not even the top part where we should of taken home.  Stephanie promised me though she’ll make me another one for our 1 year anniversary!! =)

Here’s the fun part!!  We had a casino themed cocktail hour!  EVERYONE LOVED IT!!  I am SO happy we decided to go with this and had Dad’s Poker Night there .  We had a roulette table, a craps table, and a black jack table.  The name cards that each guests had got them a certain number of chips.  They have the entire time to play whatever they want and then trade in their chips for raffle tickets at the end of the hour.  Later on during the reception, prizes were raffled away.  For those who weren’t gamblers, we had a photo booth provided by Pictobooth.  Pictobooth is AMAZINGLY awesome!! It was a great bonding experience for everyone all throughout the night.  Gavin and I are so happy to see people whom we didn’t expect (i.e. older aunts/uncle) hop into the booth for silly pictures.  The owner of Pictobooth is absolutely professional and a joy to work with.  In addition to that, our Magician,  Danny Magic walked around and played tricks on people.  He hung out at our open bar and totally messed with the drunks!!  Usually buzzed people are funny as it is, but when you throw magic in there it totally trips them out… LOL.  They are hilarious!!

The guys got their chips…

…and their wives traded them in for raffle tickets!!

Gavin took these pictures during our tasting at S-Fine Dining.  These are the appetizers our guests enjoyed.  We had 1.) papaya mango salad with shrimp and fish sauce 2.) meatballs 3.) tuna neopolean (seared ali with avocado and sun-dried tomatoes served on a fried wanton skin) 4.) eggrolls.  They are all SUPER DELICIOUS!!!

Our grand entrance was definitely one of a kind!!  It was our awesome DJ, Huey, who suggested the idea of entering to a Rocky Theme.  Gavin (with the help of my brother Steven and cousin Kenneth), made this video montage.  The video was played for the guests prior to our grand entrance.  Please click on the play button below to see this incredibly hilarious well-edited video done by my talented Hubby!! =)

After the montage video was done, the ambient lights went pitch black while intelligent lighting (provided by Platinum Peaks Entertainment) came on as “Eye of the Tiger” was being played.  Gavin and I dressed in boxing robes were escorted by our entourage into the dance floor!!

When we got to the dance floor, we squared off into a mini dance-off.  The funny thing is… my dress was so long, I tripped on the train and fell forward.  No, I’m not gonna show pictures… it’s too embarrassing.  Gavin saw me fall so he came to help me up, but he too tripped on my train and fell onto of me!! LOL… We were pretty buzzed that this point!  Yikes! Our first dance isn’t till waaaay later!

Gavin break dancing!!

After our spectacular grand entrance, Danny Magic did a few more tricks for our guests.  I love the look on my girl’s face when he turned balls into potatoes!! LOL.

Gotta love these girls…

These were also taken during our tasting.  I’m telling you… S-Fine Dining is a MUST TRY!!  Everyone LOVED every single dish.  1.)  Seafood soup  2.) Duck Confit  3.)  Scallops with baby spinach and coconut curry 4.)  White rice

5.) Petite Lobster Tail with tamarind sauce  6.)  Lamb  7.) and Chilean Seabass with black bean sauce

All the speeches were so heart-felt!! I can’t imagine not having any of these people in our lives!!  Gavin and I love you guys so much!!

aawww yes… the cake cutting!!  ”Revenge is sweet” according to Gavin.  The story behind this is… I totally caked his face when we had our first wedding celebration in Vietnam a year ago.

Totally NOT fair!!!

Our yummy wedding cake!!

By the time our first dance came around, Gavin and I were completely buzzed!! I’m so surprised we pulled it off without a hitch.  Gavin and I have been going to Kristy Rivers, a sweet and talented professional dancer, for ballroom lessons.  We danced the cha-cha to Michael Buble’s Sway.

I got very emotional for the father-daughter dance.  I have a very close relationship with my dad and couldn’t ask for anything more.

It’s so sweet because during our thank you speech, one by one my family came up to kiss me!! Gavin and I are TRULY BLESSED with a great family and so many wonderful friends in our lives .  I had three sets of aunts and uncles who flew all the way from Vietnam just to attend our wedding.

Huey got everyone onto the dance floor as we played one last game.  Gavin and I tossed two decks of cards into the air while our guests tries to grab the 4 cards that had both our signatures on it.  Prizes were given to those who got the cards.  From there, our DJ started “Conga” by Gloria Estefan.  OMG… everyone joined our conga line and it went all around the restaurant.

LET. THE. PARTY. BEGIN!!!  ”Come on , shake your body baby, do the conga…”

I can’t speak enough kudos about Huey Le from Platinum Peaks Entertainment.  We’ve worked with Huey many times and from the very first time I worked with him, I knew he was gonna be THE ONE.  We trust him so much that we actually asked him to officiate our ceremony.  Seriously!  He knocked it out of the park.  He made everyone laugh.  This is a good testament to his ability to work a crowd.  He controlled the flow of our reception flawlessly.  Huey was always on top of things, very professional and very very talented!  I am still amazed at how he can get a crowd going and keep them going all throughout the night.  Huey also did an amazing job with our lighting.  I love his up-lights and pin-spot lights.

Buzzed?!??!  Just a little…

Buzzed?!??! Definitely!!!

yeah… definitely!!!

Thank you and much love to all our wonderful vendors!!  Really… we can’t thank you guys enough for all that you’ve done for us!!  Thanks to all our family and friends who came from near and far to be a part of our special day!! It really means SO MUCH to us.  We greatly appreciate all the generous wedding gifts.  Again, Gavin and I are truly blessed with such a loving family and wonderful friends!!  You all have a special place in our hearts and we couldn’t have asked for a better wedding!!  We love you all!!

You can see our entire wedding here:
Preparation
Bridal
Ceremony
Formals
Reception1
Reception2

It was my first time leaving the west coast and traveling to the other side of the country, and I must say, “It was awesome”!!  The weather there was great (compared to California’s humid thunder-storms that week).  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the fall colors on the trees and all around!  The funny thing about this trip was that I felt really special.  I was like the ONLY Asian there!! LOL… Seriously!! Gavin and I counted the number of Asian people we saw in Milwaukee and it was less than 10 people in 4 days.

So, before you move on and enjoy the pictures, I’d like to say that Gavin and I are total foodies!!  We LOVE eating and sharing our experience (good and bad) with everyone.  Don’t be surprise if you see lots of food and think to yourself… “DANG, they eat a lot”!!  Because YES we do!!  What’s a vacation without food and booze… am I right???  =)

We arrived in Milwaukee on the night of Sept. 29th and there was nothing to do except check-in, get dinner, and go to bed.  For the first two nights, we stayed at the Pfister Hotel located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee.  When we arrived at the hotel, I instantly loved the extraordinary architecture, and welcoming ambiance, not to mention the excellent customer service.

Our King Suite:

After we checked-in, we went out to grab dinner at Cubanitas, a great Cuban restaurant located just right around the corner from the Pfister Hotel.  People in Milwaukee don’t mess around when it comes to alcohol!!  Gavin ordered a caipirinha (Brazil’s national cocktail) and I ordered at strawberry mojito.  After the second round of drinks, Gavin and I were running a good buzz.  hahhaa…

Their banana chips and guacamole were to die for!!! Yum….

The best pulled pork I’ve ever had!!!

Day 2 was a lot of fun!!  We started our day with a tour at the Pabst Mansion.  I was bummed that no photography was allowed inside the mansion at all.  It would have been great because the mansion was absolutely incredible.  I really enjoyed learning all of the architectural details of the construction and decoration of the house as well as Captain Frederick Pabst’s family history.  It really is a MUST see when in Milwaukee.  The entire mansion is maintained entirely by funds from admission and donations.  The entire staff at the mansion are all volunteers and are all very informative and knowledgeable.  Oh… and for those who may not know, Pabst is know for it’s beer, specifically Pabst Blue Ribbon (aka PBR).

Here’s what I learned:  Captain Frederick Pabst was born in Germany and emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1848.  After his mother died, he and his father worked as waiters and busboys but because he enjoyed his voyage to America, he decided to become a cabin-boy on a Lake Michigan steamer.  At 21 years old, Frederick earned his pilot license and was captain of one of these vessels.  During this time, he met Mr. Phillip Best, owner of a small but prosperous brewery.  He married Mr. Best’s daughter, Maria, and 1864 was taken into partnership in his father-in-law’s brewery.  The business took off and the brewing company’s name was changed to the Pabst Brewing Company.

Next up, Villa Terrace Decorative Art Museum.  It was beautiful there as well, but not as exciting as the Pabst Mansion.

Playing with leaves…

We stopped by the Milwaukee Public Market to see what it was all about.  It’s got lots of vendors with high quality selections of ethnic products and freshly-made prepared foods.

I love red velvet cupcakes… and cakes!!!  Needless to say, it’s one of our wedding cake flavors. =)

After touring the city, we ended up at Bosley’s for happy hour and dinner.

Day 3 for us started in the late afternoon because we wanted to sleep in a bit ( probably from eating and drinking too much)!! LOL.  In the afternoon, we scouted the Milwaukee Public Museum since that’s where Jeni and Jay will be hosting wedding reception.  It is by far the BEST museum I’ve been too and I was super excited for the opportunity to photography Jeni and Jay’s wedding at the Milwaukee Public Museum.  Hang in there, I’ll post pictures of the Milwaukee Public Museum in Jeni and Jay’s wedding blog entry.  Don’t want to spoil it now.  =)

We had dinner at Lakefront Brewery, which is also a must-do in Milwaukee.  It was Friday which only means one thing (according to locals)!!  That’s right… Fish-fry at Lakefront Brewery!!  I can’t believe how packed it was there!!!  Their fish-fry, which basically is fish and chips are insanely delicious!!

After dinner, we signed up for a tour of the brewery!!  Here’s Gavin enjoying every sip of the beer.

Day 4 was Jeni and Jay’s wedding which you’ll see later in a separate blog post.

Day 5 (post wedding) was awesome.  We shot Jeni and Jay’s engagement pictures.  It was great because we got our own personal tour guides (Jeni and Jay) to show us around some more.  We started in the city and made our way to nature.  While Gavin is doing the engagement session, I’m fascinated with nature all around me.  As we hiked through, I felt so fresh!!  Sometimes it’s something as simple as a leaf, or a ripple, or bridge that is so calming and so beautiful.

After the engagement session, we had dinner with Jeni and Jay and said our good-byes as we wish them lots of love and happiness in their lives together.  From there, we started our (about 2 hour) drive to Chicago, Illinois.  We got there around midnight and checked into our hotel, Belden Stratford.

We got up bright and early on Day 6 to enjoy our one day in Chicago!!  I wish we had more time to explore the Windy City.

It was my first time taking the subway and I was excited just like a kid waiting for a ride at Disneyland.

We got to Chinatown and walked a little bit while waiting for this restaurant to open so we can have our breakfast.  I might be giving away my age when I say I was born in the year of the pig.

And Gavin is a Ram.

Chicago’s Chinatown is a lot smaller than our Los Angeles Chinatown.  I was a little bit disappointed because I was hoping to see a lot more street vendors and fresh fruit markets on the sidewalks (as I’ve seen it in SF and Vancouver, Canada’s Chinatown).

Gavin found and heard lots of good reviews on yelp for Go 4 Food and so we decided to try it out.  I couldn’t have been happier with the experience.  Go 4 Food has delicious and authentic Chinese dishes.  The atmosphere is great, and the restaurant is very clean.  OMG… their French-Style beef tenderloin is DELISH!!!

We took the Architectural River Cruise and it was absolutely AMAZING!!  It was very interesting learning about the past, and present building (i.e. Sears Tower, Trump Tower, etc.) that lines the Chicago River.  And no… it’s not a myth, locals DO dye the Chicago River green to honor St. Patrick’s Day.

The Chicago River from Gavin Holt on Vimeo.

REMEMBER to click the PLAY button on the video above to see this AMAZING video of that Gavin made while we explored the Architectural River Cruise.  I’m sure you’ll really appreciate the art in every single building.

After the river tour, we hopped over to Navy Pier Park to see what it was all about.  We stumbled into this HUGE Noodle in the middle of the park!! I’ve never been so excited to see a huge noodle!!!

Hahahaa…

Gavin gave me a boost onto the noodle.  What you don’t know is, in the last image of this series, I was actually yelling out, “get me down, get me down, there is a cop coming”!!! I was seriously stuck!! I couldn’t go forward (otherwise I’d face plant the floor), and couldn’t slide backwards (otherwise I’d break my leg).  Gavin was oh-so nice to finally get me off after he laughed his butt off at me!!!

The HUGE noodle everybody…

Navy Pier is very similar to our Santa Monica Pier.  There were lots of shops, restaurants, games and coaster rides.

B.F. stands for BEST FRIEND and I’m so fortunately to have found my best friend Gavin!!!

Working my magic…

And on the receiving end is…. Gavin!!!

From Navy Pier, we walked (while eating Garrett’s popcorn for lunch) to Millennium Park.  There, we saw a building that looked a lot like our Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

This is the The Jay Pritzker Pavilion (aka Bandshell) has seating for 4,000, with room for another 7,000 people on the broad lawn.  The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry who also did the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

And of course… we HAD to visit “The Bean”.  Cloud Gate (it’s official name) is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago.   The sculpture was constructed between 2004 and 2006 and was given the name, “The Bean” because of its bean- like shape.  I personally think it looks more like a hemoglobin!!  LOL   It’s made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together and highly polished to make one seamless sculpture.  It is 33 feet by 66 feet by 42 feet, and weighs about 110 tons!!  It was so fun walking around and under Cloud Gate.  The sculpture’s surface has an amazing reflection of the city’s skyline.

Gavin and I completely skipped lunch because we knew we’re gonna pig out for dinner!!  First, we stopped by Portillo’s Restaurant Group for some Italian Beef and Chicago-style Hot Dogs.

It’s soooooo darn good!!

Being total foodies that we are, we of course wanted more of the Italian beef but had to save room for Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza!!  We walked a few blocks down to another restaurant where we pigged out some more on beer and deep-dish pizza!!  I LOVE cheese and OMG I was in heaven!!!

Gavin and I practically crawled out of the restaurant having major “food-coma”.  The night came to an end as we feel fast asleep in our hotel room.  We woke up super early the next day to fight Chicago’s morning traffic back into Milwaukee so we can catch our afternoon flight back to LA.

I had SO MUCH fun and can’t wait to travel the world!!!  Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and for the opportunity to share my adventures with you all.

Gavin and I went to Maui a few weeks ago with two of my high school friends, Danli and Kathryn.  It originally started as a weekend of wine tasting get-away for Gavin and I in Temecula (Temecula wineries).  Then, at a family diner,  after hearing my aunt and uncle raved about their 4 days and 3 nights cruise, we decided to do a cruise instead.  THEN, when we meet up with Danli for sushi (a few days later), she told us about her upcoming trip to Hawaii and the awesome deal she got.  Once again, we were up-sold.  ;) To be honest though, it was a GREAT deal indeed and I was not gonna pass up on such a good offer.  We booked through PleasantHolidays.com and got our round trip tickets (from LAX to OGG) which included hotel for 6 days and 5 nights for only $650 each.  We stayed at an ocean-front hotel at the Royal Lahaina Resort.  It literally took us a minute to walk down to the water and about 10 minutes to walk over to Black Rock (one of the BEST places for snorkeling)!!

As soon as we landed, we took care of the car rentals and anxiously started our merry adventure through the Beautiful Island of Maui!!  This was my first time to Maui and must say… ” i FREAKIN LOVE it!!!”  How awesome would it be if Gavin and I were wedding photographers in Hawaii (and market t become a destination wedding photographers in Hawaii). I would love to do wedding photography in Hawaii and spend a few months out of the year living there just to do wedding photography in Hawaii.  Someday… someday…  ;-)

This is us…excited to find our yellow jeep (which ended up driving crazy, because everything was manual and I’m so spoiled with an automatic).  As I am sitting here, writing this blog and reminiscing… I can’t help but to smile at how great of a time we had in Hawaii.

And at the Hotel room… Gavin had so much fun being a kid and jumping on the bed, he ended with a face plant!! LOL…

I couldn’t help being a kid myself… so I joined him!!

After we settled into our hotel, we all went to rent our snorkeling gear.  Danli also found a great deal on that as well.  We rented our gear (mask, breathing tube, and fins) for $5 a person for the ENTIRE week at Boss Frog.  And now… it’s off to Black Rock for snorkeling!!  Snorkeling was AWESOME!!  The water was super warm and clear and the best thing… we swam with a huge sea turtle.

These next three pictures were taken with my small point-and-shoot underwater Olympus camera.

Hawaiian Law fines anyone $10,000 when caught touching a sea turtle.  This is because they are considered “almost extinct”.  When one touches them, the oils from our hand causes their protective membrane (on their shell) to break down and thus they can die from bacterial growth/infection.

Well… good thing no one was around, otherwise Gavin would have had to file for bankruptcy!!

Nice shot from a point-and-shot camera.  We snorkeled till pass sunset and then headed out for a nice dinner.

The next day, after breakfast, we started our adventure to Road to Hana (aka Journey to Paradise).  This remarkable highway stretches 68 miles long and has 620 curves/turns.  This narrow and winding road passes 59 bridges, 46 of which are one-lane ONLY bridge.  Yielding to oncoming traffic is a must!!!  Road to Hana has many mile markers that can help you find many hidden nooks and gems during the drive.  We recommend getting a audio tour or buying the book “Maui Revealed”.  The most memorable event was hiking through the jungle and finally reaching a pool with a beautiful fall.  There, we jumped into the pool and under the waterfall!  It was an amazing experience.

We also stopped at random fruit stands to try exotic fruits.  WOW… check out the size of those coconuts!! hahaha…

Just a little past mile marker 32 is a BEAUTIFUL Black Sand Beach.  The view is just simply GORGEOUS!!!

On the 3rd day, we woke up SUPER early (2:00am) to start our drive to Haleakala National Park for a breath-taking sunrise.  Being complete morons, we (being Gavin, myself, Danli, and Kat) showed up in shorts and t-shirts.  The park ranger booth showed a temperature of 42 degrees F (without wind chill factors).  Everyone else was wearing windbreakers, parkas, mittens, etc. and here we are walking in dressed like we’re going to the beach.  One of the other visitors yelled out, ” I’m cold just looking at your guys!”  I was so glad we all had a thin sweater ready in the car.

The sunrise was so relaxing… so serene!!

Wouldn’t it be nice to run and jump on these clouds.

Our 4th day was filled with fun beach activities.  More snorkeling, kayaking, scuba diving… we did it all!!  Scuba diving is a lot harder than it looks, but it was REALLY fun!!  I had the hardest time learning how to breathe through my mouth, but eventually I got the hang of it.  After our instructor tested our skills, we were able to go out and explore life under water.  One word… AMAZING!!!!

***take home message***— Wear Sunblock, even if you think you’re underwater the whole time!!!  We all got a pretty bad sunburn for Scuba diving.  It was still SO worth it though!!

After scuba diving, we enjoyed an evening of delicious food & drinks, along with a spectacular entertainment at the Old LaHaina Luau.  With an all you can eat AND all you can drink alcoholic menu… I was in heaven!!  Try Poi, try poi… everyone keeps telling me to try poi.  Well… I did and I didn’t think much of it!  It’s basically mashed up taro.

We got there early enough to see the pig being dug up from the ground!

And of course… we also had a beautiful sunset!!!

And WOW… the dancing was phenomenal.

Flower petals are flying everywhere when the girl was shakin her hips.

Me molesting our server.

Since we didn’t make it to the end of Road to Hana, we spent day 5 finishing up the trip.  This time, we started on the South end of the road and went backwards.  The tail end of Road to Hana is the famous O’heo Gulch (aka the Seven Sacred Pools).  This series of 7 waterfalls and pools is worth driving the distance of bumpy, unpaved, off-roading to get to.

The Captain Morgan pose…

And here’s one of many waterfalls we saw…

One of my favorite shots.  Gavin handheld this shoot at a 2 second exposure.

Yea… watch your head!!!  Gavin got nailed in the head a few times.

We had a wonderful trip… and I can’t wait to go back!!  Add me on facebook to see awesome videos from our trip.

Special thanks to Gavin of Gavin Photography (who is also my wonderful fiance) for taking these gorgeous scenic photos to share!!!

Mahalo Everyone!!!

In the meantime, are you all ready for some major cuteness overload?!!!?!!  As you may recall, Gavin and I welcomed two adorable kittens into our Tran-Holt family last November.  When we adopted them, these two were in horrible condition.  Button was found in a dumpster and Powder was found wandering around in a vacant backyard.  Well… look at them now!!!  These two are my precious and I think they pretty much OWN me!!  Every time I feel down or is having a bad day, one look at my adorable babies and I can’t help but to smile again!  What’s even cuter is that every time I come home,  Button and Powder would run downstairs to greet me as I open the door.  They are usually upstairs sleeping and it’s SO darn cute when they run downstairs to greet me with squinty eyes because they had just woke up from their nap.

We originally thought Button (first picture) was a Tabby, but the Vet says Button could be a Maine Coon.  Gavin did some online research and OMG we found out that female Maine Coons can weigh anywhere from 15 to 25 pounds!!!  LOL.. and I’m not surprised because she’s definitely put on some weight since we got her.  You can see her their baby pictures here.

This is Button at 5 & 1/2 months.  How could you not fall in love with that face!!!

And this is Powder at 6 months .  I LOVE Powder’s eyes; she’s got some crazy awesome looking eyes!!  A Vet student once told me, “Be careful of white cats with green eyes… they are can be little crazy!” LOL… and boy was she right!!!  Powder is a handful.  She’ll do the most funniest thing you’ll ever see.  One time she plopped on the floor and then started dragging herself across the room with only her front paws!!  ”Weird cat” or “Crazy cat” is her nick name… in addition to “Motorboat” because she purrs very loudly.  We found that Powder is very affectionate and more lovey-dovey with us then Button is.  Powder LOVES to be around people and LOVES to cuddle up and sleep with us at night.  She’ll come up and put her face right next to ours or fall asleep on our chest or next to our shoulder.  She’ll sometime be so affectionate that it becomes annoying when we’re trying to sleep so I’ll Gavin would not let her in our room.  She’ll be meowing ALL night long!

The following two pictures are done using a Ray Flash with a 15mm fish eye.  Cool huh???

Here’s Powder stalking something.  I don’t know what.. but she likes to stalk little bugs and then attack them~!!

Button and Powder likes to rough play with each other a lot!  Sometimes we’ll hear them chase after each other around the house (even in the middle of the night).  I read online that after 4 months kittens hit their peak in rough-playing and begin to mellow out.  Well…NOT these two!! They are so playful and full of energy!

Awww….. And this is Gavin… he’s my third baby!! heehee  Gavin, very much like Powder,  is a social butterfly and is very much like Button in that he sometimes can be quite mischievous.  He loves to be around people but more importantly he LOVES to play video games!!  I found him at Sav-on Pharmacy about 5 and a half years ago!!  And yeah… I think I’m gonna keep him too!!  =)

Peek-a-Boo— I see you!!!

I am so glad to have Button and Powder in our lives!!  They add so much life to our home and so much love to our lives!!  I don’t know what I’ll do without them… they’re my precious! Everyday I pray that other people would find it in their hearts and give these lovable animals a chance and making a difference in their lives as well.  Please let me know if you are interested in adopting a cat or dog!!! I can definitely send over Heather’s information.  She has many dogs and cats who are in desperate need a home.

Cheers,

Judy

For the wedding day, my parents hired a traditional Vietnamese photographer and videographer.  Knowing that this wedding was mainly for my family, Gavin and I pretty much let my parents took over with the wedding planning.  However, Gavin and I still wanted artistic wedding pictures so we found another photographer (Aidan Dockery), to do the day-after session.  Aidan is an English photographer who shares our passion for photography and has a similar style to ours.  He has lived and worked in Vietnam for about 6 years.  We were so lucky to have him agree to photograph our session.  Thank you so much Aidan for the beautiful photos!  It was truly a pleasure meeting and working with you!

You can see more of his work here:

http://www.abdphoto.net/weddings.html

http://blog.abdphoto.net/2010/01/binh-duong-wedding.html

Here are some of our favorites from the day!  Enjoy…

On our way to Dai Nam Park, we saw this beautiful rubber tree orchard!  As wedding photographers, we can’t let the photo opp slip by…

With 3 professional wedding photographers, this was a piece of cake!  LOL…  The only downside was… it was blistering HOT and there were humongous red ants crawling everywhere!  They were at our feet and were not very happy that Gavin and I stepped on their homes and killed family members… so they decided to take revenge!  Not fun… but I thought it was so worth it for the pictures!  =D

I especially love the following two pictures!  It looks so dreamy!

We finally made our way into Dai Nam Park.  It’s a huge theme park that was build a few years ago.  The park has a zoo, a water park, a Buddhist temple, a movie theater, coaster rides, etc…

Love the reflection off the floor!

Gavin has a blue belt in Brazilian Ju-Jit-Su… so every now and then he has the itch to put me in a choke-hold!

We ended our shoot with a beautiful sunset!

One wedding down… one more to go!  I can’t wait to start planning for our American Wedding this coming December!  It’s actually the same date (Dec. 26) as our Vietnamese wedding, just exactly one year apart!!

After donating a $100 adoption fee per a cat (which includes two sets of vaccines for each cat, de-worming and flea treatment, and spraying and neutering service), we were able to bring them home.  I asked Heather about their history and was sicken by where these poor cats have been (before they were rescued).  One was found in a dumpster and the other was found wandering behind some bush in a vacant home.  Sad isn’t it?!?!

So… let’s meet them shall we?

This is Button at six weeks old.  We decided to name her Button because she is cute as a button! =)  Button has a very friendly and playful personality.  Here and there she will just sit there staring right back at us mischievously.  I sometime wonder what goes through her tiny little head! =)

This is Powder at 8 weeks old.  She got her name because she white and soft like baby powder.  She’s somewhat prissy and looooves to cuddle.  Her nickname is “motor-boat” because when she cuddles with us, her purring is super loud.  It’s really cool that Powder has one green eye and one blue eye!

My two babies sleep, eat, and play together all the time!  They seem to be pretty independent for their age!

This is just toooo adorable to not take a picture of.  Powder is sleeping on Button’s tummy as Button is completely passed out with her hand hanging over the side of their bed.

Look at this mischievous little one!

How can you not love that face!?!?!?

Well…  actually…let me take that back….  LOL!!!

And the evil side of this cute little kitten comes out when you piss her off… I’m joking!  This picture was taken in the middle of her yawn!

Well… Thank you for visiting and hope you will come back again soon for more updates on my work (wedding photography) and personal life!  If you are interested in adopting or would like to foster, please let me know and I’ll be more than happy to refer you over to Heather.

Cheers,

Judy

I want to take this opportunity to thank our good friends, Vivian Tran (owner and lead make up artist of AllMadeUpTeam)  and Doug of Furious Photographers for everything!

Gavin and I had the pleasure of working with Vivian and her girls a number of times now and each time, her team does an absolutely amazing job.  She is highly recommended on my list for make-up and hair.  As for Doug… he never ceases to amaze me with his photographs.  Not only is he an awesome wedding photographer, but he’s also an excellent fashion photographer!  We are honored to have him as a close friend and as our wedding photographer.  I can’t wait till our big day!  Thank you sooooo much guys for doing such a kick-ass job!!!

For our engagement shoot, Gavin and I decided that we’re going to wear our actual wedding attires.  Here are pictures of me getting ready for the shoot.  Hehehe… after taking pictures of so many brides getting ready, it feels kinda weird being on the other end of the camera and seeing pictures of me getting ready.

While Vivian was doing my make up, Gavin and Doug were playing around and taking silly pictures of each other. Looks like they are having lots of fun with all the hats!  Looks good on you boys!!!

Doug is constantly on automatic pose for the camera.

We started our engagement shoot at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

After the Performing Arts Center, we headed over to Table Rock in Laguna Beach for some sunset pictures!  Here are some of my favorites.

Check out the waves on this one:

It was so romantic! I had such a great time hanging out with my life-long best friend.  I love you Gavin!!!

We now finally have professional pictures of us where we can actually see our whole body and the background at once (without Gavin’s arm being in every single shot).  Gavin and I have so many picture of just our heads!

I love this picture of us! We look like happy little kids…so happy to be sitting on the life guard stand.  Look at Gavin…

Click here to see our entire engagement shoot here.

To all my brides out there… “I am in the same boat as all of you.  I feel the excitement and stress that comes with planning for a wedding.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any question at all regarding photography or wedding plannings in general.  Having been in the industry for 2 years now, I am more than happy to spread the knowledge.”

Cheers!!!

-judy

Our venture starts off at Monterey’s Fish House in Carmel where Gavin and I stuffed ourselves with excellent seafood for Lunch!  We started with 3 dozens of oysters (raw and grilled), and a bowl of shrimp bisque.  For the main course, I had the best crab cake and crab ravoli ever.  Gavin had grill Sea Bass which was also very yummy.  We left that place with our stomachs ready to explode!  I highly recommend those who like seafood to try Monterey’s Fish House if they are ever in Carmel.

This was our first stop through the beautiful 17-Mile Drive.  Once again… I strike-a-pose for the camera.  Every since I was little, I love to be in front of the camera.  As an adult, I just love love love being a photographer and being behind the camera photographying others!

This is pebble beach.

oh… and if you’re wondering, that’s me playing dead from falling off one of the cliffs.

Silly Gavin… what are you doing???  Are you imitating a crab again? 

LOL… I love this picture!

Here is the famous Lone Cypress Tree!!!  The view is just gorgeous… I can’t even find the words to describe how beautiful everything looks!

We made many frequent stops as we drove through the 17-Mile Drive.  Here are some of my favorite spots where we stopped for photos.  Isn’t it breathtakingly beautiful???  The one on the upper left hand corner is called the “ghost tree”.  The one the lower left hand corner is the Bixby Bridge.  The two right images are coastal scenes that were just too good to pass up while driving through.  I love it there!!!

Finally, we stopped by Pismo Beach in time for the romantic sunset.

We then had dinner at Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ.  After having so much seafood, Gavin knew I would totally appreciate meat!  I am a total carnivore and can’t be too long without meat!  Here we had excellent ribs and pull-pork!  This place is also very highly recommended on my list!

Thank you everyone for taking your time to look through my blog and get to know me and my photojournalistic style as a photographer.  I’ll try my best to keep you all posted with the latest and greatest of all my life ventures.

I hope you all had a chance to check out my galleries and blog entries.  Please feel free to leave comments and critiques… I am very open when it comes to feedback (good and bad).

After Caitlin and Sudheer’s wedding in Northern California, Gavin and I decided that we are gonna take a small vacation and enjoy Northern California.  We were suppose to hit up Yosemite National Park, but was not able to find any hotel vacanies. It’s alright though; it’ll give us an excuse to go in November when it’s less crowded.  Before we head out to San Francisco from San Ramon, Gavin and I stopped to have our Sunday brunch at a nice little restuarant called “The Peasant and the Pear.”  Their Pear Martinis are to die for!!!  The food was good and the service was excellent.  I got the Peasant Scramble which is angus ground beef sauteed with caramelized onions, baby spinach, mozzarella & two eggs, served with seasoned breakfast potatoes.  Gavin got the Monte Cristo Sandwich… and he thought it was alright (a little to dry for his taste).  Because it was our first with the restuarant, the server hooked us up with some strawberry crepes.  Yummy!!!

Oh yeah… Gavin and I loooooooooooove to eat!!! We love trying out new restuarants and dishes.  Don’t be surprised if you see blog entries with just food!  A couple years ago, when we were in Seattle, Washington, we ate clam chowder a six different restaurant… in A DAY!  We’re both such chowder heads!

Here are some pics of our drive into San Francisco.  I just thought the structure on these bridges are pretty cool looking so I took a few snapshoots as we drove through.

We stayed two nights at the Petite Auberge. It’s a cute little French Hotel in the heart of San Francisco.

I love it there; it’s so cute and comfortable. We got a petite suite and so we had the whole lower level of the hotel to ourselves. Looks like a doll house doesn’t it?

This is where we had our complimentary breakfast with all the other guests.  I love the comfort level while staying in this hotel!

This is where we lounged for our complimentary cocktail hours.

After a few glasses of wine, Gavin and I walked around SF as we decide what we want for dinner.  Gavin wanted a picture where the building looks like it’s slanted, and as for me… I had to strike-a-pose for the camera.

After climbing hills after hills, we finally decided we were gonna eat at the R & G Lounge.  It’s overpriced Chinese food!  To start, we ordered Salmon avacado eggrolls and shark fin soup.  For our main dishes we ordered Live Crab with salt and pepper (signature dish) and R & G Special Beef (secret recipe).  The lightly battered Crab with Salt and Pepper was awesome!!!  The Beef was awful.  It was super duper sweet.  I guess their secret sauce was SUGAR!!!

Here’s my silly Gavin posing like a dead crab. hehehe…

After dinner, we took a stroll through Union Square, which was only a few blocks for our hotel (Petite Auberge… also known as the White Swan).

I love this picture of Gavin pretending to lean on the column!  He’s actually a good distance away, but it looks so real!

Today is our second day in SF!  We wanted to be like the locals and take mass transit everywhere, so here we are… bored out of our minds waiting for the bus to come

Our goal today is to visit King Tut’s exhibit located inside of the De Young Museum at the Golden Gate Park.  It’s been 30 years since this exhibit was in California.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the exhibit was closed.  Out of all days, it had to be closed on the one day we decided to go!  While we were there, we visited the Science Center instead.

The Science Center was fascinating!  They had many exhibits ranging from the deep ocean to the hot African Savannas to the humid Rain Forest!

Here are some pictures that Gavin took while we were exploring the aquarium.  I love this picture… so color… so crowded… yet so peaceful.

Check out the dragon sea horse thingy… and the albino crocadile.  Pretty cool huh?

These are my attempts to look like the skull next to me.

Random pictures of us… hehehe

We took the bus to San Francisco’s Chinatown.  From there, we walked through Chinatown to get to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Along the way, I saw this bench and had to sit down for a picture~!  This is my favorite picture from the day! I love it!!!  From left to right:  Speak no evil, (Boob grabbing), See no evil, and Hear no Evil!!!

At Fisherman’s Wharf, we ate at the Crab House (in Pier 39).  To start, we had a bowl of clam chowder and crab cakes!  The clam chowder was not at all to our standards.  The crab cake was alright… we’ve had better ones.  Our main dish was their famous Dungeness Killer Crab roasted in their secret garlic sauce.  It was delicious!!! You can never go wrong with butter and garlic!

Today is third and last day in SF for us.  Our first stop… Mama’s!  This was our second time eating at Mama’s.  There is always a line out the door at this place.  I’d have to say that it’s the best breakfast I’ve ever had… so worth the wait!  Their eggs benedict and omelettes are my favorites!!!

After breakfast, we drove to Golden Gate Park again… I had to see King Tut’s exhibit!  Too bad they don’t allow photography inside.  It would have been amazing to capture the findings that were there! I learned so much about King Tutankhamun and the previous Pharaohs of Egypt.

On our way out of SF to Carmel, we stoped for some quick pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge!

To start, check out my galleries above or click on the home tab to see my blog entries.  I’m a nut for ring shots and I tend to add that “feminine” touch. I’ll try to keep this blog up to date with the latest and greatest of my weekend moments.

Here’s a picture of me and my baby “Coco”!