Kogi Truck Tacos

New thing today, tried the Kogi Truck. I wasn't really expecting much. These trucks have a ton of hype and I've noticed about half are good, and half are nothing but hype, average tasting but very expensive. There is a reason this is one of the original food truck staples and it has so many fans.

THE FOOD WAS AMAZING! They're just little tacos, but they were so yummy! How did they do that? The operation is very well run. The truck takes your order efficiently and gets the tacos out fairly quickly too.

Someone said the tofu was tasty, so I tried it with the short rib and spicy pork tacos as well. Holy crap these were good. Tofu might have been my favorite surprise as it was super super tasty and probably a lot healthier too. Short rib and spicy pork were excellent as well. The cabbage salsa on top is amazing and it was just really great quality food.

I am a fan :)

Arby's Deep Fried White Cheddar Cheese Curds

New thing today, tried these deep fried cheese curds from Arby's. Ridiculous! We were on a road trip back from Vegas and got these on our way home. They tasted like mini mozzarella sticks. Pretty deadly and good. I wasn't addicted to these like others, just wanted to try them out. Tasty.

Pitch Perfect 2 - Geeky Excited

New thing today, got thoroughly geeky excited when I read that they are making Pitch Perfect 2. Yup! I don't usually care that much what movies are coming out, what sequels or such. Sometimes I get interested or look forward to movies, but this one is a first, because there are just talks about it, it's not even made, and I am excited and hopeful. Aca-mazing.

Lays Cheesy Garlic Bread flavored

New thing today, tried these Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread. Apparently it won some kind of flavor contest. Very garlicy tasting, and I like garlic but it was a bit much. Mom loved the stuff. I thought it was just ok, descent and garlic/cheesy tasting. Eh ok. I would nosh on them in the future but wasn't loving it. 

Dexter - Show Finale

New thing today, we finished Dexter. We've been watching it for years, but the entire thing was recently on Netflix so we decided to finish off the entire series. The last seasons made me want to re-watch the whole thing from the beginning. Enjoyed it overall. Spoiler alerts and commentary ahead.

Season 1 - Ice Truck Killer - pretty awesome season and introduction to world and characters. I personally loved Deb and she's been a fave of mine through all the seasons.

Season 2 - Some good moments and characters. I like Lundy, Lila and found Doakes annoying in his constantly angry black man gig. Nice cat and mouse going, but eh, whatever season.

Season 3 - Smits season. Honestly I don't remember a whole lot?

Season 4 - Trinity killer! It's a favorite of many fans. I found it good, but wasn't in love with it like some other people. It's pretty cool overall and definitely raised the quality of the series in this season. Plus pretty fabulous finale.

Season 5 - The Lumen season. I liked this one. It's also a bit of a love season with suspicious Quinn and Deb and Angel and LaGuerta.

Season 6 - Doomsday. Eh it was alright. I liked the psychosis of Colin Hanks. It felt like a build-up to season 7 with Deb & Dex.

Season 7 - Amazing. Probably my favorite. A lot of S*** goes down. It's got Deb finding out about Dex (fully!), Hannah relationship starting (which I loved), Isaak (pretty great friend character) and all the closing in on Dexter. Plus one hell of a season finale, pretty incredible.

Season 8 - a bit boring in the first half, but got better at the 2nd half of the season. I liked Dr. Vogel a lot and had all sorts of ideas about how they would wrap it up and end it. Was a surprise to see Hannah again and then found the last scenes with Deb and Dex pretty touching. I found the end very tragic and it made you think about it a lot. I thought it might end with a circle of life ending, with Harrison being surrounded by someone's blood and turning into a psychopath. But alas, there was hope and tragedy all at once.

So in the end, I think it's a very very good series. They ended it, which is important to stories. I believe you shouldn't let TV shows linger on becoming sick, frail and annoying for years and years. Instead shows should have an arch, a story and a proper ending. They did a really good job with this series. Ending was good as well.

In fact, the last seasons actually made me want to watch the previous seasons because they referenced previous stories and murders from the Dexter universe. Plus I miss extra foul-mouthed Deb. She got tamer over the seasons and I miss her spew of profanity on a regular basis. I may watch this series again one day.

My Name in the Church Bulletin

New thing today, saw my name in the church bulletin. See I've been volunteering at a church library for some time, but the lady who used to run it sort of stepped down and asked if anyone wanted to take over what she did. I stepped up, and asked to be the main person for it (eeeek!!!!). I'm excited and nervous to be in charge of this task, but I'm going to take it slow, bite off what I can chew, and tackle tasks in a slow and steady way. Hopefully I can make good progress and keep the church library going. 

Anyway I saw my name in her place today and it made me really proud. Now I'm hoping the library will be more organized and taken care of, since I'll be able to do a little more than she was able to in the past few years due to her health. Although, she knew a ton, and ran the church library for a few decades, so I have a lot to live up to, but am hoping to keep learning. Here's to new challenges and opportunities to lead. Eeek!

47 Ronin (2013)

New thing today, watched 47 Ronin (2013). First movie of 2014 and it was terrible, simply terrible! We watched it at the cheap theater today, and heard it got 12% Rotten Tomatoes rating, so we were intrigued. Plus I love movies with dragons and the trailers had all that supernatural demon stuff I love. Sometimes we don't agree with ratings so I was willing to give this movie a shot, even just for the demon supernatural effects.

About 20 minutes in I was bored. Didn't like the love story, wasn't interested in the characters, costumes I thought were gaudy, I thought the acting and shots/sequences were bad and overall it was really cheesy in a bad way. The acting was really over-dramatic ridiculous. Also the costumes were weird to me. It's like the colors were off and they had these metallic fabrics that were so not fitting to the time period or the tone of the movie. It seemed like it was going authentic past feel but it was also going overly stylized and the two didn't fit together. Also Japanese are fairly stoic and some of the emotional outbursts by the characters felt uncharacteristic. The pep talk pre-battle speeches were bad too. Eh. Awful awful, but you know, whatever. I wasn't angry, just bored and found it funny how bad some if it was.

Good News - I did like the fighting scenes at the end where they storm the castle and battle the dragon. Plus the scenes where the wicked dragon lady is doing her wicked stuff was pretty cool. Other than that, snore and cliche! Plus at the end, we find out that it's based on real Japanese history and a story about forty seven ronin and they pretty much just $*** all over Japanese culture with that terrible movie.

Oddly enough, I think it might have been better without the ridiculous love story or the supernatural elements, which is what the story centered around. If they focused it as a drama, not so much action and focused on Japanese history, past culture and honor of the Ronin it might have been better. If they made it more authentic past Japanese tone, and if the actors didn't speak English with Japanese accents, it might have made it better. It all just felt pretty ridiculous and I can't put my finger on it, but it just felt wrong. Eh.

I was hopeful, but it was disappointing. It was pretty bad and one of the worst movies I've seen. I think we can only go up from here for movies in 2014. Bright side.

Holidrizzle Dark Chocolatier Sea Salt Kettle Corn - Target

New thing today, tried Holidrizzle Dark Chocolatier Sea Salt Kettle Corn from Target. It was on clearance and decided to try it out. This stuff is magic deadly. Super tasty and just the right amount of dark chocolate, sweet and crunch. Mmmmmm. So bad, but so good. Won't be getting more anytime soon, but ya it's pretty good.

Sweater Love

New thing today, got and wore this cute heart sweater from H&M. LOVE this sweater, the design, the style, comfy and loving :)

Lettuce Wrapped Burger - Five Guys

New thing today, had a lettuce wrapped burger or a "bun less" burger at Five Guys. It's my first time ever eating a burger without the bun. Overall, it's just ok. Nice without the bread, like a meaty messy lettuce wrap. Tasted descent actually. OF course it does taste better with the bun, but it does fairly well without the bun. I would do it again and probably enjoy it. It's just a bit messy to eat and all, so be prepared. Yeay new healthier things :)

Here's a photo from another guy's blog - pretty similar to my burger.

Tervis - Goldfish with Lid

New thing today, bought and used my new favorite Tervis cup. Got it in Vegas at their Tervis store at the Mile shops in Planet Hollywood. This one was actually on my Christmas list, but I took it off because I thought it would be silly. Then imagine our trip we run into a full fledged Tervis store (love it) and I had to get it! It's Goldfish with Lid. So fun. Looks like you have fish swimming in your drink!

Baked Eggplant with Parmesan Cheese

New thing today, baked eggplant with parmesan cheese. The photo is from the website but looked pretty similar. I just cut it up, put olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt. Baked at 350 for 30 minutes and it tasted pretty good. I might actually follow this recipe next time for more consistency, but overall, tasty and easy and I will make it again. Fairly healthy too :) Yum yum! Love eggplant and was happy this turned out well - could have been horrible since I didn't really plan it or look up a recipe or anything. Eek :) But it turned out well - yeah!

Outdoor World - Bass Pro Shop - Las Vegas

New thing today, went to the Outdoor World Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas. This place was a ton of fun and insanely weird, cool and bizarre. After the urban of Las Vegas, we remembered that we wanted to see this place on our way out. What we found was a Disney type Wonderland of outdoor hunting, camping, fishing stuff. The parking spaces are lined with fish outlines. You step through the entrance and it's this grand log cabin filled with stuffed heads, antlers, animals and all sorts of goodies. There were a few waterfalls inside, a little game shooting range, a small archery range inside, a giant aquarium in the casino next door and just neat scenery and stuff. I love this place and would gladly come back next time we're in Vegas. It's just a fun different type place in the area. I highly recommend!

Internet Photos - Fishing area

Main Hall Area

Casino next door has a giant aquarium and mermaid shows - MERMAID shows! We will have to make it and see it sometime, but here's a photo.

BINGO - The Palace Station

New thing today, played BINGO in Vegas at the Palace Station. I've only played BINGO once or twice when I was a kid, and I remember it being pretty basic and boring. THIS BINGO in Vegas was something else. There were a bunch of cards, fast calling and different types of BINGO. We ended up having a lot of fun and feeling a lot of stress trying to keep up as newbies to the game. Definitely grown up and a lot of fun. I would play again, a little wiser and hopefully less stressful and a little luckier. Surprisingly fun!

Wicked Spoon - Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegas

New thing today, tried Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegas. Let me just say I love the Cosmopolitan Hotel. It's very swanky, posh and cool. I even love their commercial Misfit Right In. I heard fabulous things about Wicked Spoon so we were excited to try it out.

I was a little disappointed, but it was still a really cool place. Ambiance - FABULOUS. The place feels so cool and posh. Service - EXCELLENT! Presentation - AMAZING. If you love beautiful food, this is not your typical cattle call buffet. It's artsy, and they had insanely small cute pretty and artsy dishes you would see on Top Chef. Everything looked amazing. They kick up their dishes with Foie Gras, Truffle Oil and decadent ingredients. Taste - I'd say half and half. Half the dishes were good to excellent. The other half were just average/ok. If you love dessert this place is incredible as there's an entire island dedicated to little desserts and a gelato bar. An EXCELLENT in desserts and such.

Overall my favorite dish was a Foie Gras shot glass thing with a vinaigrette jello or something that just tasted amazing but I wasn't sure if it was a dressing, topping, or something. Whatever it was, it was really yum. Desserts were excellent - my favorite the coconut maroons. Pizza and bread were pretty amazing too. Shrimp was anything and muscles were incredible. I was disappointed by the fried chicken wings, truffle potatoes, steak, sushi (or lack thereof), and all. We tried too many dishes to remember them all. I would go again except I would maybe choose lunch instead of dinner, and be willing to try more things. The seafood was excellent, but the other meats not so much.

Enjoy!

Also here's the Misfit Right In commercial I was talking about :)

Stratosphere - Big Shot

New thing today, rode the Las Vegas Stratosphere ride - Big Shot. It's the ride that goes up and down the needle on the top of the Stratosphere. It is amazingly fun and I haven't had butterflies like those in years.

We were in Vegas, and someone in our group wanted to try a ride. We got a tower ticket plus a ride ticket, and decided to do the Big Shot ride. It just goes up and down, seems safe enough, and well looked fun. The freefall feeling lasted quite a bit and we rode at night so it was an amazing skyline and just felt like you were on top of the world, floating and getting butterflies. Pretty fabulous.

I would go again. I recommend it for anyone wanting to do a ride at Vegas Stratosphere tower!

Baguette Pan from Sur la table

New thing today, bought a Baguette Pan and bought my first thing from Sur la Table. I like making bread and really want to try a french style baguette one day, so we will see. Hopefully it will turn out better than my first bread & quiche experiments! Here's hoping. Well the hardware is bought. Will post when I actually bake with it. 

Eggs 'N' Things Counter Seating & Veggie Omelette

New thing today, had a Veggie Omelette at Eggs 'N' Things and sat at the counter. Both were good experiences! I loved sitting at the counter and watching all the kitchen and action running the restaurant. Also the veggie omelet was delish! Yeay Eggs & Things!

Made Small Bags

New thing today, made these little bags with my sewing machine. They cinch up with a drawstring and are just cute. Happy with these and will give away as little gifts as needed. The inside linings are grey and a pretty turquoise blue (forgot to take  photos). But yes, yeay home sewn bags!

Quaker Soft Baked Bars

New thing today, tried these Quaker Soft Baked Bars for breakfast, only about 150 calories each. Pretty good I think. The Banana Nut Bread was my favorite. They were sweet and filling, so a good snack or small small breakfast. I think the nuts help keep it filling. I would buy these again :) I did warm them up in the microwave for 10 seconds - excellent!

Librarian Jewelry

New thing today, wore my Librarian jewelry! Got my masters recently and husband got me these pieces as a Christmas gift. It's from a list of Etsy items I found super cute. Anyway here they are :)

This is the index number off a library card - necklace.

This one is a bracelet that says Librarian with cute charms.

Brat Haus Santa Barbara

New thing today, tried the Brat Haus in Santa Barbara. It's on State Street and who doesn't love Brats? Well this place caught our eye and we decided to try it out. I got the Hoffman Brat with cooked sauerkraut and caramelized onions, husband got the Beer Brat with sweet peppers. We shared the fries. 

The fries were thick cut, fat and undercooked. Not my favorite and I wouldn't get them again.

My Brat was pretty good. It tasted better with just the sauerkraut, although the caramelized onions were delish as well, I took those out and had them on the side, and I liked the Brat with just the sauerkraut.

Husband's Brat was very good as well!

Overall not a bad place, but not a great on either. I think a beer would have made these Brats much tastier so maybe next time I'll try it with a cold brew. I liked my husband's Beer Brat better than my Hoffman Brat. Not the tastiest place we've been in Santa Barbara, but passes as alright in my book. They do have Belgium Waffles, so it's probably worth another pass and trying some different menu items. 

The Moth

New thing today, discovered a new favorite podcast - The Moth. They're "True Stories Told Live". It's fascinating. It's just people telling random stories with a theme, or not a theme or whatnot. It's great storytelling and it's one of my new favorite things. I discovered the podcast and am excited for new ones to come on. Yeay!

A&W Restaurant - Northridge

New thing today, tried 3 new dishes at A&W. Never went there for dinner, also a first. Had the dishes below, and they were good! We will be going back to try more items! I love that I've found a good authentic Chinese restaurant nearby!!!

Chicken & Mushroom. This was a little bland. It had a white sauce with it, but was just ok.

Seafood fried rice. This was good! Had bits of scallop& crab, as well as the usual fried rice stuff. Good.



Green Beans. Bomb!!! These were my favorite and oh so good. Why are Chinese restaurant green beans so awesome? Anyway this was my favorite dish. Getting this again, and may try other dishes next time :)



Support Local Businesses!!!

My First Quiche & Tart Pan Cooking

New thing today, made a quiche with a tart pan - both firsts, and both a disaster :) To explain, I got the recipe from Weight Watchers and had the refrigerated dough from pies for the season, so wanted to try my hand at quiche. It seemed like a totally do-able recipe and I love quiche. It was pretty good all set - photo below. 

Then, cooked for allotted time, and well, time to take out of the oven. When I was taking it out of the oven, the removable bottom popped out and the outside rim part fell off. Everything was fresh & hot, and it totally threw me off guard. Fabulous non-stick tart pan slipped and the quiche ended up face down on the floor. Photo below. 

Disaster. I was devastated. I pretty much spent about 1-2 hours of a complete waste of food and a mess of dishes making it and a mess of slop cleaning it all up. I think the dog enjoyed licking off the taste of it after we cleaned off everything, but ya, only the dog got to taste my quiche that night.

Oh the agony of spilt quiche. I didn't cry, but it felt pretty awful. Husband was a dear and helped me clean. At least we had other food to eat that night but I wasn't really hungry anymore. So frustrating, aggravating, demoralizing and upsetting.

I practiced my Zen, and let the incident go. I let all the frustration with myself, the pan and the failure go. It took a little while, but not long after I was ok. I'm going to cook smarter next time, and try it again, except maybe put it on a cookie tray/baking pan before I cook, and then take it out on the pan. Or I'll use two gloved hands when taking out the quiche. 

Overall I learned how not to make quiche. And I remembered, my first experiments with bread turned out awful, but I kept at it, and I ended up making some really really fantastic bread after some bad turns. You can't win them all, and you can't be arrogant enough to think that everything you do will be perfect and wonderful every time you try new things. Although I'm pretty arrogant and expect that things will be perfect and I will do wonderful things. Reminder, that you will spill quiche, but also Thank your blessings, that we had all this extra food, and it wasn't our only meal, and that I wasn't making anyone go hungry because I spilt and wasted this food. 

So many lessons. A first, not a last. You will see another post, and I will make another quiche, and maybe I'll do a "new thing today, made a successful quiche" post or something like that :) But yes, lets focus on the failure too. I hate that turn the frown upside down always sunny positive crap. Sometimes things are just miserable, wasted, unfortunate or bad and you have to honor that. Sometimes, things just flop. *Sigh. And then, you let it go, and move on.

Daily Knowledge Podcast

New thing today, listened to the Daily Knowledge Podcast. Sometimes I work on mind numbing stuff, which I sometimes enjoy because I can listen to podcasts and sort of veg out. I discovered this and it's sorta interesting. Listened to a few episodes and enjoyed it. Not sure if I'll stick to it, but it's got some interesting posts here or there. It's also a bit like what I'm doing here, sharing something new every day. They have a main website TodayIFoundOut.com which is kinda neat. Always learn :)

Santa Barbara Courthouse & Public Library

New things today, went to the Santa Barbara Courthouse & Public Library. We sort of unexpectedly ran into them. We were just planning on going to State Street and walk around, when we parked at some random parking lot which sort of landed us right next to both locations.

We left the parking lot and saw the Santa Barbara Library. So cool so decided to walk in. They have a Faulkner wing and when we went it was a gallery filled with what looked like local art. Inside it was half modern and half old world bookshelves. It was cute and I would gladly spend a respite from shopping there in the future. Looked like a super cozy bookshop inside.

Then right next to this, we saw this huge tower with people looking out into the city. So decided to check that out too. It was this gorgeous old Spanish architecture building, with beautiful grounds and a huge tower. Turned out it was the Santa Barbara Courthouse and what we first saw was the Observation Tower. Weird thing is, we've been to Santa Barbara quite a few times and never saw this building before, but its been there forever so it was an exciting first!

It was gorgeous! It was absolutely awesome inside and out. The grounds were so pretty, and the tower had fantastic views of Santa Barbara. We went when there was gorgeous light and it was a beautiful day. It was truly truly awesome! I loved the mosaic tiles throughout the building. There was this great spiral staircase and just the doors, the borders around the doors, the floors, ceilings, everything was really really beautiful. This could be one of my favorite buildings. Best of all, it's free to go inside and wander around. We're going to go there again, and I will take snippets of photos from the internet and post them down here, but it's quite a photographers paradise :) I love this building and Spanish architecture - very cool.

A panoramic view

Main Courthouse

Inner Courtyard & Grounds (pic doesn't do it justice, it's so much more pretty)

A Mural

The Spiral Staircase

Goleta Butterfly Grove

New thing today, went to the Goleta Butterfly Grove. Exciting!

It was magical because the husband thought of it and wanted to take me :) So it was really awesome and sweet of him.

What I was expecting

What we saw

So basically most of the butterflies were in the trees and sleeping or something, so they looked like brown clumps around the trees. Some were flying around, but not much. 

We saw more butterflies at the LA Natural History Museum Butterfly Pavilion when we went a few years ago. Even though the butterfly grove was disappointing, the highlight was past the butterfly grove to the beach. We spent most of our time there at the beach, watching our dog have a blast running up and down. There were beautiful cliff views and it was a really great day. We enjoyed the beachside so much more. Had a lovely lunch picnic on the cliff overlooking the beach and ocean, and well, it was just awesome. A very lovely afternoon.

On our way back from the beach we went by the butterfly grove and found a docent there teaching and talking about the butterflies. That was much more interesting. She said a lot of the local development and pollution over the years have probably influenced and reduced the amount of butterflies that come to the area. 

I hope we were just unlucky and I want to go again, just for the beach if anything. I hope we see more butterflies next time, and I hope you do too if you go. Still sorta neat. 

The Grilled Cheese Truck - Three Cheese Melt

New thing today, had a Three Cheese Melt from The Grilled Cheese Truck. Wow it was magical! There was so much hype behind The Grilled Cheese Truck, that I was actually doubting that the sandwiches would be good. I was wrong and it held up beautifully!

I had the Three Cheese Melt as it looked like the least indulgent and had one of my favorite cheeses - Bleu! It was made with Gruyere, Aged White Cheddar, and Bleu Cheese. I had it on white bread and got no sides, as still trying to keep it relatively healthy. It was AMAZING! I would gladly get this again and I would gladly try other sandwiches.

This was awesome, delicious and a must-try for the future :)  Happy Friday folks.

Paid for Gas with Cash

New thing today, went to the gas station and paid with cash. Whoa! I seriously have never done that before. So different.

Ok here's how it goes. I've been switching to using just cash and an app to track my spending. Been doing it a few months now and it's working really well for me. Usually I'm with my husband when we gas up the car so we use his card. This time I was by myself and needed a filler up.

Felt really dumb and weird paying with cash, but I think I like it a lot better than the card. You get some human contact with the cashier, and I'm not super paranoid the card swiper is rigged to steal my cc info. Also you get what you pay for. Just give them whatever you think it will cost, or a little more, and fill. It stops when it's done, don't need a receipt and don't need to double check my cc statement later that month.

I like it! Who knew the old ways would be more fun? Maybe I'd hate it if it were busy, but it was pretty easy.

Yeay! New thing that I enjoyed weirdly enough.

Rose Parade 2014

New thing today, attended and saw the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade.

This is not my first Rose Parade, but this is a first in being able to see it. Let me explain. When I was a kid (guessing between 7-9 years old), we went. It was miserable. It was cold, crowded, and being a kid, we weren't in the front so I pretty much didn't see anything. My family was excited and swore I would enjoy it, but I didn't. My view, pretty much consisted of something like this - which is what part of the experience was this year. When I was a kid, it was the view of a bunch of backs, waists, pants. It was freezing cold. I heard music once in awhile, and I was pretty much bored out of my mind. It was miserable. Here is what it probably looks like to a kid not in the front of the parade.



THIS year, we had a lot of fun. Mainly the fun part came from the family time. We were going because a cousin was going to be dancing and be part of the KC and the Sunshine Band and the Stella Rosa float. All of us weren't really wanting to go, but if we were going to go, this was the best year to go. How often is a relative in the parade anyway?

Preparation - mom suggested bringing step ladders (brilliant) and we dressed prepared for freezing cold morning, with layers as it may warm it. The weather turned out awesome, and we had our jackets off in the first hour or so standing outside. I think the average temperature was like 65-75 that morning :) Beautiful!

So, early morning driving in, the excitement mounted as we saw grandstands and traffic. The freeways were blocked off with all sorts of busses and horse trailers. We saw some people prepping and a bunch of traffic. Mom knows the back roads and she works in Pasadena, so we got lucky, were able to park in her office building, and walk over to the parade a few blocks away.

We ended up setting up our viewing area by Colorado and Los Robles, not far from the beginning of the parade, so a lot of the people in the parade were in good spirits and energetic on and around the floats :)

Waiting. There's a lot of waiting around. This guy was our favorite. He was making bacon wrapped hot dogs with onions and peppers. Delicious! Sister and I got some and it made our morning delicious!

Perspective - how far we were from the floats, and a view of the crowd.




The cute floats we saw - a little camera zoom.

The Budweiser Clydesdale horses!!!!
*On the side, I enjoyed cheering for the dressed in white popper scooper teams following all the horse teams. There's a small group that cheers for them throughout the parade, so I joined and they are our unsung heroes!

Surprising highlight - the music!!!! Watching it live, I really really enjoyed whenever we managed to get the bands to play in our area. I'm not a marching band or parade fan, but the live music - pretty awesome and joyful. It was such a nice highlight and so awesome live. It helped that the Asian marching band played Gangnam Style and were dancing a bit along. Yeay! The music does not translate over the TV well at all. Watching it on TV, I'm mainly annoyed at the band sections, but live, the bands were enjoyable.

Another highlight - the smell!!!! These are only things you can get live, but it smelled amazing :) So many fresh flowers! Probably will drive you nuts if you have allergies, but smells pretty great. 

People watching! There was this guy. He was either wearing a hearing aid, or he was a cop. I'm pretty sure he was a cop or security. The way he carried himself was just too serious. 

Then there's this lady. lol. 

Anyway here is my BEST shot of the float my cousin was dancing beside. Even though we were on step ladders and could see above the crowd, I still barely got a glimpse of her. 

We left early a few floats after my cousin's float. We were glad because we did not want to get stuck in the after parade traffic. Also we were all a little done. Not super exciting or interesting watching the parade in the first place.

Conclusion - best place to still "SEE" the Rose Parade is on TV! I love the commentary descriptions, the sitting cozy at home, the close-ups, the panning camera and such. So much more convenient and makes you appreciate the floats better.

Live - it was a lot of fun, because we had good attitude, good weather and lucky with getting a good viewing spot. Plus it was lucky that everyone in our family was in a good mood and we were all having a good time together. It could easily turn pain in the ass if any of these factors were off. We hung out after the parade, and the good times continued :) Overall I think we just enjoyed our time together more than the actual parade itself, but it was an event to attend!

So Cheers and congrats to my cousin! She's featured ON TV and she was actually in quite a few of the clips, YouTube videos and such. This might be the best one. I won't say who she is, but we're proud of her and happy she got to be in such a cool event. Plus I'm glad the weather was good for her too! I hope she had a blast. We did :)

Happy New Year folks!