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OC Night Market
Payam and I hit up the OC Night Market last Friday. It only comes to town twice a year so I’m surprised I was actually on it this time. It was pretty fun. I wish we had brought the girls.
I’m not a super foodie or anything (which is kind of what the Night Market is about) but I do love to do anything outside during Golden Hour. It’s just so pretty! I feel like I used to when I lived at the beach and people would stay in their houses and completely ignore the ocean being magnificent right outside their door. So I make up for all the people ignoring the beauty and find myself completely entertained by the clouds and the show they were putting on. It was especially pretty that night. My camera doesn’t really do them justice.
The food was pretty photogenic too. I wanted to get boba in a lightbulb and a cotton candy burrito but I’m on this stupid health kick where I worry about getting enough fiber and I try not to over-do it on sugar. Being healthy can be so boring sometimes. I did break down for the photo’s sake and get a strawberry lemonade in a lightbulb. It was delicious of course. And pretty with the sky behind it.
Payam thinks I’m such a nut taking pictures of everything all the time. I really was like this before social media existed. You remember, right? Remember when blogging was just writing and people like me annoyed everyone because we slowed up a page’s loading time by putting pictures on our websites. I’ve been annoying since the dinosaur days.
So yeah! Crazy Night Market food! Ramen noodle hamburger buns? They have them! Cotton Candy burritos, boba in every color, rainbow grilled cheese..
And Squid on a Stick! I was thoroughly grossed out but Payam said it was tasty! The gyoza I had was soggy and gross too. Probably because they were paying so much attention to the squids on a stick customers they neglected all the other boring items on their menu. I think they saved time by pre-cooking the gyoza and just stashed it in the back for the odd random person who ordered something as boring as gyoza. Personally, I love gyoza so I was super disappointed. Guess I’ll stick to takeout from now on.
We really missed the kids. The thing about 50/50 custody is that you have a week off to do fun couple things without kids (really great, right?) but invariably the fun things you do without kids you end up thinking would be way more fun with kids. Then the weeks you do have kids you are so busy doing parenting stuff you completely forget about all the fun things you wanted to do with them and go down in the books as boring. You can’t win.
I am really going to make an effort to remember the Night Market though because I know Bug and Joon would both really dig it. Not so much for the food but definitely for the glow-in-the-dark, light-up, blinky night-time fun.
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Beach Mornings
Last weekend Bug announced that we were going to the beach for bagels. She didn’t ask anyone if that’s what we wanted to do. She just announced it. It’s a thing the girls and I do from time to time. We get bagels on our way to the beach and then sit on the lifeguard tower or on a towel on the sand and enjoy our breakfast while watching the waves. It’s not a bad idea really. But I’m not so sure how I feel about Bug dictating the day for the rest of us.
So we hashed it out. We didn’t really have any plans. Everyone threw out all the things we wanted to do and finally by the end of it we admitted that Bug’s idea was the best idea. Also the cheapest. So off we went! All four of us!
I took my camera along because I am trying to be more responsible in generating content here on this blog AND hey, what do you know, some of these shots might work out really well for the end-of-the-year calendar I like to make as a Christmas gift for the grandparents! Hot diggety! Also it gives me something to do besides going in the water. I’m kind of a curmudgeon when it comes to going into the actual water. It was supposed to be a “morning” at the beach not to be confused with a “Beach Day.” Well, you know how that went.
When we left it was cloudy and we only thought we’d stay a few hours. But then the sun broke through and it turned out to be a perfect beach day!! Why didn’t I wear my bathing suit?!! Because I’m a curmudgeon that’s why. Grumble, grumble… I really should know better. I am a beach expert. There is really no going to the beach and not getting wet.
Bug was in her element. She’s a beach kid through and through.
I love that she grew up on the beach and doesn’t get grossed out by a bit of sea weed. You can tell when someone is from inland, they won’t get near the stuff. Sand between their toes? Nope. But us, we sleep in sandy sheets and think it’s normal.
The waves were decent so the girls tried to brush up on their body-surfing skills. Let’s just say we need to go to the beach more this summer. They need some practice.
I took a thousand pictures. I love this beach so much. I do miss not living by it anymore. I miss all the changing colors with the weather and the geography of the rippling rocks, bending to whatever plate tectonics we have going on. It’s just so beautiful and changing every day.
At one point Bug snuck up and threw some seaweed on me while I was bending over taking pictures of a shell or something. Insert rolling eye emoji.
Eventually we had to cut the girls off. I hate doing it. I want to be that parent who can stay at the beach all day until the sun goes down and they exhausted and sun-kissed but I had things to get done. You know how it goes. Phones are dying, stomaches are grumbling for lunch, the laundry needs to get done before the week starts up again etc etc… So we packed up our towels and beach blankets and slowly made our way back to our boring regular every-day life. Next weekend we have the girls I vowed that we’d do it again and this time pack a lunch and plan to stay all day. Next time!
But a beach morning is better than a no-beach morning. So we kissed our favorite view goodbye and promised we’d be back soon.
