Prairie Dog

I’ve seen these odd little creatures before from pictures and I’ve never seen them for real until today. I was driving to my sister’s and from afar, I saw two little creatures crossing the street. “What was that?”, I told myself. Then I realized, “these are prairie dogs I’ve seen from Tim’s photos!”. So I stop my car, get my camera and took few photos of these stange but cute creatures of the wild. I’ve never thought I could find them here in New Mexico!

Wikipedia: The prairie dogs (Cynomys) are small, burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. On average, these stout-bodied rodents will grow to be between 12 and 16 inches (30 and 40 cm) long, including the short tail. They are found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. U.S., range primarily found west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales.

GAS and Grocery Skyrocketing Prices

I filled up my car with fuel yesterday. I was surprised by how much it increased. I used to pay $35 for full tank and now, it’s sweeping $50.00. This is only good for one week and a half to two weeks.. Goodness gracious!!!

I went to Trader Joe’s, a grocery store which only sells organic stuff, to get some dessert for Tim and Joy and some foodah for myself .

These are all organic, peepz.. If you are really health-conscious, this is the store for you. Oh wait, there’s more! It’s a bit expensive than regular grocery stores. Beware!

I grabbed some ready-to-eat food for lunch. I got vegetable fried rice for $1.99..not bad, eh? I picked frozen chicken shomai as well. They are deliciouso!!
I didn’t forget to grab my favorite dessert, tiramisu!!! Sounds Japanese so I thought before this is from Japan but this comes from Italy! It’s unquestionably great! It’s 6.99 dolyares. It’s not a bad price for 5 people.

I got lava cake for myself. I love this. You just have to heat this up in the microwave for one minute and viola, you got yourself a cake with hot lava (liquid choco) flowing. And I what I love about this is it’s not that sweet. I got lambrusco white wine to go with all these good foodah.

Today is such a beautiful day inspite of the high gas price. (*wink) I’ve taken this picture on my way home. This is my beautiful neighborhood.

Next Stop: Crested Butte, Colorado

Photo by: http://www.timfitzharris.com/ Crested Butte is our (me and bf) next stop for July 4 weekend. Our friend recommended this to us. It is a five-hour drive from Santa Fe. The natural landscape is breathtaking. The wildflowers are just beautful. To tell you more about the town, here is wikipedia has to say:

The historic Town of Crested Butte is a Home Rule Municipality located in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. A former coal mining town now called “the last great Colorado ski town”, Crested Butte is a destination for skiing, mountain biking, and a variety of other outdoor activities.The Colorado General Assembly has designated Crested Butte the wildflower capital of Colorado.

I check for hotels today but out of luck, they are all booked. The reason? July 4 is holiday and during this week also is Crested Butte’s famous wildflower festival. Thousands of tourists visit here for the said festival. The solution? Camping!!!!!! There are several campgrounds in the area. We will borrow some camping materials from our friend – tent,etc. It’s gonna be a great adventure. It’s been decades since my last bonfire. From time to time, we’ll meet black bears along the way, so a bear spray will be handy!! LOL. Well, they said it’’s one out of thousand probability, but it’s better prepared than sorry. I don’t wanna be remembered as the girl who was eaten by a bear.

I discover that Aspen, Colorado is just one hour drive away.. Yahooo!! We’ll check it–that is if we still have time. Can’t wait. From city (NY) to mountains (CO)….what a big shift!

New York Food Tripping

It’s friggin 100 bucks for a lunch! Well, it’s worth the experience. The steak was really really really delicious. The salmon that I had was completely out of this world. Love it! The said steakhouse is conviniently located in Grand Central Station. It’s pretty cool!

We also went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant. Forrest Gump is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Restaurant is inspired from this movie. They’ve got hundreds of hot sauce of all kinds! The shake was really good. Love it! And oh, it’s cheap!

We went to Cenderillon, a Filipino restaurant. Well, it is a hybrid of Filipino and American. It was really really expensive. It was the most expensive Filipino resto I’ve ever been. Chicken adobo is about twenty bucks. Lechon kawali is of the same price. My GOSH!!! It’s because of the location they said. It is located in SOHO. But still, Oh my gulay, we spent $150 including tip for the four (Ariane, Fidel, Jaime and moi) us. WAAAAAA.. The food was good but it wasn’t worth it. Hate it!
I know how to cook these foods.. Haller. If we only knew, we should’ve gone to the Pinoy turo-turo style restaurant. There’s few in Manhattan.

My friends (the beautiful Ariane and her boyfriend Fidel) introduced us to Saigon Grill. As the name says, it’s a vietnamese restaurant. I was very satisfied. The servings were so big and take note, it’s very affordable. It is located Uptown (70ish St)Manhattan. Love it!

If you go to New York, don’t miss their street foods. One food cart had the longest line of all. I just forgot the name. The owner is very popular for his food. We tried it and indeed, it was really really good.

For our anniversary dinner, we went to Sophia or something..I forgot the name. It was a French Restaurant. It was good. The shrimp carpaccio was excellente! It wasn’t not the restaurant that we planned to dine but it wasn’t bad. We chose Rivercafe but t’was packed even if I called them for reservation 2 weeks ahead. They are that popular! It is located in DUMBO(Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). So you are paying more for the view not for the food itself. The view is spectacular especially at night. You can see NY skyline —with the city lights during the night! Very Romantic indeed! Perfect for anniversary celebration! But then, thank God it was booked..HAHA. The price was way too high for our budget!
River Cafe No More… huhu.. Perhaps, our silver anniversary will be there….(*wink)

New York, New York

Although, it wasn’t what I expected, I had fun! The buildings/skyscrapers were amazing. The scenes from the observatory of Empire State Building was spectacular. You could see every corner of New York City. Central Park was amazing. Nature and human advanced civilization coexist each other perfeclty. Brooklyn Bridge was beyond compare. The lights were splendid! Times Square was the busiest street among others. Cars, yellow cab and people were mixed together. Downtown Manhattan was full of things that needed exploring to appreciate it. It was no less interesting than the rest. Fifth Avenue was full of luxury as well as the Uptown. Restaurants were all over the place. You’ll have to do a research for good ones though. Street foods were good. They’re cheap and delicious!

The downsides of New York, as we all know, are traffic and cleanliness. The traffic was terrible. Some streets were dirty. With millions of people living in this small (in terms of area) city, this is expected. Some locals were snob. There were several times that we asked for directions and they had this tone of voice that said ” Don’t bother me, you stupid.”

To sum-up my experience, New York is overrated but you’ll definitely have fun here.

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