Happy early Chinese New Year!!  The actual date this year is on January 26.  It is the year of the Ox.  Each year I look forward to Chinese New Year because our family would get together and enjoy a grand dinner.  This year is no different.  The only thing new is that now that I am a married woman, I have to give red envelopes rather than receive!  That's the tradition, marriage signifies adulthood. 

To honor my culture, we held the traditional Tea Ceremony at our wedding.  My parents had told me that we could forgo the formality of the Tea Ceremony but I insisted on having one.  Though I am typically not a traditional person, there are certain things in life I cherish from my culture.  The Chinese Tea Ceremony is a gesture of serving tea to one's parents as a way of paying respect to them for raising you.  Then, when the tea is served, the parents will typically present the bride and groom with words of wisdom and gifts of gold and red envelopes. 

I wore the traditional red dress for the ceremony.  Eventhough my mother told me that she didn't care if we held the Tea Ceremony or not, she surprised everyone by tearing up during the ceremony!  This of course got me crying and my brand new makeup was almost ruined!  Luckily, my husband and MOH were there to clean up my face and saved the hundred-dollar makeup.  :-)  But the emotions completely caught my mother and I off guard.  It was a very special moment shared by us and we will cherish forever.  I recommend that everyone include a special tradition in their wedding that they'll cherish forever.

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It was quite a week for alligators!  We took a trip to Orlando to visit Mr. BAW's grandmother and coincidentally, the Gators won the National Championship!  While we were gone, Toby was busy wrestling with his gator in the "doggie resort." 

My parents-in-laws also happened to be in Florida and we all took a trip to Disney World!  It was my first time in Florida and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  It was in the mid seventies and sunny the entire weekend we were there.  It was perfect weather for Disney World. 

Since we only had one day, we only had time to visit two parks.  We chose to spend most of out time at Epcot and swung by the Magic Kingdom for some Disney fix.  I was the only one who never visited Disney World so I was extremely excited about seeing Epcot.  I loved seeing all the "countries."  Since it was more for adults, the park was much less crowded than the Magic Kingdom.  All in all, we had a wonderful trip to Florida...but didn't see any gators...

The world famous Epcot.  The ride inside was very cute.  They take a picture of you as your "car" begins the ride.  Each "car" on the ride has a computer screen built in.  At the end of the ride through the history of human inventions, you get to play with the computer.  They superimpose your head shot onto cartoon bodies and let you choose various adventures in the future.  I enjoyed the ride.

The area outside Space Camp was very well done.  The planets and space shuttle were simply gorgeous.  But the ride was just ok.  Luckily we got there early enough that there was no wait.  Having been on it I wouldn't wait an hour in line for it again.  They have two versions of the simulator ride, one mild and one intense.  The mild one that I went on was just too mild.  It was not very exciting at all.  But the intense one is too intense for me.  Mr. BAW went on it and told me that some people threw up during the ride.  Yikes!  But they do provide barf bags.

I had tons of fun visiting all the countries in Epcot.  The ones represented are Norway, Mexico, Italy, China, Japan, US, Canada, France, Morocco, United Kingdom, and Germany.  A few countries had rides, most have shows, and some have performances.  All of them have restaurants and shops. 

We ended a perfect day by getting amazing pastries in France and grabbing the best table in the park for viewing the fireworks show at the end of the evening.  The show was spectacular.  There was a huge globe that eventually opened up into a flower.  The show was comparable to some Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

We had just enough time to hope over from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom.  This is us in front of Cinderella's Castle.  Turns out that the Magic Kingdom in Disney World is exactly the same as Disneyland.  However, the castle is different.  The castle at Disneyland is Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  I like Cinderella's Castle better, it's taller and more majestic.  All the rides inside the castles are the same at both parks. 

Eventhough all the rides are the same, I wanted to see the Magic Kingdom anyway.  It's just not Disney without going down Main Street and seeing all the kids eagerly awaiting for the parade to start.  This park was much more crowded than at Epcot.  We managed to get onto the Pirates ride but didn't have time to wait for The Haunted House. 

I did manage to get onto the carousel.  I've never been on a carousel before in my life!  Can you believe it??  When my In-Laws heard that, they insisted that I got to ride the carousel.  I had a wonderful time!  I couldn't get onto the large horses on the outside of the carousel but managed to get onto the smaller horse towards the inside. 

We also took a boat ride from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom.  The boat ride took us right passed The Grand Floridian Hotel.  It was simply amazing.  The one at Disneyland is called The Grand Californian.  Unfortunately we didn't get to stop at the hotel for a peek.  Maybe next time!

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What were we in line for?  The Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, of course!  I love science and museums so when they reopened the museum, we had to go see it.  Luckily, my friends TNK and her family are all members at the museum so we got to wait in the "shorter line" to go in. 

The new museum was fantastic.  It boasts a new planetarium (which we didn't have time to see), a simulated rain forest, and a giant aquarium.  The entire building is covered by a living roof where the temperature of the building is regulated.

One of my favorite part of the museum was seeing the albino alligator.  The alligator was huge, it just laid there resting.  Without pigmentation, the albino alligator would never survive being in the Sun in the wild.  

I also enjoyed the aquarium.  They had so many giant fish.  Enjoy the pics I took and if you get a chance, pay a visit to the museum.

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I usually don't look forward to flying.  But there is one thing I do enjoy on flights, browsing through the Skymall magazine!  And look what I discovered in the latest issue of Skymall?!  A doggie doorbell!  Anyone who has a dog knows that either you get a doggie door or you're constantly having to check to see if you dog wants to go outside or not.   Other times, you may end up with paint scratched off of your bedroom doors.

In Toby's case, he'll sit by the sliding door and wait.  He'll stare at the door lock for about a minute and then he'll bark.  For door inside the house, he'll use his paws to push the door open.  If it's closed tight, he'll scratch at the door, hard!  But there's a better way!  We could get him this doorbell so that he can ring to be let in or out.  The product comes with a chimer and extra paw buttons for both sides of the doors.  There's even instructions on how to train your door to use the paw button!  I just love the large paw buttons, they're so cute.  But I don't think think product will work for little dogs.  The magazine had a picture of a Golden Retriever pushing the paw button so they are quite large. 

Hm...I wonder if Toby can be trained to use the doggie doorbell...

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I love San Francisco at Christmas time.  It's perhaps the most beautiful city on the West Coast during the holidays.  And what is one of my favorite places in SF?  Ghirardelli Square of course!  Nothing like yummy hot chocolate from the one of the world's most famous chococlate place. 

Ghirardelli Square is a cute little area with shops and restaurants.  We walked over from a quick stop to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up some yummy crab and clam chowder. 

We did some browsing and shopping.  I took a few snap shots for the blog.  We even got some free chocolate samples from the Ghirardelli store.  Unfortunately, the line to the Ghirardelli ice cream shop was way too long and we didn't get to eat there.  But all in all, we had a pleasant time.  Toby slept in the car the entire time, it was better than being tied up in front of a store like this adorable Bloodhound!

He was whining the entire time for some attention!

A beautiful Christmas tree was still up.

That evening, TNK took us all to a place called Nettie's Crab Shack for a Sunday night crab feed.  I've got to say, I'm still drooling as I type this.  It's the best crab I've ever had on the West Coast, my husband's comes in at just a slight second!  I got to eat an entire crab all by myself, and it was a monster!  But no monster crab is too big for me to handle, I cleaned out every piece of eatible meat on that crab.  I loved the restaurant itself too, a very large and bright setting.  The restaurant feels like you're eating inside a beautiful seaside cottage on Martha's Vinyard.  They also have a very swanky bar area for those too beautiful to wear a bib and crack a claw.  So my plea begins...PLEASE open a Nettie's in Los Angeles!!!  I know just a place for you too!  You'd be welcomed with opened arms to the gorgeous and swanky Manhattan Beach where the rich and famous can frolic at your hip bar while I can get down and dirty with your crabs!!!

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Over Christmas break we took a little road trip up to Northern California to visit my friend TNK.  But we took a slightly longer route to San Francisco, by way of Davis.  Mr. BAW went to UC Davis for business school a few years ago.  Since I love to visit college campuses and have never seen UC Davis, we decided to spend a day in Davis.  I got a personal campus tour and had a wonderful time.  The campus was charming and the university village was very cute.  It was quite cold in Davis and that evening we enjoyed hot coffee at a cute little place called Ciocolat.  My favorite thing to do in grad school was hanging out with friends at the local coffee house.  So it was such a special treat for me to get to hang out with my husband doing what I loved most when I was a carefree student years ago. 

UC Davis has a river walk that was lined with gorgeous conifers.  It was extremely scenic, not something I'm used to seeing at USC or UCLA!  Toby enjoyed looking at the colorful ducks splashing about in the river.  Overall, UC Davis is a beautiful little campus.  Very charming and time seems to run at a slower pace there.

The beautiful river walk.

There was a couple of cute bridges.

Ducks were everywhere along the river walk.
Toby didn't quite know what to do with them.

There were these interesting "eggs"
scattered throughout campus.

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Personally, I am very excited about 2009.  Now that I'm married, I am very excited about starting a whole new chapter in my life.  Up until last year, my whole life was about ME.  I had been on a long journey to get myself to as far as I could be in life and when I got there, I needed more.  Now, I feel like life is no longer just about me.  So I look forward to a more leisurely journey with my new family.