Munchin while Bloggin

I'm muching on the following right now:

Sinfully delicious. The sweetness of the chocolate and caramel and a hint of saltiness coating the macadamian nuts makes a lethal combination, it is darn addicting.

From the Amish traders of Pensylvania. I'm still trying to get used to and like bitter taste of coffee beans.

Chilling@Cibo

A short break from our US trip posts.

Manila, and I think the entire archipelago, is suffering from a tremendous summer heat. It is scorching hot. I feel that each day the temperature goes higher and higer. In fact, last Wednesday at 4:00pm, 5th of May 2010, it reached a  record high of 37.5 degrees C. Good thing that J and I were at the comforts of our airconditioned offices. (to all the people out there doing field work, please take the necessary precautions against this deadly heat)

This heat is so bad that one is already profusely persipring after stepping out of the shower. It is really difficult to move around because the slight movement will result in a thousand sweat, I'm not kidding.

Anyways, to beat the summer heat, J and I went to the mall to cool down and of course everyone in the Metro also had the same idea. Boy, oh boy, was the mall packed. Furthermore, almost all of us there were looking for a cold, cold drink to beat the summer, thus, the restaurants selling ice creams, fruit shakes, milk shakes and every other conceivable ice-cold drink were teeming with customers.

For our cool down pit stop, J and I went to Cibo for the sole reason that it was the only restaurant at that time that was not packed, thus, their airconditioning was good. Plus, they offer great food/drinks and service.

We ordered iced-tea and caramel cheesecake. The cheesecake was delicious and the iced-tea cooled us down.

 

A cheesecake as delicious as this deserves two photos: top view and side view

Scenescapes: Atlantic City

Boardwalk, Atlantic City.

The dusk made a beautiful play of the light, blue skies and the red sun that helped my N79 take picture- perfect photographs.

Blooms

A series of photos showcasing the lovely blossoms of Spring.

Rockefellar Center's Tulips.

At first glance, they looked so perfect that I thought that they were plastic flowers. The yellow tulips reminds me of my wedding bouquet.

Pretty in Pink Carnation.

A mother's day gift (for me, godmother) from St. Valentine's Church, Bloomfield, New Jersey. I love looking at this photo. It looks dainty and complicated and I imagine it to be a ballerina's skirt. Best of all, it is photogenic, lol.

From the gardens of the Getty Museum:

Isn't this a sight for sore eyes? Delightfully structured or sculptured bougainvilla.

Lusciously red roses

Purty pretty purple

Pure as white so lovely to the sight, hahaha.

My "order among chaos" photo.

J made me take a photo of this foliage. This was a difficult subject to shoot. I do not know which angle to take or how to compose it. 

Cute as a 'blue' button

Virgin Airlines

For our LA to NY flight, we chose Virgin Airlines because it offered the cheapest airfare on the net (we booked through Expedia). Virgin Airlines is the hippest airlines in the market. It clearly reflects the personality of its owner, Richard Branson. It has a purple mood lighting that makes you think that you are in a lounge, not on a plane. It also has a touch screen TV. Things get even cooler with their unique AV presentation of airplane safety tips by way of animation. We love it!

Continental Airlines

We are happy with our experience with Continental Airlines. We got our tickets to LA during the travel expo and it was really cheap considering the we are flying during peak season. Although it was a long flight because it had two lay-overs, Guam and Honolulu, it worked to our advantage. Guam is the port of entry to the US, that is, you go through immigration while customs inspection is held in Honolulu. This saved a lot of time for us since we had an NY flight to catch two hours after our touchdown in LA. A bonus point is that the immigration officers in Guam and customs officers in Honolulu are a lot nicer than those in LAX., that is, they are not rude. Likewise, Continental made sure that the length of time for the lay-overs sufficiently covered the time needed to go through immigration and customs and with enough time to lounge around the airport.

In sum,
US Port of Entry:
1. Guam - first lay-over approximately 3 hours
              - go through immigration: present passport with US Visa;
                 submit completed arrival departure record forms;
                 interview and provision of biometric identification

2. Honolulu -  second lay-over approximately 3-4 hours
                  - get check-in luggages 
                  -go through customs: submit completed customs declaration forms (given-out by flight attendants during the flight)
                   - give your check-in luggages to the proper airport officers for check-in (you don't have to go the check-in counter again)

Air fare cost: We flew with Continental for the sole reason that their tickets were on sale during the Travel Expo last February 2010. 

Service: The flight attendants were warm and friendly and service was efficient. Our flight going to the US was on time.

Food: A hit or miss. We enjoyed the food served during the flight going to Guam and Honolulu. Overall, we were satisfied with the food and variety of drinks being offered.

My apologies for the superbad quality of the photo. I did not use any flash photography so as not to disturb the other passengers. I used my  3.2 megapixel Canon point and shoot camera.
Manila to Guam
Bread, salad, fish with rice, and local cookies from Guam

Choice B:

Guam to Honolulu:

Choice B:

Snacks

Honolulu to  LA

Another photo angle

NYC cheesecake

One of our must-eat list in NYC is a New York Cheesecake. We are not particular on the brand of cheesecake, as long as, we get to taste NYC's famous food. 

Junior's cheesecake came highly-recommended by our NYC based friend. 

Verdict: It is the best cheesecake we've had.