Family Reunion in Southern California

As I posted previously, Raisin Bread and I were in Southern California last weekend to run The Coaster Run 5K with my siblings. In addition to the race, there was lots of driving (around 250 miles!), lots of good food and time spent with family.

On Friday night, we arrived at LAX after dark. The lights of the city sprawl let me know that we are headed to the right place.

After picking up our rental car, we drove down to Westminster for dinner at Sumran Thai.

We started with the Picky Platter, a sampling of appetizers including crispy spring rolls, chicken satay, fried shrimp and calamari. It was much more fried food than I was used to, but all delicious.

I was debating over a number of noodle dishes but wound up ordering the Pad Thai. I wish I hadn't because it was too saucy and sweet for my taste.

Raisin Bread ordered the Pad Woon Sen, which I tasted and thought was quite lovely.

We continued south to San Diego to stay with my brother for the night at his newly purchased home! We also met their new maltipoo puppy, Cosmo, who is 4 months old and crazy with puppy excitement. 

The next day, we chilled at the house and took Cosmo on his first outing to the park.

For lunch, we stuffed ourselves silly with all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue at Manna. We tried some brisket, galbi, spicy pork belly and beef tongue. So yummy! Definitely something I miss now that I am in Albuquerque. 

Beef brisket on the grill

After some more hanging out at the house, we made our way to our hotel for the night, The Knott's Berry Farm Hotel. 

This was my first time staying at this hotel. On the second floor of the hotel, there is a section of rooms that are "Camp Snoopy Rooms." There is a glass door that separates this section of the floor from the regular hotel rooms. 

The hallway is also specially decorated in this section of the hotel with the whole Peanuts Gang.

 Our room was adorable as well. It was a whole Snoopy-themed extravaganza, from the headboards to the paw print carpet.

Guests staying the Camp Snoopy Rooms also are greeted by up to two Snoopy plushies, which are theirs to take home.

The room was really too much cuteness. Did we feel weird that there were four adults staying in a Camp Snoopy Room? NEVER!

For dinner, we drove over to the semi-new Anaheim Packing District. I had read about it in an issue of American Way Magazine and thought it sounded similar to places like the Ferry Building in San Francisco or Chelsea Market in Manhattan.



One of the main buildings of the Packing District is the Anaheim Packing House. Anaheim used to be a giant orange grove and this building served as a citrus packing house. The building has been restored and transformed into a bright and airy gathering place. I love when old buildings are salvaged and rebirthed into something modern and useful instead of being torn down.



There were many options for places to eat, but half of us decided on Orange Tei for ramen and sushi.

I ordered the karamiso ramen, and to be honest, it was definitely not the best bowl of ramen I have had. Not even close. There were too many assorted vegetables in the soup for a bowl of ramen. The broth and noodles were tasty though.

Dinner took a bit longer than we were expecting so we raced back to the hotel because we had to be back by 8 PM for a special visit! 

Another perk of booking a Camp Snoopy Room is that every night Snoopy comes by between 8 and 8:30 PM to tuck you in. 

Raisin Bread and I ready for our tuck in!

Here's Snoopy! He's ready for bed too. 

Getting tucked in was such a funny experience. My sister-in-law giggled the entire time and looked like she was about to cry from laughing so hard.

As a side note, I am sure that we are not the first adults to be tucked in by Snoopy. We are not that groundbreaking.

We, of course, did not go to bed after being tucked in but we did soon after. So exhausted and we had an early wake up call for the race!

After the race, we headed back to the hotel to wash up and rest before we returned to the Anaheim Packing District for lunch.

This time we hit up The Kroft. which describes itself as "comfort food reinvented." The offerings includes appetizers, poutine and sandwiches.

I ordered the prime ribeye dip with caramelized onion, horseradish, arugula and au jus, plus I added cheese. It was so delicious! Much better than yesterday's meal.

We also shared an order of the braised short rib poutine. Yum!

The Packing House had live music all weekend long. Loved it.

The previous night there was a huge line for popbar, which sells gelato on a stick, so we went over to check whether or not there was a line after lunch. There wasn't so we figured, why not?

I had a hazelnut popbar dipped in milk chocolate and Raisin Bread had peach dipped in white chocolate and waffle cone.

I wasn't overly impressed by my popbar. I have had better pops from DC's Pleasant Pops and Denver's Aiko Pops.

Since we are already in Anaheim, we swung over to Downtown Disney to do some browsing. I loved this Stitch print from WonderGround Gallery.

Turkey leg rice krispie treats

Then it was back to Knott's, where we went shopping around the Knott's Marketplace before meeting up for dinner.

My sister, dad and mom were all celebrating their birthdays this month, so we decided to have a family dinner at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant.

There is an option for family-style, so we decided to do the fried chicken meal family-style. The meal included biscuits.

A cup of creamy chicken noodle soup and a big bowl of salad to share.

We also got corn and mashed potatoes and gravy along with our fried chicken.

We also got dessert, and I had a slice of apple pie. The meal was decent, not amazing. But the location was convenient for where we were.

The next morning we got up bright and early to head back home!

The Coaster Run 5K 2015 - Race Recap

I'm back from another extremely short trip to California! About 9 months ago, my siblings and I, along with our spouses, signed up for The Coaster Run 10K. We thought it would be a fun race since the course goes through Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, and Knott's Berry Farm is the home of Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang, whom we love!

At the last minute, we all decided to downgrade to the 5K due to some in our group being sick and for other assorted reasons. I am glad that we did, especially since we did not factor in daylight savings time when we signed up for the race.

This was actually only my fourth 5K since I am not a big fan of paying for 5Ks that don't have something special to offer, like medals or donuts. :)



The race had a reasonable start time of 7 AM, and since we were staying within walking distance of the start line, we did not have to make our way over until 6:30 AM. Sweet!

We were assigned to the fourth corral and there were only 3 minutes between each corral. We crossed the start line at around 7:15.

We all decided to make costumes for this race.  I dressed up as Woodstock and Raisin Bread was Charlie Brown.

My siblings and their spouses also dressed up. 

Bro-in-law as Olaf (Snoopy's brother), Sister as Belle (Snoopy's sister), sis-in-law as Hobbes, Brother as Calvin

The first portion of the course led us towards the entrance to Knott's. As we entered the park and ran through Camp Snoopy, we passed by many familiar rides. As a Southern California kid and teenager, Knott's was a place that we visited numerous times. 

We ran past Montezuma's Revenge, Supreme Scream and the Log Ride. I managed to get a shot of Boomerang while still in motion. 

There was only one character stop on the 5K course, so I stopped to say hi to Lucy and Charlie Brown!

We finished out our run through the park in the Old West area before we exited the park for our last mile.

Mile 1: 11:51

Mile 2: 12:14

Mile 3: 11:20

We made our way through the finish line area, where we were treated to a slice of boysenberry pie! Knott's Berry Farm was the first place to cultivate the boysenberry in Southern California, and it is known for its boysenberry preserves, pies and shortbread cookies, among other things!

We grabbed some post-race photos with our adorable Snoopy medals on.

Overall, the race was a lot of fun! I loved that the majority of the course was through the park and the nice touches such as the medals and pie.

My biggest disappointment was the crowd support. Since the course was mainly in the park, all of the support came in the form of disinterested high school students, who seemed to be getting their community service hours. Granted, there were a few (and I mean a few) who were in good spirits and at least acted enthusiastic, but the large majority were not happy to be there.

Here is a close-up of the medal. I also love that it says "10th Anniversary" on it!

My official chip time was 35:11. Definitely not a PR!

If you are a Snoopy fan, this is a must-do race and if you happen to live in Southern California or have a reason to be in Southern California, I recommend you run The Coaster Run!