Beginners Fitness Hike at James Dilley Greenbelt Preserve

This morning, a friend and I joined the 'Beginners Fitness Hike' program at James Dilley Greenbelt Preserve in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, organized by Orange County Parks. It was a nice foggy day for hike, not hot at all. We drove out there and found the location easily. It was our first time visiting this park. There is a $3 parking fee for each vehicle.

We started walking on 'The Lake Trail' towards Barbara's Lake. The trail is easy and very mild, with not too much elevation. The leader was friendly and able to answer almost all of our questions. We learned some new plant names and saw some wild animals (ducks, birds). Once we reached the end of the lake on the trail, we stopped and rested a while before returning back to the parking lot on the same trail.




Back at the parking lot, looking at time, it was 10:30am, the exact time the program stated that it would end. Another experience hiker asked if my friend and I would like to adventure the other trail in this park. We decided we were up for it.

So we hike for another hour or so. This hike was more advance than the first hike. We went up a steep trail to Blackjack. Here is the view from the top of the hill.



Coming back down was a bit challenging. Our new friend, Patricia, told us to move down side way down in zig-zag, crossing the path from one side to the other instead of going down straight. It helped. We also learned a few new things:

• The fruit on the cactus plant has tiny torn and you do not want to touch it with bare hands when handling it.
• There is this plant called the cowboy cologne plant which in the old days, the cowboys would rub the plant to release its oil for its fragrant and apply it.
• Mistletoe plant grows on the branches of the host tree which provide the plant with water and nutrients.

I highly recommend this program (minus the adventure hike we did after) to anyone that is a beginner. You can check out the programs they offer at this link here:

Laguna Canyon Foundation.

Malaysian Fried Flat Rice Noodle - "Char Kway Teow"

When I was at 99 Ranch Market this morning and I saw the bag of bean sprouts was on sale for 99 cents. Then I thought, may be I will make "Char Kway Teow" for dinner tonight. Also grabbed a bag of the flat rice noodles from the shelf and I went to pay for my items.

Here is a video of me cooking this dish. It is easy and fast to cook. Although it is fast to cook, but may take some time to prepare the ingredients. The flat rice noodle need to be separated individually so it is not sticking to each other. This way to make sure that each noodle will absorb the secret sauce and expose to the heat on the wok.


At the time of preparing the ingredients, I didn't think to record it down. Only after I fried the first plate of noodles, then I thought, why not just record it. Took out my tripod and DSLR, set it up and shot it myself as I was cooking the dish. And yes, for this dish, it is best to fried each serving by itself. So I made three separate servings for our dinner tonight.


I don't have the exact amount of ingredients to share but I can tell you what goes into it. In the order of appearance in the video, we have:

• Vegetable oil (1 tablespoon)
• Preserved turnip (1/2 to 1 teaspoon)
• Minced garlic (1 to 2 teaspoons)
• Shrimps
• Chinese wax sausage (sliced)
• Flat rice noodle
• Secret sauce (oyster sauce, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, white pepper, sugar)
• Egg
• Sambal Oelek (if using, to your taste)
• Bean sprouts
• Chives
• Soy sauce to taste

Here is the link to the Char Kuey Teow Recipe at Rasa Malaysia.

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 2 – Food

As many of you frequent cruisers out there, you know the one reason we choose to cruise is because of the food right?!? Oh yeah! You can eat non-stop 24 hours a day, who doesn't like it?

Of course, if you are worried about putting weight, just walk up and down the stairs instead of using the elevators. I did that and our cabin was on Deck 5 on the forward (front of the ship) with the buffet dining room up on Deck 12 on the aft (back of the ship). That's a 7 flights of stairs to go up and another 7 coming back down. I am proud to say, I lost 2 pounds after the cruise. Amazing right? I am telling you, I did a whole lot more walking than I was at home.

Most of the time we had our meals in the fancy dining rooms. Now you must be thinking, do you have to dress up for every meal since it is a fine dining cuisine? Some cruise lines require the passengers to dress up on a formal Night. But what is so great about Norwegian Freestyle cruising is that you can choose if you want to dress up or not for using their fine dining rooms. But you must dress appropriately; no shorts, slippers and tank tops during dinner hours. I wore mostly jeans and tee-shirt when I dined in the Norwegian Star's Versailles and Aqua dining rooms.

Norwegian Star Waffle with Banana Caramel & Cream
Norwegian Star Crusted Mushroom
Norwegian Star Shrimp Ceasar Salad
Norwegian Star Calamari with Cilantro Mayo
Norwegian Star Panna Cotta
Norwegian Star While Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake
Norwegian Star Pot Roast with Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes
Norwegian Star Baked Osyters
Norwegian Star Surf and Turf (Lobster Tail and Steak)
Norwegian Star Banana Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream
Norwegian Star Afternoon Snack
Norwegian Star Egg Roll
Norwegian Star Prime Rib
Norwegian Star Breakfast
Norwegian Star Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Well, let me present to you some pictures of the food we had during our 7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star. You can click on each picture to enlarge it.

Do continue to follow my blog if you want to read more about my 7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star.

If you want to find out how our interior cabin room looks like check out this post below:

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 1 – Interior Cabin

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 2 – Food

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 4 – The Buffet

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 5 – The Grand Atrium

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

This was my fourth time on a cruise vacation and my first time on Norwegian Cruise Line. My first cruise was a short 3-day cruise on Royal Caribbean to Ensenada. Second cruise was a repositioning cruise on Princess from Vancouver to Los Angeles. The last cruise before this was a 7-day Alaska cruise on Princess Island.


Norwegian Star had its maiden voyage on November 19th, 2001. Its port of registry is Nassau, Bahamas. The ship cost $400 million to build. It was refurbished in 2010. The ship has a passenger capacity of 2,348 (assuming double occupancy) with a team of 1100 crew working around the clock to serve the passengers. There are 1,176 cabins total and 70 percent of them have ocean view.


The Norwegian Star was the first NCL custom built ship for Freestyle Cruising. With the NCL Freestyle Cruising, casual is the key. NCL wants to make sure their passengers feel they are really on a vacation. They can wear whatever they want to dine at the restaurants. They do request that no shorts, swimsuits, tank tops or flip-flops after 5pm at the main dining restaurants. If you feel you want to dress up for dinner, go ahead. If you feel you just want to wear a T-shirt and jeans, you can too. If you are still wearing shorts and tanktops after 5pm, you can choose to dine at the Market Café Buffet.


I saw a broad spectrum of passengers on my cruise, young kids to retirees. The cruise fare was affordable for most. We has a full ship for our 7-day Mexican Riviera 2014 New Year Cruise. We paid $1760 total for two people in an inside room on our 7-day New Year cruise. If you cruise during the non-peak period, the fare is from $449 and up for the same cruise as ours.


For 2014, Norwegian Star will cruise to Mexican Riviera (round-trip Los Angeles), Panama Canal (Los Angeles to Miami or Miami to Los Angeles) for spring and fall. During summer 2014, Norwegian Star will cruise Transatlantic (from Miami), Baltic Capitals (round-trip from Copenhagen), Norway + Iceland + Faroe Islands (round-trip Copenhagen) and Transatlantic (from Copenhagen).

Click here to read more about the other posts on my cruise.

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 1 – Interior Cabin

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 2 – Food

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 4 – The Buffet

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 5 – The Grand Atrium

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 1 - Interior Cabin

I just came back from a 7 days cruise to Mexican Riviera on Norwegian Star. It was a round trip cruise from the port of Los Angeles. My friend and I booked the least expensive cabin for our New Year's trip. We didn't mind the interior cabin as we probably wouldn't spend so much time inside the room anyways.

Each of use paid approximately $880 for the ticket which include the port taxes. You can always find a much lower rate than this if you go off season. It was this expensive because it was during the New Year holiday. The gratuities were added to our on board account at the end of the cruise. It was $12 per person per day.


Our cabin (#5025) was on Deck 5 forward, near to the stairs and elevators. The entrance to the Stardust Theater was one floor above us. This cabin can accommodate up to 3 passengers. There is a bunk bed that can be pulled down if needed. I am petite, only 5 feet tall, the cabin has enough room for me and my friend to move around comfortably. My bed is the one underneath the framed picture.


There is a mini refrigerator, but we didn't use it. It was filled with beverages. They are not free. You can refer to the list on it for the prices. There is also a flat screen TV. It about 10-15(?) of channels to watch from. I did watch a few movies in my cabin during the Sea Day.

We shared the wardrobe. It has plenty of storing area on the shelves inside. And underneath the mini bar, there are 3 pull out drawers and above it there were more shelves for storage. There is a dressing table with mirror and a hair dryer next to the mini bar.


The bathroom is small but clean. The shower has a temperature control in Celsius degree. The cabin provide hair and body shampoo but no hair conditioner. If you do use hair conditioner, remember to bring your own. The toilet has a flush button behind it and to access to the button, you have to close the lid first.


Although this cabin is by itself, no sharing walls with other cabins (refer to the 2nd picture from the top) I would not recommend this cabin. Why? Well, during our stay, we had some bad experience with noises coming from nearby including people running up and down the stairs, carts rolling, but mostly footsteps from all around us.

After this trip, I do not think I will pay for expensive upgrade to an outside or balcony cabin. An interior cabin is sufficient enough for my need. I prefer the interior cabin more because I can sleep longer without the morning sunlight hitting into the cabin.


Please follow my blog if you want to read more about our 7 days New Year cruise on Norwegian Star. This is just the first part of my story.

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 1 – Interior Cabin

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 2 – Food

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 4 – The Buffet

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 5 – The Grand Atrium