{mom visits a-town}

I stole my mom away for a week and introduced her to our new home. All week we were busy little bees, sightseeing a bit, and just enjoying each other’s company. It was so great to have her here; I can’t wait until her next visit!  

I took her to BAJA Fresh one day for some yummy tacos. Neither she nor I had ever been to one so it was a nice first. The tacos were pretty good---they even had free chips for our table and a wide variety of salsas.

After a delicious lunch, we headed over to the aquarium to say hello to the fishes. It was my second time there and it was much less crowded than my first visit, which made it easier to enjoy all the exhibits. We even caught a cute little 3D show full of splash and motion effects. My mom could not stop talking about how much she loved the aquarium. Our favorite room was the giant ocean view room. We just sat there and watched the whale sharks and fish schools for close to an hour. We even stayed long enough to watch the whale shark feeding. It was kind of cool; in a frenzied mess all the fishes swarmed over to try and steal a bite of krill. The aquarium presenter explained that sometimes the other fish get sucked into the whale sharks’ mouths along with the krill, but the whale sharks throats are too small to swallow them, so they end up being thrown out their gills. I imagine that might be a bit of a wild ride.

One of the weirdest sights at the aquarium was the tank above that had these little sea worms going in and out of the ground. They were really funky and made me think of the sandworms in beetljuice...haha.

Of course we had to say hello to nemo!

We couldn’t leave without seeing the penguins!

My mom treated us to a fantastic dinner one night and shared a few cooking tricks she tried to teach me when I was younger but was too distracted (with teenage woes) to comprehend. It was very special for me and reaffirmed where my love for cooking came from. I can’t believe I had forgotten how good my mom is in the kitchen. She made three different dishes at the same time, used all of her ingredients (and parts you wouldn’t think to use, i.e. bean juice), and timed everything perfectly, to be finished and still warm by dinnertime. She even had enough time to take a shower, get dressed, and doll herself up. Impressive!

One of the dishes my mom made was her famous “albondigas” or dominican meatballs. To form the meatball my mom puts a scoop of her prepared ground beef into a coffee mug and swirls it around (while dancing to some good merengue) until a perfect little ball forms. I had lots of flashbacks of my youth when she would give my brother and I our own coffee mug and encouraged us to join in this meatball forming dance. It is such a nifty little trick and works everytime!  

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful mother. She may not always be perfect (or quiet), but she goes above and beyond in everything she does. She has more energy than anyone I know (except when her novelas are on...hehe...don’t mess with those), and has an extremely big heart. I miss her already.

Bye for now!

The Mrs.