For lunch we had Mongolian beef noodles. Which was cooked by a Korean lady. It was a stall in a food court within that mall. It was so funny, cos when dh walked up to order the noodles, she began warmly gushing in Korean language to him. Dh doesn't look Korean to me, he's not fair what.. But perhaps a lot of Asians in LA are Koreans? The beef noodles were quite decent, best Asian kind of noodles we had in USA so far, haha. It is not really Mongolian though. It could easily pass off as Korean BBQ beef (like Seoul Gdn's or even as Japanese Teppanyaki beef, and even Chinese stir-fried beef) but i noticed many restaurants and stalls name their beef dishes Mongolian beef. Maybe it sells better that way. :-)
After lunch we saw "Build-A-Bear-Workshop" near the food court. There is one branch in SLC's Gateway Mall too. Somehow we decided to once again try to let our sons be more "sensitive and loving" so we tried to interest ds1 and ds2 in the bears/ rabbits/ kittens/ puppies in the shop. I like this shop's concept cos the kids are involved from step one where they choose the bear (or soft toy) skin. I took pics but the store lady said I'm not allowed to publish it. I wonder why cos it'd be good publicity and free advertising...
This is the only pic I think is safe to include because there are no names or signs included.
So I'll describe it for those interested...
After choosing this limp empty bear skin that ds1 liked best, we proceed to the filling station where the stuffing (wool?) could be clearly seen by the kids. The lady placed the bear skin in position and ds1 got to step on this pedal where the stuffing will be pumped into the bear to fill it up. both ds were intrigued by how the stuffing "flew" into the legs of the bear first, then the body and arms then the head, making the bear "come alive". Then the lady asked ds1 to press and feel and hug the bear to see if that amount of stuffing was just right for him. I thought it is good if the bear was huggable so I didn't want it too filled up too, so I suggested to ds1 that it was enough. Another interesting thing was, there were soft cloth hearts in red or pink that ds1 was asked to choose and place into the teddy before it was stuffed and sealed. Haha, so the bear has a real heart... It was actually for charity too. Some portion of the money would be donated to needy children.
Then we moved on to the fluffing station where it was shaped like a bath tub with shower sprays overhead. ds1 placed the bear on the tub table and depressed a pedal. Gusts of air are forced out of the shower nozzle and the bear is properly fluffed. There were cute brushes there for the bear to be groomed too.
You could name the bear and the bear can have a birth certificate too. ds1 said his bear would be named "Inventor Bear". haha. he never believed in proper names like "Ted, John..." ANyway that's cos he said the bear's his baby and his own name is "Inventor Man". So there.
[The bear without clothes.]
Then comes
the most fun part to me. The whole shop was filled with a huge array of accessories, clothes, shoes and such to dress the bear up. For girly bears there were more, hairbands, prettysocks, heels, hats, shades, earrings, handbags etc. ds1 chose a police man uniform. He was deliberating between the police or fireman one. We didn't get any other things cos we told him police bears do not need shoes or bags. The variety of spectacles and shades were so cool ds1 wanted to buy them too, but I didn't want the bear to cost too much more than $20, so I refused him.
Anyway the process was the impt part and $18 was worth the money, cos I remember seeing this bear shop in Suntec that had each bear sold at at least a few hundred Sing bucks.
Oh we also took a pic with Elmo who was standing along the streets but I closed my eyes lah, hee.
After that ds2 wanted to take his nap so we drove along Hollywood Blvd, around Beverly Hills, passed Bel Air, Sunset Blvd, and downtown LA. Just to see the beautiful sprawling houses atop the hills, the skyscrapers downtown ...
[This was taken from the mall. You can see the Hollywood sign far off in the background, atop the hill.]
[Left: typical palm-lined street flanked by houses in Beverly Hills region]
Then we drove into University of California--Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. It was beautiful (see below).
We walked up and down the Pier just looking at the surf of the Pacific Ocean and admiring the sea gulls. The sea gulls are so well-fed (read: really fat) here. It was very cold near the sea (and once the sun disappeared behind the clouds), so we got our jackets out.
There are a few shops there, and I bought some postcards to send home to you all, and a seafood restaurant called Bubba Gump. It sounded familiar then it struck me when I saw this bench outside the restaurant. Forrest Gump! 1994 movie. I think I watched it with my family then with my friends... then on TV several times too...
