things to do

Magical Bridge Playground: A Place for Everyone to Play

May 26, 2019 By Kat

It’s rare to find a place where everyone, regardless of age or ability, can come together and play. And that is why Magical Bridge Playground is such a special place. It’s designed to be inclusive of the 1-in-4 people amongst us who have physical / cognitive disabilities, autism, visual / hearing impairments, medically fragile, or are part of the aging population.

The Story

The founder Olenka Villarreal wanted a playground where her disabled and non-disabled daughters could play with their friends. They had very different needs and she found that the existing playgrounds didn’t cater to these needs well. She gathered a team of volunteers together, created the vision together, fundraised, and made this a reality over the course of 7 years. The playground opened up in 2015 in Palo Alto, CA as a socially inclusive playground, where all are welcome. Now it has over 25k visitors a month!! Wow!

Olenka and her friend Jill Asher went on to create the Magical Bridge foundation, and Santa Clara County has allocated $10M in funds for more playgrounds like this!

My Visit to the Playground

Here are some snapshots from my first visit to Magical Bridge Playground. Hint: If you go early in the morning, no one else is there and it’s having a whole playground to yourself!!

I love how colorful everything is and how many different play structures there are!

I had never seen these before!!

They have little descriptions on what the different play zones are, who it’s for, and the science behind them. Neat!

They have a bunch of different slides too. Slides are my favorite – so much fun to go down!

Omg the baby slide in the tot zone is too cute!!

Alright, that wraps up the photos that I took at the Magical Bridge Playground. All I can say is how impressed I am with this place. They put a lot of thought into making this a place for everyone. They collaborated with play experts, educators, therapists, families living with different disabilities, and landscape architects. They’re very conscious of the health and wellness benefits of play as well. It’s a magical place!

They also have other local authors and concerts this summer in the playground. Check out their Facebook page for the event line-up.

The success of this playground has led to even more of these Magical Bridge playgrounds being planned for around the Bay Area – with locations planned for Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Redwood City, and Sunnyvale.

But there is still a $1M funding shortfall to kick off construction of the Mountain View playground. So please consider donating to this nonprofit if you want to see this playground come to your city. I already made my contribution! You can donate here: http://magicalbridge.org/mtnview/

Storytime Event

Also, I’ll be doing a storytime for my book Use Your Voice at Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto on Sunday, June 2, 2019 from 3-5pm. Check out the Facebook events page for more details and to RSVP!

Thank you for reading! Hope you have a chance to check out this place and get to experience it for yourself! The pictures do it no justice.

A Truly French Bakery Comes to the Bay Area – Maison Alyzeée

October 30, 2018 By Kat

My friend Pam recently came back from a month in France, and was raving about how this new bakery in downtown Mountain View was legit. She goes there for the baguettes and loves it. Apparently it’s the real deal! I was of course intrigued, so I had to visit this place for myself.

On a Tuesday morning, I stopped by Maison Alyzée and immediately fell in love with the charm of this bakery. I had the chance to speak with the owner, Laurent Pellet. He was so welcoming and open, and I got a peek behind-the scenes at the kitchen and got to meet the chefs as well. So cool!! The more I heard about their story and how they work and think, I was captivated by the amount of care and love that is put into this bakery.

Laurent opened this bakery because there wasn’t a truly French bakery that existed in the Bay Area. There were other really good bakeries, but not one that was *truly* French. The team believed that they could create something truly different. That is the mark of a team on a mission!!

The values that are important to Laurent are humility, respect, sharing, and quality. Sharing is important to him because back in France, a community of bakers is all about sharing. He also emphasizes humility because they are always striving to do better – to tweak and improve the product to be at its best for customers. They challenge themselves daily. Each day, they look at the product and think, “Do we need to improve this?” It’s possible that a pastry may change 1 week later.

When you visit this place, the ambience begins from the street when you walk up to the bakery (there is outdoor seating) to stepping into the cozy bakery and seeing all the beautiful pastries. There is a Parisian flair to the whole experience.

They even have their own signature loaf of bread – the one with the M on it, which is made up of different flours. Gotta try that one day! After I try their baguette. 🙂

Laurent wants this place to be like a second home for customers. Some customers already come every day! And he wants it to be a place for kids as well.

Speaking of feeling like a home, he introduced me to his wife who works there as well. Aren’t they adorable?

THE BEST INGREDIENTS

Their team is also very meticulous with their ingredients and test the products to make sure they’re up to their quality standard. They source their ingredients from local vendors and they use the best ingredients – French butter, the best chocolate, etc..

He showed me the selection of teas they have from France, and he even took out a humongous bag of tea which was so aromatic that I could smell it from an arms distance away, when the bag was still closed!

AN AMAZING TEAM

Laurent brought over 3 chefs from France – including a Michelin star pastry chef! There is Head Pastry Chef Jean-Victor Bellaye, Pastry Sous-Chef Xan Billiotte, and Pastry Sous-Chef Gerald Chahine. More details about them here.

Here’s a picture of Laurent (left) and Chef Jean-Victor (right).

Chef Jean-Victor also took the time to explain some of the pastries to me. And while we were talking, he pulled these pastries from out of the oven! They look delicious.

Overall, I had a fantastic first time at Maison Alyzée. I’m excited that they have come to downtown Mountain View. This place is only a couple of months old and already has strong reviews on Yelp.

By the way, here’s a picture of the croissant I had. It was so flaky and delicious. It was gone in no time.

Before

After

If you’re in downtown Mountain View, stop by this gem of a bakery!!

Maison Alyzeée
212 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

Thank you to Laurent and the whole team for being so welcoming. Wishing you the best!

Gift Idea Under $30

July 12, 2018 By Kat

A hobby I’ve been playing around with is flower arranging. There’s something so beautiful about flowers and the process of arranging them is so creative and artistic. I feel like an imposter saying that it’s my hobby though because I’ve only done it once (ha!). But nevertheless, below is my first creation.

I had grand plans of doing custom flower arrangements for all the women in my life as celebrations came up – bridal showers, birthdays, etc.. I think it’s a thoughtful handmade gift – like an equivalent of baking something sweet for someone (except my baking skills are nonexistent).

I even bought another vase, but it just sat there for months with no flowers in it. (By the way, I got the vase at Michaels. I used the 40% off coupon of course.) For these special events that came up, I either got too busy or planned my time poorly. Hence I didn’t have time to pick up the flowers and do the whole artistic process of sticking in flowers, judging if I like it or not, and pulling it out, etc…

GRANDMA’S BIRTHDAY

For my grandma’s birthday recently, I decided I would make time for this! But by the time I left the house that morning, the flower shop I wanted to go to was already closed for the day. -_- So I decided to stop by Whole Foods.

FLOWERS FROM WHOLE FOODS

Oh my! I should have come here sooner! I’ve always seen the beautiful local flowers on display at Whole Foods but I didn’t look too closely at them because I figured they would be expensive like everything else in this “Whole Paycheck” store.

I did notice that they sold flowers in smaller quantity stems though. So I decided to pick out a couple types of flowers, and then go home and arrange it. They also have small bunches of mixed greenery that you can buy – they add lots of dimension to a bouquet!

It took me FOREVER to decide which colors and flowers to mix and match. (Can you tell I have an issue with indecision? hehe)

I liked some peach roses but they were wilting already, so I asked the lady who worked there if they had anymore.

She disappeared into the back and came back with a slightly different color they had: sage roses. I liked them! And they were very fresh!

FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

She handed them over to me to add to my existing flower selections, and I was about to go pay for them, when she said the glorious words, “Would you like me to arrange them for you here?” I was like “…really??”

I thought about all the time I would save by not needing to cut stems with stubborn scissors (meant for paper not flowers) and sweep the leaves off the floor at home if I did it myself. So I eagerly said YES!

But then I didn’t have an actual vase, and I wanted the flowers to last longer. So I told her I’d be right back, and I literally went home to grab my empty vase and came back.

By the time I returned, she had already trimmed all the stems and arranged it nicely into a bouquet bundled with a rubber band. She held it next to the vase to eyeball the height. Then she chopped off the stems in 1 fell swoop, with what I can only describe as a giant paper cutter for flower stems.

She plopped the flowers into the vase with water and even gave me a nice box for transporting it and some tissue paper and flower food. Oh and she spritzed the flowers with water for an extra oomph.

When I paid, it only came out to be $26.16 for the flowers!

I walked out of there so proud – for getting myself a great deal and saving time LoL! My grandma loved the flowers by the way. Hooray! So it wasn’t entirely homemade, but I was part of the creative process! 😉

Anyhow, just wanted to share this little tip in case you need a gift for a special someone in your life. Especially for people that already have everything they need. But I think most people would love flowers to brighten their space!

Thursdays at Buffalo Wild Wings: Boneless Wings Deal

June 24, 2018 By Kat

What an oxymoron. Boneless wings. Regardless, it’s basically like chunks of fried chicken. Who can say no to fried chicken?

The price can be different based on the locations. When we went earlier this week (Thursday night) to the San Jose location, it was 70 cents a wing, and we ordered FIFTY wings for 3 people. Needless to say, we had so much leftover… They said it was because I didn’t do my part. But I didn’t feel the need to order FIFTY in the first place! We also got an appetizer sampler platter and fries. Oy, so much food! 😮

Here’s the official BBW website for Boneless Thursdays which I quote from them is “the greatest day of all time.” And here’s the list of locations. It’d be best to check that the location nearest you offers this deal.

It’s not the first time we’ve went to BWW, so here are pics from other trips, where we also over-ordered. Sometimes I try to eat salad. Trying to maintain some amount of health, here! 😛

P.S. The lemon pepper flavor tastes better on wings with the bone, not so good on the boneless wings.

Hope you enjoyed this tip!

Where to Get Free Books, Ebooks, Movies & More

June 23, 2018 By Kat

A bunch of years ago, I was working on the Google Play Android app. At that time, it was only for buying apps. We added the ability to buy ebooks, and then to rent movies from the app. Someone asked my coworker, “Oh you’re offering movie rentals. Wouldn’t it be so cool if there was a place where you could rent books?” And my coworker responded, “…You mean libraries?” LOL.

Yup, it’s the best kept secret.

The library.

With so many companies offering digital media and paid subscriptions for access to media, it’s easy to forget that right in our neighborhoods, we have libraries that have tons of books and movies that we can check out… FOR FREE.

For the Bay Area libraries I’ve been to, they’ve been quick to adopt services that allow patrons to borrow items digitally.

There’s the Hoopla app that you can download for free and browse for eBooks, movies, TV shows, music, or audiobooks. This is amazing!! You don’t even need to leave your home.

Or you can check Overdrive to find eBooks or audiobooks, and they can be downloaded to your computer or delivered straight to your Kindle device or phone (Android, iOS, Windows)!

There’s also Flipster for reading magazines digitally, and you can also login to read newspapers like the NYTimes!

If you want a physical book or DVD, going in person is of course an option. I love checking out their new releases section, which often has popular books that are trending. They also have a vast collection of movies and TV DVD sets. They also have old school audiobooks that are a set of CDs, if anyone still uses those. 😉 Actually, I did get those audiobooks to play in my car, which surprisingly has a CD player! The only annoying part is swapping out CDs when each disc is done.

Anyways, if I already know what items I want from the library, before I go in, I’ll take advantage of the library website. I search the catalog, login with my library card, and put things on hold. Then I can just go into the library branch and pick them up. This came in handy especially last year when I was reading tons of picture books during the bookwriting process and writing up favorite children’s books posts.

Gosh, there’s so much free-ness at the library, it’s great.

Actually our tax dollars pay for it, so take advantage of it! Go visit your library wherever you live. If you’re around here, check out the Mountain View Library and sign up for a library card!

Friday Night at the Observatory: Looking at Stars

June 14, 2018 By Kat

I love looking for fun and cool experiences to try out around the Bay Area. San Francisco and San Jose always have lots of things going on, but I live in between those two cities, where there’s less things to do because most people go to sleep early (including me, ha!).

I heard about a place where you can see the stars on Friday nights at the Observatory at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. It’s about 20 mins away from Downtown Mountain View, not too far.

My boyfriend and I were excited to go check it out, and wanted to bring our friends from out of town (the ones we brought to Napa in this vlog). The website says Friday nights from 9-11pm, and we rushed to finish dinner and get over there in time. But when we arrived, the parking lot was empty. Wah wah. As a cop car drove by, we asked him about it. He said they probably don’t have it because it’s Memorial Day weekend. So we went home instead, without seeing any stars. 🙁

A couple weeks later, my boyfriend and I decided to try again! We went back and this time, there were other cars there! Signs of civilization are always great.

If you haven’t been to Foothill College, you need to pay to park, even if it’s in the middle of the night. Otherwise you could get a ticket. And we’re not THAT wild to live life on the edge. We found the parking pay station to pay $3 for a spot, and the machine ate our money!! Twice!! And then we realized that the printer was just stuck, so my boyfriend stuck his hand in the machine and pulled out 3 tickets… apparently someone else got jipped too. -_- Anyhow, we managed to find other people to give those extra tickets to.

Then we approached the observatory. And there’s this ominous staircase that looks a bit sketchy, not going to lie. We stared at each other. I wanted HIM to walk in first, and he wanted ME to walk in first. LoL. So I finally grabbed his hand and dragged him in, up the narrow and winding staircase.

At the top, it was very dark, except for a few red lights. There was maybe about 10 people already there, sitting or standing around a big a** telescope. Never seen one so big in my life. One one side, someone (who presumably knew what was going on) was sitting in front of a computer that has some stars on it.

Apparently you line up and wait for your turn to look through the telescope. There’s also a stepstool for the vertically challenged folks (like myself) who need an extra boost to reach the eye piece.

When I looked into the telescope, I saw a big white circle and small white dots around it. I thought it was the moon and 4 stars around it. The guy was explaining later that it was Jupiter and its moons. Whoops. Other people said they could see the rings on Jupiter, and even when I took a second look, all I could see was a white circle for Jupiter…

Once everyone had a turn to look at Jupiter, then this was the most exciting part. The guy told everyone to stand back and remove the stepstool, he hit a couple buttons on the computer, and then the telescope started moving on its own!! It switched to some other position, and then the entire ceiling overhead started moving as well. I was like WHOAA. I don’t have a better word to describe the ceiling thing, but it’s some type of dome enclosure on the building and there’s a gap where it’s open to the night sky. The open gap was just adjusting based on where the telescope was now pointing at. So anyways, the telescope switching positions was the most exciting part.

There’s an interesting echo in there as well because of the shape of the room, so you can hear what’s going on in the other side of the room. For half the time, my boyfriend kept nudging me to ask the guy, “Can we see Earth? C’mon ask it!!” -_- LoL

It does get a little chilly up there. And while you’re waiting in line, you can entertain yourself by looking at the other stars with your naked eye, which is pretty cool.

Also when we were standing in line for the telescope, and standing near the outlet for the telescope, my boyfriend said, “I wonder what will happen if we unplug this thing.” LOL I think you can tell what type of personality he has. Anyhow, it was amusing to experience this with him.

We also saw another view – I think it was a glob of stars in Hercules. I frankly couldn’t see much. I think it’s because of my bad vision. But it looked like a cloudy gray thing in the middle. Apparently you can see it clearer when you don’t look directly at the center where the stars are. My peripheral vision is not great either lol.

There was a whole bunch of people there and it got more crowded as the night went on, but people trickle in and out casually. Some kids were there because of their science class I think. They have to see 3 different things and take notes. Then the guy says the kids usually bolt after that. Some people brought their families with young kids. I imagine it would be cool to experience this live if I was reading books on astronomy as a kid.

Anyhow, it wasn’t quite what we had expected. My boyfriend thought it would have been more romantic, haha! But it was still fun to try! And when things are dark, it ups the excitement level.

This is life in the suburbs, people.

Here’s the link if you want to check it out: Foothill College Observatory Admission is free. Parking is $3.