Author: Ray

Ray is the other half of Ashley Au. He set up this blog and designed it with Ashley. He is an avid web designer and gadget guy. He loves to relax and hang out with Ashley and their dogs! Captain Fishbone, aka Cappy. Cappy and Ray are buddies and together they pick on Ashley and Pok'e.
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Atlanta Tour

For our third day of Bean’s stay he started out with the traditional morning XBOX therapy. Sounds of machine guns and virtual people dying filled the air as usual when Bean stays with us. Mom and Dad, here’s why Bean loves coming over oh so much. 🙂 Notice the zombie look…

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Today we stayed in Atlanta, taking the urban tour. We took a stroll through the Atlanta Underground, a shopping mall underneath the downtown area of Atlanta. The concept is very cool but unfortunately the area needs some revitalization. The walk there was quite sketchy and the whole underground mall wasn’t any better. We snapped a few pics and Ash bought a small trinket.

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Ash also had to buy some books at the local Nerd erh…Engineer’s Bookstore near Georgia Tech. Man are those books expensive!

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Our next stop was Martin Luther King’s birthplace on Auburn street in the Edgewood district near downtown Atlanta. The whole street was very well preserved. Here’s Bean and I outside the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born. I look really sleepy in this photo and does Bean know how to smile?

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Before we went to Buckhead, we stopped by the famous Fat Matt’s Rib Shack. Bean had been looking forward to eating there ever since Ash and I raved about it.

Here’s some juicy pics! Ash had the BBQ Chicken below!

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Bean and I had the ribs whoohoo!

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And now Bean’s happy and can smile for the camera.

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Water World

Today Ashley and I took Bean to the World of Coca Cola museum and the Georgia Aquarium.  Ash and I have gone to the Coke museum before but the aquarium was one I have been personally waiting to see ever since coming to Atlanta.

We had a great water themed day from carbonated water to giant fish swimming in large tanks of water.  Bean had a great time as well and really enjoyed the Coke museum.  I warned him to be thirsty before he got there and he only half listened…yup now he knows why…

Here are some pictures from our day.

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Of course the best part of the Coke museum is the tasting room.  This time I was able to take down our favorites.  Here they are!

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Ash loved the bitter sour taste of Kinley.  Bean loved the sugary sweet bubbley drink from South Africa called Bibo.  I really like the sweet sour apple soda from China-back to my roots!  Interestingly, when we mixed our favorite drinks together it produced something even tastier.  Here’s a pic of us inside the tasting room.  The floor was so sticky!

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Our next stop after coke was the aquarium.  Ash and Bean love verbally abusing each other and I had a great time insitgating and laughing at their smack talk.  Here’s a great pic of Ashley being cheeky with Bean outside the aquarium.

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The Georgia Aquarium is the newest aquarium in the country and is home to the 6.5 billion gallon tank which houses the whale shark.  The sharks were brought over from Taiwan at the age of 15 and can grow to the size of a school bus.  There are four of them in this huge tank and the sight is simply amazing.

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I think my favorite type of museum are aquariums.  So far I’ve only been to three, New England, Monterey and now the Georgia Aqauarium.  Bean says the new aquarium in Da Liang or Ching Dao is spectacular too!

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Here’s a picture of Ash and Bean looking at Jellyfish.  I like this photo a lot, the blue glow and the reflection of Ashley’s face in the glass is especially cool.

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No visit to an Aquarium would be complete without a petting zoo.  Here’s Ash and Bean daring each other to touch sting rays and baby hammerhead sharks.  I had to call them chicken before they got the courage to do it!  Meanwhile 5 year olds are trying to jump into the pool.

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What a great time we all had!

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Bean arrives for a Christmas visit!

At last Bean is here to visit us.  He came in on the evening of Christmas and brought with him many gifts from my parents mostly in the form of delicious Mrs. Peng’s food!  He had a long flight from Boston taking him to Chicago first before arriving in Atlanta.  These plane routes are ridiculous!  Bean freaked out when he arrived because the airline lost his luggage but things turned out ok in the end as the next morning they found it.  Here some photos of the first night and morning with Bean.

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Of course no visit from Bean would be complete without a ton of video games.  The sound of guns blazing from the xbox 360 fills the air as I even right this.  The photo below is rare instance of when Bean is not playing and myself and Kumar, a friend from Sapient is. 🙂

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Bean brought numerous treats made by my parents.  This morning, we cooked a few of them and I had to snap some photos.  Here’s one of Bean and I enjoying the wonderful food my parents made for us.

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The pic below is a pan fried bun.  The bun is original steamed and is made with corn meal, flower and some other ingredients I am not aware of.  We then pan fry it to create a crispy outside with a very soft inside.  This puts the best bagels to shame or toast.

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Mrs. Peng’s delicious scallion pancakes.  Very thick and with lots of fresh scallions and a touch of salt.

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Since we’re on food photos.  This evening we also had some kal-bi short ribs.  Ash and I bought them from H-Mart and she marinated them.  They are awesome!

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Ash and I are having a really relaxing time finally being able to rest after a very fast and furious year.  Pok’e’s  nap photo captures out Christmas sentiment best!

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MF Sushi, Atlanta

After all the hype from locals, Ash and I went to MF Sushi in Midtown Atlanta. MF Sushi is definitely a more traditional yet high end sushi bar. The ambiance was dark and hip, however the service was average. The sushi was very expensive. Overall the food was good but very pricey.

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The Toro and Lobster Box Roll below were great. Very well portioned and tasty. The Spider Roll was below average and should be avoided. Ash LOVED the Lobster Box, it was fresh lobster placed on top of rice topped with roe and a sweet dark sauce.

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The spicy tuna roll was also very good. Their sushi rolls are definitely more traditional in size.

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My favorite, the Crunchy roll contains salmon and tempura mix.

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Spicy Tuna Tar Tar

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Toro Tar Tar – this was VERY good

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