In a promotion entitled "What will you celebrate?" every guest gets in free to a Disney park on their birthday.

The offer is valid on the guest's birthday in 2009 and can be used to gain free admission to one Disney park at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Valid identification and proof of birthdate are required.

Guests with annual passports can choose from a single day park ticket good for one year, a four attraction Fastpass for a party of four or a voucher for merchandise equal to the value of a one day park admission good only on their birthday.

So be sure to mark your calendars so you can cash in on this great offer to one of my favorite places on Earth! You can get more details and submit your birthday to get a reminder when your birthday is approaching next year.

Then we went to Joe's Italian Ice to get an ice for dessert. Toni had the blood orange flavor and I had watermelon. The watermelon ice comes complete with watermelon seeds! Joe's Italian Ices are very refreshing and fresh tasting. Thanks Christy for a great recommendation. :)

From there, we said goodbye to Christy and Cheng and left for the Honda Center to watch the 2008 Tour of Gymnastic Champions. It was so cool to see Olympic Gold Medalists Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson in person. The Olympic Bronze Medal winning men's team was on hand as well. It was a fun time for us.

Last Sunday I went with my friend Anna to Sherman Oaks so we could see her new granddaughter Hannah for the first time. Hannah was born at 10:31 am on September 12, 2008. She was 6 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. I took these pictures of Hannah and her proud parents when she was just 2 days old.

It was the first time meeting Hannah's parents, Christine and Neil. I had heard a lot about them from Anna and it was pleasure getting to know them and their newborn baby girl. Hannah was so cute. It's only been a week since I met her, but I miss her. I look forward to seeing her in the future as she grows up. :)

While Anna and I were in Sherman Oaks, we stopped at a Gelson's Market. I really enjoyed looking at all the yummy foods there. Their chicken looked so fresh and tasty. I wanted to take some home, but didn't have an ice chest to keep it cool.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Earthen Restaurant in Hacienda Heights. We order a bowl of beef noodle soup, green onion pancakes and steamed pork dumplings. It was all delicious and such a bargain as well. We also bought goodies at RJ Patisserie to take home and enjoy later. Anna really liked both places and said she would bring her sisters there someday.

The other aspect I love is this is the first time I've watched the Olympics on a high definition television. HDTV is wonderful, especially for sporting events. It's almost like you're right there at the venue.

The Opening Ceremony was absolutely amazing. I think it's the most spectacular one I've ever witnessed! I will have those awesome images indelibly engraved on my brain forever.

My Hotel del Coronado photograph is featured in the inside back cover of the new 2008 Coronado Visitor's Guide.

You can download the complete 2008 Coronado Visitor's Guide at the Coronado Visitor Center website.

I'm so pleased about this because Coronado, California and the Hotel del Coronado are two favorite places of mine near where I live. I am about an hour from San Diego. There's something special about San Diego and Coronado that makes me feel so good whenever I visit. :)

I took the day off for my birthday to join Toni for dinner in San Diego. She was attending an AVID conference and staying in a hotel that week. So, I drove down to pick her up. I found a very neat French restaurant named Bleu Boheme on TripAdvisor.com. Bleu Boheme is a quaint restaurant in the Kensington district of San Diego with an inviting rustic French charm.

We started our meal with bread, butter and their imported French cheese board. The bread was perfect with a crispy crust and a a soft center. Toni and I loved the cheese board. It had a wonderful selection of French cheeses, dried fig terrine and a deliciously flavored thick and sweeet honey. Although everything was scrumptious, the cheeses and bread were definitely the hightlight of the meal for me. I paired the cheese with an effervescent glass of Grand Imperial Champagne.

For our entrees, Toni chose the Northern Halibut with Loster Sauce over Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus and I chose the Filet Mignon with Three Sauces served with Sauteed Green Beans and French Fries. The Halibut was cooked perfectly and the Filet Mignon was yummy dipped in the Curry, Green Peppercorn and Port Truffle sauces. I liked all three sauces, but the Port Truffle was my favorite.

We finished our meal by sharing the Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sorbet. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful birthday dinner!

While we were dining, I overheard the couple next to us comment on the Blue Cheese Olives in their Martinis. Since Toni loves Blue Cheese and Green Olives, I asked our waitress to bring us some so she could give them a try. She loved them. :)

Greg and Kathe Laurie's son Christopher Laurie died in a car accident this morning in Riverside, California. I am deeply saddened and my prayers are with Greg and his family. Please keep them in prayer. You may send your condolences by leaving a comment on the Harvest Christian Fellowship blog.

I saw the new Mark VII Monorail Red at Disneyland this weekend. I had tried to see it on previous visits, but it was always hidden behind the scenes because it was being modified to better ventilate the cabin cars which do not have air conditioning. I've loved the monorail ever since I was a child.

This new monorail has a great super futuristic sleek look and uber cool blue interior lights at night. It really was impressive. I was on a mission to get some pictures of the new monorail and was finally successful. As an added treat, I was invited to ride in the cockpit by an engineer.

Erin has always been proud of her one quarter Korean heritage. Sometimes I think she thinks she's mostly Korean. She taught everyone at her high school how to say I love you in Korean. So, I was overjoyed to find out she would be visiting Korea for the first time and staying for a month this summer while she's on break from college. She's going there to teach Korean university students spoken English. She left today from LAX and is due to land in Seoul around 1:00 am tomorrow morning.

Today marks 53 years since Walt Disney opened the amusement park I love, Disneyland. I wasn't able to be at the park today, but I was there with Toni on the 50th anniversary. I'll always remember walking into Disneyland with all the cast members lined up on Main Street welcoming and thanking us. :)

Toni and I decided to spend the 4th of July in San Diego this year. It was an easy choice because it was so much cooler and I wanted to take photographs of fireworks over the San Diego Bay.

After dinner, I took pictures of Ingrid with her mom. I wanted to capture them together. Ingrid surprised her mom with a kiss during our little photo shoot which made for a lovely image as you can see above.

I was excited to meet Ingrid's daughter Mikaela and her mother Ginnie for the first time. I recongnized them both since I have seen many pictures of them on Ingrid's Flickr photostream. We had a wonderful lunch at Swadee Thai in Coronado. It's a favorite of Ingrid. I loved the decor, food and the colorful outfits worn by the women at the restaurant. I'll have to ask if I can take pictures of their colorful dresses next time. Ingrid's son Bryce was fascinated by the hidden Mickeys on my Hawaiian shirt.

Toni and I parked and walked to the Coronado Ferry Landing to watch fireworks shot from four barges on San Diego Bay. The fireworks were spectacular and I got some very nice shots. It was a great 4th of July.

I got together with fellow Flickr enthusiasts on Saturday evening to visit and photograph Griffith Observatory. I was excited to go since I had not been to the observatory in at least fifteen years.

When we got there, I was so happy to find an absolutely primo parking spot right away! Oh, and the weather and view were lovely that day. There was a cool breeze and it wasn't insufferably hot like it had been a few weeks ago.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and though I didn't shoot as many photographs as usual, I did get a few keepers. I was very pleased with the results of bouncing my SB-800 off a reflector and even the wall of Griffith Observatory for portraits.

Later, we went to dinner at Fred 62 where some of my friends adapted my portrait flash bouncing technique using an unfolded paper napkin as a bounce surface. It worked amazingly well, even with a built in flash on a Nikon D40 using the shooters hand as a GOBO to stop direct flash hitting the subject. It was a ton of fun.

There's a dog park which sits adjacent to my work and shares the parking lot. When I pulled into the parking lot on Friday morning, I did a doubel take. I saw what appeared to be a chocolate brown Standard Poodle wearing goggles sitting in the passenger seat of a bright red Volkswagen Cabriolet.

I knew right away I had to get a photograph of that dog! I walked over to the owner, a nice man named Frank, and asked if I could take a photograph of his dog in the car. He told me he would be leaving the dog park in a half hour, so I told him I'd come out to meet him at that time.

Frank informed me that his dog Max wears the goggles when riding in the convertible to protect his eyes from flying objects. I took a few shots with Frank holding a fill flash to camera left. I thanked him and the duo were on their way. I'm so glad I took the time to photograph Max. I'm sure you'll agree it was well worth the effort.

I had a wonderful photo session at a favorite client's house in Newport Beach recently. Beth commissioned me to take photographs of her new baby Kamryn and her daughter Kayla who was graduating from High School.

This photograph of Kamryn at a mere 15 days old is the one Beth chose to include with her baby announcements. I was amazed at the clarity of Kamryn's eyes and her attentiveness. She is a beautiful baby. Congratulations, Beth and David!