Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin

Finally! Our mini first road trip!

We've been craving some snowboarding action and so we decided to take a 2 hour road trip to check out a hill in Wisconsin. We went to a ski area called Alpine Valley on a Saturday.


Sure enough, it's a real dinky hill. I'm not sure it even looks like a hill from this picture.


We got there around 5pm so we were able to do a 2 hour session of night riding. Unfortunately, this place was crowded and the people are out of control! They just speed down the hill without any control. One guy even ran over my board! I would not recommend this place, especially on the weekend. Good thing it was just barely enough to satisfy our fix.

I'm addicted to Rock Band

I've been playing a lot of Rock Band drums since we first got it in late November... it's incredibly fun... and I like calling it my "high school dream".


JJ and I started a band called Hiphoppopotamus :)

Anyways, you probably already know I'm not a real drummer... but this is what happens when you play a lot...



... and yes, I'm proud of it :D
(Thanks to Pat for challenging me every time haha)

White Castle

Even though we ate at Katsu, we made a snack-stop at White Castle that same evening. Neither of the 3 of us had "fresh" White Castle so a midnight snack was in order.


I was definitely surprised by the chicken rings (yes, I liked them!)

Katsu

JJ and I took BJ out for his birthday dinner and we went to one of the most authentic Japanese restaurants in Chicago, Katsu.


You know it's authentic when the sushi chefs are Japanese, the waiters are Japanese, and even the patrons are Japanese!

We had some of the freshest sashimi ever... flown in from Japan! Some of the fish we had were reminiscent of the type and quality we had at Morimoto.


This clam appetizer, also flown in, was also amazing!


This was the first time I've seen gold leaf on sushi!


High quality fish and excellent service. Highly recommended!

Pizza D.O.C.

No surprise that our first post of the new year is about food... really.
Now that we have a car (yes, a car!), we can go exploring at cheaper and better food places in the Chicago area.

Our first stop... Pizza D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata)... the pizza really impressed me and the pasta was decent as well. Olive oil + parmesan cheese is a winning combination! Service was also excellent; they even gave us extra parmesan to go (although, at 3pm, why wouldn't it be?).