On Monday, Dan and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! We of course both had to work since it was a Monday, but we went to dinner at the world renowned Chez Panisse. Located in the “Gourmet Ghetto” of Berkeley and founded by the famous Alice Waters, it is credited as the birthplace of California cuisine. It frequently makes it into the ranks of the top 50 restaurants in the world, and reservations fill up very quickly. Dan and I were lucky to get a reservation in 8:45… pretty late for dinner, but Chez Panisse was well worth the wait!
Dan surprised me with flowers before dinner!
Pretty anniversary flowers.
Chez Panisse! The mecca for foodies in the Bay Area.
The dinner course for the evening.
Olive tapenade before the dinner.
Candlelight dinner. Note the pretty etching on the glass!
The first course.
Taku river sockeye salmon carpaccio with cucumber and anise hyssop
The carpaccio transported me to heaven.
The hubby loved the carpaccio, too! Patiently waiting for the main course...
Wolfe Ranch quail grilled over fig branches with sweet corn pudding and pepperonata
Chez Panisse's dessert drink menu... everything sounds so good!
Pêche Melba: Peaches in raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream.
A delicious dessert to end an unforgettable dinner!
They gave us cocoa-covered toasted almonds with candied blood orange peel to munch on before we left. These were really good too! (I only remembered to take the photo when we were almost done with it... oops!)
Happy 2 Years hubby! ♥
It’s been an amazing two years, and although this puts a cap on our status as “newlyweds,” we’re very excited for the many more years to come and all the anniversaries that we’ll get to celebrate with each passing year. We are constantly reminded that it is thanks to our family and friends and all their love and support that we are who we are today, and we feel humbled and so grateful for having all of you as such an important, ever-present, and precious presence in our lives. We can’t wait to build more amazing memories together with each other, as well as with you!
A couple of weekends ago, my friend Sue from college was in San Francisco for some interviews. I spent a Saturday with her and her friend Matt wandering around the city. Here are some pictures from our adventures in San Francisco….
Starting the day off with Roli Roti brunch at the Ferry Building!
The Roli Roti Plate. Best rotisserie chicken ever! The potatoes are also delicious.
After cleaning off our plates, we went inside the lovely Ferry Building.
We decided to try some of the oysters, since they were only $1.50 each!
Oyster Shots!
Sue with her oyster.
The oysters were great! Will definitely have to go get some more there again.
The three of us outside the Ferry Building.
Sue jumping for joy in front of the Bay Bridge.
I jump!
Matt jumps!
Sue jumping again. This would become a common occurence/theme for the rest of the day.
Finding our way around Telgraph Hill.
Matt jumps at the intersection.
Climbing the Filbert Steps... that's right, all 103 of them!
Looking down at the steps... this was still less than a tenth of it. Still a long way to go!
Halfway up, we stopped to smell the flowers.
Almost there! The Coit Tower is just ahead.
The Coit Tower! We made it!!!
Sue jumping at the Coit Tower.
Exhausted from the climb. Excuse my unattractiveness... but I nearly died climbing those million steps.
The view of the bay from the Coit Tower.
Us outside the Coit Tower, after regaining our composure.
Sue jumping on the streets of San Francisco.
My failed attempt at flying.
Matt got a lot of air!
Sue trying to figure out where Liguria Bakery is... when we were right in front of it. lol.
After grabbing some focaccia, we took a break in Washington Park to sit and enjoy the beautiful day.
The pizza focaccia from Liguria Bakery was so good! They gave us so much too; we couldn't finish it.
Walking through Fisherman's Grotto. There were so many people!
We walked past Hyde Street Pier, towards the Aquatic Park...
Finally here! Sue taking photos from the Aquatic Park.
View of San Francisco from the Aquatic Park. We walked all the way from the Coit Tower (the little tower to the left in the distance) to here! It was quite a lot of walking...
Ghirardelli Square and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
Sue and I with San Francisco behind us, before leaving to go to dinner.
It was so good seeing Sue again, since I hadn’t seen her in over three years, since I graduated from Tech. I wish her all the best and I know she’s going to be one of the best architects the world has ever seen, wherever she goes. San Francisco would be lucky to have her! 🙂
...and I'll end this one last signature jump from Sue!
This post is almost a month late because uploading all the Hawaii photos was slowing me down, but I had to post some of these adorable photos from when the Jubbs were in town! I’ve known Nancy since we were kids in middle school, and I have a lot of memories with her — it was through her that I got my first part-time job (working as an accountant’s assistant at a law firm), and with her that we got our first cell phones! Not to mention all the sticker photos we took together after school in Annandale… 🙂
We’ve both come a long way since — we are both now married, and Nancy has been happily living with her English husband Matthew in London for a few years now! They just had their first child in March of this year, and they were in Sacramento visiting family and stopped by for a day in the East Bay. I not only got to meet Matthew for the first time, but 3-1/2-month old Eleanor, too! I hadn’t seen Nancy herself in over four years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. 🙂 We went to have lunch together in El Cerrito, followed by some gelato in Berkeley, and then came back and just relaxed at our humble abode for a while.
Such a beautiful family!
After lunch at Pasta Pomodoro. Look at Ellie...!
I couldn't get enough of baby Eleanor. She is just the cutest! A quarter Korean, she's going to be a knockout when she grows up! I'm jealous of her good genes.
She was so well-behaved, too! Someday, when I have kids, I can only hope they are half as sweet as this girl is!
This must be the first time I've ever seen Dan hold a baby. He is so awkward with babies! hahaha* But I am too...
Baby Ellie... so adorable!
Thank you so much to Nancy and Matthew for taking time in your busy schedule to meet up with us! We hope you had a great time visiting the East Coast afterwards. We will definitely have to visit you in London someday!
Day Nine was the last day of our vacation in Hawaii! :'(Â This was actually the only day that we didn’t have anything concrete planned, so we winged it. It was nice to just relax and drive around without a real itinerary for once. 🙂
For breakfast, we stopped by Sweet Marie’s, a gluten-free bakery in Kapaa. We just randomly found it and decided to eat there, but it ended up being really good! We recommend. 🙂
Breakfast at Sweet Marie's!
Gluten-free muffin and vegan cookie. The cookie was especially delicious! Who knew vegan cookies could be so yum?
Leave it to me to procrastinate on my souvenir shopping… Thankfully, the Kauai Products Fair on the East Shore had some really nice goodies — this is where we did the bulk of our souvenir shopping for my family. 🙂
The Kauai Products Fair on the East Shore
I loved these frogs! They made such cool sounds, so I got a bunch of the smaller ones as gifts. I really wanted to get a large one for my grandfather who makes bamboo carvings, but I had no room in my luggage for it.
An interesting doll we found at the products fair. Looks like something my brother Ted would like.
Upon completing our souvenir shopping, we went onto get shaved ice. (Yes, again!) This would be the last time we’d get shaved ice in Hawaii. :'(Â We went to Ono Ono Shave Ice.
At Ono Ono Shave Ice in Kapaa. Look at all the flavors!
Dan's shaved ice: banana + guava.
I got the "Zen Break": green tea + lychee. Such a great combination!
In the early afternoon, we returned to the Coconut Marketplace (which is right by our hotel) and watched a free hula show. One of the girls who was performing had been at a fruit stand we went to the previous day, and had urged us to stop by to watch her perform.
Free hula show at the Coconut Marketplace. These girls were adorable!
The female singer whose songs the girls were dancing to sang the famous Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It was so pretty of it, I took a video to capture the audio:
The girls performing a Tahitian dance.
We were able to get a picture with these very talented ladies!
The dancers' mothers were selling handmade leis to fundraise for the girls' costumes, so Dan bought me a lei to support them.
We were pretty hungry after the hula show, so we drove over to The Fish Express in Lihue for a late lunch/afternoon snack. Dan’s coworker had recommended the place for their good poke.
The Fish Express storefront.
So many varieties of poke! I wanted to get everything.
We got a whole bunch of stuff for only about $11.60! We couldn't wait to dig in, so we ate in the car.
This was seriously hands-down the best poke I've ever had! Perfectly flavored.
Ocean salad. This was also amazing.
Kimchee shrimp poke. I am drooling just remembering it.
I'm so excited about all the food we got at The Fish Express!
You can see the effect the poke had on me.
The Fish Express is definitely a place you must go if you’re in Kaua’i and love raw fish like us! My only regret was not going to this place sooner. I would have been totally content with having poke from there every day we were in Kaua’i.
One of the better known places in Kaua’i that we had not been to yet was Poipu Beach, so we drove down to Poipu once our stomachs were stuffed with poke fabulousness.
The sign at Poipu Beach.
A beached Hawaiian Monk Seal. Don't worry, it's not dead - just lazily sunbathing.
Poipu has a strip of the beach which extends down the middle, and the waves come in from either side and meet, and then retract again. I felt like Moses parting the sea; so powerful!
Dan walking further down the beach strip, where there's lava rock.
Me at gorgeous Poipu Beach!
Dan found a sea cucumber... for some reason, he is really good at finding these slimy things.
Walking on lava rock at Poipu.
Against the ocean at Poipu Beach.
The waves were really crashing against the rocks!
Never before have I seen a rooster on the beach!
Dan and I at Poipu Beach.
We had time to stop by one more location before having to grab dinner and head towards the airport, so we drove over to the nearby Wailua Falls.
Wailua Falls
With the video, you can sort of see a more accurate view of how the falls looked from our vantage point. We even caught a rainbow on camera. 🙂
Double waterfalls... too bad there was no double rainbow there, too!
The pool of water at the base of Wailua Falls.
For dinner, we decided to eat near the airport at the Japanese restaurant Kintaro.
Eating dinner at Kintaro Japanese restaurant.
My soba from Kintaro.
Tempura to go with the soba.
Great sushi!
Our last meal in Kaua'i... so sad!
I don't want to leave! :'( ::sniffle::
But alas, we had to leave. After dinner, we promptly returned our rental car and dragged ourselves to the airport to catch our flight. The lines for check-in and for the security check were heinous… it seemed like half the island was flying to LA! But after all the waiting and stress, we were able to safely board our plane. The journey back to San Francisco was anything but fun, since it was an overnight flight and I was freezing the whole time in the overly air-conditioned cabin. I barely got any sleep! We arrived at Los Angeles International Airport early in the morning, where we had a three-hour layover. Not fun! 🙁
Freezing and sleep-deprived at our layover in LAX. I knew it was a bad idea to return to the mainland...
We were surprised to find many more beached creatures lying around in LAX than on the beaches of Hawaii.
But eventually, we boarded our one-hour flight from LAX to SFO, and were able to get home safe and sound. It’s only been a month since we’ve gotten back, but I miss our time in Hawaii a lot. There’s still a lot I’d like to see if and when we ever go back, and I’d like to check out the other islands of Maui and Big Island someday, too.
Thank you to all of our friends who gave us recommendations on places to go, sights to see, and foods to eat! Our trip wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable if it weren’t for you!
Christopher Nolan never fails to impress, and this just might be his best film yet! It’s incredible that he not only directed but also wrote the screenplay for Inception — it is such a complex and unique film that has kept people talking for days after seeing it. I think it’s pretty safe to say that this is the movie of the year…. I don’t care if we’re only halfway through, I just can’t see any other movies surpassing this one.
Nolan can add this to his growing pile of groundbreaking work, atop Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight… he’s got to be one of the most genius and daring filmmakers of our time. Leonardo DiCaprio, too, has been building quite a career for himself with the great roles he’s been taking on in the past few years — in The Departed, Blood Diamond, and Shutter Island, to name a few. I noticed that in his most recent movies, he’s been playing the same sort of haunted, disturbed characters, but he definitely boasts a wide breadth in his acting ability. He’s come a long way since the days of being the teenaged heartthrob from Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, of whom I collected clippings and taped all over my locker. Those days are long gone, but I have a lot of respect for him as an actor nowadays.
There’s a lot of discussion and theories being thrown around about what really happened in this film. Are they alive? Are they dead? Are they dreaming the whole time? Will we ever really know? And does it matter? What is your take?
