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!
We continue with our report of Day 2 in Hawaii! (If you missed Day 1, you can start here.) We had a packed schedule on Saturday, June 12, so we woke up early to get some breakfast — we stopped by the local McDonald’s.
The McDonald's in Laie.
Now before you go and judge us for going to a McDonald’s while vacationing in an exotic place like Hawaii, please take into consideration that the main purpose was to try this:
Spam breakfast from McDonald's.
Only in Hawaii will McDonald’s serve up spam breakfasts. Of course, I couldn’t eat the egg, so I just had a bite of Dan’s spam and ordered a cherry pie instead. The spam was not too bad! We then went on our way to drive over to Kualoa Ranch, where we had made a reservation to go on the super-touristy movie tour! The Kualoa Ranch is where famous films such as Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers, and Godzilla were filmed (along with a host of others that I can’t remember right now…). It was also used to film several scenes in the popular television show LOST.
Arriving at Kualoa Ranch
The bus we would ride for the movie tour.
Me frolicking while waiting for our tour to start.
Dan and I at Kualoa Ranch
Concrete bunkers that were used in WWII.
At a film location for Pearl Harbor.
They had some photos of Japanese celebrities who had come to visit the ranch:
Apparently Taka-san (Ishibashi Takaaki) from Tunnels had been there there... I am puzzled as to why he is in a bathrobe.
Japanese actor Tamaki Hiroshi, too!
You could see the ocean from the ranch.
Film location for Jurassic Park!
Hurley's golf course from LOST.
Ginormous footprint from the film Godzilla.
Where they filmed a scene in 50 First Dates.
The mountains seen from the ranch were really majestic!
Richard Alpert's home back in the "Canary Islands" in the TV show LOST.
You can see more photos from our movie tour at Kualoa Ranch here. Upon completing the tour, we jumped back into the car and drove down to Aiea, where we visited the historic sites of Pearl Harbor.
Arriving in Pearl Harbor.
The USS Bowfin - we didn't get to go on that tour because we didn't have enough time.
The anchor recovered from the USS Arizona.
We had limited time to spend at Pearl Harbor, but the one thing we wanted to make sure we saw was the USS Arizona Memorial. The USS Arizona Memorial grew out of wartime desire to establish some sort of memorial at Pearl Harbor to honor those who died in the attack, and it is accessible by boat.
On the boat that would take us to the USS Arizona Memorial.
Arriving at the USS Arizona Memorial
The wreckage of No. 3 barbette, one of the only parts of the ship that are visible above the water.
People walking around the USS Arizona.
A Pearl Harbor verteran stands before the marble memorial wall.
The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. Their names are engraved on the marble wall.
You can see some of the ship wreckage underwater.
Pearl Harbor is definitely a sobering experience, as are most wartime memorial sites, but I am really glad that we went. I’ve always been very interested in American history, and so I was really glad that I was able to see firsthand the site of the attack of the “day which would live in infamy.” It meant a lot for me to be able to actually see the wreckage of the USS Arizona and to pay my respects to those lost. (See the rest of our photos from Pearl Harbor.) After leaving Pearl Harbor, we decided to check out the Aloha Swap Meet, which was also in Aiea. It is one of the largest flea markets in Hawaii.
The Aloha Swap Meet in Aiea.
Hawaiian goods for sale.
Painted coconuts.
The swap meet was interesting to look around in, but there wasn’t anything that was so amazing that we felt compelled to buy. It was definitely a neat place to look around and explore, though. After walking around so much at Pearl Harbor and at the Aloha Swap Meet, we were starving! We promptly headed over to Honolulu to enjoy a late lunch.
Coco Ichiban Curry House in Honolulu.
Dan got the shrimp katsu and stewed shrimp curry.
I got the asari (clam) curry with ebi fry.
The curry was amazing! Thank you Estella for the recommendation!!!
After lunch, we walked around Honolulu to see the area and do some window shopping.
Walking around Honolulu.
SPARK! A trendy clothing boutique my friend Tarrin recommended for their vintage clothes. There was a lot of cool stuff here! It's frequented by Japanese celebrities, too!
In the late afternoon, we headed over to the Kahala Hotel & Resort for the main event of the day, and one of the prime reasons we scheduled our Hawaii trip to be in mid-June: to attend our friends Yumi and Mark’s wedding. 🙂
Arriving at the ceremony location for Yumi and Mark's wedding.
The beautiful ceremony location: a gazebo by the beach.
Dan and I waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Unfortunately, there was no photo-taking allowed at the ceremony, so we snuck in a few right after the ceremony, when the bride and groom were taking group photos.
Yumi made a gorgeous bride!
Yumi and Mark's families
Lovely place setting - the plumeria was a pretty touch!
The bridal party kicking off the reception.
The bride and groom during the toast.
Amazing prime rib.
The dessert was almost too pretty to eat! But I still ate it... and it tasted just as good as it looked!
Cake-cutting time. They are so photogenic!
The sweet first dance... one of my favorite parts of weddings.
Bouquet toss!
The bride and groom at their sweetheart table, looking great!
Congratulations, Yumi and Mark!
We had to retire a little early and couldn’t stay until the very end of the reception, because we had to make the drive all the way back up to the Turtle Bay in North Shore, but we had a wonderful time and were so happy to be able to attend our friends’ big day. (More photos here.)
Cheers to their happily ever after! 末永ããŠå¹¸ã›ã«ï¼ï¼ï¼
My best friend Debbie just got into Santa Clara today for her conference, so we drove down to have dinner with her in the South Bay. Our friend Greg, who also went to high school with Debbie and I, came along and we caught up over stone pot Japanese curry at Curry House in Cupertino.
Me with the bestest!
Greg and Dan across the table.
Saying goodbye to Debbie at her hotel.
It’s been just about a year since I’d last seen my best friend, so it was so nice seeing her again! I just wish we could have spent more time together — if Santa Clara were closer, I’d be visiting her every evening after her conference schedule. It was great catching up, though, and I hope that I can see both Debbie and Greg again soon! 🙂
