Coupled Confessions

Memorial Day weekend just flew by! It was so nice to have the three-day weekend to get some relaxation in — we saw some friends we hadn’t seen in a while, watched movies and Japanese dramas, and got a lot of shopping done in preparation for Hawaii. I love shopping for summer clothes! (Except that it never gets quite hot enough to wear them around here.)

Here are some photos from Sunday, when we went to a BBQ hosted by Dan’s coworker and friend Kane, and his wife Cristina. Dan loves lizards, so he had fun with their pet bearded dragons….

Dan and Cristina at the BBQ

Cristina with Petra... Cristina's due in a month! Can't wait to meet their baby!

Hello there, little fellow.

Mouth wide open.

Our gracious host Kane in the background.

Earlier in the weekend, I went on the hill in El Cerrito with my friends Yumi and Mark, and discovered this fun swing atop the hill. It’s just a board hung on a single thick rope from a tall branch, but you can get a lot of air with it. The hill is the prominent one you can see from the highway (the 80), and the view from there is pretty neat! One one side, you can see all the East Bay hills, and if you turn around, you’re greeted with a sweeping view of the whole bay and San Francisco, even the Golden Gate Bridge! I took Dan back to the hill after the BBQ so he could check it out too.

Me on the swing atop the hill in El Cerrito.

Perhaps having a little too much fun.

Dan's turn on the swing. The branch is pretty high!

It’s back to work tomorrow, but I’m grateful that we were able to have a relaxing, productive weekend. I can’t believe it’s already June!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as well!

Dan and I finally went to see Wicked today in San Francisco! I’ve been wanting to see the musical since last year, and so when we found out that it is leaving this September, we had to make sure we caught at least one show before then. I had a wonderful time watching Wicked at the Orpheum Theatre — the story was magical, the cast was amazing, and the music was incredibly memorable. I loved it!!!

Last night, Dan and I went to the much-anticipated Muse concert in Oracle Arena in Oakland. Muse is one of Dan’s favorite bands, and so when I heard that they were coming back in December, I immediately picked up a pair of tickets as a birthday gift for Dan. I’d also grown to become a fan, from listening to Dan’s music library, so I was pretty psyched to see them live too.

The stadium was packed and Muse put on an awesome show that did not disappoint! They sang all of their much-loved classics, such as Uprising, Resistance, Supermassive Black Hole, Unnatural Selection, and my personal favorite, Starlight. Their set was incredible, too! They had these massive skyscraper-like structures onstage that opened up to reveal them inside each at the start of the show, and they kept being lowered and lifted and spun atop them while all sorts of motion graphics and effects played on the sides of them. It was visually stunning; I’d never seen anything like it before.

Here’s a video of Muse performing Starlight last night. Amazing!

It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and I came out even more a fan than I was before! Definitely looking forward to seeing them live again sometime.

To pick up where I left off from Part I of our trip to Southern California, we drove down to San Diego from Irvine in the morning to go to Sea World San Diego! It was my first time at any sort of marine mammal park/oceanarium (I’ve never been to Sea World or Marine World before), so I felt like a little kid marveling at all these cool sea creatures that you don’t get to see at your regular aquarium. After Sea World, we drove over to gorgeous La Jolla Cove… it was so stunningly beautiful, I didn’t want to leave.

Once again, I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking….

We stopped by 85°C Bakery Cafe in Irvine for breakfast before hitting the road.

So many yummy bake goods!

These looked amazing, but I knew better than to substitute dessert for breakfast.

My first time at Sea World and my first time seeing a killer whale in real life!

Shamu is so adorable....

We rode this water ride...

...and got completely soaked!

Flamingos! This may have been my first time seeing them in real life, too.

The sea lion show! A sea lion dancing the tango.

Mariko with the sharks.

Cotton Candy!

Adorable penguins...

This polar bear was passed the fuck out. 寝方がおやじ臭いし・・・。

You can't tell, but we're in a polar bear cave.

A beluga whale... they are so cute.

The three of us in the souvenir shop, posing with Shamu.

Mari and Shun with stuffed animals. Cute!!!

Arriving in La Jolla.

It was quite the gorgeous view!

Attempting to spell out "S.D." for San Diego... fail.

Ready to jump!

駿ちゃん、すごい！He got a lot of air!

I'm pretty proud of this photo I took of Mariko on the cliff. Doesn't it look like epic?

The waters crashing below.

Such gorgeous blue waters and skies. I gotta admit, the mid-Atlantic beaches I'm used to don't even compare.

Lovely Mariko against beautiful La Jolla Cove.

Waves crashing onto the sand...

View of the beach from the other side.

Shun-chan pondering the meaning of life.

Taking a photo of Mariko taking a photo of Shun.

Sea lions splayed along the shore... so attractive.

Watching the sunset on the Pacific.

Love you Mariko! ♥

That night, we drove to Mariko’s parents’ house in Torrance after a delicious Mexican seafood dinner. The next morning, Dan and company came to pick me up and we made the seven-hour long drive back up to the Bay Area. (It wasn’t too bad — I slept about 80% of the ride, and spent much of the remaining 20% munching on various snacks.)

The trip down to SoCal had been pretty last minute — I had only booked my flight down less than two weeks beforehand — but it was really fun to spend some time with old friends. I was glad that I got to see Shun-chan before he moved back to Japan (although we’re hoping he’ll be back Stateside soon), and I missed having some good girl talk time with Mari.  A huge thank you to Mariko for her hospitality and for driving us everywhere! Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to see each other again.

The weather has been amazing for the last week here, and this past weekend was no exception. It’s regularly been sunny and 70 degrees, and it really feels like spring has finally arrived. I am not a huge fan of rain, so I couldn’t wait for the rainy season to be over. (The weather in the Bay Area is pretty nice all year round, with the exception of about eleven straight weeks of rain, during which I am miserable.)

Dan and I decided to spend Saturday in San Francisco, since we had tickets to go see the Tutankhamun exhibit at de Young museum in the evening. I’d been wanting to see the exhibit since it came to San Francisco in June of last year, and it happens to be ending next weekend. (Talk about waiting until the last minute, huh?) We spent the afternoon walking around Baker Beach, which sparkled under the California sunshine. The beach also has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After the beach, we drove through Golden Gate Park and headed over to dinner, past the rolling hills of San Francisco…

…and arrived at San Tung! The dry-fried chicken wings here are out of this world! I’m usually not that crazy about wings because they are so messy to eat, but these are the best I have ever had. Ever!

The shrimp and leek dumplings are pretty yummy, too…

Plus the seafood noodle soup! Yes, we ate all of this between the two of us.

Full and content, we headed over to de Young Museum to see the exhibit “Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharoahs.”

I realize that my blog post title is a little misleading, because we didn’t actually see any mummies. King Tut’s mummy and his three nested coffins and stone sarcophagus have actually never left Egypt, and he continues to rest in the Valley of the Kings. I wanted to see the gold mask of King Tut (which apparently travelled around the world for different exhibits back in the ’70s), but the Egyptian government no longer lets it travel outside of Egypt, as it has been declared a national treasure (and rightly so). Still, the exhibition at de Young was very impressive, showcasing over 130 outstanding works from King Tut’s tomb, as well as those of his royal predecessors, family, and court officials. It’s incredible how intricately and artfully crafted those pieces were, when they were created over 3,200 years ago. During my four years of taking art history courses in college, I remember studying some of those works in my archaeology course with Profess or Knoblauch so it was sort of surreal to see them in person. I feel really fortunate to have been able to catch the exhibit in its last week. Although Tutankhamun is leaving San Francisco at the end of the month, it’ll be making its way over to New York, Toronto and Denver in the coming months, so I definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested and lives near one of those cities!