My best friend Debbie was in town for Columbus Day weekend, and we spent Saturday with her and her boyfriend Jerry. We started the day off with a delicious roasted potato pizza for lunch at Cheeseboard in Berkeley, and then drove up to Napa Valley for some wine tasting! It was the first time in Napa for Debbie and I, and of course for Mio as well! Debbie has been my best friend of fourteen years, and some of my fondest memories of high school and college are those that I spent with her! I miss her so much now that we live on opposite coasts, so I’m really grateful for the time that we get to spend with each other! 🙂
Here are some photos from our day in Napa…
Debbie and Mio meet for the second time! (This was after our Cheeseboard lunch in Berkeley.)
We went to Mumm Napa, which is a winery known for great sparkling wines! (Perfect for dessert wine lovers like us!)
Arriving at Mumm Napa.
Mio waiting patiently in her stroller with Sophie.
There was no shortage of street food vendors, but some of the restaurants were also offering some great discounted prices on platters, so Dan jumped at the opportunity to get some Indian food!
My friend Miyoung and her husband Mike were visiting San Francisco this weekend — they came all the way from New Jersey! I’ve known Miyoung since she moved to Virginia when we were in middle school, and we have been friends for over fifteen years! It feels like yesterday that we were both still in junior high, chatting for hours over the phone and having sleepovers watching The Joy Luck Club. We have both have grown up so much since, and are now both married! (I couldn’t make it to her wedding this May because I had just had Mio, but from the photos, she was the most gorgeous bride ever!) I always have fun when I’m with Miyoung, and it was nice to see her again and catch up — I’ve missed her so! Here are some photos from when a bunch of us friends went to lunch together on Sunday.
Mio and Jinwoo decided they wanted some playtime on the table after we were done eating.
Jinwoo is almost 11 months old. What a cutie!
My little chubster wondering what's going on.
Mio meets Miyoung for the first time!
Missed you, Miyoung!
John getting some Daddy practice with baby Jinwoo before his own baby arrives in December!
Miyoung's husband Mike with Jinwoo.
Jinwoo was quite the hit with the guys.
Jinwoo looks so tiny!
Jinwoo with his Mommy Kayo! Oh the cuteness...
Jinwoo reaching out to Mio. He is the first fellow baby friend she ever met!
After lunch, Miyoung and Mike came over to our place, and Miyoung and I caught up for a few hours while our hubbies bonded playing video games together, and concluded the day with dinner. We so appreciated Miyoung and Mike spending the day with us, especially since we live on opposite sides of the country now. I miss you already, Miyoung! ♥
Dan leaves for a business trip this evening to Orlando, Florida, and won’t be back until Thursday evening. I’m a little nervous because this will be the longest I’ll have ever been alone with the Mio, but my mother-in-law will come take care of her on the days I’m at work as usual, and I’ll just have to fly solo with Mio in the evenings when I get off of work, despite my usual exhausted state on such workdays.
We made the best of this long holiday weekend before Dan leaves, though — here is Part I of our eventful Labor Day weekend!
On Saturday, we decided to take a day trip down to Santa Cruz, for Mio’s first time at the beach! We picked up some delicious gourmet sandwiches at The Junket to eat for lunch at the beach, and headed down in the early afternoon. We hit a lot of traffic on the way (to be expected, because of the long weekend) so it took a while to get to Santa Cruz, but we promptly set up spot on the beach as soon as we got there.
Mio's first time at the beach!
She already loves the beach!
The cutest babe on the beach!
(Random coincidence: I realized afterwards that the romper Mio wore that day, which is a hand-me-down from my cousin Yuko’s daughters, is the exact same one that Sakura was wearing exactly a year ago when we visited their family on Labor Day weekend. Except that Mio is 5 months old here, and Sakura was 10 months old at the time. Oh, Mio… you are growing way too fast.)
Anyway, back to Santa Cruz: after about an hour, it started getting pretty cloudy. Not quite the perfect day at the beach that we had been anticipating. 🙁
We got Mio all bundled up, as it started to get chilly.
Our little spot on the beach.
Mio getting grumpy... time to leave!
So the trip to the beach started out nice, but it definitely could have been more enjoyable towards the end — hopefully next time, there’ll be more sun and warmer weather! We’re glad that we got to go to the beach before the summer’s over. Since the Bay Area typically experiences Indian summers, I have hope that we still have some warm weeks left before we enter the rainy season….
We also stopped by Buy Buy Baby in San Jose on our way back home, and picked up something we’ve been researching and eyeing for Mio for a while now. But we’ll save the big reveal for another day. 🙂
It finally felt like summer here in the East Bay this weekend, so we decided to get out and enjoy the nice weather with an impromptu family picnic over in Tilden Park in Berkeley. We set a blanket down on the field and ate the sandwiches and fruit we brought, and just soaked up the sun for a couple hours….
I created a makeshift canopy to shade Mio from the sun, with a blanket and some help from the wind… 😉
Hopefully the warm weather will continue for a few more weeks so we can get some more outings in… I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer yet!
