Although our time staying in the East Bay was short, we were glad we could see some of the faces we have so missed since moving away! There were new babies to be held and kissed, delicious restaurants to be visited (both old and new!), and a lot of catching up to do with dear friends.
Lunch in San Leandro with the Kims! Our two girls + their two boys was a crazy mix! It was great seeing them and how much Jinwoo and Sunwoo have grown!
Can’t contain our excitement over Burma Superstar!
Mio and I while waiting for our table and for Uncle Ted & Auntie Jackie to meet us
We so missed their samosa salad! Just seeing this photo of it makes me salivate…
Garlic noodles and shrimp
After our dinner at Burma Superstar, we drove over to Castro Valley to have some ice cream with Aileen and David!
Mirei behind the wheel at Knudsen’s Creamery in Castro Valley
With Aileen at Knudsen’s Creamery. It was so great seeing her again, and we have to also thank her for bringing us to this delicious ice cream parlor!
We finally got to meet Aileen’s boyfriend, David! He’s the first other Yokoyama I’ve met (beyond my own family and relatives). Yokoyamas are all awesome, naturally.
This wasn’t exactly meeting up with a familiar face, but we have definitely missed our favorite taco truck! We had to make a stop in Oakland to get our fix of those amazing al pastor, chicken, and carne asada tacos (plus lengua for Dan).
Revisiting our favorite taco truck!
While we were shocked to see how much their prices have gone up in the past two years, the tacos definitely hit the spot!
Up there among our top most-anticipated moments of our visit was seeing a couple of our dearest friends, Tarrin and Jason, and their newborn son Theo! He was only two months old when we got to see him, and I was euphoric holding that teeny baby and sniffing his head. That newborn smell is so intoxicating! (Before you write me off as a complete nutcase, I urge you to try sniffing a newborn head sometime — I’m pretty sure you will agree with me.)
Meeting baby Theo for the first time. Tarrin and Jason make a pretty cute baby!
After eating dinner at Mintleaf, they took us to a new (to us, at least) dessert place in Alameda called Cookiebar!
Vietnamese coffee ice cream at Cookiebar. Amazing.
Mirei was loving the ice cream!
Going in for another bite!
We miss you guys so much! You can bet I had a hard time letting that baby go… I almost carried him off with me to our car.
Selfie with Mirei when she refused to go to bed that night.
On our last day, we spent the evening with Dan’s family after we came back from Fairyland in the afternoon. Mio had fun helping Grandma prepare dinner for everyone!
Mirei at the San Lorenzo house, after we came back from Fairyland on our last full day in NorCal.
Mirei thoroughly enjoying her yogurt.
Yogurt-mouthed little lady.
Helping Grandma making California rolls for dinner
Mio and Grandma in the kitchen
Family dinner on our last night. Dan’s mom prepared quite a feast!
Mio saying goodbye to Grandma. She misses her so much!
…as she does Grandpa, too.
Mio messing with Mirei. I think she wanted Grandpa all to herself!
Saying goodbye to the grandparents
Saying goodbye to Uncle Ted the morning we left for Los Angeles. Thank you Ted & Jackie for being such great hosts for us during our stay!
We grabbed an “It’s It” at a rest stop on our drive down. We couldn’t leave Northern California without eating one!
I’m finally wrapping up on posting on our trip to California from earlier this month! Besides getting to spend a lot of time exploring San Jose, Monterey, and the San Francisco Zoo with Dan’s parents and visiting our dear friends in El Cerrito, we got to also spend some time seeing some of our favorite familiar faces in the area and eating at our favorite spots! There were some delicious eats that I had seriously been missing and craving, so I’m so glad we could get a fix while catching up with some of our dearest friends!
Catching up with Uncle Ted in Alameda over lunch.
The samosa salad at Burma Superstar. Never disappoints!
Another favorite from Burma Superstar: garlic noodles with BBQ pork.
Checking out the toys at Tot Tank in Alameda.
Bay Area newcomer Junko trying pho for the first time!
I’m so glad we could see Junko in Sunnyvale! We hadn’t seen each other in almost five years, since our wedding back in 2008!
A trip to the Bay is not complete without a visit to our favorite taco truck in Oakland!
It was great visiting the Kims so we could catch up with Sung Kook and Kayo…
…and see their adorable sons JinWoo and SunWoo again!
Sung Kook loves Mio, and she can tell… she was stuck to him the whole time we were there!
I really missed their pomegranate chicken, among their other delectable bites…
And since we were on College Avenue in Berkeley, we had to stop by Ici for their amazing frozen desserts!
So happy to be reunited with Tarrin in one of our favorite spots in Berkeley… 🙂
Lovely foil stamped labels for my baked goodies, cherry blossom pen, and macaron-shaped trinket case, all wrapped in matryoshka doll wrapping paper to boot! Thank you Tarrin for somehow gathering all of my favorite things. â¤
We also got to try the awesome yÅshoku restaurant Usagi in San Mateo and see some of our favorite faces from Nakayoshi! Special thanks to Sam for organizing the dinner and making the reservation.
ボンゴレ（ã‚ã•ã‚Šã®ãƒ‘スタ）~ Some of the best vongole pasta I’ve ever had!
We missed this beautiful couple!
Mio with Uncle Graig. Probably one of her most favorite people in the entire world… 🙂 She’s always giggling and smiling ear to ear when she’s with him!
Loved seeing everyone again!
It always feels like our time with friends is too short (especially taking into consideration toddler bedtime), and we wish we could have stayed longer with each of our friends, but we were so happy that we could see them again even for a short time! We are truly sorry for all of those who we were unable to see because of our limited schedule, but rest assured that we will be back soon enough to visit again! :) Thank you also to all of our friends who showered Mio with such thoughtful and generous early birthday gifts… it was totally unexpected and so sweet of everyone. ♥ Our family is so blessed just to have the pleasure of knowing all of you!
We arrived in Virginia early Thursday morning and have been having a great time relaxing and spending time with family and friends since! But before too much time passed, I wanted to post about some of the festivities before we left California. Last Sunday, we celebrated Christmas a little early with Dan’s family. Here are some pictures!
Delicious sashimi and sushi dinner.
Mio and I admiring the spread!
Mio playing the nativity snowglobe.
Mio opening more Christmas presents from her grandparents…
Adorable new clothes for Mio from Grandpa and Grandma!
Dan's parents with the tea chest that my family sent to them.
On Monday, Aileen came to visit us to drop off Christmas presents and delicious coconut macadamia cookies for our whole family! She also handknit this scarf for Mio… so sweet and thoughtful of her! 😀
Mio looking chic in her first scarf!
On Monday evening, we drove over to Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley to check out their Christmas Fantasy. Their Merry-Go-Round was surrounded by Christmas trees decorated in different themes, and there were bright illuminations outside. Mio had just woken up from a nap, though, so she looks serious in all the photos… haha*
Mio and Daddy by the Merry-Go-Round.
A Yoda Santa topping a Christmas tree.
We wanted Mio to get her first picture taken with Santa, but he unfortunately couldn’t be there that night… maybe next year?
Mio and I by the giant Christmas tree at Tilden Park.
From the pictures, it looks like Mio didn’t enjoy the illuminations and Christmas decorations as much as Dan and I did. Hopefully her appreciation for the holiday season will grow in coming years.
Aileen and Haruka visited us earlier this week. They’d already met Mio when she was about a month old, but they were sweet enough to think of us and stop by again on their way down from a weekend trip.
Thanks for stopping by, and for the delicious strawberries! We loved them!!!
