Estella

California 2015: Los Angeles

June 3, 2015 By Misono in Family and Friends, Recreational Fun, Videos, Wanderlust Tags: Estella, Glendale, Hilton, hotel, LACMA, LAX, Mama's Lu Dumpling House, Monterey Park, pool, Urban Light

While our main purpose of going to LA on Memorial Day weekend was for Megumi & Daniel’s wedding, we got to squeeze in some time to have some recreational fun of our own in between the wedding preparations and festivities. Here are some other photos and videos from our weekend in Los Angeles.

First stop in LA: Porto's! — First stop in LA: Porto’s! It was so delicious, and especially satisfying after a long drive down.

Afterwards we checked in at the Hilton in Glendale for the weekend, and the girls were so happy to get to the hotel room after being in the car for over seven hours!

On Saturday morning, we met up with Estella for lunch. While we had became close friends from working together at a web design studio in Oakland, she’s now attending Art Center in Pasadena, so it was great to see her again in a new city! I am always so inspired by Estella whenever I see her — her drive, ambition, and talent are all things I admire so much about her, and I cannot wait to see the places she’ll go! She’s also one of those friends with whom you can just pick up right where you left off and just chat and joke with so naturally — I so love and treasure that about my friendship with Estella. 🙂 I’m pretty sure we’ll still be like that fifty years from now.

Lunch with Estella in Monterey Park. Reunited and it feels so good!

Mio and Dan at lunch at Mama Lu's — Mio and Dan across the table at Mama’s Lu Dumpling House

soup dumplings a MaMa's Lu Dumpling House — Soup dumplings from MaMa’s Lu Dumpling House

spicy wonton at Ma Ma's Lu Dumpling House — Spicy wonton… ehrmagerd, these were so good!

fried rice at Ma Ma's Lu Dumpling House — Fried rice, also very delicious.

noodles from Ma Ma's Lu Dumpling House — These noodles were bomb dot com as well! We got so much food… and it was all amazing.

Estella and Mio at Ma Ma's Lu Dumpling House — Estella and Mio 🙂 Estella’s seen her grow up from newborn! I still remember Estella being horrified by my ultrasound photo when I showed her at work. “YOU HAVE SOMETHING WITH HANDS AND FEET INSIDE OF YOU!” …but she came around to being one of the best aunties ever!Â

M&M at Ma Ma's Lu Dumpling House — Mio cheesing while Mirei attempts to drink tea

After lunch, we said goodbye to Estella and drove over to the LACMA to see the Urban Light exhibit that I’ve always wanted to see in person. Of course, there were so many people there as it was a Saturday afternoon, but we still had fun looking around!

Urban Light at LACMA — Mio straddling at Urban Light

Mirei at Urban Light — Mirei ponders the meaning of life under a sea of lights.

The girls with Daddy at Urban Light — The girls with Daddy

Little Mirei among the Urban Light lamps — Little Mirei looks so tiny running betweenÂ the lamps.

Mio running around Urban Light — It was quite the playground for the girls!

Sunday was a busy day as it was Megumi & Daniel’s wedding day, and while I was occupied with preparations as part of the bridal party, the girls got to cool down at the hotel pool before making their way over to the wedding venue.

The next morning, we had to get up super early at dark o’clock to get to LAX, return our car, and make our 8am flight back to Dulles. We were all pretty exhausted and sleepy, but thankfully everything went smoothly and we were able to make it back East without leaving any of our sanity or children behind.

Sleeping while waiting to board at LAX — Waiting to board at LAX

A huge thank you to all the family and friends who made us feel so welcome and made everything so memorable and enjoyable while we were visiting California! It was truly a treat to see all of your faces, and we miss you all so much already. Hopefully we can make it over there again to visit soon! 🙂

Los Angeles 2013: Day 2 ~ Hinamatsuri

March 13, 2013 By Misono in Family and Friends, Foodie Love, Kitchen Concoctions, Seasonal Celebrations, Wanderlust Tags: Brent, chirashizushi, cupcakes, Daniel, Estella, Girls' Day, green tea, hinamatsuri, hishimochi, lunch, luncheon, matcha, Megumi, mochi, ohinasama, sakuramochi, shirozake, ushiojiru

Continuing from Day 1 in Los Angeles, we stayed in and relaxed for most of the day on Day 2. March 3 also happened to be Hinamatsuri, or Girls’ Day in Japan, and Megumi went all out to celebrate this special day!

Beautiful Hinamatsuri @mkaminaga put together for Mio for Girls' Day! So sweet and generous of her. â¤ — Beautiful Hinamatsuri gift basket Megumi put together for Mio for Girls’ Day! So sweet and generous of her. â¤

Amazing breakfast prepared by Megumi! — We woke up to an amazing breakfast prepared by Megumi.

Delicious breakfast potatoes! — Possibly the best breakfast potatoes I have ever had! It was surprisingly light but really satisfying.

Scones! — Homemade scones… I love Megumi’s baked creations!

Fruit salad :) — Refreshing fruit salad 🙂

Delicious breakfast prepared by @mkaminaga! With a tiny hand sneaking in to grab a bite... — My kind of breakfast! With a tiny hand sneaking in to grab a bite…

Loving her new cookie set â™¥ — Megumi also got Mio this sweet toy cookie set from Melissa & Doug! Mio immediately fell in love with it. It goes perfectly with her cupcake set back home!

Mio and I with Estella — Estella stopped by to say goodbye!

It was great hanging out, even for a short time! — It was great hanging out with Estella and Brent, even for a short time!

For lunch, Megumi was preparing a Hinamatsuri feast and invited a bunch of her Japanese American girlfriends, as Hinamatsuri is a celebration of girls everywhere! We were all floored by how much food she prepared, all according to the traditional dishes that are served for Hinamatsuri. Of course, she put a few of us to work to help with the food prep. 😉 I love helping Megumi cook/bake — it’s part of the fun, I learn new tips and techniques, and all the effort is rewarded with good eats!

Making ichigo daifuku with Emily and Stephanie. It was a sticky process!

Made by moi! — The finished result! Ichigo daifuku – mochi with strawberries and red bean filling on the inside. 🙂

My favorite type of mochi! Does anyone know if there’s a place you can buy sakuramochi in the DC area?

Matcha cupcakes — Matcha (green tea) cupcakes

Hinamatsuri desserts, including hishimochi (diamond-shaped colored rice cakes)

Delicious sushi and mochi — Nigiri, futomaki, and inarizushi

Clam soup! — Ushiojiru, which is soup with clams. Clam shells in food are deemed the symbol of a united and peaceful couple, because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly, and no pair but the original pair can do so.

The ladies at Hinamatsuri lunch. What a feast! Mio was napping for most of it, but there was still plenty of food for her when she woke up.

Cutiepies Mio and Hiroki. — Cutiepies Mio (23 months old) and Hiroki (16 months old).

Mio looking at me: "Do you see that cat?!" — Mio dressed in her jinbei for Hinamatsuri. Here she is upon discovering a cat (behind her) by Megumi’s apartment.

We had such a wonderful time in LA! Thank you to Megumi and Daniel for being such amazing hosts and making our stay so memorable and fun.

Our time in Southern California was short but so sweet! The LA portion of our trip was over, but we still had lots of fun times ahead of us up in Northern California. Stay tuned!

Los Angeles 2013: Day 1

March 12, 2013 By Misono in Family and Friends, Local Gems, Wanderlust Tags: Alhambra, beach, Brent, Daniel, Estella, Fluff Ice, Gardena, LA, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Megumi, ramen, Shinsengumi, SoCal, Southern California, spam musubi

We spent the past week visiting our family and friends on the West Coast! We first arrived in Los Angeles the first weekend of March, before flying up to the Bay Area to spend the rest of the time with Dan’s parents before we flew back to Virginia this past weekend. We really wanted to make the stop in Los Angeles while we were in California, because some of our closest friends that we’d made in Bay Area had relocated to Southern California in recent years, and we couldn’t imagine making the trip out West without seeing them! Our dear friends Megumi and Daniel graciously opened up their beautiful home in Alhambra for us to stay in, and we have Estella and Brent to thank for picking us up at LAX and shuttling us around everywhere the first day in their spacious car. It’s not easy to host and take care of a family of three (especially when one is a jetlagged toddler), and we can’t express how grateful we were for all their thoughtful preparation and warm hospitality!

As usual, we took so many pictures throughout the trip, that I’m going to break our trip up into separate posts. Enjoy our snapshots from Day 1, below…

Taking the shuttle to our terminal. — At Dulles: waiting to take the shuttle to our terminal.

She only fell asleep for the last 5 minutes of the flight. Of course. — Mio only fell asleep for the last 5 minutes of the flight. Of course.

Eating lunch together at Shinsengumi — After getting picked up at LAX by Brent and Estella, we met up with Megumi and Daniel for lunch at Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen.

Shinsengumi! My favorite â¤ — My friend Mariko had first taken me to Shinsengumi a few years ago, and it’s since become one of my favorite ramen places in SoCal! So delicious. 🙂

spam musubi! — I got a side of spam musubi to go with my ramen. I was so full afterwards!

After lunch, we headed over to spend the afternoon at Manhattan Beach… while it had been 28 degrees when we left DC, it got up to 85 degrees in LA that day! Life is not fair… made us wonder why we didn’t just move down to SoCal instead of to Northern Virginia! 😛

Princess status. — Mio was asleep in the stroller, and we couldn’t take the stroller through the sand, so the guys carried her out onto the beach. Princess status!

Megumi at Manhattan Beach — Megumi is glowing! A true California girl â™¥

Mio sleeping on the beach. — Mio sleeping peacefully on the beach.

Mio is awake! — Mio woke up, but was not in the best mood… I think we discovered that she is not a fan of sand. She would cry every time her feet touched it!

Reunited and it feels so good! We missed them so much.

Mio looks cranky... — A family picture at Manhattan Beach â™¥

Everyone waving at Mio — Everyone trying to cheer Mio up. 🙂

For dinner, Estella and Brent took us to an awesome Taiwanese place called Kang Kang Food Court for dinner. They’d introduced us to delicious soup dumplings before up in NorCal, but this time they took us to eat crispy soup dumplings! So good!!!

Such delicious crispy soup dumplings! — Pan-fried soup dumplings!

The gang at dinner! — Dinner with our favorite people!

Our family at dinner — Our family of three at dinner!

After dinner, Megumi suggested we go get dessert at Fluff Ice, which serves fluffly Taiwanese style shaved ice! True to its name, it was so fluffy soft and light, and we loved it! 😀

Green tea flavored fluff ice with red bean and mochi — I got green tea flavored fluff ice with red bean and mochi!

Fluff Ice with Megumi — Special thanks to Megumi for the picture!

Mio was jetlagged and exhausted, but was such a trooper! — Mio was jetlagged and exhausted, but was such a trooper and in good spirits, staying up until about 9pm Pacific Time!

When we got back to Megumi & Daniel’s we put Mio to bed, and stayed up playing board games together while munching on delicious desserts that Megumi had prepared! You can see the rest of our stay in Los Angeles in Day 2, which happened to land on Hinamatsuri!

Goodbye, California…

September 4, 2012 By Misono in Family and Friends, News and Updates Tags: Ali, Arina, California, Chieko, Erik, Estella, friends, goodbye, Jason, Matt, Megumi, Mio, moving, Nicole, Sam, Sofia, Sonya, Tarrin, Tim

The movers are coming today and packing up all of our belongings to ship to the East Coast, and will be shipping our car, too. We’ll be spending a day in San Jose before we flight out with our one-way tickets to DC on Thursday. It’s been a whirlwind three weeks preparing for the cross-country move and saying goodbye to the Bay Area. Thank you to all of our friends who have made time to say goodbye to us, and for all your well wishes, thoughtful gifts, and most of all your continued friendship! We promise to keep in touch and visit often! 🙂

Dinner in Berkeley with our Nakayoshi friends. Thank you for everything; we’ll miss you!!!

Mio with Auntie Estella! î€¢ — Mio with Auntie Estella!

Will miss @craisin... î‘ Good luck in SoCal pursuing your dreams! îŒ® — Good luck in SoCal pursuing your dreams, Estella (and Brent)! We will miss you so much!

Lunch with Nicole, Erik, and beautiful Arina!

Had to throw this in. Mio making sure everyone who walked by the restaurant knew that they were OPEN!

We'll miss Tarrin & Jason... î‘ But we'll be back to visit! î„ — Thank you Tarrin & Jason for being such awesome friends to us! We’ll miss you very much, but will definitely see you again!

To Mio, Sofia will always be her California BFF! Thanks for all the great memories @ysonya! — To Mio, Sofia will always be her California BFF! Thanks for all the great memories!

Playground hugs! Mio was a little too forcible. Poor Sof... sorry @ysonya! — Playground hugs! Mio was a little too forcible. (><) But that is how much she loves Sof!

Gorgeous handmade doll and card from Sonya for Mio… so much thought and detail put into it!

Girls' night out with Korean food and soju-tails with El Cerrito mama friends! — Girls’ night out with Korean food and soju-tails with El Cerrito mama friends!

It was Labor Day weekend exactly five years ago in 2007 that I movedÂ out to the Bay Area, and it’s right after Labor Day weekend that we will be moving back East. It has been such a wonderful five years full of rich memories and unforgettable experiences, and I’m so grateful for everyone we’ve met along the way.

Weekend in Snapshots

June 12, 2012 By Misono in Family and Friends, Recreational Fun Tags: Brent, Easton, Estella, Mio, Stephanie, weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend, and instead of going into the details of the places we went and the friends we saw, I thought I’d just share some snapshots! I find that I’ve been leaving our camera behind a lot lately… while it takes great pictures, I’ve been lazy and just love the ease of using my phone to take quick snapshots and instantly share them online. I used to wonder what all the fuss was about Instagram, but after a few months of using it, I’ve been bitten by the bug and am now admittedly an avid Instagrammer!

So if you already follow me on Instagram, these pictures are old news, but here are some of our memorable moments from the past weekend!

Happy birthday Brent! On Saturday, we got to celebrate Brent's 30th birthday over in Dublin with amazing food and great company.

Cuties by the window... — Cuties looking out the window, watching Brent BBQ-ing.

Mio vs Doggies — Staredown between Mio and cute doggies Miko and Dumpling.

Thanks Brent and Estella for having us over to celebrate with you all! 😀

On Saturday evening, we drove into the city to have a sushi dinner at Sanraku with Stephanie, who has been one of my dearest friends since college! She’s getting married in late September, and I couldn’t be happier for her! So glad that we could have dinner and catch up before she left to fly back to DC.

Mio with her drink menu — Mio checking out the drink menu...

On Sunday morning, Mio got to have some fun playing with a bunch of other tots in San Leandro…

In the afternoon, we went to Hayward to attend baby Easton’s first birthday party!

It’s been pretty hot lately, so I’ve been having fun dressing Mio up in cute little sundresses. We’ve been staying cool indoors while enjoying frozen fruit! 🙂

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