Gardena

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!

Los Angeles 2013: Day 1