On Sunday, we drove out to the city to go to Golden Gate Park, where the cherry blossoms are in bloom by the Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden. Cherry blossoms are my favorite flower, and I love seeing them come in bloom every spring and this year, Mio got to see the beautiful blossoms she was named after. There were a lot of people having hanami (flower-viewing) picnics around the trees in Golden Gate Park — gotta enjoy them while they are still in bloom! 🙂
We captured some lovely photos of Mio, our own little blossom, among the sakura…
Arriving at Golden Gate Park
Cherry blossoms!
Mio with her namesake.
Love that smile!
A cascade of blossoms
Mio with Daddy
A kiss from Daddy
It was a cowboy boots kind of day!
Tickling Mio's cheek with a flower.
Mio clapping her hands in delight.
Mio and Mama
Our family's first hanami
Picnic time!
Happily eating lunch.
Attacking Mama while she dozes...
Mio is so full of energy that we can't keep up!
For the full slideshow of photos of our hanami, see below! 😀
One of my good friends from college came to visit this past weekend. Mimi is a couple years older than me and has always been like the older sister I never had — when I kept getting sick freshman year, she always brought over soup or jello to help me feel better, and she would frequently invite me over for yummy home-cooked Korean meals. After she graduated, I hadn’t had many chances to see her, and it’s even harder to meet up now that we’re on opposite coasts. The last time I’d seen her was over a year ago, at my wedding. This time, Mimi and her friend Cindy decided to take a trip out here for a little over a week to go hiking and camping around Yosemite and Tahoe, making stops at Santa Cruz and Monterey along the way. They arrived on Friday night and spent Saturday with us before embarking on the rest of their Northern California adventure Sunday morning.
I’m always uncertain about where to take friends when they visit the area, since for having lived out here for two years, I still don’t know the area too well, especially San Francisco. But Mimi made things super easy for me because she did a whole bunch of research and talking to Bay Area natives back in Richmond, Virginia before she flew out. When she got here, she had a whole list of places to go and things to eat before I even had to come up with suggestions. She’s been to the city before, so she knew the streets of San Francisco much better than I did!
We spent a good amount of time in both Berkeley and San Francisco on Saturday, making it a full day. It was fun being a tourist in our own city! Here are some photos…
Breakfast at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley
corned beef hash and cream scone... a satisfying start to the day.
pie in the sky: a giant pie hanging from the ceiling
reunited with Meems!
Indian Rock in Berkeley... never heard of it until Mimi told me about it.
Enjoying breathtaking views of the bay from Indian Rock.
The ladies on Indian Rock! (It was rough scaling that rock in a dress.)
Big thanks to Mimi for telling us about this place!
Cindy and Mimi meet Diesel for the first time.
Ice cream stop at Ici.
Enjoying refreshing treats from Ici... my current favorite is the raspberry lemon ice cream sandwich, flanked by gingersnaps.
Driving in the Russian Hills in San Francisco.
The zigzagging roads of Lombard Street. This was actually my first time there! I've always wanted to see it.
Visiting friends always want to stop by the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
obligatory Japanese bridge photo.
Dry-fried chicken wings from San Tung on Irving Street.
They were seriously the best chicken wings I've had in my entire life.
Shrimp and leek dumplings... delicious.
Spicy seafood noodle soup (Cham Pong) - pretty hot but soooo good.
Back in Berkeley, finishing off the day with bubble tea from Tapioca Express in downtown.
(See more photos of our Berkeley/San Francisco excursions on Flickr.)
Dan and I had a great time with the girls (although Dan only accompanied us for the Berkeley portion of our adventures), and we wish them a safe and memorable trip around NorCal before they return to the East Coast.
