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.
After our dinner at Burma Superstar, we drove over to Castro Valley to have some ice cream with Aileen and David!
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).
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.)
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!
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!
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!
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! 🙂
It was Labor Day weekend exactly five years ago in 2007 that I moved 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.
We took Mio to see the Alameda Independence Day Parade yesterday for a Fourth of July celebration. Alameda’s parade is apparently the largest (with 160+ floats) and longest (3.2 miles) Independence Day parade in the country! It was a hot day, but we parked ourselves under some shade and watched the parade go by — Mio had fun watching her first parade!
After the parade, we walked back to our friends Tarrin and Jason’s house to enjoy a BBQ lunch — everything they cooked was amazing! Our tummies got to enjoy quite a feast!
We also got to hang out on their hammock — it was so relaxing!
All of us had a great time spending the day in Alameda! After eating all the delicious food and being out in the summer sun, we all took a long nap when we got home that evening. Hope everyone else had a memorable Fourth, too! 🙂