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!
On Saturday, our little family took a trip to the Oakland Zoo! I’d never been, and had been telling Dan that we should take Mio once the weather got warmer — since Saturday was surprisingly warm, we seized the opportunity to finally go! Our friends Kayo and Sung-kook and their 16-month old son Jinwoo also happened to be free that day, so we invited them to come with us.
I grew up going to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, which is pretty impressive and much larger, but I really enjoyed visiting the Oakland Zoo for the first time. It was very clean, well-maintained, and very child-friendly — there were lots of open areas where children could run around and climb onto animal sculptures, and a petting zoo where they could actually touch some of the sheep and goats. I think the more intimate size of the zoo actually works in favor for parents with young children, because you can get through the whole zoo (or a lot of it, at least), without getting too exhausted but still be able to see all the animals that kids love to see (monkeys, giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants. etc.).
It was of course Mio’s first time at the zoo, and although she’s a little too young to truly appreciate it, she definitely seemed intrigued (and at times, perplexed) by some of the animals at the zoo. Here are some of my favorites from the photos we took at the zoo!
Showing Mio the tortoises
16 month old Jinwoo
Jinwoo saying hi to Mio. "Long time, no see!"
Mio and Jinwoo playing with the "snake eggs"
Mio and Daddy at the petting farm section of the zoo.
Mio looking at the sheep.
A very cautious Mio petting the sheep.
Daddy took Mio right up to the goats.
She looks quite apprehensive...
Brows furrowed to the max!
The giraffes at the Oakland Zoo
A family picture.
Kayo, Sung-kook, and Jinwoo... soon to be a family of four!
A tiger with magnificent stripes!
We ended our trip with the lions - the king of the jungle!
You can see the full set of photos we took on our outing to the Oakland Zoo in the slideshow below:
My friend Miyoung and her husband Mike were visiting San Francisco this weekend — they came all the way from New Jersey! I’ve known Miyoung since she moved to Virginia when we were in middle school, and we have been friends for over fifteen years! It feels like yesterday that we were both still in junior high, chatting for hours over the phone and having sleepovers watching The Joy Luck Club. We have both have grown up so much since, and are now both married! (I couldn’t make it to her wedding this May because I had just had Mio, but from the photos, she was the most gorgeous bride ever!) I always have fun when I’m with Miyoung, and it was nice to see her again and catch up — I’ve missed her so! Here are some photos from when a bunch of us friends went to lunch together on Sunday.
Mio and Jinwoo decided they wanted some playtime on the table after we were done eating.
Jinwoo is almost 11 months old. What a cutie!
My little chubster wondering what's going on.
Mio meets Miyoung for the first time!
Missed you, Miyoung!
John getting some Daddy practice with baby Jinwoo before his own baby arrives in December!
Miyoung's husband Mike with Jinwoo.
Jinwoo was quite the hit with the guys.
Jinwoo looks so tiny!
Jinwoo with his Mommy Kayo! Oh the cuteness...
Jinwoo reaching out to Mio. He is the first fellow baby friend she ever met!
After lunch, Miyoung and Mike came over to our place, and Miyoung and I caught up for a few hours while our hubbies bonded playing video games together, and concluded the day with dinner. We so appreciated Miyoung and Mike spending the day with us, especially since we live on opposite sides of the country now. I miss you already, Miyoung! ♥
This morning, I learned that my friend Kayoko Ishizuka had passed away over the weekend. Kayoko, known affectionately, as “Kay” by her friends, had transferred to Virginia Tech my freshman year, and although we only spent one year together at the university, I can recall many fond memories with her. She had since gone on to pursue a doctorate degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was a postdoctoral student at USF College of Medicine. We had lost touch for years, but had recently reconnected on Facebook a few months ago. Kayo was one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, and I’ve always been certain that she was going to accomplish great things for not only herself but also for the world of science, for which she was so passionate.
Kayo was bicycling home from another late night of research at the USF laboratory in Tampa, when she fell victim to a fatal hit-and-run accident at 1:40am Saturday morning. The SUV that hit her was discovered abandoned over the weekend, but the driver is yet to be found and arrested. Kayo’s name was not made public until this morning, when one of our mutual friends who is now interning at USF happened to see her on the local morning news.
I found myself struggling to get a grasp on the whole tragedy today… and have been confronted with a host of emotions — of course, the sadness and heartbreak over Kayo’s death, as well as anger towards the hit-and-run driver — but initially, more than anything, I was stunned at how such a bright mind and spirit could be so quickly snuffed out from this world. I’ve faced a number of situations before in my life where I’ve lost loved ones suddenly and unexpectedly, but every time, it’s a shock that takes weeks and months to come to terms with. Every time, the pain and grief is fresh, raw, and leaves me feeling irreparable and helpless. Every time, I’m confronted by and reminded of the brevity of life, and I still have trouble accepting it.
For now, I want to celebrate Kayo’s life and all the ways she touched people’s lives, including my own. I want to remember her for her brilliant mind, her love of food and cooking, and her quirky, offbeat sense of humor. Reading her blog and her Twitter shows her colorful personality, her appetite for life, and her love of tinkering with and riding bicycles. In the end, I want to remember her for everything that made her uniquely her and how much of a gift it was to have her in our lives, rather than how she was taken away from us.
