After spending a week in Northern California, we drove down on Friday, May 22nd for the much-anticipated wedding of our dear friends Megumi & Daniel! The rehearsal dinner was on Friday evening, and the wedding was on Sunday, and we were honored that Megumi and Daniel had asked Mio and I to part of their bridal party — I was so touched that Megumi had asked me to a bridesmaid, and Mio a flower girl in what was to us the wedding of the year! We were all so excited to see them and our mutual friends again since it’s been so long since we were last together, but it was truly extra special to be there by their side as they tied the knot.
We drove down on Friday and got to Glendale in the afternoon, in time for the rehearsal at Vertigo, where the ceremony and reception would be on Sunday. The rehearsal went well, full of heartwarming moments and hugs with friends we had missed so much!
After the wedding rehearsal on Friday
After the ceremony rehearsal, everyone was invited to Daniel’s parents’ beautiful home in Alhambra, where a taco truck catered a delicious rehearsal dinner, along with lots of amazing sides and desserts cooked up by Megumi and her family and friends.
We got to meet Ali and Tim’s adorable son Kanoa for the first time! He’s only a few months older than Mirei, so it was cute watching them play together.
Cuties at the rehearsal dinner in Alhambra.
I loved meeting Megumi’s adorable niece and nephew! Here’s sweet Leila-chan.
The Kaminaga kids! Leila and Julian. 🙂
They loved taking selfies with my camera, so I took a bunch of videos of the adorable kiddos.
On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Granville in downtown Glendale with some of the other bridesmaids and friends from San Francisco/Nakayoshi who were in town for the wedding. So glad we got to spend some extra time with them. 🙂
Dinner at Granville with friends
Mirei cried when Uncle Graig held her, but was pacified when he fed her his fries. lol
“Mama, take a picture of panda!” Mio feeding a sprig of rosemary to the panda doll that accompanied our travels.
Sunday started bright & early for the bridesmaids, as we got breakfast together at the hotel and gathered in Megumi’s suite for makeup and hair.
Getting my hair done as a bridesmaid on the wedding day.
Megumi getting ready!
Sam enjoying some In-N-Out during prep! The bridal party’s got to eat, and these were some pretty satisfying provisions! 😀
The gorgeous bride in her wedding dress.
Isn’t she just breathtaking? *sigh* Megumi was truly stunning!
Selfie with the bride! I don’t recognize myself with all the heavy makeup. lol
With the lovely Maid of Honor, Sam!
Room for the ceremony. Those hanging white flowers were made out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners, and many hours of hard work by the bride and the other bridesmaids (I only helped a little at the end when I came into town). They turned out gorgeous!
The venue Megumi & Daniel chose was so glamorous. Even the bathrooms were gorgeous, with these huge, ceiling-high leaning mirrors!
First look between the bride and groom. ♥
Of course, I had to get it on video, too.
Mio getting ready as the flower girl!
Can’t believe Megumi sewed the flower girl dresses! The inspiration was Carrie Bradshaw.
Shy Mio with beautiful Sam.
The happy couple with the kids in the bridal party. The cutest flower girls and ringbearers 🙂
The bride & groom enjoying some pre-ceremony libations
The wedding cake was gorgeous, with gold ombre and beautiful details. Everything was perfection — not a surprise, considering that it was Megumi’s wedding!
Mio being silly with the photobooth props
Dan arriving with Mirei. He was on babysitting duty during the ceremony, since Mio and I were in the bridal party.
Because I was in the ceremony, and Dan was busy wrangling a cranky Mirei, we unfortunately don’t have any photos from the actual ceremony, but it was beautiful and tearjerking, and so fitting for Megumi & Daniel!
Afterwards, we had fun mingling with friends, and Mio had a ball playing with the photobooth props.
Mustached Mio
Mio showing Megumi’s mom her mustache. lol
Megumi changed into a gorgeous purple kimono for the reception. It went perfectly with her wedding color scheme, and she looked absolutely beautiful in it!
The bride & groom looking amazing in their kimonos
Megumi surprised her parents with the kimono! So sweet ♥
The kimono was gorgeous, even from the back. Look at that obi!
With the stunning bride in her kimono.
Dan made the table numbers for the wedding. The centerpieces came out gorgeous!
During the reception, Megumi surprised Daniel by serenading him with John Legend’s “All of Me” during the slideshow. It was so romantic, and Megumi has such a beautiful voice. 🙂
Cakecutting time! Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Xavier!
Megumi’s bouquet toss!
Mio caught a small part of the bouquet… a single rose head. 🙂
Garter toss!
Daniel kept hilariously pulling out random items (like this rolling pin!) out of Megumi’s dress.
Alas, we couldn’t stay too late into the wedding, as we had to catch a plane very early Monday morning, so we had to say our goodbyes and return to our hotel to pack and get a couple hours of sleep before we had to depart the following morning.
Saying goodbye to aunties Ali and Sam
One last photo with fellow bridesmaids Ali and Sam
One last photo with the happy, beautiful couple before we had to say goodbye.
Congratulations Daniel & Megumi! We were so happy we could be there for your big day. Thank you for letting us be a part of it! ♥
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…
At Dulles: waiting to take the shuttle to our terminal.
Mio only fell asleep for the last 5 minutes of the flight. Of course.
After getting picked up at LAX by Brent and Estella, we met up with Megumi and Daniel for lunch at Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen.
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. 🙂
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! 😛
Sunny skies at Manhattan Beach
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 is glowing! A true California girl ♥
Mio sleeping peacefully on the beach.
Friends relaxing on the beach.
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.
A family picture at Manhattan Beach ♥
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!!!
Pan-fried soup dumplings!
Dinner with our favorite people!
So much delicious food!
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! 😀
I got green tea flavored fluff ice with red bean and mochi!
Special thanks to Megumi for the picture!
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!
To pick up where I left off from Part I of our trip to Southern California, we drove down to San Diego from Irvine in the morning to go to Sea World San Diego! It was my first time at any sort of marine mammal park/oceanarium (I’ve never been to Sea World or Marine World before), so I felt like a little kid marveling at all these cool sea creatures that you don’t get to see at your regular aquarium. After Sea World, we drove over to gorgeous La Jolla Cove… it was so stunningly beautiful, I didn’t want to leave.
Once again, I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking….
We stopped by 85°C Bakery Cafe in Irvine for breakfast before hitting the road.
So many yummy bake goods!
These looked amazing, but I knew better than to substitute dessert for breakfast.
My first time at Sea World and my first time seeing a killer whale in real life!
Shamu is so adorable....
We rode this water ride...
...and got completely soaked! 🙁
Flamingos! This may have been my first time seeing them in real life, too.
The sea lion show! A sea lion dancing the tango.
Mariko with the sharks.
Cotton Candy!
Adorable penguins...
This polar bear was passed the fuck out. 坿–¹ãŒãŠã‚„ã˜è‡ã„ã—・・・。
You can't tell, but we're in a polar bear cave.
A beluga whale... they are so cute.
The three of us in the souvenir shop, posing with Shamu.
Mari and Shun with stuffed animals. Cute!!!
Arriving in La Jolla.
It was quite the gorgeous view!
Attempting to spell out "S.D." for San Diego... fail.
Ready to jump!
é§¿ã¡ã‚ƒã‚“ã€ã™ã”ã„ï¼He got a lot of air!
I'm pretty proud of this photo I took of Mariko on the cliff. Doesn't it look like epic?
The waters crashing below.
Such gorgeous blue waters and skies. I gotta admit, the mid-Atlantic beaches I'm used to don't even compare.
Lovely Mariko against beautiful La Jolla Cove.
Waves crashing onto the sand...
View of the beach from the other side.
Shun-chan pondering the meaning of life.
Taking a photo of Mariko taking a photo of Shun.
Sea lions splayed along the shore... so attractive.
Watching the sunset on the Pacific.
Love you Mariko! ♥
That night, we drove to Mariko’s parents’ house in Torrance after a delicious Mexican seafood dinner. The next morning, Dan and company came to pick me up and we made the seven-hour long drive back up to the Bay Area. (It wasn’t too bad — I slept about 80% of the ride, and spent much of the remaining 20% munching on various snacks.)
The trip down to SoCal had been pretty last minute — I had only booked my flight down less than two weeks beforehand — but it was really fun to spend some time with old friends. I was glad that I got to see Shun-chan before he moved back to Japan (although we’re hoping he’ll be back Stateside soon), and I missed having some good girl talk time with Mari. A huge thank you to Mariko for her hospitality and for driving us everywhere! Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to see each other again. 🙂
Dan and I were both in Southern California this weekend, although we arrived separately and were in different parts of SoCal and didn’t see each other for much of the time. Dan and his film buddies were in Pasadena to shoot a short, and they drove down on Friday night, whereas I flew down on Friday morning and stayed in Irvine and Torrance to spend time with my friends from college — our plans just happened to fall on the same weekend, so we ended up both being down there but ironically separated until it came time for us to drive back up to the Bay Area.
Dan may blog about his shoot a little later, but this post will be all about my adventures this past weekend. 😛
My good friend Mariko lives in Irvine, and I hadn’t seen her since last June, so I was really happy to have a chance to go spend some time with her this time. Our friend Shun from Virginia Tech is moving back to Japan, and he was stopping by SoCal for the weekend before flying to the other side of the world, so it was a good chance to see him as well, before he left the U.S.
We spent most of Friday in the Los Angeles area and Saturday in San Diego. Here are some photos from Day One in Manhattan Beach and Irvine….
Prosciutto & Mozzarella di Bufala tartine with sun-dried tomatoes & basil pesto from Le Pain Quotidien at Manhattan Beach. Delicieux!
Mari had a warm organic turkey and cheddar tartine. Also very yum.
Outside Le Pain Quotidien. We were pretty stuffed at this point. Thank you for the lunch, Mari!
We decided to walk it off with a stroll along Manhattan Beach.
Mariko being her usual adorable self.
Mari and Misono on Manhattan Beach!
It was such a gorgeous day to be at the beach!
Amazing sky, sand, and sea... stretching far into the distance.
We started getting a little giddy with the gorgeous beach and the lovely weather and started taking some silly photos.
What are we doing? I'm not quite sure myself... but they are amusing, no?
We hit up Pinkberry, the original tart frozen yogurt.
I love froyo, and it was my first time having Pinkberry. I liked it! 🙂
Original tart with mango and mochi toppings.
After we picked up Shun from the LAX, we drove to Irvine to have some late dinner at BCD Tofu House.
Quite a feast!
I don't like tofu, so instead of soon dubu, I had some of this bulgogi goodness. I hadn't had bulgogi in a few years! I used to have it all the time when I lived in NoVa.
Shun-chan eating froyo for the first time! Must capture moment...
Mari and I at Yogurtland, having froyo for the second time in six hours...
Looking at the photos, it looks like all we did was eat, scamper around the beach, and go eat some more… and more… and more…. which I suppose is essentially the gist of what happened. There’s just so much good food in the area, I end up wanting to eat everything I see. It was really nice to spend time with college friends and reminisce on our days back at Tech — sometimes I wish I could just go back and experience it all over again. (I believe I suffer from a bit of Peter Pan Complex.) But it’s comforting to see that your close friends from those days have never really changed that much, and that you can always pick up right where you left off with them. It really makes me grateful for the friendships I made and have been able to carry with me.
Stay tuned for Part II, in which we encounter giant sea creatures and scale treacherous rock cliffs. (Sounds so epic!)