Let's see...so last time I updated, I had just come back from 4th of July weekend in San Francisco...

12 days later I was back up in Norcal again for Calvin's parents' 30th wedding anniversary


Those were the pictures at Calvin's house where it was still nice and warm...it proceeded to be a very cold evening at Lake Merced and later in downtown San Fran

Even though it was a late night because we tried to go out in SF w/ Calvin's friends and didn't get home til wayyyy late, we still got up super early the next morning to meet up with Linda and Danny at Crissy Field. Yes, I was at Golden Gate Bridge again even though I had just gone about a week ago :)

We walked from Crissy Field which is a ways away...all the way to the actual Golden Gate Bridge. Here's the roomie and me :)

We went to that fort which is below Golden Gate Bridge.  It's pretty interesting I suppose, to think, that at one point, that was a defense point.  Anyway, we all tried to pick up the ancient cannonballs, and later got scolded by a curator saying that we were not supposed to be inside the displays. Apparently that's what the chain link barriers were for... :/ It was so heavy I couldn't pick it up anyway...

The next day we went to watch The Dark Knight. We got there pretty early...so of course, Calvin and his brother played video games, what else

I seriously got home on the night of the 21st and then that Friday on the 25th I was driving to LA to pick Calvin up. He was in Los Angeles for an engineering seminar.  So we hung around in LA and then came back to Diamond Bar. Saturday, we took my mom to the Wild Animal Park.

That was the beginning when my mom was still happy and comfortable. It was a really hot day, 90 something degrees of walking in the hot sun! Calvin and I were happy when we found these palm trees letting out mist for the park visitors...

I was happy when we got to go to the lorikeet feedings! But Calvin was way toooooo scared to ever feed the birds, he only watched.

Yay for a fun day, but I think I'll take my mom to the San Diego Zoo next time. More animals to see.

On the drive home, Calvin was excited because we stopped at the side of the road where they were selling ostrich jerky!  One of Calvin's lifetime goals is to have an ostrich burger [which we may do when we go to Seattle next week!], but he just got one step closer with the jerky :P

My mom loves taking random pictures and insisted on taking this one in my backyard right before I had to drive Calvin to LAX.

I suppose I always think that my weekends are pretty eventless, but that's not the case I guess.  The following weekend, my mom, my sister and I went to the Getty. My mom has actually never been before.

My mom and my sister both weren't very interested in the art.  My mom loved the garden :) We were there for over 4 hours!!!  And of course we had a Chinese dinner in San Gabriel on the way home, where else?

Then, just 10 days after I had seen Calvin, I was flying up to Norcal once again, this time for Calvin's birthday :) I took Calvin to The Stinking Rose in San Francisco for his birthday dinner.  The one in Beverly Hills is way more upscale.  We were very overdressed :/ Kinda awkward...

But the food was sooo yummy and very garlicky.  Good thing we both ate garlic, otherwise, the one who didn't would be suffering.  I finally got a chance to try the famous garlic ice cream, ew, bleh.  I prefer Coldstone's sweet cream ice cream or Ben & Jerry's any day. Well, at least now I know.  And here's us after we got back to Calvin's house:

Calvin's a good sport.  I'm really into working out and being healthy lately and I try to get Calvin to do it too.  So, the next day we went bike riding in the morning, and then an hour or so later, we went to the gym! :)

Let me tell you the story behind that picture above. So, it was taken with a timer on my camera which was placed about 20 feet away.  It was actually the second attempt, and let me tell you why. So, Calvin was already standing in place, I press the button and start running with my bike toward him....I proceed to trip when the front wheel of my bike turns sideways. I flip over my bike and faceplant onto the concrete. My body skids on the  concrete, OUCH!, and my face lands in the bushes, I swear I tasted dirt.  The pain isn't the worst part, the worst is that there were other people around who witnessed the whole thing! It hurt so much but I jumped up in a second because I was so embarrassed!!! And then, I still took my second try at taking the picture...

That night was Calvin's birthday dinner at Brazilian BBQ.

The next day we went white water rafting!!! Soooo fun, and soooo tiring though! I hope I get to go again some time in the future.  We had to drive three hours to get there, and we were on the river for 5 hours or so.  Here's the group that were on my raft: me and Calvin, Linda and Danny, their friend Nathan, and Linda's sister Lisa :)

Then the girls went into the water. It was freezing!

Then this is me saving Calvin after the instructor told us that anybody could pull anybody from the water in the raft no matter what the weight :P


Then the next day, my last day, I went with Calvin's family to Crissy Field again. Yes, Golden Gate Bridge, third time in a month! We strolled with his family after eating lunch in downtown San Francisco at Sears Diner. Then, guess what? We flew kites! Calvin and I have gone kite flying before, but his parents were sooo excited!  It was very cute!

Here's Calvin's family minus his brother who was in Korea.

This photo was taken when we were at the area underneath the Golden Gate Bridge

And here's our kite-flying pictures! :) Calvin, me, his parents... :)

Then I had to fly back to Socal later that evening.

Vickie was up here last weekend, and Nancy, Vickie and I went to hookah! Vickie's first time...

And now, I sit here, excited for my Seattle trip! I'm flying up to San Francisco on Thursday night and then I'll be in Seattle for four days!!! YAYYYY!!! :)

  So let's see what's happened since the first weekend of June. After Calvin left, it was back to work as usual. The next weekend though, I went to Catalina for my sister's birthday. We did the glass bottom boat tour, bike riding, golf cart (my mom had to drive because she was the only one over 25, but too bad she was sooo short that her feet could barely reach the pedal so I felt like we were sitting in a clown car that kept going start...stop...start...stop...lol, anyway, it was relaxing. I don't have any pictures to post because, can you believe it, I forgot my camera at home! We did buy a disposable camera, but I have yet to have those photos developed.

Then the next weekend I was up in San Francisco again even though I had just been up there and Calvin had then just come down to Los Angeles. But anyway, it was a relaxing and fun weekend. We went to Dexter's graduation BBQ, yummy! Who knew that a guy, Dexter, could cook and prepare food so well?! Dexter, you'll make someone a good husband some day...too bad you don't have xanga, otherwise you would probably be telling me you hate me right about now. Anyway, Calvin and I made good use of our bikes.

We went bike riding at Golden Gate Park afterward. We got lost because when I felt like we were riding around for a while already, I suggested we turn around. But because we had gone downhill a lot, Calvin didn't want to turn around because then that meant we would be going uphill to go back. He suggested we go in a big circle of the park to return to the car. Bad idea..........we got lost and took a really long time before finding the car again. But I'm secretly happy because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to convince Calvin to bike ride for an hour and a half. We did go to the Conservatory of Flowers...

and we also found a random waterfall that we hadn't seen before even though we've been to Golden Gate Park quite a number of times now...

That was actually the weekend of Calvin's dad's birthday. So on Sunday we all went out to Broadway Grill for his dad's birthday dinner. I've decided, expensive, or non-cheap restaurants, don't necessarily have the best tasting food.

Oh, and I wanted to take a picture in Calvin's backyard because it has a really beautiful view of the Bay, but you can't tell that well in this picture because the bushes are in the way

On a side note, I'm torn about the way I feel about San Francisco weather. It's often too cold, but when it's super hot in Socal it's great to escape to the better weather in the Bay Area, but notice how the above picture is all sunny? Well, the next day as we're driving to the airport, it already looked like this:

So that was my June visit.

9 days later...I was back for the 4th of July. I flew in on July 2nd, so I got to go to downtown SF to have lunch with my bff Vickie :) She looks so professional in her little work clothes :)

Calvin came too, and we actually went shopping together afterward. I usually do try to avoid dragging him with me, because honestly, I don't think he could walk around for hours on end just looking for nothing in particular. 

And actually, that was the weekend that one of my dorm neighbors from first year, Stephen, was visiting Norcal with his girlfriend Charming. We decided to all hang out a little since we may be future cruise buddies... :P Anyway, we went to see fireworks at Foster City. I didn't want to go to the Embarcadero area in downtown SF because I figured it'd be really foggy, and good thing we didn't because apparently it was so foggy that spectators could barely see the fireworks! :(

Foster City was super windy because the fireworks were done right over the lake...

We got there an hour and a half early because dinner was so quick and the drive was fast too. 

But it quickly went from windy and slightly chilly, to freezing cold!!! Notice all the extra added clothing in the following picture!

Then, it took us over an hour to get out of the parking structure! All the cars wanted to leave at once, but I don't know why, apparently nobody could move fast enough. We got home kind of late, but we woke up early the next day to drive to downtown SF to pick up Stephen and Charming to that we could go bike the Golden Gate Bridge!!!

We picked Stephen and Charming up from their hotel and drove to Fisherman's Wharf. Calvin and I brought our bikes and they rented theirs. I had no idea what was in store for me because I originally thought that we would just drive up to the parking lot right next to Golden Gate Bridge and then ride across and back, but nope! We rode from Fisherman's Wharf, past Palace of Fine Arts, past lots of bay scenery...notice how it's pretty sunny in the beginning...

And as we ride away from the wharf...this is after at least an hour and a half of biking already, we are about to go up a steep mountain...which we ended up walking...
 
And here's one of our first glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge...

It was so foggy that we couldn't even see the top, or even tell that it was orange for that matter! We eventually got on the bridge, and let me just tell you, there are scary pro bikers out there who like to yell! As if it's not scary enough already to ride across a super foggy bridge with traffic whizzing by you, having people suddenly yell from behind you is completely frightening! Here's Stephen and I on the bridge...

He got yelled at right before we took this picture because he was in somebody's way. Stephen, send me the pictures of all 4 of us. I don't have any on my camera. But luckily. after making it into Marin County across the bridge and finding the ferry on that side, we took a ferry back instead of another 3 hours on bikes :)

As you can tell, the sun was coming out. And the best view I got the entire day of the bridge, was while we were leaving it...aboard the ferry...

So that was that, since I had forced Calvin to go the gym on the morning of 4th of July and then "tricked" him into going on a 3-hour bike ride with lots of hills and slopes, we chilled on Saturday and spent time watching tv and cleaning his room. He loves cleaning, I don't. And here's my snowboard that I bought back in February even though it's been almost 4 years since I last boarded, and I've only ever gone twice in my life. But hopefully I will get to this upcoming season. Isn't the board so pretty? :)

Then this weekend I worked overtime, and then I went to Renee's going away get together. Congratulations on getting into med school! I'm so proud of you! Renee's going off to Virginia!!! Here's a picture of the adorable dog cake that we had...if I had gotten a side view, you would have been able to see the body too

I still can't believe we were both born on April 3, 1984 in Houston Memorial Hospital and then both moved to the same area in Southern California, never met, and then in our second year of college, both were members of ORL House Government happening to live in the same housing complex, and then finally, randomly meeting after about 20 years of not knowing of each other's existence. I heart you twin!

And now, this weekend, I'm off to San Francisco again. Yayyyyyy!!!

 I love weekends. It's just such a welcome break. And you know how sometimes you have free time during the week but you feel bad if you relax because, well, it's the work week? Well, that's how I feel. But during the weekends, you can't work even if you want to (well, unless there's overtime, lol), but anyway, weekends feel carefree simply because they're the weekend.

Anyway, last Thursday after work, some of my co-workers and I went to D&B's after work and ended up staying for four hours! LoL...this is how I started my Friday Eve, aka Thursday night :)

Calvin actually flew down to SoCal Thursday morning but I didn't see him until after work on Friday. I worked early on Friday so that I could get off early and drive to downtown LA on Friday night. *sigh* reminds me of all those weekends I used to drive to LA on Friday nights when Calvin was still in school <3 We watched Wicked at Pantages Theater. I finally got to see it!

The musical was really good with bits of present day humor added throughout. It was very different from the novel though. The musical is a lot more happy.

We didn't get home until 1am that night. And the next day we woke up at 7am so that we could get to UCLA by 9am for Calvin's Omega Basketball Tournament.

I had lunch with Renee at Damon & Pythias, then I went to Borders for almost 4 hours because I had nothing to do. I tried to work on my real estate class final report, I was pretty studious I suppose. Then I met up with Mika and Yung for dinner. We ate at a yummy Brazilian Restaurant called Bossa Nova. Then we went to Literati Cafe afterward for coffee. I <3 you guys.

Again, didn't get home until late. The next morning we got to sleep in a little more. Then Calvin, my mom, and I went to the Boiling Crab in Garden Grove. OMG, so yummy! And even messier than I could imagine. Basically, we ordered a pound of shrimp, a pound of crawfish, and a pound of king crab legs along w/ fries and corn on the cob. They boil the seafood and add the requested seasoning, garlic butter or cajun, whatever. Then they shake it up.  All you get is a piece of wax paper on your table and a bib. Then you dig in with your bare hands. Yeah, imagine how messy if you can. I don't think I was even that messy as a 5-year old.

Fun weekend...now I'm back at work...can't wait til my next fun excursion! :)

Yay for long vacations! I've realized I absolutely love traveling, and I can't wait until I have enough money in the future to travel to lots of faraway places :)

So I was away from work for 10 days after taking an entire week off. I'll give you a quick recap of my vacation. Like Calvin said, "I'm tired from being on vacation." Ironic, I know. But I would rather have lots to do than nothing at all.

So on Friday 5/16/08 I flew to San Francisco. My flight was delayed, bleh. No way they can blame it on bad weather, they didn't even explain why it was delayed. At least half of my flights this past year have been delayed so that's at least 6 out of 12.

Sunday morning, Calvin and I had brunch with Linda and Danny and some of their friends at Stacks in Burlingame. I seriously love the food there! So yummy! Then we ran errands before going to downtown San Francisco for my best friend Vickie's birthday dinner at Colibri. We went to the Ambassador after that. Definitely a very late night.

The next day we had lunch with Calvin's best friend Dexter and then we flew out to Hawaii. 5 and a half hours late we were in Oahu! Yayyyy. We rented a car (it was surprisingly easy to drive in hawaii. everybody drives superrrr slow. but calvin still wouldn't allow me to drive though). We didn't do much the first night since it was already pretty late. Just walked around Waikiki after dinner.

The next day was the longest of all. We drove from Waikiki to the North Shore, and on the way, we found Matsumoto's, the famous shaved ice place. So many celebrities have been there like Adam Sandler and Tom Hanks! Then we also stopped at one of those shrimp trucks where they cook fresh shrimp for you smothered in garlic and butter. I had pineapple ice cream with pineapple juice at the Dole Plantation before we go to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we watched traditional Hawaiian performances and ate a huge luau dinner! Yes, my day revolved around food :P

Dole Plantation

North Shore coast

Polynesian Cultural Center

Tuesday morning we drove to the marina and went on a 4-hour snorkel trip. The boat ride itself was fun, but we saw sea turtles and lots of amazing fish! I can't wait to get my disposable underwater cameras developed to see what photos Calvin and I got! Oh yeah, and I almost drowned because I can't swim and I thought Calvin told me I could float without a life vest. And apparently, you can't. I was in the middle of the ocean, unable to swim, unable to float...

Tuesday is also when we returned our rental car and ended up taking a 1-hour bus ride back to Waikiki! We accidentally took a bus that goes on a roundabout route back to the hotels. Then we went to Senor Frogs, which reminded me a lot a lot a lot of Tijuana. They even had someone go around blowing a whistle and throwing customers back in their seats to pour tequila down their throats.

Wednesday we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona Memorial. Afterward, we shopped at the Nu'uanu swap meet at the nearby Aloha Stadium. I made Calvin walk around for a long time with me while I shopped. But he was happy because he finally got his coconut juice out of a real coconut. Btw, it does not taste good. We ate dinner at this nice restaurant called Tiki's Bar and Grill. I love how most restaurants have half of the restaurant open so you can see and hear the ocean as well as people watch. Even birds fly into the restaurant sometimes! Wednesday was also the first day we laid on the beach. This was after we had already been in Hawaii for three days!

Since we went to Pearl Harbor, an activity that Calvin chose, the next day we went to Diamond Head, my choice. We hiked all the way to the top and back down which is about two miles. But those two miles, omg, I have never sweat so much in my life! According to our tour guide, there was absolutely no wind that day due to a recent eruption of a volcano from the Big Island, and it was so humid. Everyone was gross. I can't believe it! There was 78-year old man who hiked all the way to the top! Calvin and I wore our matching North Beach t-shirts :)

Right after we got back from our hike, we showered and had just enough time to be picked up for our helicopter tour of Oahu! It was so amazing! Being able to see everything from an aerial perspective was great. The views were completely unobstructed. Too bad the weather was a little gloomy though. Then again we ate at Duke's. Apparently famous for their authentic mai tais. Ask Calvin, he's the one who got buzzed :) We got to walk on the beach at night, finally! After two years of being with Calvin and telling him I wanted to do that, he finally sucked up his fear of getting his feet dirty, and we walked on the beach. I think it was easier to convince him since the restaurant was right on the beach. Lol. But I'd like to think that I convined him.

nighttime stroll along the beach

walking around Waikiki

Friday was the day we were flying out, but not until night time. But we had to check out of our hotel early though. Calvin and I woke up early so that I still got to go to Honolulu Zoo. I love the zoo. Anywhere I visit, I always want to go to the zoo!  After that, we got picked up to go to Hanauma Bay, a really really really great snorkel spot. It's a natural preserve, we even had to watch a preservation video abou the area before they would permit us to walk down to the sand and enjoy the water. Speaking of which, the water in Hawaii is amazingly warm at all times of the day! Snorkeling was so fun! After snorkeling, we didn't get to shower since we had no hotel, we ate dinner and went to the airport. 12 hours later, we had finally made it back home in San Francisco. But that wasn't the happy ending of getting to rest though...

This is us walking around the beach before the zoo was open. We had some time to kill since we got there before it even opened. There was this promontory from the shore to the middle of the ocean...

Hanauma Bay after snorkeling

2 hours of sleep later. We had to wake up for Dexter's graduation. Congratulations Dexter! After that, we went out at night with Calvin's brother-in-law's sister Jessica and her boyfriend Mike who was visiting from New York and we watched Iron Man, it was really good actually! I'm glad I watched it.

The next day we woke up and went to Berkeley to meet up with my friend Karen for lunch and then we shopped around Berkeley a little. When we got back, we met up with Jessica and Mike for dinner at Cafe Figaro. Then we played board games at Calvin's sister's place until almost 1am! hahaha, Scattergories is really fun!

My last day there, Memorial Day, I finally got to see the bike that Calvin got me for Valentine's Day. We had ordered it online together the last time I was there, but I hadn't visited for two and a half months cuz' I had no more vacation days! Anyway, I like my bike :) And we went bikeriding around Crystal Springs, the reservoir near Calvin's house. Then I was forced to work on my finals project for two hours since I had to present in class the following evening.

And that basically sums up my exciting trip. I wish I could take trips like this allll the time!

 Wow, time passes by so quickly that one hardly notices...

So let's see...after Calvin came down for Valentine's weekend...I flew up once and celebrated a late Chinese New Years in Norcal. I got to see little Linda and Danny. We all went to a wine bar called Nectar...and that was the end of my go-to-norcal-once-a-month streak. I used up all my vacation days for my upcoming Hawaii trip.

Then after that Calvin flew down during Easter weekend, and he actually stayed at my house for the FIRST time. oh wow, never have I cleaned so furiously in my life. Actually, never had I cleaned practically. But I finally did...

Then after that, I went to Chicago! My best friend also flew from San Francisco while I flew from Los Angeles and we met up with our other friend Shirley who lives in Chicago. Those 4 days were super fun. The weather was freezing though! How can people stand it?! It was 30 something degrees every day! And apparently that's not even the worst of it! On our first day there we went around downtown Chicago...here's the Sears Tower
 
Then Shirley's boyfriend Ron took us to the Art Institute of Chicago while Shirley had to attend a meeting. She still had to work part of one of the days. Here's a Renoir painting, me and Little Vickie

And of course here's the famous statue from Millenium Park. It's really amazing how you can see the Chicago skyline reflected in it

Needless to say, I ate A LOT while I was there. I had Hot Doug's, a famous hot dog joint mentioned in the Wall Street Journal (coincidentally on the very day I went to eat there!), I ate Chicago's famous upside down/inside out pizza at Giordano's. But I did see Wrigley Field...kinda...from the outside...

And I did get to shop along the famous Magnificent Mile as well as State Street.

Then it was my birthday! My mom and sister and I went out to eat. My sister was sooo excited cuz she got to order an alcoholic beverage and she's not 21. Well, really, my mom ordered it

Then I waited just a little bit longer, and Calvin was visiting again!Yay! The first day, Friday, when he was here, I didn't have the day off. So apparently, Calvin and my mom spent the first half of the day together watching Rachel Ray, The View, and having a heart to heart chat...hmm...And then Calvin and I went to AKPsi Init. Wow! Haven't done Akpsi stuff in soo long...but the main reason was that MDJ was back in town! Yay!

It was almost a Fab 4 Reunion except that Meeks was somewhere else! Don't worry, her replacement Dion was there :) LOL Nobody was happier than Dion and Mike. Too bad my eyes are closed in my picture...


Calvin took me to Lawry's for my birthday dinner! :) First time I've been there...yummy!

I tried to look shorter, but then I just ended up looking awkward...oh well.

But yay! the next time I see Calvin will be for Hawaii! :) :) :) I ended up getting tickets, granted they were for 4 times as much as I originally paid!