Category Archive: visitors

Mom & Steve’s visit

Posted by Lisa On April 25th, 2011

My mom and her boyfriend Steve came up for another visit (see their past visits here and here) from April 1st-3rd and we had a nice time.

Friday night I joined them in Los Gatos at Jessie’s work, Enoteca La Storia (a super cute wine bar) for some champagne and cheese (a lovely combination 😉 ).

Jess hard at work and me hard at drinking 😉

Jess nommin’ on some goodies

The spread (or what was left of it)

Mom & Steve (in shadows, wah!)

The only scraps we left on the cutting board

Mom, me and Steve through the window

After Jessie’s shift ended we ventured to another wine bar in downtown Los Gatos, Cin-Cin, for dinner.  The restaurant offered small plates and they were fantastic!  We then took a stroll down the main strip and landed at the Dolce Spazio Dessert Cafe for some gelato. Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Beautiful blue sky on the drive to SJ

Afterwards we drove back to San Jose to check out an art walk that happens on the first Friday of every month in downtown San Jose called South First Fridays.  Only a couple of galleries peaked our interest: the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and another gallery that I didn’t catch the name of that featured pieces about size (from microscopic to ginormous).

Me and Jess in front of some beautiful quilts

One of my favorite pieces.  If you look closely…

…you’ll notice that the artist carved the alphabet out of the tips of these pencils.  Incredible!

I felt like I walked straight into a Dr. Seuss book with these funky tree sculptures.

Trippy

On Saturday, mom and Steve came out to SF for some exploring.  Our first stop was lunch at Chilango Mexican restaurant.  Now I’ve always been a fan of Mexican food (I mean hello, I’m half Mexican) but I have never fallen so deeply in love with a Mexican restaurant as I did with Chilango.  Their food is in traditional Mexico, D.F. (the capital) style and it is SO AMAZING!  A little pricey but holy hell it’s worth it.

Okay, I’m done drooling now.

My mom and I giving Chilango two thumbs up!

We then took a nice drive through the Castro, starting out at the Seward slides (see a video of me and Kevin going down the slides here, with Kevin’s crazy drop straight on his rear at the bottom of the slide), then winding our way up through the beautiful neighborhood and finally ending at Corona Heights park.  Mom, Kevin and I went for a brief hike up to the top of the rock formations and really enjoyed the views of the city.

Beautiful colored rocks against a bright blue sky.

A random little “village” we came across.  These little houses were maybe 6 inches tall, so cute!

Me and Kev at the top of Corona Heights

For dinner we shared our love of Ethiopian food with mom and Steve and they quickly became fans!  We went to Cafe Ethiopia in the Mission which we had tried before and definitely loved (except for one of the waiters telling us, at the end of our meal, that “there are people waiting to eat”, we got the hint!)

Dig in!!

We had a really nice visit (and lots of yummy food to boot!) with mom and Steve.  Looking forward to their next visit!

Dog sleepover, etc. in March

Posted by Lisa On April 24th, 2011

So it’s been a while since I last updated the blog, oops!  I think that can only mean that we’ve been having a good ol’ time up here, right?  🙂

Here’s a bit of a recap:

Mar 16-18–Lola’s first sleepover with Bailey!

While Carleigh was out gallivanting in Israel & Jordan (!) and Scott was at a work conference, we had the opportunity to dog-sit for Bailey and Lola couldn’t have been happier!

They spent lots of time together…

…wrestling…

…chewing on chew toys…

…eating (but only when they could be within sight of each other)…

…sleeping…

…and more sleeping (notice how they only switched sides of the couch)…

…more sleeping…

…and yet more sleeping…

Before we had to drop off the bundle of joy we took a series of photos that are pretty hilarious as an animation:

Mar 19: Pyramid with Lola

With Bailey gone, we had to keep ourselves entertained and the way we did this was in making a pyramid with Lola on top.  We’re so cool.

Mar 20–Jenny’s visit

Our friend Jenny from Long Beach (we went to middle/high school together) was in town for work and was able to meet up with me for some lunch at Hamano Sushi in Noe Valley.  It was soooo nice catching up and I can’t wait for her next visit (hint, hint)!  🙂

Mar 23–Rainy walk in the neighborhood

We had lots and lots of rain throughout the month of March but it couldn’t keep us cooped up inside all day!  Lola and I ventured out for a walk in the neighborhood and were just short of soaked by the time we got back home.

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

The sun peaked out for a brief moment and we took the opportunity to hit the pavement.

Lola: “Dude, this is not cool.”

Using our car as a safe haven.

And of course the clouds part just as we get home!

Mar 25–Construction on our house starts

Our landlords are stuccoing the house and so as a result our backyard has been completely taken over with construction equipment.  They’re on a bit of a hiatus today (4/24) but the crew should be back in a week or so to finish up the job.  It will be nice once we have the yard to ourselves again!

Lola: Okay, what’s with all this junk?

Lots of tools

Lola taking advantage and making her own jungle gym.

Our personal equipment inspector

Christmas: The SF Edition

Posted by Lisa On January 8th, 2011

We were back in town for Christmas Eve–Kevin had to work but I was lucky to be able to spend part of the afternoon with the Julian family who were in town for the holidays visiting their son Brandon (he lives in San Bruno). The Julians are really close friends of my family’s who we spent Thanksgiving with in 2009 (see post at this link). Me and Lola met up with the gang in Golden Gate Park at Stow Lake, one of my favorite parts of the park. We walked all around the lake and up Strawberry Hill for a good hour or so–it was such a nice, crisp day, perfect for a walk in the park!

Diane, Dave and Lola

Just as I was taking a photo of this squirrel, Lola decides to…

Jump in mud. Gross.

Playing fetch with Brandon

Me and my second mom Diane

After saying farewell (we were going to spend Christmas Day with them) we ran back home to pick up Kevin and made our way to Carleigh & Scott’s place for Christmas Eve dinner.

The fixins

Failed photo attempt #1–Totally cut out Scott, oops!

Not-so-failed photo attempt, but not a great photo overall. Oh well! We were hungry and didn’t have any more patience to try it a third time. 😉

Bailey got Lola a squeaky duck for Christmas! Surprisingly, she’s still got the duck but it looks nothing like it did on day one (photos soon).

Pecan pie, straight from Carleigh’s kitchen…mmm!

Carleigh & Scott bought us a new game for Christmas as well called Bezzerwizzer (a trivia game) and we had a good time playing although trying to remember the name of the damn game was difficult because you were supposed to call it out occasionally and none of us could ever remember what the name of the game was, haha.

Pretty much sums up the whole evening!

Christmas day we were able to sleep in and enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast, just the two of us. Jessie joined us mid-morning and we video-chatted with the Edmonds family to do our annual sibling gift exchange (thanks Rob for the AWESOME vase and New Orleans messenger bag!!) Jessie and I went in on a gray pea coat for Kevin which he absolutely loves and I got myself a little surprise (that I’m sure most of you already know about) that I’ll write a whole post about soon. Chatting with the family was fun–having just been in Long Beach with family it wasn’t as difficult spending Christmas day away from everyone.
That afternoon we met up with the Julians again at an apartment in the Castro where Brandon was house sitting for dinner, drinks and games (Catch Phrase). Lots of food and lots of wine was consumed (no photographic proof but you’ll just have to take my word for it).

Diane, Brandon and Jessie (the three blondies)

Jessie…being Jessie 😉

Photo bomb!

“Act natural”–Dave, I guess, was the only one who follows directions 😉

We ended the evening being treated to a movie by Dave and Diane–True Grit! Most of us LOVED it (Jess wasn’t too much of a fan) and it was a great way to end the Christmas season! 🙂

Alison’s visit & Alemany Farmer’s Market

Posted by Lisa On November 28th, 2010

On Saturday 11/13 we woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided to visit the Alemany Farmer’s Market in our neighborhood. It’s one of the best in the city and we had only gone together once before. Now that Kevin has Saturdays off we’ll definitely be visiting more often!




Probably my most favorite part of this farmer’s market are the amazing murals in each stall. They are gorgeous and I can’t get enough of them!



Yummy green beans
A really funny sign in one of the stalls
Kevin picking out some yummy mandarin oranges
And what’s a farmer’s market without fresh-cut flowers?
Our yummy loot! Apples, arugula, almonds, mandarin oranges, garlic, kabocha squash, green beans, heirloom tomatoes, bok choy and bell peppers.

After taking Lola to the park we made our way out to Walnut Creek to visit our good friend Alison who was in town! Last time she visited (check out blog post here from February) we had a grand ol’ time so we were expecting nothing less. 🙂

We met Alison and her friend Laura at Alison’s favorite Indian restaurant Sargam and enjoyed an amazing buffet lunch! Then we spent a few hours exploring Walnut Creek’s downtown area, walking and window shopping and, of course, getting pedicures! It was Kevin’s first time and I’m happy to report he’s a fan. 🙂

Oh-so-relaxing foot soak
The only photographic proof that Kevin got a pedicure!
So I love a good chair massage but the ones at this place were a little weird (check out where the pressure was at this particular moment–weird!)
The happy customers!
Showing off my orange nail color
Alison didn’t have any sandals so wore Kevin’s, haha.

We then went to her family’s home and spent a couple of hours hanging out (and eating Halloween chocolate) with her mom Laurel and her new kitties.


We then spent the evening with Laura and Daniel at Pyramid Brewery for some yummy nachos and beer and Club 1220, the only gay club in Walnut Creek.

We had a great time checking out Alison’s old stomping grounds and can’t wait to see her again!

Heather’s bachelorette party

Posted by Lisa On November 19th, 2010

My lovely friend Heather who was in a sistahood with me at Redlands and who also went abroad to Nicaragua a few years after me decided to celebrate her upcoming wedding with a weekend in San Francisco! I was so happy to hear she’d be venturing out this way to celebrate so that I could definitely participate in the festivities. 🙂 They spent the whole weekend up here and I joined them on Saturday evening for some exciting bachelorette fun at AsiaSF.

AsiaSF is a superb venue for dinner and a show. The show was actually transgendered women who would dance on the bar every hour! The food was fantastic (duck quesadillas anyone?) and the ladies performances were extremely entertaining as well!

A very masculine doorman in his blue cowboy boots

The happy bachelorette (and Willy)

The group

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the ladies of AsiaSF…

Selena!!


I would love to come back sometime–just gotta save some dough for that night since it’s a wee bit pricey.

Afterwards we went to their hotel (which just so happened to be the same hotel my friend Maya stayed in that I visited) for some fun bachelorette themed games.

Heather in the middle with all of the Redlands girls

Exploring Berkeley

Posted by Lisa On October 22nd, 2010

This was our first time exploring Berkeley since we moved up here and we had a great time with Thomas. We first drove through some beautiful neighborhoods with homes that I wish were ours!! Then we ended up at the Berkeley Rose Garden which was such a nice little paradise in the middle of the city.

Gotta remember to stop and smell the roses!





Across the street is Cordonices Park which is an amazing little spot to hike in and explore. We took funny posed photos in trees and climbed up ivy covered hills–needless the say this park is a great spot! We’d love to come back to have a big picnic sometime.

One of our funny posed photos…Kevin had to hightail it to climb the tree and pose in time!

Looks like they’re on the set of “LOST”

This was taken just seconds before Kevin fell in 😉



A little video of Kevin and Thomas…there’s no denying that they’re brothers.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon driving through UC Berkeley campus–such a gorgeous campus for those of you who haven’t visited yet.

Had a great time with Thomas! We miss him a lot and it was great to spend some time with him.

The Edmonds family visit

Posted by Lisa On October 22nd, 2010

The second week of August brought us the entire Edmonds family for a visit. Unfortunately the circumstances weren’t the happiest as we were gathering for Kevin’s Grandma Margie’s funeral in Half Moon Bay (see earlier post about her life here).

Dorothy and Thomas flew up Friday morning 8/13 and we spent some time driving through the Presidio. We also spent a bit of time in the lobby and gift shop of the Walt Disney Family Museum. We were going to go into the museum but for $20 a person (!) we decided to just explore the huge lobby and gift store instead.


That night George flew in and we had an amazingly delicious dinner at Zante Pizza. The Edmonds family were pleasantly surprised by how delicious Indian pizza can be and I think we made fans out of them (or was that the huge Taj Mahal beers talking?? 😉 ).

On Saturday morning 8/14 we joined the rest of the Edmonds family (Judith, Sarah, Joshua and Katelyn, Uncle Dave and Aunt Ellen, and Uncle Bob) in Half Moon Bay for Margie’s funeral. It was a foggy day but it seemed fitting for the occasion. It was so peaceful and quiet at the grounds and the only sounds we could hear were the few birds chirping in the area in between those who said words at the grave site.

Margie’s beautiful urn and American flag
The peaceful grave site

Kevin reading a poem



The program that Kevin made

After the funeral we all caravaned back up to Daly City for brunch at the Boulevard Cafe (at the recommendation of Carleigh). We had a really great time spending time together and reminiscing about the amazing life that Grandma Margie lived.

Me and my adorable nephew and niece
Dorothy showing Joshua some family photos from the scrapbook I made
Dorothy saying a few words
Katelyn, Dorothy, Judith, Sarah, Joshua and Thomas

After spending the afternoon at our apartment catching up and soaking up the sun that decided to come out we went out to dinner at Balompie (our favorite Salvadorean pupuseria) and once again the food was a hit!

Some of the creepiest statues ever! These are in front of a house just a block up from Balompie. Creepy!!
So of course Joshua took this as a photo opp 😉

Like father, like son!
Noogie time!
The girls

We then decided to ditch our cars and take the F train from the Castro to Fisherman’s Wharf. We took a quick stop at the Ferry Building and then made our way to Ghirardelli Square for some late night sundaes.

Katelyn, Judith and Josh on the F
The Ferry Building in all its glory 😉
A girl’s bathroom photo opp of course! 🙂 That’s me, Dorothy, Judith and Katelyn in the reflection of the hand dryer.

(Almost the) whole family on the F! It was kind of funny riding this with them as I ride this every day to and from work.

George and Dorothy’s choice: banana split!
Kevin, the anti ice cream guy, chose to enjoy a nice big coke. Sarah and I split a dark chocolate mint sundae. AMAZING!!

The next morning we said our goodbyes to Judith, Sarah, Joshua and Katelyn as they made the drive back down to Long Beach. George, Dorothy, Thomas and us then made our way across the bay to eat some Casper’s Hot Dogs in Albany.

Now THAT’S what I call a hot dog.

I had only had them out of the fridge before and I was excited to experience them straight from the restaurant since I’ve had to hear the family rave about them for years! Although the turkey dog I got was tasty, I still am not a huge fan of the crunchy exterior of the hot dog but all the fixins were great nonetheless! Shortly after that we said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad as they caught a plane back to LB and we spent the rest of the day with Thomas (I’ll update in another post shortly).

All in all, even though the circumstances weren’t happy, we had a wonderful family reunion nonetheless and we really enjoyed hosting the family up in our neck of the woods.

B & B’s visit

Posted by Lisa On October 22nd, 2010

The first weekend of August we were visited by our favorite couple ever, Brianne & Brian! They stayed with us Thursday through Sunday so it was a great chunk of time to spend with those kiddos. 🙂

The first day I had to work so Kevin and B & B went to the Exploratorium to act like kids for a day. That night after work we met up with Carleigh in Union Square and had drinks and dinner at an Irish pub (can’t remember the name of it). We then treated ourselves to some Mitchell’s Ice Cream since they hadn’t tried it yet. We’ve got ourselves a couple new fans! 🙂


On Friday while Kevin and I were at work, B & B did some exploring in the East Bay on their own. We then met up that afternoon to do some exploring in North Beach/Chinatown.

Yes it is August and yes we’re bundled up like we’re going to the North Pole 🙂

Our first stop in Chinatown: House of Nanking! We had heard rave reviews about it and were not disappointed. Soooo tasty! Just don’t be fooled by the name of their scallop dish “Tower of Scallops”…it was only three freakin’ scallops! Other than that, we were super impressed (just not with the service, but what can you expect?)



We then walked a mile or two to North Beach and hung out at our regular spot Mara’s Italian Pastries.

YUM!!!!!!
Our lovely posed photo (check out the tripod our camera is on, haha!)
Here’s our goofy shot…guess Kevin and Brian didn’t get the memo!
Being goofs in front of some window display in Union Square
They look like they could be locals! 🙂

On Saturday we went to visit Kevin on his lunch break since he had to work 🙁 We went to eat at La Boulange Bakery.

Delicious tuna melt!!

Then B & B and I were off to explore the Sutro Baths.



Brian rock climbing

Then we did some exploring (by car mostly) through Golden Gate Park.


And where do you think we went to dinner? Goood Frikin Chicken of course! It’s where we take all of our lucky visitors.


After dinner we made the trip out to Concord for Terri and Scott’s poker night. The newbies (B & B) got beginner’s luck and walked away with the pot!!

We had such a fantastic time with those two and we miss ’em already! Can’t wait for their next visit 🙂

Girl Scout weekend

Posted by Lisa On May 19th, 2010

The time had finally come for my niece’s 5th grade Girl Scout Junior troop to come up and visit San Francisco! We have been looking forward to this trip for over a year when I was still their troop leader and we all had a fantastic time together!

Judith (my sis-in-law), Dorothy (my mama-in-law), Katelyn (my niece) and 8 other Girl Scouts and their moms arrived to San Francisco Airport on the morning of Friday 5/7. I met them at the airport and we then BARTed our way to their hostel (a super cute place if anyone’s interested in staying in a hostel in the city) to drop off luggage.

The girls in front of their hostel

We then rushed off to eat some lunch at Mel’s Diner (a well-known diner in SF that had so-so food) and then made our way to Golden Gate Park

Milkshakes at 10am? Sure!

The group really wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences so that’s where we spent the afternoon.

Golden Gate Park
K. and the frog having a face-off
My favorite part of the CAS: the 4-story rain forest


These frogs cracked me up! They seemed to be such characters, kind of reminded me of little Buddhas 😉

V. and the beautiful jellyfish
This sea star seemed to be laying out on a beach sunbathing
The awesome albino alligator!
V., K. and Katelyn messing around (it’s what they do best!) This beast of a display was for their “Extreme Mammals” exhibit

I have to admit, I was a little worried about being their tour guide since Kevin’s usually the tour guide when visitors come out and we generally don’t take public transportation with visitors–so though I’m super confident when it comes to the route I take everyday for work (2 buses + BART) it was a little worrisome to make sure we got on the right bus (and made sure all 18 of us got on/off at the same time!) But the first day went super smoooooth and I was pretty proud of myself. 🙂 Some funny moments riding the bus with the group–the girls absolutely LOVED riding the bus and were sad when we told them to sit down because the bus was getting full (they loved hanging onto the poles and swinging around); some young guys decided to sit down amongst the 9 girls and after they figured out who they were sitting next to (a bunch of giggling girls) it was funny to watch their facial expressions change.

They even enjoyed waiting for the buses at the bus stops…



A bunch of little monkeys!
Good friends V. and A.
This photo shows their level of excitement really well…bunch of nerds! 😉

For dinner we went to a real local treat…Chevy’s Mexican restaurant (can you hear the sarcasm in my typing voice? 😉 ) We called it an early night because we had a loooong day ahead of us!

On Saturday morning I made my way to the hostel to meet the group so we could make our way to the Golden Gate Bridge for the Girl Scouts’ annual Bridging event! When girls in GS graduate from one level to the next they call it “bridging” so the Northern California GS organize a huge event so that girls from all over can “bridge” across the Golden Gate Bridge. Our girls graduated from GS Juniors to GS Cadettes (6th-8th grade). This event attracts over 4,000 girl members (that’s just girls we’re talking about!) and is put together really well. The GS hired shuttle buses to take troops across the bridge into Marin County and then we all hiked our way back across the bridge back into SF.

Excited for yet another bus ride (driving across the Golden Gate Bridge)
The gorgeous ladies of Troop 3933!
It sure makes you think when you’re crossing that bridge and only have the water below and the huge metal structures surrounding you and the wind is blowing like crazy!
It sure doesn’t look like 4,000 Girl Scouts were crossing the bridge but believe me they were!
My beautiful niece, happy to be bridging to Cadettes!

I made an announcement as we approached the end of the bridge, that once they crossed the line they would no longer be Girl Scout Juniors but instead become Girl Scout Cadettes, so I took a few photos of them as they crossed:

B., Katelyn and K. running across the “finish line”!
V. & A. crossing in style
J., S. and M. crossing as a unit
Say hello to the newest Girl Scout Cadette troop in Long Beach!

After our trek across the bridge we were greeted with a festival for the girls–tons of booths with activities for the girls to participate in.

B. & K. with a vintage GS uniform

Katelyn & Judith taking a break
A GS tradition is making “swaps” that represent your troop and “swapping” them with other troop’s to create a collection. This is Katelyn’s hat decorated with her swaps (that was probably on 1/3 of them!)

After the event it seemed my luck with being the tour guide started to run down–I didn’t know how the heck to get us back to the hostel! Our misadventure included–walking up a huge staircase and then finding out that we had to go back down the stairs (oops!), stalking a park ranger and waiting for him outside the restroom so that we could ask for directions (awkward!), then walking a mile and a half to get to the darn bus. My excuse was that I never come to this part of town! Oh well, at least we eventually made it back safe and sound.

That night we met up with Kevin and ate at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the Macy’s building in Union Square. The group was so huge we had to get split up but it ended up being really nice spending time with Kevin and his mom Dorothy for an evening.

Overlooking Union Square: Judith, J., M., S. and B.

Sunday morning Dorothy and I made our way to the hostel to meet up with the group for their last day in the city. We went downtown to wait in a 20 minute line to take the famous trolley (I hadn’t done that since living here so it was nice to do).

The girls and the trolley
The blue skies in downtown
A group of men from Dockers pants were walking through the area with roses for all the moms out there in celebration of Mother’s Day (how cute!) So here’s a photo of all the moms with their roses.
Dorothy and me on the trolley (proof that I was there that weekend! 😉 )
Some of the girls got to ride on the outside, this is M. en route to Ghirardelli Square

The trolley took us right to Ghirardelli Square where the group split up for a bit and our little group enjoyed some delicious Ghirardelli ice cream treats (yes even at 10 in the morning!)

Katelyn getting ready to enjoy their sundae
Dorothy and my sundae (amazing!!)
The happy tourists 😉

We then walked to Fisherman’s Wharf (have I told you how much I love that place? 😉 ) and I am happy to announce that I finally saw the bushman!

The troop spent their last afternoon on a bay cruise and since I didn’t see the point in forking over $25 for me to do something I could day any ol’ time, I said my goodbyes at Fisherman’s Wharf.

It was so so so so nice spending a weekend with my family and with those crazy 5th grade Girl Scouts…I really miss spending time with them every other week at our troop meetings. Those girls mean a lot to me after being their troop leader for two years and it was so great to feel connected to them with this trip.

Lola’s best friend

Posted by Lisa On May 2nd, 2010

Our friend Carleigh came over on Friday night for some carne asada, wine and doggie play time! The three of us went to Millikan HS together and we’ve reconnected in the past few months since we moved up to SF where Carleigh has been for a few years. Her boyfriend Scott had to work late so couldn’t join us for dinner 🙁 but Carleigh and their adorable dog Bailey joined us for a fun night!

Our appetizer: chips and salsa!

The veggie fajitas cookin’ away!

Carleigh provided dessert: cranberry tart and peanut butter delicacies!

Lola and Bailey had met a few times before at St. Mary’s dog park. But this was the first time that Lola ever had a doggie visitor to her home and she was the perfect hostess!

Gettin’ acquainted

These two played NON-STOP for at least 3 hours straight. They were such good friends! Did you notice the two glasses of wine (me and Carleigh) and the jug of milk on the counter (Kevin)? haha

Here’s a video of them in action:


The two of them would lay down for a few minutes and take a quick nap (but they had to be laying straight across from each other to make sure the other wasn’t up to no good!) and then one of them would get up and encourage the other to start playing again, so funny!

We absolutely loved having Carleigh and Bailey over to our place and we’re so happy that Bailey and Lola became such good friends!

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