Monthly Archives: August 2010

Another trip to Long Beach in July!

Two weeks after Rock the Era I was back in the car to make the drive down to LB–but this time with Jessie and Lola to accompany me!

We again left on a Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday–but this time I decided to take Thursday off as a vacation day so that I wasn’t stuck at home working from the computer!

On Thursday my friend Kim came over and brought over some delicious breakfast–oat pancakes with bananas, peanut butter and nutella spread–amazing!

On Friday me and Jess took Lola and Luke to the Long Beach dog park for some afternoon fun.



That night I went out to dinner with Brianne and Brian and it was great catching up and spending some time with them! We went to eat at The Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton and it was oh-so-delicious. We shared a lot of laughs, especially when I told the waiter that it was Brianne’s birthday (even though her bday is in October) in hopes that we’d score some free dessert and then was surprised when he told me that they come around to sing but won’t bring any dessert, haha!

B and B at The Spaghetti Factory

The main reason I went down to LB for a second time in July was to celebrate the marriage of Janeth and Diego, two friends from Redlands. They got married at the Alumni House on campus and their reception was in downtown Redlands in an old brick warehouse type building that was absolutely gorgeous!

The beautiful bride being escorted by family down the aisle

The moment we’ve been waiting years for!

The happy couple!

Amazing appetizers

Nialta, Heather and Alison

Me and Sara

Waiting outside the Mitten Building where the reception was held

They’ve arrived!

Me butting in for a dance with the groom

Mmmm…cake!

Love this shot–Heather and her fiance Steven

The bridesmaid’s bouquets hanging out

WRW girls

WRW girls and RYG boys

Me and Alison

Pretty in pink–Marquitta, Ebony and me

Me and my “brother” Chris

Burlesque show debut

My sister Jessie’s roommate (whose name is also Jessie!) had been taking burlesque classes with Bombshell Betty for a few months and her debut show was on Tues. 7/13 so Jess and I decided to go and root her on!

Jessie & Jessie

Jessie showing off her glitter


Rock the Era!

The Buddhist organization that I was born-and-raised a part of had the very lofty goal of hosting three youth-led festivals collectively called “Rock the Era” throughout the United States in the month of July and I was lucky to be a part of the movement. The western states were preparing for a youth festival scheduled for July 10th in Long Beach, so I was a part of the San Francisco youth and I decided to help out with the theater group. The theater group was 21 strong and most of the kids in the group are high-school age so it’s been great “practice” for when I am a teacher. They’re a really great group with tons of energy and we have a lot of fun at practices. So in preparation for the July 10 festival, we were practicing twice a month for 4-6 hours at a time and having a great time while doing it. 🙂

Most of the youth from outside of Southern California either went down to LB by bus or plane but because I’m from LB I decided to make a little trip out of it. So on Wed. 7/7 I jumped in my car at 6pm and made the drive down to LB, getting in around midnight.

Before I go into what I did during my time in LB I thought I’d mention that Thurs. 7/8 was actually me and Kevin’s four year anniversary (!) and unfortunately we weren’t able to spend the day together! But we promised to celebrate when I got back to SF. This last year has been one of the happiest for the two of us and I find myself filled with so much appreciation for Kevin. He is a great husband and we’re a great team and I love him so so much! 🙂

Okay, back to the events of the week… 🙂 That Thursday I decided to take as a remote working day, so I was glued to my laptop at my mom’s house during the day which wasn’t super fun. But my friend Kim dropped by and made me some delicious vegetarian Indian food for lunch!

Friday was the all-day rehearsal at the Long Beach Arena getting us prepared for the festival the following day. I was at the Arena at 8am and we didn’t leave until 8pm. That night my sister had a little get together at my mom’s so it was great seeing some old family friends.

After an all-day rehearsal and a late night I think saying that the next morning when I woke at 6am being tired was somewhat of an understatement. The rehearsal that day started at 7am and went straight through to show time at 2pm. There were so many great performance groups: taiko drums, gymnastics, hip hop, spoken word, contemporary dance, rock band, and not to mention the theater group! 🙂 The show lasted 2 hours and there were 20,000 people in attendance and performing/back stage–youth filled the entire LB Arena! It was pretty remarkable and extremely inspiring seeing all of these youth working together for world peace.

After the show I met up with Jessie and our old family friend Molly Scarpine who I hadn’t seen in years–we had some dinner and drinks at Rock Bottom and then met up with the Mitchell family in Naples.

The next morning after a visit with my Aunt Tina I jumped back in my car for the 6.5 hour drive back to SF. It was a really great, inspiring trip and it felt great to see all of our months of hard work worth it in the end with the great performance!

All of the performers on stage for the finale–I’m in there somewhere! 🙂

Derek’s visit

My brother Derek came up to visit in early July and we took the opportunity to explore the Sutro Baths which is a place that I had been dying to go for a while. The Sutro Baths are the ruins of an old bathhouse right off the beach in SF (check out some great photos of the bathhouse when it was in full swing in the early 1900’s on the web link above). It was an absolutely gorgeous, clear, sunny, warm day and it was the perfect opportunity for the Delmar kids + Lola to go exploring.

Derek, Jess and Lola
View of the old bathhouse from the top of the trail



Can you spot the four of us??




A view from within the caves.

So Lola, in her typical nerdy ways, rolled in some dog poop (or possibly coyote poop??) and so we had to go down to the beach to wash her off (gross!) So me and Derek had some fun running around with her on the beach.


Derek, Jess and Lola


I absolutely LOVED going to the Sutro Baths and it was especially fun spending it with my two siblings and Lola!

A couple other shots from D’s visit…

On our way to eat…can you tell this was posed?? Haha.
Cheers! Lunch at El Majahual Restaurant in the Mission–great Salvadorean food!


Can’t wait for your next visit Derdo! 🙂

Spanishtown (Half Moon Bay)

Way back in late June we took a day trip to Spanishtown which is just outside of Half Moon Bay. We did an internet search of “things to do in Half Moon Bay” and Spanishtown was one thing that people kept talking about so we couldn’t resist the quick detour!

Our little navigator
Gorgeous rose gardens

The main attraction? Dinosaur sculptures off Highway 92…random!





There was a great garden sculpture/fountain store that we enjoyed exploring as well.



It was a nice little day trip in the southern part of the Bay Area that we don’t frequent often.

On the home stretch!

So if you haven’t noticed it’s been far too long since my last blog post! I’ve got a ton to update but not a ton of time to do it! This time of year is the absolute busiest for me but this is the last week of my first Master’s class and so I feel like I might get a grip for the two week break before my next Master’s class starts so I’ll definitely be updating SOON! 🙂

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