The Drive Home
On Saturday, we got up late, packed our things, had lunch with my parents, and then headed back up to SF. 
Jason and Jia also followed us in their car and Koa rode back with us too.
Along the Grapevine, we also encountered some snow flurries, which was pretty cool.
There wasn’t much traffic and we made pretty good time. For dinner we stopped at The Apricot Tree Restaurant where they have a huge collection of old lunchboxes and thermos’ on display.
The meal also wouldn’t be complete without a taste of their fresh apricot pie, which was good but I still don’t think I like apricots.
We also took CA-152 across this time and stopped at the Gilroy Outlet Shopping Center. I picked up a new pair of Nikes and almost bought this adorable sweater for Kumquat.
We all made it home in one piece and the drive back up was much more bearable than the drive down last Saturday.
Afterward, we stopped at their house for some ice cream and more beer.
While Jes and I were at church, Brother and Joy went to Redondo Beach to pick up some crab and clams for our tasty lunch.
We ate the steamed dungeness crab with a special sauce that my mom made.
She cracked all the shells for us so we were grubbin’ at a record pace.
On Saturday, we drove to Tomales Bay Oyster Co. in the morning and arrived by 11:00 am. Apparently that’s a good time to get there if you want to have a good selection of picnic tables. 
It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area and perfect for shuckin’ and suckin’.
The drive over wasn’t too bad. Koa came along and sat in the backseat with Kumquat. They both got a good nap in the car on the ride over.
James and Sylvia were already there and set-up the BBQ and a stove with a huge pot of water. They bought a bunch of clams and threw them in the pot with garlic, butter, and veggies for a tasty soup.
Jes bought a bag of Kumamotos and we ate them raw with the “Hog Wash” that I prepared that morning.
Once the soup was all done, they emptied out the huge pot and replaced it with a much smaller pot filled with oil for some fried oysters! Boy, that was tasty too!
Before now, I had only eaten mainly raw oysters and was a little hesitant about any other preparation. Now I think I’m more willing to try baked and fried ones now too!
She seemed to enjoy being outdoors and was pretty excited to see the water.
Koa had a pretty good time too.
We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house again and Jes’ parents came up this year! We had the usual feast with the addition of one little person who enjoyed sitting with the grown-ups and having her very own turkey and sweet potato.
On Black Friday, I did no shopping but instead we hung out with family. For lunch, we went to Ming’s in Palo Alto to have dim sum with Jes’ cousin and his family. We all just realized that Jes’ family has some strong genes for making identical twins! He has two cousins on his dad’s side that both have identical twins. Jason and Jia had better watch out when it’s their turn to have a kid (or two!).
Later that evening, we hung out at Jason’s apartment in Foster City and then had Korean BBQ for dinner. Yum.
Poor Kumquat had to just sit and watch us eat with no access to anything on the table.
On November 2, 2002, we tied the knot. That was ten years ago!! We’ve also been together for 17 years now. Sheesh…1995 was a long time ago.
To celebrate, we both took the day off work and Mirian came to watch Kumquat while we spent the day hanging out together. After I got a long-overdue haircut, we headed out to Hog Island Oyster Co. for one of our favorite meals. 
We ordered almost everything on the menu (again) and walked out of there stuffed and 
Next stop was Tiffany & Co. No, I didn’t get anything shiny. It’s our tradition to go there to get our rings cleaned and polished. It’s one of those courtesy things that we take full advantage of every year.
For dinner we went to Coi. It’s a Two-Michelin Star restaurant that we’ve had on our list for a while. Jia came over to babysit Kumquat and we had a long 3-hour-12-course meal with a shared wine pairing. All the dishes were good and some were really interesting in presentation and flavor.
The most beautiful plate was a beet rose on goat cheese and a bed of rose ice that was intricately assembled using very thinly sliced beet “petals”.
Jes’ favorite was the grilled abalone on nettle-dandelion salsa verde.
This was one of our three desserts: grapefruit with ginger tarragon meringue. There was also a little dot of essence (on the left) that we had to rub on our wrist to smell while we ate the dessert.
My favorite dessert was a really yummy frozen lime sorbet covered in a lime marshmallow. It was also toasted on top.
Meanwhile, Kumquat was home with Jia and they played, took a walk, and had her usual bedtime routine.
Happy 10th Anniversary, Jes! I love you and can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the next 10 years.
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