Weekend in SoCal – Part 1
This past weekend was our first trip home with Kumquat. The drive down started out smoothly with Dog in the front seat and Kumquat in the back with me. Unfortunately we hit construction traffic in Buttonwillow and then super traffic starting in Burbank. Our trip ended up taking 10.5 hours that day! Ouch. Thankfully, Kumquat was on her best behavior and was an eating and sleeping machine.
As soon as we got to Cerritos, we dropped of Kumquat and Koa and got some tasty Mexican food and margaritas at Don Jose. That really hit the spot.
On Saturday, it was filled with family festivities. For lunch, we had dim sum at Capital Seafood in Irvine. Kumquat was the star of the show and got to wear her purple dress again.
While we waited for our tables, we went next door to 85 degrees bakery to try their famous iced salted coffee and it was pretty good! There was a good turnout and we took up two huge tables in the middle of the restaurant.
For dinner, we had a Thai feast with the cousins at Thai Nakorn as we always do when we’re in town.
Marie and the gang got to meet Kumquat for the first time and so did Pish and his clan.
We all stuffed ourselves silly and even got to snack on Peking Duck-flavored Lays potato chips.
Later that evening, we stopped at Ti and Thilan’s house to visit our “third family”, The Tranandos. They were having a party for Elise’s birthday and they invited us over to join them. All the kids got to meet Kumquat and Makenzie still remembered her friend Jesse. It was so cute when they all swarmed the baby.
I also forgot how fun it is the sing the second verse of the “Happy Birthday” song.
Off the Grid came to my backyard last night. They set up camp across the bridge near the other park that Koa goes to and we had dinner there last night. Of all the choices, I wanted to try Sam’s ChowderMobile.
We ordered a clam chowder and ate it while we waited for the rest of our food and it was DElicious!
I got a Maine lobster roll, which was tasty and LOADED with lobster.
Jes got a shrimp po’boy and it really good too. He’s pretty picky about his po’boys and this one passed. It also came with seasoned fries. Mmmm…
Jes also worked hard to not drop any shrimp on Kumquat’s head since she was bundled up in the front carrier.
If you’ve been to Kumquat’s tumblr site this past week, you’ve probably noticed the lack of new photos. Well, it’s because I’ve migrated the content to a new domain, went back to good ol’ WordPress to publish, and Brother is hosting yet another one of my blogs. The reason for the move was that I was quickly feeling Tumblr’s limitations with personalization and security. It only allowed for tags and not categories and I wasn’t really sure where my photos were being stored. Now with the new and improved site, the photos are sitting in Brother’s server and my posts aren’t automatically available to anyone who is on tumblr and happens to be searching the word “smile” or “hello”, which were two of my tags.
Today Elaine took Caltrain up from San Jose to visit me and Kumquat. We had lunch nearby and she got to feed and play with Kumquat. This was the first time meeting her.
We were lucky to have such beautiful weather so we ate outside. It was fun catching up and Kumquat had a great time with her too.
Since I was in the wedding party, we were there on Friday afternoon for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The weather was really nice and sunny so Kumquat was able to wear the little dresses that we had packed away.
Our hotel suite was really nice and new and they even had a little welcome pack of baby lotion and soap for Kumquat.
On Saturday morning, Jes dropped me off at Rancho Soquel, which would be the wedding site. The girls got ready in a little cottage and had a good time hanging out and having our hair and make-up done. 
I loved how our dresses, flowers, Teresa’s shoes, and everything else at the wedding had the same vibrant purple.
Teresa was glowing and beautiful and luckily I was able to fit into my dress in time for the wedding.
It was a warm afternoon during the ceremony and I was so glad that I had chosen a strapless dress. Kumquat was a trooper too and we fed her from a bottle all afternoon so that I could enjoy some champagne and wine.
Here’s a family photo that Stephanie took for us.
The gang from work also attended and we had a fun time together.
Kumquat was not only at her first wedding but also had a photo taken in the photobooth.
On Sunday morning, I met up with the gang for breakfast and got to enjoy a little more sun and had a view of the beach.
Then before heading back to SF, we stopped at Teresa’s parents’ house up on a hill and they had a HUGE backyard complete with full outdoor kitchen, pool, garden, and bocce ball court.
Jes made his own pizza in their woodfire oven. Awesome.
This week I’ve been going out more to take care of some errands and to do a little shopping in preparation for the wedding in Santa Cruz this coming weekend. Kumquat loves to go out for walks and seems to have a happy grin on her face if she’s not sleeping. She looks around and seems to enjoy the sounds and movement.
Jason and Jia were also in town this past weekend so we were out and about with them too. Kumquat has been a trooper out in the big world. She rode in the carrier all afternoon on Sunday and we also took her on her first Muni ride.
Yesterday I took her in the stroller and walked to Union Square where we spent about 5 straight hours outside. It was also a fun challenge trying to negotiate the city with a stroller. Kumquat did great the whole time and despite her size and age, it was nice to have the company. The only hiccup was on our way home. It was as if she knew we were only 2 blocks from home and started screaming. She didn’t stop crying until 20 minutes after we got home and after I changed her, fed her, and rocked her to sleep. Poor baby had a long outing and was just pooped.
UNIQLO is coming to SF. It’s one of my favorite stores in NYC and it’s going to be here in the fall!!
Saw this T-Rex in the store front of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art Store. That T-Rex was almost my height!
I picked up a “snoball” cupcake (chocolate cake with buttercream and coconut) and asked to take it “To-Go”. The girl packed it so nicely in a plastic cupcake holder and cellophane bag like it was a museum piece. Fancy.
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