{travel & eat} I heart America!

Freshly back from a 2 1/2 week trip to the States, it’s odd to be back in SHA and its impossibly muggy and humid weather.  As much fun as I had in LA (and I had a TON of fun!), it’s nice to come home to the hubs and the kitties.  I miss and love California, I’ll always be a CA girl at heart, but home is with M and the little furry guys.

I got into LA on Monday, July 25, and spent the next 3 days taking that horribly long and awful test that I swear each time (!) that I’ll never do again.  Freedom started on Friday, July 26, with lots of meals and quality time spent with lovely people and delicious food.

I blogged about Seattle in the last post, but here are some leftover pics from my 10 days in Seattle.  I can definitely see myself living there in the future.  The summers are perfect there.  =)

Thursday, July 28

I met up with friends I hadn’t seen in FORVER for dinner to celebrate the end of the bar (yet again).  While I was really tired and was really just worn out, I had a great time enjoying yummy food at El Portal in Pasadena with excellent company.

Friday, July 29

I spent Friday night at my dear friend M’s brand new house in Whittier.  Such a cute little house!!  M has been very busy upgrading her house and she’s done such a great job!  Not only that, M was such a gracious host and insisted that I sleep in her bed while she slept on her futon.  The following morning, we went to breakfast at Scotty’s, a local diner near her place.  It was so cozy and yummy!!  Thanks, M!

Saturday, July 30

After the yummy breakfast with M, I went to my old church in Placentia.  I really missed everyone, and it was great to spend some quality time with them.

Following lunch, couple friends from church and I went to Yogurtland to enjoy some Hello Kitty flavors.  Pastor S didn’t believe us that Yogurtland had partnered up with Sanrio, so I took a picture of our yogurt and texted it to him.

After the Yogurtland break, I drove down to South Coast Plaza to meet up with M’s friends, J and C.  J had visited us in SHA in early April and had a suit made.  Because J wasn’t in town long enough to wait for the suit, I brought the suit back for him.  While waiting for J and C to arrive at South Coast, I wandered around and notice the Windows store (?!?!).  I guess they’re trying to compete with Apple, but it was nowhere as impressive as Mac.  Brownie points for trying??

Dinner was at Red Medicine in Beverly Hills with J & R, H & his new gf J!, A, and W.  A Vietnamese fusion restaurant, I read a review on Oh Joy! blog and wanted to try it out.  The food was fresh, good, and an interesting twist on traditional foods that we’re used to from Vietnamese places.  Even better was spending quality time with friends.

On the way to C’s house after dinner to crash there, W and I drove by LACMA and realized that the installation that I’ve been wanting to see is open even at night!  So I flipped a u-turn and parked the car for a little picture taking.

Sunday, July 31

Baby shower time!!  My friends were so sweet to throw me a baby shower at Firefly in South Pasadena.  We enjoyed a yummy brunch, fun baby shower games, and M and I got some pretty awesome gifts for our little boy.  Thanks, everyone!!

Thanks everyone for coming out and for all the wonderful gifts for our little one!!

We had a few hours to kill before dinner with my family, so J offered to take W and me to Half and Half, the latest thing in the boba movement.

(This is like an ad for Half and Half.  Haha) I ordered the milk tea with honey boba and pudding, but I think they also added caramel, because J ordered caramel in hers and ours tasted unusually similar.  Truly, it was the largest boba I’ve ever had.  It’s like a meal (or two) in itself.  And the cups we ordered aren’t even their really large size!

We finished the night off by joining my family for dinner in Koreatown at Bann.  Traditional Korean food restaurant, Bann was pretty good.

After dinner, my brother and I compared belly sizes.

Monday, August 1

After a hectic morning running tons of errands, I finally got to watch “Harry Potter.”  It was so exciting!!  This was the ONE movie I really wanted to watch in a theater, and I made H promise months ago that he would watch it with me.  Hehe…H wasn’t quite so excited, but I really enjoyed it.  The movie was nowhere as good as the book, but they did a pretty good job.

Tuesday, August 2

Another day filled with last minute errands.  Although this time, I went to UCLA Medical Center to get a physical and get the baby checked out.  And guess what we found out??

We’re having a BOY!!

Since I was in Westwood, I decided to take advantage of the super expensive parking I had already paid for at UCLA and wandered around, making sure to take advantage of that magical place called Diddy Riese.  I picked up a dozen cookies to bring home to M.

That night, I enjoyed a last minute dinner with friends at Doughboys, and met J’s really cool cousin from Michigan.  They came over to T’s house and hung out for a bit before heading home.

As always, it was so nice to see everyone while I was in LA.  I hope to see all of you soon!!