Weekend Getaway in Sunny California

This week has been so crazy as I’ve been trying to play catch up ever since I got back from California, but the trip was well worth it!

After saying our extremely dramatic goodbyes to Kona, we headed to San Francisco!  Due to the time change, we arrived there fairly early.  Awesome!…since usually the day of travel is considered a wasted day.  And to top it off, we were greeted with gorgeous weather!  The high was only in the 70s!  This Texas girl was in heaven.

On Friday, we spent the day at Berkeley, my cousin’s alma mater.  I remember visiting long time ago and immensely regretting not applying there.  Not that I would’ve gotten in even if I had, but still…  Such a gorgeous campus filled with luscious greens, and since Tim had never been there, I thought it’d be nice to take a stroll around the campus posing as students.  I say we blended right in!  Someone actually asked me if I’d like to sign up for the study abroad program!  Totally made my day muhaha…

 

Yes yes, I’m standing in front of a building that I have nothing to do with.  Just pretending it’s the one at Emory where I spent most of my waking hours.  Our psychology building was not this huge, though.

Berkeley has some amazing cafes, boasting their all-natural, fresh, local menus which is right up my alley!  Tim actually wanted to get his hands on some burgers.  No surprise there.  Neither one of us wanted to cave in.  As a compromise, we had both!  Problem solved.

First, my choice…ta-da!

Tim ordered a burrito stuffed with chicken, beans, brown rice, and veggies.  To the right, feast your eyes on my magnificent salad beast!  Jealous? 😉 It had couscous with roasted chicken breast, fresh steamed asparagus, English peas, flat leaf parsley, lettuce, tomatoes, craisins, beans…oh boy, I can’t remember everything!  It was out of this world!  I forgot how good couscous is!  Def need to incorporate it back into my diet!

Then we headed to Phil’s Sliders!  Thank you, Sara, for the recommendation!

Yup!  That’s the menu!  Simplicity at its best!

The sliders looked so freakin adorable in Tim’s ginormous hands!

Look at how happy he looks!  This is why I allow him to eat burgers. 😉

The wedding was in Oakland so that’s where we stayed.  After changing into warmer clothes, we decided to walk around the downtown area.  And guess what?  Tim just HAD to go to this burger joint that he had read so much about!  Yes yes…welcome to my life.  I was just glad that I got to eat my salad earlier.

So here we are at Trueburger...

Tired of looking at burgers yet?  To wash down all the grease, we went to  a cute gelato shop!  I had to quench my sugar craving!  The burger was quite salty…

Omygoodness!  They had some amazing, over-the-top, sexy (yes, that’s right) flavor combinations!  Orange picante, cilantro and salted chocolate chip, watermelon balsamic…I got the buttermilk cucumber and Tim ordered the rum and horchata.  I must say that Tim was on point with his choice!  Thank goodness the burger weighed him down.  I didn’t mind abandoning my scoop to demolish his!

The wedding was at 11 on Saturday morning.  After getting a quick bite to eat at Panera, we headed over to the ceremony site.

The groom cried soo much that the bride had to constantly wipe away his tears.  So sweet!  There’s something so endearing about a man who’s not afraid to display his emotions.  If I remember correctly, Tim did not shed a single tear on our wedding day!  I confronted him about it (you betcha I did), and he said that it’s bc he was so overjoyed..way to get out of that one, hmph.  I wouldn’t have minded wiping away his tears…

They’re a hilarious couple!  Half the time, they danced real close and then the other half, like this..

The food was buffet-style with the tables being called up one by one by the DJ.  We were not happy campers as our table was called last.  Thank you, DJ B.  The appetizers consisted of “kimbap” (Korean rolls) and “ttuk” (rice cakes).  As for the main course, I was very impressed by all the vegetable options that were available!  Is this how Californians roll?

The cupcakes were soo good!  And I’m not even a huge fan of them.  I had the chocolate and coffee infused cupcake and tasted half of Tim’s carrot cake cupcake!  Yum-O!  I must say the addition of salt on the chocolate icing was incredible!

And how awesome is the bride?  I hardly got to eat on my wedding day as I tried to say hello to everyone..not to mention I was very conscious of how I looked in my dress.  Not this bride, though – she likes to keep it real!  While the groom went around to greet everyone, she held down the fort and kept herself fueled while she was at it ;).  Love her!

The wedding ended at 4, and we headed to Walnut Creek to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Such a beautiful and serene neighborhood!  I told Tim that we MUST save up enough money so we can retire there!  It was great catching up with my aunt and uncle who recently returned from serving as missionaries in Japan for the last 10 years.

For dinner, they treated us to Le Cheval, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant.  I went on a Dishcrawl experience here in Austin, and it was neat to see that this place was Dishcrawl approved!

We were not shy in ordering…

Oh how I love family-style!

We hung out at the house the rest of the evening, and eventually, with heavy footsteps, said our goodbyes.  I just can’t get enough of family time…

So there you have it!  Although there are so many other details I want to share, this will have to do!

I’m reunited with my boy at last…