We made it to Cupertino in six hours. After exiting DeAnza we looked for a place to eat and ended up at Siam Thai. The chicken dishes we ordered were tasty, but my side of pad thai was somewhat lacking in the flavor department.

Afterward we went to my friend W’s house. I first met W during my freshman year in the dorms. I started saying “ai-yah” and “yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” because of her. 🙂 Anyway, I was excited to meet her two daughters, each of whom coincidentally have one of my names. (I’ll let you figure that one out yourself).

W served us some refreshing watermelon. This was no ordinary watermelon so I had to take a picture!

Next we went to my second cousin’s house. Her baby was born within a couple of days of W’s youngest (they’re about three months old now). As you can see, both W’s baby (pictured above) and k’s third cousin (pictured below) have a lot more hair than her!

Next stop…Santa Clara.

We just returned from a trip up to Northern California. This was k’s first “major” trip and she did pretty well. It all started with a wedding that we were invited to in Moraga. We decided it would be a good opportunity to visit people, so our itinerary was as follows:

Friday: Visit my college friend and her family in Cupertino. Visit my second cousin and her baby in Cupertino. Visit D’s cousin and his wife in Santa Clara and stay overnight at their place.

Saturday: Go to Berkeley (mostly so D could go to the Student Store). Attend wedding in Moraga and reception in Oakland. Stay overnight in Oakland.

Sunday: Visit D’s family in Napa and stay overnight.

Monday: Go home, but stop to visit my Grandma and Auntie in Paso Robles.

As you can imagine, we’re tired, but it was lots of fun. We have lots of photos to share, but for now, we will leave you with just one of D and k at a rest stop somewhere along I-5.

To celebrate our 2nd year wedding anniversay, D and I took a weekend trip to Palm Springs. On our way there, we made a breakfast stop at Hadleys and I had my date banana shake. Next we stopped at the Cabazon outlets. D found some deals at the Nike outlet for some more running gear. He was especially proud of the deal he found on a pair of shorts.

Then we drove to the Palm Springs tram, which rotates as it goes up the mountain. We ate lunch at the top and took in the view.

The food is really nothing to write home about, but here I am, doing it anyway. This is the “Santa Fe Chicken Wrap”.

An aerial view of Palm Springs.

There’s snow at the top of the San Jacinto mountains, even though it was in the 90’s in Palm Springs last week (it wasn’t that hot when we were there).

After coming back down the mountain, we checked into our hotel, the Doral Princess Desert Resort, which we bid on through Priceline.

D took a quick swim, even though it was windy, as can be seen here:

On Rachael Ray’s recommendation, we ate at the Kaiser Grille for dinner. I had made reservations for 5 p.m. (for the early bird special), but after walking on the main strip for a bit, D was famished. So, we ended up going to dinner at 4:30! I think that is a record for us.

The ambience is pretty nice.

Here is D’s pork chop. Overall, we enjoyed our food, but it wasn’t at the very top of any of our rankings. We overheard another couple talk about Rachael, too. I guess they didn’t pay very good attention to her though, because they neglected to ask about the early bird dinners. Apparently, the waiters keep them under wraps, so you have to specifically ask for the special menu. I felt bad because the woman ordered something from the regular menu that was also on the early bird menu, and the waiter did not even say anything! Doesn’t that seem unethical?

The next morning we went to another R.R. pick: More than a Mouthful Cafe. I’m afraid R.R. led us a bit astray with this one. It was kind of overpriced, and the portions, while large, did not really justify the prices. D enjoyed his eggs benedict and I had french toast with boysenberry syrup–yum. The menu even mentioned that the breakfast soup, which R.R. ordered on $40 a Day, was a “Food Network Favorite”.

Overall, it was a fun weekend get-away. D had fun zoom-zooming in the Mazda 6. The past two years have gone by pretty fast. I’m looking forward to the years to come.