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December is upon us, and I am now 3 years out of college. Yikes. Where did the time go?

I had a good time in Vegas with good friends, spent mostly eating and walking the strip. A few partook in gambling, but I’m way too risk-adverse to invest in luck and would rather invest in things with guaranteed positive return—like shoes! Or not shoes. I don’t know. I really like shoes.

All the fun I had in November—crab fishing, Reduced Shakespeare Performance, Paramore concert, Vegas—culminated in my 4-day Thanksgiving trip with Reid to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri—my first trip to the Midwest! I wasn’t sure what to expect there, but if Missouri’s attractions were proportionate to Reid’s anecdotes and descriptions, St. Louis should have a restaurant on every block that served toasted ravioli and Budweiser, all under the Gateway Arch.

Needless to say, St. Louis wasn’t quite like that. What I’ll probably remember most is the Yokoyamas’ home—downright cozy with beautiful exposed brick walls and blue-checkered walls, sprawling lawn, trees everywhere, deer and birds frequenting the garden, and a very warm, hospitable family. Oh, and leaves. Leaves EVERYWHERE in St. Louis. As a member of the Facebook Group “I Will Go Slightly Out Of My Way To Step On A Crunchy Looking Leaf”, I lived up to my name and stepped on as many leaves as I could that were slightly out of my way—and the crunch of leaves was particularly gratifying in Missouri. I also saw the Mississippi River for the first time. I sort of expected to see Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher on steam boats floating down the river. And I DID. Sorta. Okay, they were tourist steamboats named Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher. That’s okay.

And Thanksgiving dinner—oh my! Thanksgiving dinner to me usually means huoguo—Chinese hot pot, similar to shabu shabu—and maybe a rotisserie chicken. A family of three like mine has trouble eating any-sized turkey and/or ham. But in St. Louis, we deep-fried a 12 pound turkey (along with coconut macadamia nut shrimp and wontons—a delicious deviation from traditional Thanksgiving fare), baked a green been casserole and spinach-and-yam gratin (adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe), and made pumpkin pie, cornbread, fresh cranberry sauce with golden raisins, stuffing, gravy, and fresh mashed potatoes! Oh, what a delicious meal by the Yokoyamas!

After Thanksgiving, we spent one day at the St. Louis Art Museum (the special Five Centuries of Japanese Screens exhibit) and at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and then spent another day doing the tourist rounds at the Gateway Arch and Anheuser-Bursch Brewery, ending the trip with Reid’s old favorite eateries: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, the Posh Nosh, and Steak ‘n Shake!

I had such a pleasant holiday with great food and wonderful company, that coming back into work was pretty rough. I’m back home for a good while now after an exciting month. The Christmas wreath has been dusted off and hung up, Starbuck’s gingerbread latte is now in stores, and the annual snowboarding trip to bring in the new year has been planned; ladies and gentlemen, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I love the summer; with the warm weather come cool foods, cold drinks, beaches, BBQs, and summer dresses.

Reid drove me down to LA the previous weekend before last to visit Kim! It was also my first time really walking around LA, as most of my previous trips have been to just to visit relatives during Thanksgiving when I was younger. Reid beat me to the blog post (again), so I’ll just punch out some of my highlights:

1. We went to the Santa Monica pier, where I rode a ferris wheel for the first time. According to others, it’s kind of weird that I haven’t been on one before. So we changed that, but it wasn’t as glamorous as I imagined it to be. It probably seemed cooler in Grease or the animated movie Charlotte’s Web when I was younger simply because I had never been on one before.

2. The one time I did drive through LA with friends was 8 years ago on the way to Tijuana, Mexico for a service trip, and we stopped at this amazing place called Diddy Riese. I dreamed about that place and its $1 icecream cookie sandwiches for 8 years, so my only request in LA was to go back to Diddy Riese. The sandwich is now $1.50 but I think it would sell for $5 anywhere. I had Espresso Chip icecream sandwiched between a peanut butter cookie and a macadamia nut white chocolate chip cookie - and it was beautiful.

I was so happy when I was eating this, except that Kim and Reid made me walk while eating.

3. Din Tai Fung - Now I understand the hype surrounding this place. The xiao long bao at this place are p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Yet another reason to love Shanghainese cuisine!

4. Reid really wanted to drive back up on highway 1, since both of us had never gone that way before. It took 12 hours to get home, with a nice dinner stop at Cannery Row in Monterey, but it was really worth the beautiful views of the California coast in stark contrast to the barren hills flanking the linear, quicker highway 5.

A bit of a "Marilyn Monroe" moment

This past weekend was fun too, except for the part on Saturday where Reid dragged me out to go hiking out to the Dish in the Stanford Foothills during the hottest part of the day. Okay okay, it was more like a 3 mile walk and it was actually pretty nice to get outside. Also on the upside, when we finished the walk, he went and surprised me by purchasing the grill he’s been eyeing! I had also been wanting to purchase a grill since I moved into Sunnyvale last year, and since we cook a lot together on the weekends and it’s been too hot to cook in my kitchen, he finally bit on a good deal. Sweeeeet. Just in time for a mid-summer barbecue? :)

Yes!

Can you tell where my priorities are by the size of the pictures I post? :)

OH and on Sunday, a couple of friends went to Santa Cruz to cheer on several friends that were participating in their first sprint triathalon. We got there only minutes after they finished, unfortunately, but the beach was still fun! Throwing around a frisbee “bee” reminded me of my dad and I doing the same thing in our backyard more than 15 years ago! I’m still just as terrible as I was back then, but I take comfort in consistency.

Action shot with the "bee" (Reid, I'm pretty sure "bee" is midwestern slang..)

As awesome as it is that Reid blogs avidly more than even I do, I think we’ve encountered an unforeseen issue: Who gets blogging dibs on our mutual activities? Do we Rock-Paper-Scissor-Lizard-Spock it? Or does Reid yield to me, as he should if he knows what’s good for him? In this case, he’s beaten me to the punch :(

Spent the Fourth of July weekend with a couple of friends in a cute pink and green cottage (with it’s own backyard vineyard!) in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, CA—the heart of California wine country—and it was gorgeous.

I like pictures to speak for themselves, so I will use this one from Reid’s stash:

1) Wine for Dummies. We went wine-tasting at Ferrari-Carano, Sbragia, Francis Ford Cappola, Clos du Bois, and Seghesio. I don’t know the first thing about wine. Well, okay—up until last year when I started traveling for work and eating really well in D.C., I didn’t know a thing about wine. I’m learning though!

2) Wine. We drank some of it and bought even more of it. The Seghesio Pinot Grigio and Clos du Bois Fleur Late Harvest Riesling were probably my favorite!

3) Ice pack. I tried road biking for the first time this weekend. When I learned that we would be biking, I imagined myself on a banana yellow beach cruiser bike, maybe with tassels and a bell—brrring-ring!—but no. I got a road bike because I was told I would have an easier time… LIES. We went for 33—THIRTY-THREE—miles. I also tried to bike up a 6-mile incline to Sonoma Lake. I’m in pain. But vineyard views were beautiful while biking by, and it’s a totally different experience than seeing them through a car window. Also, I went down a hill at 25 mph, so that was kind of awesome. (An aside: What’s with all these summer activities that require uphill climbs? Hiking, backpacking, biking—I can’t wait ’til winter; snowboarding is ALL downhill.)

4) Pajammas. Lots of relaxing, cooking, reading, and playing Bananagrams, Uno, and other card and board games. Good stuff :)

Chillin' on the deck. Quite literally.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went on a cruise with some old friends over the Memorial Day weekend. It was my first time on a cruise, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hoped it was going to be G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S-yeah like the Titanic (and Fergie), minus the sinking, but because it was Carnival Cruises, it was like being in Reno, but on a boat. I think Peter said it best, when he said at the end of 3 days of boat/Titanic/pirate jokes, “I’m going to miss the decor. It’s tacky, but it’s growing on me… like a fungus.” Aforementioned decor garnished the cheesy dance shows that must have originated from the 70’s, the dance club with middle-aged people, and a casino. The food and table service, however, far exceeded my expectations of sloppy buffet food. On our first night, we ordered 15 appetizers, 8 entrees, and 17 dessert items, and with each subsequent dinner we tried to out-do the last. Oh, the gluttony!

The ship was originally to set sail for Ensenada, but due to the recent swine flu scare, we stopped at Catalina Island instead. There we did a lot of touristy stuff, like having lunch at the country clubhouse, where the Chicago Cubs held their spring training, and walking past the world’s first theater for talking films. The highlight, of course, was ocean kayaking in the clear, shallow waters amongst kelp forests and bright orange fish.  Amy and I tag-teamed the kayak and even paddled around trying to pick up what litter we spotted floating in the water. Yay, we’re Green! I risked taking my camera onto the kayak with me and was consequently rewarded with this money shot:

MONEY.

Island excursion aside, there is really limited entertainment on a boat. For lack of better things to do, somebody lay out in the sun, expecting to be there for only an hour—thus forgoing the sunscreen—and ended up falling asleep for 4 hours, resulting in a very large, unmistakable bikini bowtie tan line. Observe:

HAHA, poor Nance!

The real highlight of the entire mini-vacation, however, was simply reconnecting with old friends, some of whom I had not seen or spoken to in 10 years. We ordered drinks and toasted to ships instead of friendships, explaining that we would need much more to tolerate each other for 3 days. Clearly we needed a few more:

The recreation of the subsequent picture.

Circa 1996---when we liked each other.

Amy, Judy, Nancy, Jon, Josh, and Peter: Here’s to hot tubs, Moscato, T-pain, A Whole New World, climbing palm trees, homosexual elephants, sunburns, 4 boats in 3 days, and Journey. Let’s do it again (maybe not a cruise) and don’t stop.. beliiiievin’!

Aww, corny and cheesey photo ftw.

I signed up for this Carnival Cruise with my oldest family friends of 18+ years just so I can sing this ridiculous song from The Lonely Island that satirized this music genre so well that it’s actually played on VH1. Thankfully, dorks attract dorky friends who were more than willing to indulge me by helping me recreate our own version of the song.

On a side note, I can’t believe I was able to get a picture with a buoy and mermaid more easily than I was able to find a nautical-themed pashmina afghan. And believe me, I looked.