(birth)day of fun!

Kelly and Nick came to visit for my birthday! After a lovely dinner at Jupiter on Sunday night, we hit the Cal campus for a tour.

In the reading room at Doe Library.

Kelly and Mark sharing a moment.

I took Monday off, so we got to sleep in for a while before heading down to Oakland to bail Tak out of work for sushi (#1!) and sightseeing.

We visited the Oaksterdam mural across the street from his office.

And the Kaiser roof garden (which was new to me).

Tak on the roof garden bridge.

Next up was the Oakland cathedral. It's pretty spectacular.

The mausoleum

We did our best to show up the Seattle coffee scene by taking them to Blue Bottle in Jack London.

It's' all the rage with the hip kids.

We had big plans to see some redwoods in Redwood Regional Park, but there were fewer than we anticipated.

But I did learn about fish ladders!

We navigated our way through the Berkeley hills (and the Cav survived!) in the hopes of getting a GGB shot for Kelly and Nick's holiday card. You could sort of see it (not in this picture, though).

Our holiday card?

Kelly and Nick's deep, pensive shot.

Finally, it was off to T-Rex to meet many of my favorite folks for a scrumptious birthday dinner. Mmm mmm.

The big 2-6.

For my birthday, my friends and I went dancing in the city! It the best. My new (and old) work BFFs even joined us. FUN-tastic. Plus, Kelly and Nick are here visiting for today's actual bday blowout (more on that soon).

Thanks everyone for the all of the amazing bday treats and wishes!



(P.S. Blogger made me update my template. I'm still on the fence, but it is kind of fun to look at photos in the other layouts. What do you think?)

Update!

Tak went to London for work! And he got to fly business class (you don't even want to know how much that cost). LUXURY.

Unfortunately, he had to work crazy hours the entire time and didn't get to do any sight-seeing. But his hotel was near this museum (he thinks it's the Natural History Museum).

Upon Tak's arrival back in the bay, we journeyed down to Livermore for an afternoon of wine tasting. Tak and Robyn were matchy-matchy.

We were doing a pre-wedding tasting with Cat and John, who are getting married there next summer! Hooray!

g/fs at the winery

tasting number two

keeping it classy

To round out Tak's welcome back weekend of fun, Jeff and Manisha came over for dinner and game night!

We played a rousing game of Jenga.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any taller ... it did!

And then ... the end.

Tak's Market Hall

Yesterday, Tak and I took a little road trip down to San Jose to see the building he designed, which just opened. It was very exciting!

 Here's the design Tak did of the market hall.

And here it is in real life!

 They were having an opening event with tasty food cart snacks.

 the adobe plaza

YAY!

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Tak and I made this amazing (if I do say so myself) birthday cake this weekend!

It was for a very special occasion ...

Eric's 50th Birthday! He loves trains.

Hidefumi also showed us his newest puppet! (Show date still TBD.)

Cute candles, all aboard!

As Tak and I were getting the cake from the bedroom, everyone started chuga-chuga-choo-choo-ing.

It went over pretty well.

Happy Birthday, Eric!

BBQ

We had another awesome BBQ!

Lots of new and old friends came.

Tak made his best BBQ chicken yet (and John enjoyed it).

Our friend Molly was visiting from Boston (and I took this sneaky picture of my co-workers who came). It was very exciting.

Cat showed off her DeJean Middle School Alpha Wolves hoodie.

We love BBQs.

Sonoma with the Gees

 On Saturday, Robyn and Em took us up to Sonoma for the afternoon! First up was Benziger. We missed the cave tour, though. Next time, I suppose.

 Robyn's water dance at St. Frances.

 Robyn treated us to this AMAZING picnic at Chateau St. Jean! It was super deluxe.

 We got a little nervous about getting sunburned. Luckily, we are good problem solvers.

 The Gees

 Next up was BJV, where they make Italian-style wines. Mmm.

 We got VIP passes at VJB. Unlimited tasting for life.

We ended our day with this ladies pic at Valley of the Moon. Happy Labor Day weekend!