Happy BlogDay 2006!

Happy BlogDay 2006!

hiking above the clouds

yesterday, we went hiking at Black Mountain, an open reserve above the Stevens Creek Dam in Cupertino, elevation 2800'.


our friend, Darlene, took us there and we really enjoyed walking above the clouds! it was a short hike, probably about 2.6 miles or so.

Seattle ~ August 18-21

Dave and i got to take a mini vacation in Seattle last weekend. went primarily to witness Dave's cousin Annette's marriage to her attorney husband Min-Su Suh. when we got there, we stopped at Enterprise rent-a-car and picked up our economy rental car, a Chevy Aveo. it cost us only about $41 for the weekend since we got a $75 rewards certificate courtesy of American Express.

the first evening, we were treated to a really yummy Chinese dinner by my cousin, Roz, and her husband, Jack, with whom we stayed for the weekend. (thank you again! we really miss the roomy queen-size Tempur-Pedic bed we got to sleep in, now that we're back in our own full-size bed!) that evening, we also got to meet up with my other cousin, Justin.

that's us here at the Shanghai Garden Restaurant. if you go there to eat, try their barley green hand shaved noodles. quite unique. now i regret not taking pictures of the food we ate.



the next day, we got to spend time with Dave's relatives and to meet some of them for the first time.

here's me with cousin Annette and her niece, Samantha.



here's Samantha with her parents, Andrew and Rachael Fredriksen. Rachael is Annette's big sister.



i met Dave's Uncle Paul and his wife, Aunt Sue, for the first time. Uncle Paul is the dad of Rachael and Annette and the brother of Dave's biological mom.



that evening we set out to tour underground Seattle. but before that, we stopped in at Longhorn Outpost at Pioneer Square for some good Texas style barbecue. we highly recommend this eatery.

here's our self-portrait taken at the Longhorn Outpost.



after that, it was off to Bill Speidel's Underground Tour of Seattle.



sign left in Underground Seattle.



glass skylights that turned purple with age.



here are the skylights from the sidewalk above.



more pictures of Underground Seattle...





an old bathroom with one of those old crappers. i learned that Thomas Crapper is known for his efforts to popularize the modern flush toilet.



here is our tour group. our tour guide, faintly distinct in the background on the left, was an Irish girl who was a hilarious storyteller.



after the underground tour, we walked (more like hiked) from Pioneer Square to the Seattle Center, where the famous Space Needle is situated. Dave got to take some cool pictures of the Space Needle, one of which is this one below. there was an outdoor showing of Lawrence of Arabia that night and you can see the big screen in juxtaposition with the Space Needle.



Sunday was the big wedding day. we got to meet more relatives for the first time.

here is a picture of Dave with his mom and her siblings.



here is Dave with cousin Caleb. they definitely look related. incidentally, Caleb is a bass player, too.



here is Samantha with her two older brothers, Nate and Nick.



and here is the bride and groom with the bride's parents.



and a final portrait of the happy travelers.



our greatest regret of the weekend was that we did not get to visit any of the local coffee scenes. owe it to poor time management and planning. but that only gives us more reason to return to Seattle, and definitely visit places like Hotwire Coffee, where my Barista Extraordinaire friend is barista in residence. i saw pictures of his impressive latte art on flickr.com, which is how we met.

Seattle, we'll be back!

first anniversary

Monday, August 14, was our first anniversary. we celebrated on Sunday evening with dinner at The Steps of Rome Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. i had gnocchi in a gorgonzola cream sauce and Dave had tagliatelli alla bolognese. yummy!

probably the most "memorable" event of this past year was moving to our own apartment. we really enjoy having our own little place to call home.

it's been a wonderful first year being married. if married life is this easy the first year, we can imagine it will be pretty smooth sailing in the years to come. all in all, we thank God for blessing us with each other and for providing for our needs.

cooler weather...house sitting

thankfully, the air is cooling down around here. Dave and I are house sitting this week for some friends who live in Los Gatos. the first morning before we got there, some thieves had broken the window of their Volvo that was parked in the driveway. they had also broken into several other cars on the same street. the neighbor next door had his credit cards stolen. he told us that the police had just been into our house with guns drawn thinking the thugs might still be around. seems like nothing was stolen from our friends' Volvo nor were the thugs in the house. the flat screen TV's still there!

our friends have a golden retriever named Amber. she is really sweet, except she just got skunk juice sprayed on her several days before and she still stinks! Dave has taken responsibility for taking her on walks and feeding her. i haven't made it on the walks yet, but will have to walk her the next 3 evenings since Dave is busy. good for me to get some exercise!