S.F. trip recap

Brrr...it's starting to get pretty chilly around here, but mostly early in the morning and at night. During the day it's still been hitting the 60s for the most part, which is pretty great for New England. It's too bad I didn't get any pictures of the fall leaves before the season passed; they were gorgeous and it was great to see it all in person for the first time in years.

The weather was surprisingly gorgeous in S.F. this weekend. I was expecting rain, fog, and chills since it's November, but instead temps were in the 70s and R. & J. could have had their wedding outdoors!

The weekend pretty much revolved around food, and lots of it. As soon as I arrived in San Jose, W. and I headed over to meet our friends for dinner at our favorite bay area Korean restaurant, Korea House in Santa Clara. There were nearly 30 of us at dinner and the waitstaff were real troopers about dealing with our huge group. They even gave us several free beers since we ordered so much food. When I saw the spread on the table I thought we'd spent a small fortune, but somehow the bill worked out to only $20/person. Go figure, guess the boys weren't pulling their weight that night! Mmmm...kalbi....

After getting some much-needed sleep and grabbing a dim sum brunch with some other friends, we hit R. & J.'s wedding. They chose a really unique venue, Broadway Studios, which is a performance space with a stage and a big dance floor. You can rent it out for events, but I don't think they usually do weddings there. It's right over one of our favorite clubs from our partying days, Velvet Lounge :) R. did a great job decorating it and other than being a little crowded during the cocktail hour, it was a great space. We had a ton of fun catching up with old friends over dinner (except for the part when M. almost made me cry by saying how much our friends miss us and telling us to move back). Thanks for a great party, R. & J., and congrats again!

On Sunday we got a chance to see S. & R.'s new house in San Mateo. We're so excited for them and their purchase together. It's a fixer-upper, but he's got the technical/mechanical skills and she's got the creative talent to turn it into a great home. I can't wait to visit it again the next time we're out ther, which should be in July for L. and R.'s wedding (good thing we have all these weddings as an excuse to go back to the bay area!). Actually, I take that back; while we were out there W. already planned his Tahoe time for two weekends in March so I guess we'll be back then :)

I closed out my trip with, yes, another big meal. We hit the Sunday all-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Satsuma and it was even better than I remember it. R. liked it so much he started crying--heehee! Gotta lay off that wasabi a bit. W. dropped me off at the airport afterwards and then went on to play volleyball with some more friends before getting on his separate flight home the next day.

The red eye home was as painful as ever, but well worth it for a fun weekend catching up with friends. I can't wait to do it again.