I’ve wanted to go sailing ever since I moved to SF and saw all the white sails  boats floating around the bay.  I finally got around to putting something together and it turned out even better than I had hoped.  First of all, I was afraid the weather might suck because it was an afternoon sail, but the weather was perfect!  It was an unusually warm weather throughout, and no fog!  Almost everybody made it out, and the two that couldn’t make it had a good excuse.  It would have been awesome to have them join us, but everybody else was a good sport and pitched in for their cost (thanks again guys!).  Capt. Kirk & crew were as nice as the yelp reviewers claimed, and everybody that wanted to drive the sail got a turn!

The Disney Family Museum before sailing was also blast.  Even though we saw a lot of kids, I felt the museum was more for adults as it chronicles the life of Walt Disney; the usual struggles & triumphs and how he eventually created the Disney we know today.  It’s a very famous museum… only to the people outside of the bay apparently… so I highly suggest a visit if you have a chance!

A summary of the day could be found in the video below:

The busy weekend continued Sunday with a spontaneous trip to the neighborhood park to throw around the baseball.  Luckily one of the softball fields were empty so Chris, Gene, and I were able to get some good exercise.  We hit the ball a couple times and disrupted the game on the other field, and although an old man came running and threatened to call the cops on us (the COPS… really?), we just kept on playing because we’re super bad asses like that.

I then headed over to Dolores Park in the Mission District for a relaxing picnic with Will, Brian, Soojin & friends.  We drank a little bit of wine/beer, smoked some hookah, was amused by some REALLY drunk people, and was offered pot many times.  Where else but Dolores Park?

Those kettles were filled with… pot!

Pascale & friends.  The hookah felt authentic since she is Lebanese ^^

Brian & Soojin checking out pictures from Caranaval earlier in the day.

Night time quickly fell, and I was off to another good-bye party for a friend.  This night also turned out to be a much longer night than planned or anticipated.  But of course, I made it back home in one piece and was up and ready for Sunday’s activities, albeit a little late…

We started the final day of the long weekend at Half Moon Bay Brewery with good food and drinks (sans the drinks for me, other than soda), then headed over to a McD’s nearby for dessert!  I’ve forgot how awesome their frozen yogurts are!  So creamy and delicious.  Chris, Doug & I were then off to golf at the HMB Ritz Carlton’s Ocean Course.

Mmmmm! Seafood yum.

This course was really amazing, and I kept on telling Chris that I felt like I was in Scotland.  The views were incredible, and there was even a trail for people to walk around.  Even if you are not a golfer, this trail is definitely one place you should check out next time your down in HMB.

I want to go back!

The next morning, we headed up northeast to the city of San Rafael for golf at Peacock Gap GC.  It’s always fun to play at a new course, and this time was no exception.  The last time the four of us played together was in San Diego, and playing at a new course under warm weather made me feel like I was back in SD.  The course was well maintained and fun, but the putting greens were a bit ridiculous in terms of difficulty.

Crossing the San Rafael Bridge! I’ve crossed all the bridges in SF!

I found their tee box markers to be very creative, although the silver and black peacocks were somewhat confusing.  Okay, only I found them confusing, but that’s still 1/4 golfers.

Overall, very pretty course!

Bahm actually makes for a very good golf snack.  So does beer.

This picture doesn’t do justice to how hard the greens were, but beer definitely helped (not putting-wise… just emotionally)

The greens were the least of James’ problems though.  Sorry James, had to post it, too funny.

Winning price: In-n-Out double-double w/ animal style fries. YUM =P

We were all too tired to do anything crazy after golfing, so we headed out to our favorite bar Playground.  We played some games, ate some food, drank some drinks and ended the night in relative calm once again.

Titanic!  Now that I think about it, what a gruesome name for a drinking game!

The next morning started with brunch at Stacks and we ordered way too much food as usual (I blame one particular person, whom I shall not name).  It was also the day of Bay to Breakers and since Stacks is near the route, we got to see a lot of people in funky costumes or a lack of clothes in general.  I think I saw at least 5 butts, all dudes.  I love SF -_____-…

As an homage to Bay to Breakers, I created my brunch time masterpiece.  I call it, face.

The day was just getting started and we headed over to Japantown to fulfill Ahsome’s wishes to take sticker pictures.  I was a bit blown away at how complex these machines have evolved over the past decade.  Heck… without her help, I don’t think any of us would have known where to start (we probably wouldn’t have taken them in the first place, but that’s not the point).

James looks lost with all the lights

Chris is amazed!

So many options, so little time…

After the picture session, we headed to church, then for some ice cream at bi-rite, then a tour of Twin Peaks and Fisherman’s Warf, then finally picked up dinner at Little Star and ate at home to cap off the day.  Phew~ I didn’t realize so much was possible in one day.  Now I do.

Bi-rite is just around the corner from church, must go more often!

James’ double.  Although I think this is called a single.  One scoop is a junior.

Ice cream power!

These fellas were EXTRA stinky today.

Thanks to James, we got a really good tour of Pier 39, stopping at a lot more stores today than I have all of the past 2 years.  There were definitely some interesting stores, although I’d never buy anything.  Do kids really want this?  I mean, really?

We were wondering 1. Who was honking non-stop and 2. Why people were so amazed at this dog inside a car.  Then- all our questions were answered!

Mmmm~ Now thats a good way to end the day.  I planned on eating one.  I ate two.

The title is a bit misleading, because I didn’t do anything this weekend related to Mother’s Day… but nevertheless, it was still Mother’s Day.  The weekend started off with a visit from my old friend Chan.  He had a corporate party in SF so I got to catch dinner and some drinks with him.  Steve hosted a BBQ on Saturday, and it turned out to be a little more beer happy than I had anticipated.  The food btw, was amazingly good.

Steve the cook

Galbi.  Good.

Before food, there was beer pong.  And I must say, these two kicked my butt over, and over, and over again.  It was really sad.  But we won the first and last games (of maybe 7 or 8 games).  Psych study shows people remember first and last most anyway…

Team winner!

Then we all passed out.  Lots of food + lots of beer = sleep.  Then I woke up to see my Red Wings get eliminated by the stupid Sharks.  GUH.  It’s okay boys, we’ll get them next year.  Thanks again for hosting the BBQ Steve & friends.

Sunday consisted of the usual football & golf.  Except I played the best 18 rounds of my life… so far.  +10 over on the front 9, +10 in the back.

The field is location in Presidio, beautiful SF scenery overlooking the bay on one side…

and the GG bridge on the other.

It was a beautiful day at Tilden Park GC in Berkeley.

The course was wide open, I don’t think we waited once…. meaning we must golf every Mother’s Day.

Ah~ and the sound of the water in flowing through the creek was so soothing! Of course, I doubt it would be as soothing if it was swallowing up my golf balls, but not today ^.^

Personal best, hehe.

My mom’s response to my picture text to her saying “Happy Mothers Day! I’m golfing!”

Crossing back over to the city.

Couldn’t be with mom today, but I still sent her flowers! Yay for recessions, flowers this year were basically half off from the previous few years! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms ^.^

After two years in the bay area, the stars aligned and I finally got a chance to go to Tahoe!  I got a special invitation to hang out with the Fluffies at their annual Tahoe trip- this year to Sierra.  It’s been at least 5 years since the last time I went skiing, and I’ve gone at most 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years after going almost 60-90 times a year during junior and senior year of high school.  When I got invited to the trip I instantly went on a mad search for all my gear… only to come up empty.  I thought of it as a good excuse to buy new stuff but it was also very expensive.  My rational is that I’ll just use the crap out of it.

Jane picked me & Will up from my house, and after picking up some more friends we headed over to Cathy’s in Emeryville for a quick reorg of the caravan.   We then stopped by Sonic for a quick bite, and although I wasn’t hungry from eating 인절미 and spam musubi, I couldn’t pass up on Sonic.

Arlan’s spam musubi!  I was excepting to eat one piece, but I got the entire roll!  Delicious!

The dice game on the first night!  Now I know what they were playing on Pirates of the Caribbean!

Do NOT sit next to Jason L. in this game.  He will knock you out, make you buy in with shots, only to knock you out again…

Andrew woke us up EARLY Saturday morning to hit the slopes.  Jane cooked up some delicious breakfast sandwiches and we were on our way.  The problem with skiing for the first time in a long time… or more accurately, the problem with exercising for the first time in a long time is that everything hurts about 10 seconds into it.  I got tired putting on my boots (no, seriously), and was exhausted by the time we got to the bottom of the hill from the car.

After the first run I quickly realized these are not the little bunny hills we have in Michigan, but full blow mountains!  I’m sure my body was saying STOP after the first run, but I had to pull every muscle in my legs to go on at least 3 or 4 more runs before lunch break.

The group packing up!

Ahsome demonstrating what we’re about to do~

From car to hill… SO FAR!

Ninja vanis~~~h and Ahsome.  I was pretty much dead by this point (bottom of the hill)

Everybody in good order: first run of the day

I slapped Ahsome’s butt with my ski pole, and it bent it… her butt is made of steeeeeel!

Play the videos together, its kind of funny, heh.

Ahsome fell asleep while waiting for food.  A Chinese lady walks over, looks at Ahsome, hesitates to take one of our chair, looks at Ahsome again (notices she’s knocked out), takes our chair.  I saw it ALL! DDAK gul lyut suh!

Mmm~ delicious lunch!  Sang and I noticed their “prime rib burger” used the same meat at their regular burger… we got the prime rib burger.

After lunch is where things got interesting, hazy, unclear (depending on the person).  Apparently a few people were allocated with a larger amount of the special juice we prepared the night before, and now that I think about it, decided it would be a great idea to drink it all.  While they were drinking away, I made a promise to Will that we would go on 3 more rides with one hour of skiing to go.  Bad idea.  Why?  Because on run 1/3 I could barely carve because my thighs and calves were dead.  But promise is a promise and I went on all three runs, PLUS a bunny slope run so more like 3.5 runs.

Just an example of the ridiculous state of these kids.

It was dinner time back in the cabin for most of us… nap time for some others.  Big thumbs up to our cooks of the night!! From there we eventually moved onto some ridiculous round of games.  There were quite a few moments where I thought I was going to die laughing.  I was also challenged to a push up contest somewhere during the night by JANE (yes a girl, thanks Ahsome for reminding me…) and lost.  Not only were my legs sore the next day, my upper body was sore too, my entire body was mad at me.  After a quick stop for Pho at a random town near Sacramento (random as in, these people had cows and donkeys roaming around in their back yard), we called it a weekend and headed our separate ways.  Good job guys, and thanks for inviting me to an awesome trip!

2010 Fluffies Ski Trip!

Although I grew up a Wings fan all my life, especially during my elementary and middle school days when I lived in Michigan, I never got a chance to watch the Wings play live at Joe Louis Arena.  It was tougher to buy tickets back then because sites like stubhub and craigslist didn’t exists to coordinate a second market of buyers & sellers like  today.

Hockey has faded in popularity a bit these days, but I finally got a chance to watch my Wings at the HP Pavilion in San Jose with the Michigan Alumni Club of SF.  Although I’d imagine the Pavilion’s atmosphere pales in comparison to Joe Louis, and its history of championships, it was still a great time.  We even got to go to the back room and meet a former Michigan player (now on the Sharks) and I was THIS close to coach Babcock in the tunnel!  We also won 4-2, muhahaha.

took the caltrain down which was surprisingly convenient!  and the palo alto station got a waiting room/coffee store!

GO WINGS!

Some recognition during half time~!

Ahsome paying attention… not really, more like posing

Jed Ortmeyer, Michigan hockey captain 2001-2002

i used to bowl often in college (some may say a LOT), but have hardly bowled since then.  it probably has something to do with the fact that there is a lot more to do in cali, and that they don’t offer $1 bowling nights here.  regardless, it was the first time in a while that i went bowling on a weekday and i must say, it was a pretty chill and relaxing way to spend a tuesday evening; we should do this more often.

possibly the most high tech bowling lanes i’ve been to… complete with plasma screens and sophisticated instructions on how to approach the pins

it even called out SOS when the lane wouldn’t reset

bowling shoes are awesome

candid- we lost, i blame my teammate in the blue

our office building had a nice surprise for us today, serving cookies and apple cider during lunch.  it definitely helped setting the holiday season spirit at work.  

the cookie was bland… the fudge was super sweet, and the apple cider was way too strong.  but it was pretty, and that’s all i really cared about.  

later that night the men of my small group got together to, well, watch bolt… and it was awesome!  bolt in 3D, gotta do it.  blot had all the features that madagascar 2 lacked… drama! comedy! suspense! element of surprise (somewhat)!  and most importantly, creativity!  plus, the 3D was very cool.

(the awesome 3D glasses!)

(we’re so cool)

(this was not to look cool, but to show that my lack of a nose bridge made this a better fit.  the 3D does not work this way though…)

(i may never watch a 2D animation movie again)

the detroit pistons made their only visit to the bay area today.  since it would be awwwwwfully rude to not see such important visitors, i had to go to say hello.  the game was close almost the entire way, and the crowd really got into it towards the end.  it was a great atmosphere and the pistons pulling out a win at the end added to a great game.  

i’ve been to a visiting pistons game before, but the golden state warrior fans were far louder and more passionate about their team than the previous city.  it’s always somewhat intimidating to go into somebody else’s home town and cheer for your visiting team, especially when the fans love their own.  however, i felt like it was fun in a different way from cheering the pistons at the palace, and i had a lot of fun.  i found the tickets on craigslist and got these $100 tickets for $60, woohoo!

i also saw allen iverson for the first time, and he was faster in real life;  quick as a bee.  as much as i’ll miss mr. big shot, the new look pistons are faster and more exciting.  it’ll be interesting to see what these guys can do down the road as ai gets more comfortable with the players and the new system.

(the jumbo screen; warriors vs pistons)

(chris’ awesome cup, hahaha)

(AI’s intro)

(pretty good seats)

(hah, i tell everybody to shut up)

(taytay seals it up for the stones)

(gs fans go home, i’m happy)

chris and i, along with doug, got our weekend golf back on track with a trip to san geronimo golf course,  way up north across the golden gate bridge.  unlike a couple weeks ago where the sun caught me complete by surprise and i was burnt to a crisp (my forearms are still pealing btw…), i went fully prepared with very strong sunblock.  and it was a great call because the weather was scorching hot with the sun blaring down the entire time.  the course didn’t give much relief from the sun either, as it didn’t have many areas of shade, and had only TWO water coolers.  i usually don’t have trouble walking courses, but it was fair challenge this time around.  the overall course itself wasn’t too bad, but the poor green conditions made the course very unattractive, especially because it wasn’t a cheap course.  however, a golf outing is always good times and day was very much enjoyed.  i also got back on track as i made some great improvements from the disaster that was a couple weeks ago.  my score was still on the bad end of my range, but it was somewhat encouraging to get back within the range.  i’m hoping to build on this momentum to keep it a closer game with chris, because losing sucks, and losing by a lot sucks even more.

(the greens were ugly, but the golf course was very nice… i also love bridges, and this course had plenty of them)

(i’m a loser… i take pictures on the golf course by myself.  although, by looking at how comfortable i look having enough time to take this picture, i must’ve had a great drive ^^)

after the round, i realized i forgot to put sunblock on my legs…

(note to self: put sunblock on legs as well)

(sunny northbay, city ahead = fog ahead)

(more cloud, less sun)

(no sun… just fog)

i feel like i really took advantage of all that sf, or the bay area in general has to offer this weekend.  the weather/sun, the scenery, the close proximity to everything, special events, golf or being able to play sports in general… the primary reason for moving to california over new york was a lot of what i got to do and experience this weekend, and i’m not exactly sure if was using all these resources to full potential the last year or so, but i’m glad that i’m finally getting to use them now.