Twas a great Memorial Day weekend!  It first started off with a friend’s good-bye party at 5A5.  I feel like I’ve heard of this place many times, but it was the first time actually hanging out there.  I meant to stay only an hour or so since there was a lot planned for Saturday, but… I didn’t.  The important part here is that I got home (eventually), and was up and ready for Saturday’s activities.

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!

So for those that follow my blog, which is probably  nobody (not even my mom), I recently picked up spinning.  As a recap, the first class was brutal and I seriously thought I was going to die.  In fact, I told the instructor after class that “I’m going to die”.  He responded, “good”.  The second class, I found out that I am not as out of shape as I thought.  I said, not AS out of shape… I’m still out of shape, and my legs are apparently weak as a stick (I do not understand what he means by ‘hold your body steady with your legs’). I had the tension way too high the first time but now have a better feel for the “Levels 1-10″ the instructors are talking about.  In a short span of three classes I feel like I’ve already made big strides of improvement, and although I still can’t feel my legs after class I can make it till the end without feeling like I’m going to faint.

After class I stopped by Kukje to pick up ingredients for 칼국수 (kal gook soo)!  Maybe it was the rain, but I was craving it all day and was very happy when it was all done!  And yes, it was very yummy.

Mmmm~ I made it!  I think I should add clams next time to the soup though…

Next on the agenda for quite possibly the busiest (and most fun) couple of months was a road trip down to LA.  Unlike the previous few trips where it was just me or me with another friend, this one consisted of six people!  We were to drive down in a fun filled caravan, but people’s work schedules and so forth derailed those plans last minute.  Regardless, we all made it down safe and sound, and other than the 1 hour traffic delay in the middle of nowhere, the drive wasn’t too bad.

We dropped our stuff off at Aaron’s as soon as we arrived and headed straight to our go-to Ktown bar, Gaam.  The place was packed as expected, but we surprisingly got a table for 10 in a matter of minutes.  We ordered enough drinks for 10 people, but the other half didn’t arrive for another 30 minutes or so… hence, we drank everything and ordered more.  Towards the end of the night we were joined by some more friends and we all  headed to Maitreya.  At Maitreya, we ran into the ktown cowboys actors and I couldn’t resist but take a picture with them.  We chatted for just a few moments and I wished them good luck on their future episodes.

On Saturday we headed to Father’s Kitchen for some burgers, and I guided Grace & Will around Torrance, Redondo Beach and the Friendship Bell in San Pedro.  It was nice to stop by home and drive around my home town, but the driving was exhausting.  Note to future self: don’t drive so much next time.

I recently learned that Janet Cha (now Shin) lives in LA, and Esther Ahn was also in town so we got together for some good Korean food.  Now that I think about it… we didn’t take any pictures together, bummer  I’m sure I had my camera with me, but I was probably too embarrassed to start taking pictures of food in front of her parents.  Regardless, we enjoyed awesome galbi & galbi jjim, and afterwards headed over for a tour of their condo nearby.  After hanging out there for a short time, Esther, her friend Jason, and I headed out to Gaam (two days in a row for me!), and then to Orange to meet up with the rest of the group.  Again, no pictures, bummer.

Sunday’s lunch was galbi tang, completing the tri-fecta of galbi within a matter of hours for me.  Dson and Koun joined us this time!  After grabbing a quick dessert at ice kiss, we were headed back for SF.  Again, I think all the driving on Saturday took a toll and made the trip feel very… tiring.  To commemorate the trip, I made a quick video to recap the weekend.  Here it is:

Chris, Andrew, Paul and I formed a 4-player scramble team for the KACC Golf Tourny and played a fun round today.  I played in a 2-player scramble in college with Aaron for the IM tourny, but this was my first one in a long time.  Tournaments like these are always a lot of fun for a variety of reasons.

1: It’s golf, golf is fun.  Besides, I took work off to play, and work is less fun.

2: There are a lot of prizes along the way.  Aaron and I each won a cool skill related prize in college.  Today, I won a raffle, but winning a prize is winning a prize, the method does not matter.

3: You usually get to play in an exclusive course.  We played at Silver Creek  Valley Country Club in San Jose, one of the nicest courses in a very exclusive neighborhood.

Unfortunately, I quickly realized that I am a worthless scramble player.  It runs along the theme that I’m not particularly good at anything, but am fairly decent at everything.  Like Doug always tells me, I’m a very boring player.  I don’t have the longest drives.  My irons are accurate, but not THAT accurate.  I rarely make mistakes with putting, but usually need 2 putts to hole out.  A player needs to excel at their greatest strength in a scramble format tournament, and when your greatest strength is ‘minimal mistakes’… that doesn’t help.  Regardless, I’m proud to say that my shots WERE played (basically when EVERYBODY screwed up), and that it was a blast to play with these guys.  I’ll remember to practice ONE aspect of the game for weeks for next year!

Putting contest! I didn’t win… didn’t even make it to the final round, sad

Shot gun start = caravan of golf carts; never seen this before!

Beautiful course! Who left the sprinklers on?

This turkey was crazy… and by crazy, UGLY.

Goats on the hill of some house… also crazy.

Mid-round 막걸리 (Korean Rice Wine).  One of many complimentary beverages!

Yay! Losers & Winners get fed!

Yay! Won a dvd player in the raffle drawing!

This weekend is the second week of a string of very busy (albeit fun filled) 8 weekends in a row.  It’s going to be a challenge to keep up with these blog posts, but at least I’ll have something to write about every week.  James Chung is making a week long visit to SF before we head together to LA for some socal fun.  We started the weekend with a trip to Toyose, then on to some other bars in the mission area.  I was incredibly tired as I usually am on Friday nights and it was a relatively calm night for all of us.

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.

I woke up today feeling tired, sick, and with the worst stomach ache ever.  Hence, I decided to stay home and get some rest.  I felt a lot better after getting some more rest, and woke up with a craving for curry rice.  I’m starting to realize that home cooked meals are so much better than restaurant food… hopefully I can continue to learn to cook so I can eat at home!

Some more 도토리묵 and cucumber!

Gyoza

Curry rice! I make the best curry rice, hehe.

Yay for lunch!

I felt a lot better after some food, so Chris and I decided to play a quick 9 holes at Fleming.  This is a par 30 9-hole course that I realized today to be rather challenging.  Most of the par 3′s are long, and one of the two par 4 is also very long.  I hit my irons really well today and played a +10.  I started out +2 over the first 4 holes, but kind of lost it in the last 5 holes with a +8.  I’ll take +10 any day though, which seems to be my average the last few outings.

Fleming & Harding Park has a very San Francisco feel to it.  I likes.

Chris is the best practice putter… not the best on course putter though… :-/

I win

I found out last week that a friend on my Sunday flag football team goes to my gym!  This wouldn’t be a surprise if I was a member of a big gym, but I work out at a very small boutique one in downtown Palo Alto.  We apparently work out on different days… anyway, he told me he takes spinning classes at the gym and lifts afterwards.  This friend, being very fit/athletic/fast, must know what he’s doing right?  So I decided I TOO will take spinning classes, and work out afterwards.

First of all, I realized my legs are rather short.  I had to lower the seat way~~~~ down for my legs to fit.  Second, spinning is no joke.  I was tired after the first 5 minutes, and thought I was going to die after 30.  I still cannot believe I made the whole hour (although I must admit, I was NOT pedaling as fast as everybody else).  Afterwards, I literally could not feel my legs.  Post spinning work out… did not happen.  Frankly, I’m glad I was able to drive home alive.  In conclusion, I shall go again next week.

I then came home and made dinner!  Theme of the night? Daikon cress!

도토리묵 aka acorn cake.  I did not make the cake… in fact, I did not make the sauce either- I added the daikon though…

BBQ eel don, w/ seaweed, scallions and of course, daikon!

Only dish I made from scratch!  Bean sprout soup (콩나물국 ) with scallions and daikon.  It was yummy.

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 ^.^

I took a last-minute trip to Napa today to celebrate Parkie’s birthday.  This was my SECOND time (almost feel like a veteran of Napa saying that) visiting wine country, and my first in a fancy shmancy limo!  I got to hit up some new wineries, starting with V.Sattui for lunch + wine.  DK was right, this place has really good food for a reasonable price with a beautiful garden to eat!.  The garden reminded me of Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte!

Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte!

Our lunch spot at V.Sattui. The picture may not seem THAT similar to the painting, but there is a resemblance, no?  Like the painting, there are people of different social classes doing various activities!

Our table filled with wine, cheese, dips and crackers!

My turkey & cranberry sandwich was seriously yum! Soft bread, tender turkey, yummy cranberry sauce!

Despite the unfortunate little fall over, the cupcakes were still delicious!

After the wonderful lunch, we headed over to Artesa for a real wine tasting.  One of the best part of this winery was the beautiful building/location itself!  The wine tasting was also very unique (i.e. the chocolate cup shots of wine) and the wine was delicious too.  Then we headed across the lot to Domaine Carneros to finish off the day with some champagne!  Not sure if that’s the proper way to end wine tasting, but I sure liked it.

The views from Artesa was amazing!

View from Artesa 2.  Kind of reminds you of the windows xp desktop picture no?

Never had a shot of wine in a chocolate cup before! It was, interesting, and good!  I want to do it again….

Who knew there were different kinds of champagne?  Not me…

Where do all the bubbles come from?

Heading back home in our awesome limo.  Happy birthday again Parkie!

We used to regularly follow Top Chef and hold TCN to eat and watch the show as a group.  Although we haven’t been holding TCN as much as last year, it’s still something to look forward to when it comes together.  We held it for the first time at our home, and the food was amazing!

Drew showing Ahsome how it’s done!

Jenny, Lezlee & Ahsome

Gogi so good!

Dooboo Kimchi!

Jenny’s dduk-bok-gi was seriously awesome.  Drool…

Yay! My contribution to the night, dwen jang jjigae!

Yay for food!