February 25-28, 2010
It all started with a short email from Aaron in December saying he wanted to set up a reunion in LA. That reunion has come and gone. Since alcohol killed most or our brain cells this weekend (the little we had left… and I’m sure it killed a lot more than just our brain cells), the blog will need to be pieced together by pictures.
Will and I drove down to LA on Wednesday night after work through the Pacheco Pass. I usually prefer the Bay Bridge way because I don’t want to deal with going through the local streets at Gilroy, but it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. The ride was 100x better when not done solo. We got in close to midnight on Wednesday so we kept it fairly chill and stayed in. (Picture: Aaron decided to jump in the shower just about the time we would arrive… so I cleaned my car while we waited)
I went home on Thursday for a quick lunch with the parents + aunt, and then they ditched me so I went back up to Aaron’s for dinner. On my way I picked up PB from the airport who got in earlier to avoid the massive snow storm in the east coast. We were supposed to eat dinner together, but freaking Aaron and Will were full from a power shake (or whatever it’s called) a couple hours earlier; at least now we know it works. We tried a few places, but it was relatively late and everything was closed, so headed to gaam for some drinks and bar food. Luckily, the olympics were on and we got to watch Kim Yu-na perform on NBC’s awesome 3 hour tape delay (sarcasm). I found out the results 3 hours ago from PB…..
PB very excited to eat!
Party begins (yes, we started w/out Isaac & Chris)
She’s… perfect.
Soon Isaac called from LAX and Aaron left to pick him up after dropping us off at DGM (DwitGolMok). The place was literally in a back ally of some parking lot, but they had a really cool ambiance to it. PB and I killed some time watching some more Kim Yuna (can’t get enough of her) and before we knew it Isaac was here!
Odeng-tang & mak-gul-li
Party continues (+Isaac, still missing Chris)
The great thing about LA, which is the biggest reason I moved to the west coast as opposed to NY, is all the open grass and the abundant choice of sports! We woke up and first headed out to Myung Dong Kyoja for lunch. I love kal gook soo, it’s probably my favorite food in the world and this place has the best kal gook soo you can find. After dropping off Will at home (he had to work) we headed over to the golf range to practice for the round on Saturday. We then picked Will up from home and headed to Santa Monica, where we dropped Will off at his office (he had to work). We then proceeded to the basketball courts nearby where PB and I kicked Aaron and Isaac’s butt, true story. After ball, we picked up Will from work and headed out west (more west) to Santa Monica beach to throw around the football… only to realize after about 10 minutes that we were dead tired.
The balls came up from the ground on a tee ready to be played. Easy for you, and good for the range since time isn’t wasted from setting the ball!
Will showing us Yahoo! LA.
Yahooooooo!
Santa Monica beach! Excited to throw around the football
Good throw, good catch. Bad throw, poor catch attempt…
Tired and ready to go home. We were very colorful today.
One we got back, we headed to Tahoe for dinner and ate way too much (as usual) but had to recover quickly for some partying at VR. Chris called after dinner and Aaron made his way to LAX to pick him up. Not much to say about VR except that we drank way too much (as usual) but had to recover quickly the next morning for golf. 
We were a bit afraid that golf would be rained out, but it turned out to be a great day with the exception of about 5 minutes of rain. This is usually a very crowded and time consuming course, but the rain kept most people away and we were able to get through almost all 18 holes. We even got a good look at a perfect rainbow (TWO actually, one on top of another). All my practice lately after work really paid off because I played the best 15 holes of my life. Team Aaron + ME beat team Chris + PB, so they bought us dinner at the Korean/Chinese restaurant Dragon in LA.
Mmmmm~ all you can eat Korean BBQ, so good, so dangerous.
Velvet room (aka VR)- I’m sure this is basically what everything looked like for most of us this night. Some more blurry than others… some probably just black. 
Mmm~ these carts are everywhere in front of clubs in LA. so good!
Will and I attempted to drive YK’s car home. Not only did both Will and I fail by moving maybe 2 feet, we needed to call the valet guy to park it back in the spot.
Instead, we walked back home like everybody else. It was drizzling and a bit chaotic but that made it fun!
This is not a good picture… but my battery ran out during golf and it’s the only picture I could get at Dragon. You can’t see from this picture, but the room was originally booked for an engagement party so they had pink and baby blue balloons everywhere.
After dinner, we spent the last night at Les Deux in Hollywood. Not much to say except we drank a lot, again, and that Aaron picked up the tab. THANKS Aaron! After the club we met up with a bunch of other Michigan friends at Bobo’s NRB afterwards and drank some more while singing our favorite songs. After the NRB, because Will and I are fat-sos, we went to El Taurino for some super late night food. I’m pretty sure I gained 10 extra pounds instantly because I felt like death, but boy it was good. Will and I went back home and passed out instantly.
We woke up the next morning for lunch at Galleria’s food court (I <3 this food court), came back for some cake… then it was time to go. Isaac and PB headed towards LAX a short time later, and Will, Aaron and I hit the roads. The drive back this time around was a breeze compared to the last time when I had to do it alone. Chris drove the second half of the trip and we stopped by Chili’s for dinner at Gilroy. Again, I ate way too much and decided I should not eat for at least a week (that didn’t happen). The trip was way fun but I was beyond tired and passed out as soon as we got home at midnight. Monday at work, if you can imagine, was brutal.
So delicious! Best of all, no lines at 5am!
Pretty birthday cake!
Fitting pose.
Happy Birthday Aaron & Isaac! Great trip, lets do it again soon ^____^
My 이모’s family moved to Orlando from Korea a few months ago so our family took a trip down there to visit their new home. My nephews are the same age as when my sister and I first moved to the US, so I was interested to see how they were adjusting to the new environment. I’m glad to say that I breathed a sigh of relief to see they were getting adjusted well to their new school. They actually came back from school on Friday with a shoebox full of valentines day cards and candies they exchanged with their classmates. It’ll be a tougher adjustment when they go back to Korea in a few years, but no need to worry about that now. I was a little sad that my uncle couldn’t get located to a city closer to LA/SF, because Orlando is, well… really far. But at the same time at least it wasn’t to some remote city in Idaho (nothing against Idaho in particular). Besides, it’s the “Happiest place on Earth!”
The next day we headed out to Daytona Beach for some fun in the sun… except there was no sun. There was however, the Daytona 500 race which did not add any value to our trip, only traffic. It was cool to drive by the speedway though, the loud engines of the cars going by… I’ll likely never get this close to another NASCAR race in my life. After running around the beach with the kids we spent the night at Universal Studio’s Citywalk.
There is a hidden gem in the outer richmond called 
