Adventures with Lisa & Kevin

We were back in town for Christmas Eve--Kevin had to work but I was lucky to be able to spend part of the afternoon with the Julian family who were in town for the holidays visiting their son Brandon (he lives in San Bruno). The Julians are really close friends of my family's who we spent Thanksgiving with in 2009 (see post at this link). Me and Lola met up with the gang in Golden Gate Park at Stow Lake, one of my favorite parts of the park. We walked all around the lake and up Strawberry Hill for a good hour or so--it was such a nice, crisp day, perfect for a walk in the park!






After saying farewell (we were going to spend Christmas Day with them) we ran back home to pick up Kevin and made our way to Carleigh & Scott's place for Christmas Eve dinner.






Carleigh & Scott bought us a new game for Christmas as well called Bezzerwizzer (a trivia game) and we had a good time playing although trying to remember the name of the damn game was difficult because you were supposed to call it out occasionally and none of us could ever remember what the name of the game was, haha.

On Saturday 11/13 we woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided to visit the Alemany Farmer's Market in our neighborhood. It's one of the best in the city and we had only gone together once before. Now that Kevin has Saturdays off we'll definitely be visiting more often!






Probably my most favorite part of this farmer's market are the amazing murals in each stall. They are gorgeous and I can't get enough of them!









After taking Lola to the park we made our way out to Walnut Creek to visit our good friend Alison who was in town! Last time she visited (check out blog post here from February) we had a grand ol' time so we were expecting nothing less. :)

We met Alison and her friend Laura at Alison's favorite Indian restaurant Sargam and enjoyed an amazing buffet lunch! Then we spent a few hours exploring Walnut Creek's downtown area, walking and window shopping and, of course, getting pedicures! It was Kevin's first time and I'm happy to report he's a fan. :)








We then went to her family's home and spent a couple of hours hanging out (and eating Halloween chocolate) with her mom Laurel and her new kitties.


We then spent the evening with Laura and Daniel at Pyramid Brewery for some yummy nachos and beer and Club 1220, the only gay club in Walnut Creek.

We had a great time checking out Alison's old stomping grounds and can't wait to see her again!

My lovely friend Heather who was in a sistahood with me at Redlands and who also went abroad to Nicaragua a few years after me decided to celebrate her upcoming wedding with a weekend in San Francisco! I was so happy to hear she'd be venturing out this way to celebrate so that I could definitely participate in the festivities. :) They spent the whole weekend up here and I joined them on Saturday evening for some exciting bachelorette fun at AsiaSF.

AsiaSF is a superb venue for dinner and a show. The show was actually transgendered women who would dance on the bar every hour! The food was fantastic (duck quesadillas anyone?) and the ladies performances were extremely entertaining as well!



And now, for your viewing pleasure, the ladies of AsiaSF...




I would love to come back sometime--just gotta save some dough for that night since it's a wee bit pricey.

Afterwards we went to their hotel (which just so happened to be the same hotel my friend Maya stayed in that I visited) for some fun bachelorette themed games.

This was our first time exploring Berkeley since we moved up here and we had a great time with Thomas. We first drove through some beautiful neighborhoods with homes that I wish were ours!! Then we ended up at the Berkeley Rose Garden which was such a nice little paradise in the middle of the city.







Across the street is Cordonices Park which is an amazing little spot to hike in and explore. We took funny posed photos in trees and climbed up ivy covered hills--needless the say this park is a great spot! We'd love to come back to have a big picnic sometime.