Our 3rd Anniversary

3 + 3  on Aug 1, 2010

We had a great time on our third Anniversary. This time, we have 3 parties together....Hugo+Me+Baby-in-my-tummy.  It's not easy for Hugo to think of an activity that is surprising yet I can handle with my growing tummy.
In fact, both of us understand that when the baby comes out, it will got our full attention and people said...there will be no more cinema-going, no more late-night drinks etc. So we are encouraged to enjoy ourselves when we're still expecting :P

We had a wonderful time on the first time cruise-dining trip held by the Hornblower. The dining cruise departs at Pier 3 of Fisherman's Wharf. It's a 2-hr cruise. The pros is no need to take any flight and afterall the cost is reasonable and good for parents-to-be who spent most of their pennies on baby stuff  : >

The food is quite good though it's not with huge variety. Consider that it's a brunch..of course, we would not expect Lobster or Oyster. They offer fillet and cut ham and steak as main course which are really up-to-standard. They also provide endless champagne and fresh orange juice.

There is a small dance floor and a 'singing' guide, Kelly, who will introduce those island (Alcatraz & Angel Island) ’s history and natural features and also entertain guests with her beautiful live music. She will also announce names of birthday stars and celebrate anniversaries and even graduation of the guests.

 

We went on spending the afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf and visited the Postcard Row, a row of Victorian houses situated along Steiner Street on Alamo Square in San Francisco.  Followed by a great Hong Kong style dinner at ABC Cafe (my current favorite restaurant). 

 

Happy 3rd Anniversary! 

and many more to come ~~

Arriving at CA

Dear Friends,

After 25 days, we've pretty much settled in our new home. The city we reside now is called Mountain View, about 45 minutes drive from San Francisco. 

With God's grace, we managed to find our new apartment in 7 days.  It's really quite challenging to get a place that you're comfortable with in a limited time under a tight budget.  Glad that we have friends living in the area for some time and they've given us valuable advice in the searching process and that makes life much easier!   The rent here is really high compared to New Haven. People said it's because you got to pay for the token of nice weather. Maybe it's true. So far, we experienced clear blue sky most of the time and the community around is  peaceful and nice.  Here it's also easy to find delicious Asian food which is the credit I like most.  So far so good.

Hugo has kicked off his new 'career' as well starting from June 1. His office is about 10 minutes drive from home and it's right next to Facebook headquater.  The projects ahead sounds fun and I guess he will be fully engaged very soon after warm-up.

Last but not least,  we are so excited to tell you that a new member will soon be joining our family near end of November. Yes, a baby is on the way. We're too busy for the relocation in the past two months so we did not have chance to notify our beloved family and friends individually. Stay tuned. 

Get set, Go!

Thanks to Cheryl, Lap, Siegfried & Sun.......we managed to ship all the things at last minute!!!  As we only have 1 labor worker at home (ie Hugo) it's impossible to complete this mission without their help.

We still have couple of challenges in the coming days. Got to settle in west coast, find an apartment, search for a good car, sort out for a good insurance plan, unpack all the things and arrange all the logistics........almost everything from the scratch!   Pray for us.

Really a busy May and hopefully we could manage to deliver good news to you all after settling in CA.

California Trip - Napa Valley

I have done some research on Napa before the trip.  It's actually quite ironic as I am not
a alcohol fan (in fact, allergic to wine 8 out of 10 times), I shouldn't spend much time in the wine region. However, I do think wine-tasting is a fun activity and visiting wineries to learn how they deal with grapes sounds very interesting. At last, I selected the following spots to go for my first Napa visit:

We drove from San Franciso to St. Helena and had a great lunch at The Martini House.

The food was great. We sat next to the fireplace and enjoyed the renowned 'Cream of Mushroom'.















Then we drove to Rutherford- RoundPond and joined the Olive Oil Tasting Tour which we reserved in advance.

The staff explained how Olive oil was made and told us the differences between Italian Olive Oil and Spanish Olive Oil.  She said Good olive oil should be those who could make you cough.  My favorite part is tasting the red wine vinegar. It's amazingly good to taste it on a sugar cube.

 

We stayed in Napa at the Veno Bello Resort, it's a rather new hotel, adjacent to The Meritage.  The facilities are great. I did my laundry there and it's very thoughtful for them to provide the machine wash powder for 1 load.












The next day, we visited the Domaine Carnero. As we got limited time and very tiny quota for 'Wine' - one is a driver and one got wine-allergic, this is a great place. The building itself is beautiful and it has a great place for you to enjoy the winery scenery and sip a dip.

 

The Napa day was fun and I am sure that we'll be back in the future. Though I only visited one winery this time, I did learn a lot through the 'research' and I could now tell you at least 10 big names in Napa with a brief history of their wine.  :P 

Reference:
http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/

http://www.martinihouse.com/
http://www.domainecarneros.com
http://www.roundpond.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&pageid=a4c96c93-d924-1a60-7136-0b11e4e49b8a

California Trip ~ Meeting Yun

We've traveled to Northern California during CNY.  It's been really lucky that we managed to escape from the snow storm and catch the flight on time. (8 out of 10 flights were canceled! )

We only had one-week but there's so many things we wanna do. For me, the top priority is to meet Yun ~ as I gotta clear my bad record ....Yun is my 'old' Ho-tung hall mate. She was an exchange student from Davis, probably when I was in Year 3 -- (In fact, I have no idea about the time now) We spent not very long time together but I really like this girl. :P  I have missed my appointments with her for the last two times because I simply 'fall asleep'.  So I disappointed her again and again...haha..so this time, I gotta meet her when I'm "awake". And Finally, I made it!

We had a wonderful night at Cafe Claude. For more details about the food. See Dolphinicious.