Frisco to visit Funzel

Since it had been forever since I last visited with Funzel, I made a special visit up north. My company is generous with our days off, so I took a Monday and Tuesday to hang with one of my oldest and dearest friends. We didn't have much on our agenda which was pretty nice. Mostly just hung out and caught up. We did a little shopping (necessary) and treated ourselves to a mani-pedi (also necessary). This photo is from when Aaron and visited last fall... but it deserves some blog-time. Anyone who has driven down Olive Ave in Porterville and seen the guys crouching beside their pimped out rides gets the humor in it. Good times!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Aaron and I went to the 7th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival this morning in downtown Los Angeles. Our friend's Derek and Andrea have been telling us about it for the past several years, but this was our first time heading down. Andrea's family seemed to be very involved in the festival - as we sat with Andrea to chat at her butterfly making booth, she kept introducing us to all these people in official tee-shirts and walkie-talkies. There were three stages set up for entertainment: martial arts, Hawaiian culture, and a general song and dance stage. Lots of vendors and food - we of course had some kettle corn (not exactly Japanese culture - but oh so good!). We were really glad that we went and will hopefully go again next year!

We also went up to Thousand Oaks this evening to my step-aunt's (sounds weird calling her that!) place for a get together. My dad's wife has been in town visiting and they threw a party at her place this evening. It was really nice to be invited and we had a great time getting to know some more of Sue's friends.

Oh, and last night was date night... Aaron took me to our favorite movie theater (the Landmark at the Westwood pavilion) and then to dinner at our favorite Brazilian restaurant, Bossa Nova. If you're a fan of the romantic comedy and are interested in something a little bit off the beaten path, I recommend finding a place where they are showing Priceless. It stars the same girl from Amelie and was super cute and heart warming.

Weekend in the OC

This past weekend Aaron and I went to Orange County. You see, to me Orange County is *far* and it requires a whole weekend commitment to go. We met up with Rosemary, Kelley, and Zack for a hike near Irvine Lake. It was more of a suburban hike - started out right near a street and then twisted around through some hills with some really nice homes (think swimming pools and tennis courts) in the not too distant horizon. Even though we weren't in the thick of wilderness, it was still really pretty nice and there were loads of wildflowers in bloom. I didn't remember sunscreen, so both Aaron and I ended up a little sun-kissed. Certainly not crisp, just enough to remind us that we live in Southern California where even in the month of March you can get too much sun.

That evening we went over to my mom and Dave's place where we relaxed a little before heading out for a Thai dinner and a musical at Cal State Fullerton. That's another really amazing thing about being in So Cal. For not much more than it costs to go to a movie, you get a full production musical by some really talented people.