Going Back to Cali: Part 1

Two weeks ago we were able to steal enough vacation time to make our first trip home as a family. Can you believe we've lived in Arlington for 9 months? While I've become accustomed to the way of life out here, I'm still a hater, and would rather live in Cali. Needless to say, we were very excited about this trip home.

Now that Linus is a tot and no longer an infant, we were worried about how the flight was going to go... But it turned out our fears were unfounded, and Linus was his typical angel self.He even charmed the woman in our row, Cindy, who loved showing him things out the window. We felt like we won the lottery-- Cindy held Linus even as he slept, for a total of 1.5 hours! We (heart) Cindy ;)

As soon as we got off the plane, we got down to business. Besides my goal of eating 3 burritos during the trip, I wanted some kick-butt authentic Chinese food. First stop: South Legend Szechuan Cuisine.
After a day of relaxation in Milpitas (cheap Chinese foot massages, napping while Lola & Lolo took Linus to the park, a huge sushi dinner), we head out to Davis to meet with my friends from vet school. Crystal and Sarah were my good friends throughout vet school and part of my surgery team junior year, and Sarah's husband Brian was my roommate for a year. While we've seen each other on separate occassions, this was our first time getting together as a group. The Davis Farmer's Market is the place to meet.
This was my first time meeting Crystal's son Isaac, who just turned 2, as well as Crystal's first time meeting Linus. Here's Isaac giving us his best "stink eye" a skill Linus will master soon enough.
While Isaac took his afternoon nap, we went over to the UCD Quad to chill. Linus, the little scientist that he is, examined every leaf and stick.
Afterwards, we all headed over to my favorite place "Impossible Acres," a U-pick farm just on the outskirts of West Davis.

Just picked fruit. This is Brian's basket and not at all surprising. Not only is he tall and able to get the fruit at the top of the tree, he is also one of the biggest perfectionists I know. Damn, I miss California produce...

Father's Day was up next. After a dim sum brunch with my parents, we headed up to the city for Mattias' activities of choice: ham and cheese croissants at Tartine and chilling at a park. Here we are at the ole' 210, likely our last time there ever.
The gods (or global warming) were working in our favor, and gave us gorgeous t-shirt weather-- a rare occurence in San Francisco. The stroll to Tartine was one we would take several times a week when we lived there, and was somewhat bittersweet this time around.


Then we packed a bunch of beer (milk for Linus) and headed over to the Golden Gate Park Fly Fishing Pool to lay under a big tree and hang out with the Tumers.

Linus and Clariza getting to know each other, again.
Evren and Mel playing Baby Ultimate Fighter. Linus' leaf has no match for Clariza's double kick to the face!

After Clariza beat Linus up, she tried to celebrate her victory with a beer.
Lest we forget we were gathering to celebrate Dads, and the best dad ever is pictured below.
And to round out the weekend we had an awesome dinner with the Schmooks (a.k.a. Ken and Ingrid) at Chez Panisse. Mattias and I have not been back since our honeymoon about 5 years ago, since we made a promise to only go to our most favorite and special place on "big" anniversaries. The Schmooks are our favorite fine dining and karaoke buddies (amongst other things) and are celebrating their 11th anniversary this year. We won't bore you with the details of the menu, but let's just say it was "Bomb."

Coming up in Part 2: Kamp Karlsson getaway, another day in San Francisco, Ed & Lauren's beautiful ranch wedding, and Linus' 1st birthday extravaganza.