A Busy L.A. Weekend!
We had a very busy weekend last week. After finishing up the work day on Friday, Frank, Kiya, and I headed to Turlock for the evening. We spent some time with my family and spent the night there. On Saturday morning, we woke up early, said goodbye to Kiya (hoping she wouldn’t dig in my parents’ backyard), and began our trip to L.A. for Alisa and Albert’s wedding.
We had a great drive and thought we’d have plenty of time to relax at the hotel for a few hours before getting ready for the wedding, but of course, we arrived in L.A. just in time to hit traffic on the 5. Fun!
After a very long, slow crawl on the 5, we finally made it to our hotel. And guess what? As we pulled up to it, Frank was like “Hey! We’ve stayed here before!” Turns out the hotel that I booked online was the same one that we stayed at years ago on our very first trip away together! The hotel had since changed names, so I didn’t realize it when I booked it. But it indeed was the same place we stayed at in 2005 when we went to L.A for a Lakers game and a day at Disneyland.
Alisa and Albert’s wedding was at Inner City Arts, a children’s art museum, in downtown Los Angeles. As teachers, the two of them had taken their students there when they taught in L.A. What a fitting venue! And it was the very first wedding held there too! How awesome!
Alisa did a wonderful job planning what was a beautiful wedding! She designed and made the invitations and the programs, and planned a shaved ice station during cocktail hour, as well as an ice cream sundae bar and taco bar after the buffet dinner and wedding cake! We didn’t leave hungry! She was a beautiful bride and we were so happy to be celebrating with her and her new hubby!
During the reception
On Sunday, we woke up early and planned to get out of L.A. before lunch time, but as is typical for us, we ended up staying until after lunch! We headed into downtown, did some shopping, and stopped by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It was our first time trying it out, and we LOVED it! I had heard great things from friends, and boy were they right! The caramel ice blended was so yummy! It totally beats out Starbucks’ caramel frap! And Frank loved his vanilla ice blended so much that we bought the ice blended powder and coffee extract to make them at home!
We hit the road after eating at the Panini Cafe in downtown (which was really good by the way) and swung by Turlock to pick up Kiya. Thanks again to my parents and sister for dog-sitting, and sorry again for her digging! (She can’t seem to help herself! She always digs in the same spot–where the pool filter is. I think it’s because she hears the noises and wants to know what’s going on!)
After picking up Kiya, we headed back up to Fremont, gave Kiya a bath, and headed out to dinner with Frank’s family for his dad’s birthday. It was an extremely busy, fun, tiring weekend! And on a side note, we whipped out the blender that we had gotten as a wedding gift, and we’ve put it to good use making our own ice blended drinks! They are YUMMY!