Yu Have Come to the Right Place.

Thank you, thank you

Thanksgiving this year was sweet. Gas prices dived just before the break and I got 10 days off just by taking 3 days of vacation. So Wami, Hiro and I drove back to the Bay Area.

We were just in time to see Adelle's baby blessing. I'm an uncle! And Emily and Aaron are parents. Crazy stuff! Who would've thought the youngest would be first. On the left is an old family friend, Eric. He just moved to the Bay Area. I used to be tight penpals with his sis, Sue. Our parents have known each other since their BYU days!

My cousin Frank and his family came for the pre-holiday weekend too. You can see his wife Lorrine and their cute girl Brooke in the picture too. She's grown up so much!

We got to go to the beach again. There was lots of nostalgia on this trip again. We went camping at this beach every summer when we were kids. One of the memoriable experiences I had was when we brought Frank here. We dug up literally buckets of clams and baked them on the grill. Before he came, I wouldn't touch them. Now, I just CRAVE that taste of fresh baked clams over the campfire. Yummm! You have to try it to believe it, so don't give me that funny face!

Another great memory - the redwood forests. We used to take almost yearly trips to visit the gigantic sequoias in Northern California. We took this picture in the Santa Cruz mountains at Henry Cowl State Park. This park is relatively small compared to the huge forests along the more northern coastal regions of California. But you still get a sense of their grandeur. Cool, eh? It was a pretty chilly day. After this, we went over to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk as a last stop-off before Frank and his crew had to head back to Las Vegas.

Another reunion - the Huangs! Here is one of my mission buddies, Matt, who married my former hometeachee, Janae. What's even more amazing? Our parents were friends and part of the same branch back in Taoyuan many many MANY years ago - I think before Matt's mom was even married. They knew Matt's pop as well. It was really great to see some old faces again. We ate at this small Tainan xiao chi restaurant. We were able to eat crazy stuff like stinky tofu, egg and oyster omelettes (whatever you call those here), yaki udon and other impossible to name street foods of Taiwan.

Ok, the next reunion was even more dramatic. Kenneth Lee and Bernard Hwang - part of the old SBTY (south bay taiwanese youth) gang. Man - Ken and I go WAY back - all the way to 5th grade. I can't even begin to list all the things we've done together. Beno's just as far back. We ended up jamming on the guitar together, taking Tae Kwon Do together at UCB and just chilling in the high school days. Both of these guys married gorgeous wives and seem to be doing well for themselves. Man, it was really good to just laugh and reminisce about the crazy old days. With Ken, I'd better not even think about writing down the stuff we've done. It would not be a good example for our posterity. Let's just put it that way. haha We had "hot pot" but really we ate tons of bbq'd meat at Hot Pot City. Yummy! I don't know if Grace (ken's wife) and Kaela (Beno's wife) really knew what we were talking about, but I'm sure they were at least they were entertained by all our laughing.

I missed getting pictures at Thanksgiving! MAAAN! My cousin took advantage of the situation by bringing a potential significant other. I think we made a good impression on him. Of course, we got to see her, her family, and Allison and her family. Allison's got her license now. All growed up! We had goooood food. I made gravy and mashed potatos. wooohooo! Dad made turkey and mom made yams. Everyone made chinese food. haha! Now that's a traditional thanksgiving meal for the Yu's.

Ok. Christian is going to have to represent Sean, LaReen, Luke and even Brian. :) We had a fun time seeing my long lost brothers and their families (even though Sunny keeps running away with Nathan!!). We took everyone to a dog park - hopefully it wasn't too boring. It was a full on dog park! It was divided between a big dog side and a little dog side. Isn't that hilarious? We also went out to go eat Pho (how could you not?) and Japanese with Brian in Japantown. Ahh. It's always good to just relax with those seemingly life long friends.

I regret missing a picture with her and her new hubby, but we also got together with Grace (Texas) and her new husband Alvin. They're a cool couple. And definitely a high powered one. They're probably going to go off and start a big psychology college one day. Grace is a long lost friend that I've only met 2 times previously. It sounds stupid, but we were penpals all through middle school, high school, UCB days and even when I was in Australia. Yeah yeah. You can laugh. You'd be jealous if you only knew. It was awesome to catch up with her and now be able to see them whenever we're back home, instead of layovers in Texas from Florida.

I also ran into Ed Wong! Another long lost buddy from high school. For the rest of you I didn't get to see - I hope I can meet you on my next trip out to where ever you are. I used to think making the best of my time on vacation was going around seeing new things. But this trip has proven to me that there's no place like home - with home being you guys!

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