Four Chicago boys and me. I picked up Vince and his brother Kevin who had each flown in to SFO, and we drove southeast from the Bay Area while Alex and Eric drove northeast from Los Angeles. Our destination: Sequoia National Park, one of the nine national parks in California. We would camp for two nights…
In mid-July, I found myself taking a spontaneous trip to Chicago to meet Jesse who was there for work. We then commenced with lots of eating and even a bit of boating. Meal one as soon as I got in from O’Hare: Boka, (located next door to Alinea, but we’ll be back for that next…
We awoke on day three of our Sequoia/Kings Canyon camping trip and got ready to tackle the 9-mile hike for the day. Our campsite for this second night was pretty perfect, with the sound of the river nearby, tall trees surrounding a clearing, and nice flat ground for all our tents. We packed up everything…
We opened the second half of 2014 with a lovely week in the Bay Area when Jesse came to visit. Basically, we ate our way around the Bay and enjoyed some Fourth of July fireworks too. We got to use the remainder of a gift certificate I had to Pizzaiolo in Oakland. And them some ice…
My first visit to Houston! I was Jesse’s guest to his friend Stephanie’s wedding. We were in Houston for only two days, but we survived the stifling humidity to enjoy this beautiful wedding and check out… the mall? See below! Ashton Gardens was such a gorgeous venue just north of Houston. Everything was indoors but…
On an absolutely beautiful early summer day, we hopped on a train from Grand Central and headed thirty miles north of Manhattan to the bucolic Stone Barns Center in New York. Blue Hill is a restaurant located on Stone Barns, their sister farm. We spent the afternoon nibbling on bites from the farmer’s market and the…
It has been ten years since Michelle and Xavier first started dating, and now it was all coming together in one big party in their own neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Both the bride and the groom started the day as a bundle of nerves, anxious to take this next step together. But as soon as…
The first week of September, I got to do something I hadn’t done in over six years: attend a wedding as a guest! I headed to Kansas City, Missouri, (and a little bit of Kansas too) to play Jesse’s +1 at our college friend Kellyann’s wedding. I had never been to Kansas City, so of…
After a week at TAF, we drove back up from North Manchester, Indiana, to Chicago. I visit the city regularly, about once or twice a year, and though I’ve never lived in Chicago, it always feels a bit like home. Our days after TAF were still filled with TAFers, doing our classic post-TAF gathering in…
Sixteen years. That’s the number of times I’ve attended the Taiwanese American Foundation (TAF) summer camp. It’s a long time to spend with anything (so long that I lost count and spent the entire week thinking that I was on my fifteenth year), and I found myself struggling with the question, how do you stay…