Oakland Weekend and Atlanta United Away Game

Earlier this year we took a trip to visit our friends Jon and Elaine and their family in California. We try to go to one Atlanta United away game a season, so we timed the trip to coincide with the game against the San Jose Earthquakes in mid-September. We flew up on a Wednesday and home on the following Sunday and in between we had a lot of great food, a lot of fun with our friends, and were treated to possibly the most exciting (and nerve wracking) Atlanta United game to date.

When we landed at SFO, we took the train over to Oakland and immediately got tacos at Taqueria Sinaloa.

Elaine knows us pretty well, and this was the first food of the trip.

We got to meet the newest member of the family, Elon!

David hanging with Simon. He's adjusting to a house with two kids.

The Atlanta United game was that evening in San Jose at Avaya Stadium. It was also Mexican heritage night so there were lots of food trucks and dancing inside the stadium. This game was on a Wednesday night but was still pretty well attended. It was a crazy exciting match! At one point Atlanta was down 4-1 on the scoreboard, before a goal was reversed and a PK awarded for Atlanta, which turned the match to 3-2. A 90+5 minute goal saw Atlanta beat San Jose 4-3. There was a small, but dedicated group of Atlanta fans at the game, which made the experience all the better considering the narrow victory after being down most of the game. Everyone went bonkers on the extra time goal, which the team ranked as the best goal combo for our two star players, Miggy and Josef. Paul was even on the TV broadcast!

Patriotic dancing.

Avaya Stadium at sunset, before the game started.

More tacos!

On Thursday, Gwyneth went to school and the rest of us went for a hike in the nearby redwood forest. The low humidity and cool weather was a welcome break from the miserable unending summer in Atlanta this year. After hiking we went for dim sum in Emeryville, at Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood.

Walking through the forest.

We guess redwoods are tall...

View of the bay bridge from the dim sum restaurant.

Elon wants all the seafood.

Yum! Dim sum!

Later that evening, Jon had to go to work and Elaine had a school event for Gwyneth, so we took the opportunity to sneak away to San Francisco for the evening. We walked around the Mission District and Mission Dolores Park, found a good ramen spot in the Lower Haight, and capped off the evening with some beer at Toronado and some frozen custard near Alamo Square Park.

San Francisco has lots of cool street art in the Mission District.

Mission Dolores Park.

Street scene walking to dinner in San Francisco.

Ramen! Paul got tsukemen, which we just recently had in Atlanta for the first time.

Beer at Toronado.

This dog belonged to the bar's bouncer. It just sat on this bench and stared at us the entire time we were there.

Ice cream and custard at FK Frozen Custard.

The painted ladies and downtown San Francisco.

On Friday we went for a breakfast at Acme Bakery up in Berkeley, before strolling around the city and making our way up the campus tower and getting a flight of beer. Berkeley is a really nice city with a compact walkable downtown with tons of restaurants and bars. In the afternoon we spent some time playing with Gwyneth and Elon at home before heading out to a Cambodian restaurant, Nyum Bai, for dinner. After getting the kids home for bed, the four adults headed out to downtown Oakland and hit up a brewery in an old car dealership for some late night snacks and drinks. A fun and relaxing day!

Too cool for school...also too little still. =)

Second stop for some Chai/Coffee in Berkeley.

View of campus from the tower.

Tower selfie!

The tower has a carillon in it that someone played at set times of the day.

Flight at Triple Rock Brewing.

The bakery we visited for breakfast featured this bread ladder. Which was not as tasty as it was interesting to look at.

Gwyneth and David created a game called "sushi" where Gwyneth got wrapped up and thrown around the house.

Cambodian dinner time at Nyum Bai!

Delicious food but...

...weird wallpaper.

Adjacent ice cream in the market near Fruitvale Station.

OMG I want some!

David and Elon waiting on ice cream.

A pint at Drake's in downtown Oakland.

Nice outdoor patio area at Drake's.

Group shot at Drake's!

On our last full day in California we started the morning with some local donuts. Today, Paul was hoping to ride a roller coaster nearby and it was a beautiful day so we pretended we were in an episode of Modern Family and gay dad'ed the crap out of Gwyneth at the Oakland Zoo. Unfortunately for Paul, the roller coaster was closed for repair today, but we still had a great time at the zoo. They were celebrating the Chinese moon festival and there were special lion/tiger dancers and candy for kids. The zoo was super crowded that day because it was a special event and a beautiful Saturday, so we had to skip over some parts to get Gwyneth back home for a nap.

Massive cinnamon roll. #america

Who doesn't love otters?

Just frogging around.

Closest thing to a roller coaster Paul got to ride today, unfortunately.

Adventure landing!

Chinese festival dancing.

We rode the cable car over the savanna exhibits.

Gwyneth liked the skyride views.

Skyride fun times!

After the zoo, we went back to Jon and Elaine's house to get Gwyneth a nap and to seek out some bubble tea with Elaine. We found a great place in downtown Oakland that had really good bubble tea, including lots of random things we've never heard of before like "volcano tea." For dinner we tried a Filipino place about a 20 minute drive away. The food was great and the restaurant was really reasonably priced with friendly folks running it.

Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland.

Random bubble tea wall art.

Paul tried some more beer at Jon & Elaine's house before dinner.

Yum! Filipino food to wrap up the trip.

We had a great long weekend trip to visit our friends and watch Atlanta United play in California. We're back here every year or two and always find new and interesting things to see and do - the bay area is really unique with a lot of areas to explore. We really enjoy spending time with these folks and look forward to doing so again in the not too distant future!

Yosemite National Park

Back in May we took a short trip to California to visit our friends Jon and Elaine and spend a little time exploring Yosemite National Park. We both love national parks, and we didn't need another lecture from a German backpacker about how we don't appreciate the National Park System, so it was unacceptable that we hadn't visited Yosemite yet! Before heading out to the park we spent a couple days in the Bay Area catching up with Jon, Elaine, and Gwyneth and eating some wonderful food.

Our first culinary treat, It's-Its! Yummy cookie ice cream sandwiches from San Francisco.

Everyone loves ice cream!

We visited the the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at low tide.

A starfish in the tide pools.

Look, our food is in a boat! A BOAT!

Yum! We've been to Ramen Shop a couple of times now.

Can't talk now... ramen.

After all that food Gwyneth and Uncle Ball (Gwyneth's word) needed a little nap. To be honest, Gwyneth was still awake and eating blueberries from a small cup she was holding.

A flower for Simon at Redwood Regional Park.

This is pretty much what Gwyneth always looks like, unless she's sleeping.

After a few days around Oakland, we started our drive to Yosemite on a Friday afternoon. We reserved a cottage just outside of the park at Yosemite Lakes RV Resort. We got a good deal and would recommend it if you're not able or interested in staying in the park, which books up months in advance. The cottage had no cell reception, but there was wifi down by the reception area.

Paul's ready for the trip! Lots of great local beer.

Gwyneth is ready too! This kept her entertained for about 5 minutes.

Elaine spotted this bakery from across a huge parking lot. She instantly knew it was a Filipino bakery based on the font. The font, people!

Our cottage for two nights, just outside Yosemite.

The tranquil view from our cottage area.

Not spacious...but very cozy!

Go home octopus, you're drunk!

Since it was a late arrival Friday evening, we went to the park on Saturday morning. The weather was really great! It was cool and partly cloudy. We spent most of the day in the park, stopping for a picnic lunch at glacier point. We were lucky and saw lots of wildlife and the views and hikes were all amazing. It was fun to spend time with Jon, Elaine and Gwyneth. David had just been to Utah with the crew so he was prepared for some of the challenges of traveling with a toddler... Paul took a bit of time to adjust. ^_^

We're here, you guys!

The classic vista of Yosemite from Tunnel View. Beautiful!

With Gwen at Tunnel View. Not pictured: the hordes of tourists all around us. Also, we felt a bit like we were Modern Family-ing Gwyneth in this picture!

Hiking up to Sentinel Dome.

Almost to the top!

Incredible views from the top of Sentinel Dome.

Gotta take a jumping picture.

Us on Sentinel Dome.

Hiking to Glacier Point.

We shared lunch and a local beer at Glacier Point. Track 7 please contact us if you want to use this photo for your advertising! :)

Gwenyth at Glacier Point.

A coyote came very close to us.

And then we saw some bear cubs!

Mama bear with her cubs.

There are a lot of beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite.

Another wildlife encounter.

Make way, deer coming through!

We took a short hike to Mirror Lake.

The view at sunset from Mirror Lake trail.

Gwen and Elaine being goofy.

Gwen wanted to take the shuttle bus!

She was excited but cautious about horses.

After visiting with the horses we went back to the cabin for the evening. Elaine had started some adobo chicken in a crock-pot when we first woke up, so we were excited to come home to all that delicious food. After we successfully tricked Gwyneth into going to bed (hehe, toddlers), we sat up and drank some of Paul's cache of beer and called it a night.

The next morning we got up a bit earlier and drove up Tioga Road to see the higher altitude portion of the park. The park is huge and distances can be deceptively far. Up near the top of the road at 9,000-10,000 feet it started snowing and was around freezing. We went for one short hike in the Tuolumne Meadows before heading down and out of the park and back to the Bay Area to catch a red eye home.

Driving up foggy, rainy Tioga Road.

There was snow at the top!

Hiking in the Tuolumne Meadows.

Great alpine scenery. But it was cold!

Natural soda springs.

View across the alpine meadows.

David was really excited to get a double dose of national parks and Jon, Elaine, and Gwyneth in April and May. This trip was really fun. We love visiting our friends! The Bay Area is such a fun place with great food, urban experiences and proximity to some of the best natural spots in North America. I'm sure we'll be back before too long to visit some of the other national parks.