The One Where Friends Throw Axes

2/4/2023 – Teresa’s Belated Bday Celebration

Since Cathy, Karen, Teresa, and I have had very different schedules in the last couple of years, we only see each other a handful of times annually. Due to our busy schedules, birthdays are the best times for us to gather. Where did those carefree college days go, when we saw one another weekly!?

Somehow, I was able to convince the three of them to venture to the South Bay for the day’s festivities. 🙂 Everyone arrived around noon for sushi takeout from Sen Dai, paired with boba (of course!) from Teatop.

Taken from Cathy’s IG story because I was too lazy to snap my own pic. xD

It was a rainy Saturday, so it was nice to leisurely eat and catch up, before we had to leave for our 3PM slot for axe throwing. I had tried axe throwing once a couple of years back, but it was everyone else’s first. We perfected (somewhat) our axe throwing skills during the 1+ hour timeframe. The most important part was that we laughed a ton and just enjoyed the entire experience. It was also hilarious to rewatch video clips of our failures, but also our successes!

Look at us with our (unplanned) color coordination! I guess this is what a decade of friendship yields. Hah!

The one where we were in sync with our throws!

After axe throwing, we headed over to H Mart to browse. While there, we decided we wanted to find the sparkling VLT, so we gave up our plan of grabbing Din Tai Fung takeout for dinner since their website showed stock available at the 99 Ranch Market in Milpitas.

Success! (Picture stolen from the Trinhs) The sparkling VLT is delicious, while the Peach & Orange…not so much.

After hunting down the goods, we decided to grab dinner a couple doors down from 99 Ranch Market. We had our fill of soup dumplings at dinner, so it didn’t matter that we gave up on Din Tai Fung. 😛

I love that our hangouts have evolved to more practical activities, such as just hanging out and grocery shopping, without dulling the experience. We weren’t great with keeping up with birthday celebrations since COVID began, but I’m looking forward to celebrating all of our birthdays together again! ❤

Trip Down Memory Lane

1/28/2023

Earlier in the week, Dennis brought up the idea of wanting to do a weekend getaway. We decided on Davis/Sacramento since we had spent our (separate) formative years there.

We were supposed to leave for Davis at 10:30AM, but chose to sleep in. Thankfully, we didn’t encounter too much traffic by the time we left around 12:30PM. My favorite restaurant in Davis is Burgers & Brew, however I oddly craved Thai Canteen recently, so we decided to pop in there for a late lunch. Dennis has (surprisingly) never been and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Yay!

The pad thai was delicious – exactly how I remembered it to be! The duck fried rice was also *chef’s kiss*

After lunch, we decided to walk around downtown so I could show Dennis where I used to hang out, but mostly so I could reminisce. The food scene in Davis has exploded! Inflation has really reared its ugly head – I definitely would not have been able to afford these prices back in the day! Davis kids are much more well off these days. xD

It was nice to people watch at Temple Coffee Roasters. This is such a bougie spot to study at, especially with the prices, but the place was packed!

UCD is essentially cow town, so I was very tempted to purchase this from the UCD merch store!

After a couple hours in Davis, we made our way to Sacramento for dinner. Yelp told me we needed to check out Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse, so that is where we ended up for some beer and BBQ.

Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates was on my list to visit, as the last time I went was a whole decade prior, which worked out perfectly for dessert.

Candied Rose Hot Chocolate – $7+ for a tiny cup.

I hustled hubby into purchasing early V-Day chocolates. 😛

We weren’t ready to call it a night yet, so ended up at Twin Peaks Restaurant for a nightcap. Twin Peaks is basically like Hooters except more homely? I can’t describe it, but Dennis was ecstatic as he has been wanting to check the spot out for quite awhile. Am I supportive or what? Hah!

Twin Peaks = boobs (boobs were everywhere!)

Since I don’t really drink, hubby ordered food for me to munch on while he sipped away. We were pretty tired an hour later, but somehow ended up walking to Safeway to look for Sacramento Baking Co.’s sourdough walnut bread. Sadly, we didn’t find any, but settled for their sourdough instead. Since we live old people lifestyles, we called it a night around midnight. 😛

1/29/2023

Dennis wanted to catch the important 49’ers game at a bar, so the plan was to arrive at 10AM to snag seats. Lo and behold, we failed and overslept. We barely had time to make the 11AM checkout time before rushing over to midtown. We tried several bars, to no avail, before settling at Midtown Gastro Bar. I still don’t understand football, and was a bit bored for the 3-4 hours we were there, but thankfully the food was pretty good to keep me a bit distracted. It was a pleasant surprise to discover the burger they served was actually a Burgers & Brew burger! Win win that I still got to sneak in a taste of Burgers & Brew on this trip! After the game, in which the Niners did not make it to the Superbowl, we grabbed Dutch Bros in Davis and started on our way home.

It was definitely a short and sweet trip – such a nice escape from reality!

The Annihilator still hits the spot even after a decade!