California

Mar 1 - 8, 2016 (Anaheim, LA, Irvine, San Bruno, SF)

I love California. My extended family is there, amazing good is there, and the most beautiful coasts decorate the state. I visited Anaheim first for work, spending 3 amazing days visiting Disneyland and meeting co-workers from all over the Americas. 

After the three days in Anaheim, my cousin, Joanna picked me up to bring me to LA! I love going to LA, because there is so much family and love there, not to mention shao bing you tiao and Din Tai Fung soup dumplings :D Those have got to be some of my favorite treats in the world. 

I love taking a walk in someone else shoes and seeing what other peoples' lives are like. Instead of trying to see all the sights and eat the very best food (which we still did), I experienced the life of my cousins and grandparents in LA. My grandparents wake up at 6am every morning for a daily walk. My cousin, Joanna, is going on missions to South Korea and was packing for the trip over the weekend. My cousins, Rebecca and Nathaniel are in middle and elementary school, so I heard about their theory and Chinese school classes. Really fun and so intriguing for a young working adult living in the midwest. 

While waiting with my Aunt Julia to pick up my cousins from Chinese school, we got to visit In-N-Out! I love In-N-Out not necessarily because of the food, but because they can use something as simple as a cup or burger wrapper as a tool for ministry through including Bible verses. Very cool!

After a day or two spent in LA, I moved on to Irvine to visit my Aunt Cynthia and her family :D Irvine is the home of UC Irvine, making it slightly younger and trendier. I love Irvine quite a lot! My youngest cousins live there, Evan and Kristen. Kristen is actually going to be the flower girl at our wedding this summer! :) 

My uncle is Vietnamese, so we visited the delicious Brodard Chateau for dinner. I spent lots of quality time with the kids playing frisbee, drawing together, and listening to them play the piano and violin. We also visited Honeymee, shakes & ice cream created with real honeycomb! On our last day together, we visited Bill Barber Community Park to enjoy nature and the beautiful day :) So thankful for the hospitality of all my family members.

To round out my California adventure, I spent 1-2 days up north in San Bruno and SF for work! I had the incredible opportunity to be filmed talking about a project I've been working on. I spent the day at the Youtube campus and got to catch up with my high school friend, Annie! I loved visiting another Google campus and even taking the Google bus commute to SF. 

We met up with Annie's boyfriend and our other high school friend, Sally at Alta CA. It was so good to reunite! :D