Back in the Bay

It's been a week since my last post....sorry! I made it back to California in one piece after 30 hours of travel! Surprisingly, I felt fine and didn't get jet lagged, which was especially convenient as I had work on Friday. Tyler has been at home for the past few weeks while I was in India and managed to visit with friends and family as well as make a trip down to south to visit his sister, Adrian, and friends from high school and college. We reconnected at home as I had meetings Friday and through this week. I'm especially fortunate that I can stay at either of our houses while on business and not have to stay in a hotel :)

We kicked off the long weekend with dinner with our friends Travis and Katie who are expecting a little girl in October! Travis and Tyler played football together at UCLA and Tyler was in Travis and Katie's wedding a few years back. It was really nice to catch up with them as we hadn't seen them since our wedding.

Saturday, we lounged around enjoying coffee in bed...I sent this picture to Matt to alert him of our travels up to the city to see him!
 Once we woke and got organized, we headed to visit the Daiss/Wilson clan who have lived across the street from Tyler's parent's house since birth. From there, Tyler put me through a grueling workout, which was great since we were heading up to the city to eat and drink with friends :)
 We arrived at Mr. Budd-Thanos' (featured above) new place he purchased this winter and enjoyed the beautiful weather from his rooftop patio overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge...Not to shabby!
 From Matt's place, we headed to dinner with more friends and enjoyed some really good Chinese food, which Tyler and I were both craving. Sadly, we don't have a good Chinese food place near us. After dinner, we headed to Matt's little sister's apartment who was having people over and got to see his older sister and her husband (they are newlyweds as well!) and friends from elementary school and high school....So much fun!

We spent the night at Matt's place and got up early for brunch....I had been looking forward to my favorite brunch spot in the city, Rex's Cafe. I was given the unfortunate news that the restaurant had closed, which was really devastating! So, we headed down to Union street for brunch with Tyler's brother and his friend. We spent the afternoon at a family BBQ with my mom and step-dad's friends, which was great. And to round out our meals, we had a lovely dinner with our friends Jack and Ali who I grew up going to school with...I've been friends with Jack for 23 years and Ali 22 years!!!
 Monday morning, my mom and I took my grandmother out for breakfast and enjoyed a local favorite spot, Hobee's. Their coffee cake (see above) is really, really good!
 It was so nice to see my Nana :) The hilarious part was she put 11 packets of sugar (proof documented below) in two cups of coffee because she didn't like the taste!
 After breakfast, Tyler and I headed to Stanford Shopping center to get some summer clothes for him. We also managed to grab lunch with a dear friend from high school who I ran cross-country with. We spent the afternoon preparing for a BBQ with Tyler's family, Nancy and Dan. Tyler was in charge of the meat and I was in charge of making some appetizers. I made these fun watermelon and feta bites (I adapted a salad my mom always makes) that were in the shape of stars. These were super easy to make and quite delicious (see below for the recipe)! I also made Cheesy Garlic Bread, which was a hit and also really easy to make. Hope everyone had a nice, relaxing, long weekend!
Watermelon Feta Bites

Ingredients

• Half of watermelon (wedge)
• 1/2 package of feta cheese
• 1 shallot or 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• Balsamic glaze (3/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer until balsamic is reduced to 75% and more like a syrup.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• *cookie cutter for watermelon bites

Directions

• Slice watermelon into 1/2 inch pieces. Using a cookie cutter (I used a star), cut the watermelon. (Note: with 1 watermelon wedge I was able to fill 1 plate up with bites.)
• Thinly slice the shallot or red onion and place in a bowl. Add the feta cheese and mix.
• Place feta and shallot/red onion mixture on the individual pieces.
• Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Drizzle a little (your own judgement) balsamic glaze over the bites.