By Irene
I had a lot of fun with parents. From the airport on Saturday, I took them to Berkeley Bowl, I've been telling mom about that place for ages, and whenever home in LA I'd always frown at Trader Joe's vegetables and fruits - now mom knows why. So she really liked the fresh produce section there and dad really liked the cheeses and stuff in bulk. We bought so much food, so much DELICIOUS food, including one of dad's favorite beers, Xingu and some good cheese and a medley of marinated olives mom picked from the olive/marinated bar.
Then we got to my apartment and I fed them borsch and veriniki (which I thought were pilmenyi, but parents had a good laugh at thaaaat), and we had that yummy cheese with crackers and sushi from the Bowl, . And then I wanted to take parents to Albany Bulb, but instead we ended up at a dog park, also by the water, just as the sun was setting. They really miss Steve. Anyways we looked at the dogs and walked around.
After that we went to 4th street, which is the equivalent of Santa Monica's 3rd street - it has Sur la Table and Crate and Barrel and lots of cute places. But we got ice cream at this place I've wanted to try out for a while called Sketch ice cream. Parents are pretty funny, they were striking up conversation everywhere. So anyhow, they were like...no no we don't want ice cream, but it was super good ice cream so they basically ate all of it.
After thaaaaaaaaat we bought flowers and headed over to Laura's birthday party which she was throwing in conjunction with Lisa, her mentor at Cal, she's a staff member. I wanted parents to meet Laura. Anyhow so parents were drinking wine and chatting with the people I work with (sorta) and then with one of Laura's friends and were just so super charming and fun to hang out with. Anyhow, when we left (because we had to catch the ice cream place you and Adam were at, called Ici, do you remember? and also because there's only so long you can hang out with people you don't really know --- we were there for 1.5 hours, I intended to stay for like 20 minutes, right, so when we left, I said how happy I was that they wanted to come to this party, and they said they had a good time and that I shouldn't be surprised because, "Irene, we like to hang out with people, and we know how to speak English" anyhow. it was hilarious.
So THEN we waited in a long line for Ici, and parents were both sorta like....seriously? do we really want ice cream? But I said we had to wait. And they ended up really liking the place. Dad got espresso and he said it was good (yaaaaaaay! ). Mom got vanilla ice cream in espresso with orange peel.
I LOVE Ici. Mom was also excited that we had two ice creams instead of one dinner.
And THEN we went to a frat party. wait, just kidding, didn't do that.
So then on Sunday we had breakfast at the apartment and I made us sandwiches to go and brought apples and cookies because we were going to the California Academy of Sciences, like you said we should. Dad drove, because I said I had never driven in SF, but then we got off a the wrong exit, and then were stuck in awful traffic within the actual park and then parked my car in a TINY TINY spot, we thought we might get a ticket ahahahaha anyhow, we didn't. It took us 2 hours to get there because there was also traffic. But parents were super chill about it. And CAS was super neat. I felt like I was 6. When we walked in I was like....ooooooooooh lets go to the aquarium! And they were like...whatever you want, it was super neat and they liked it too. I mean, we spent a good hour in the aquarium looking at all these weird types of fish, MAN there are some WEIRD fish out there.
That isn't even the aquarium. That is a rainforest swamp, and we're like underground it looking up at this large dome above us.
A butterfly sat on Dad at some point.
Anywho, on the drive back we totally make the same mistake and get off at the wrong exit. IT WAS SO FUNNY. Dad didn't think so at first, but it totally was. And wait, complete mom move: it's like this super stressful situation where I told dad....DAD....stay on THIS road, we need the 80 and he was like okay, and then TOTALLY WENT ONTO THE 101 ahahahaha and he's all frustrated and then mom is like....does anyone want a cookie? oh man. fantastic.
So then we get back, I feed us dinner (borsch and olivye) and then drove parents to the airport. I just had a lot of fun. I wish you were there with us! It would have been a non stop riot. I'm waiting until all four of us are in Berkeley to go to Chez Panisse, because I was thinking of going there this past weekend, but I felt it's too cool of a place to go without you. I told parents that when I grow up, we should all live closer to each other, and that you and I will try to work on that, and since we'll be living somewhere way cool, they'll have to move out closer to us.
