Hills of Hayward

Christine and I have been big Anime fans for almost a decade now.  This year Christine organized a trip to the largest Anime convention in the US, the Anime Expo, which is held every year in LA around the 4th of July.  Originally, it was a way to get all our old friends (who all watch anime to some degree) to reunite and spend some time together by renting a vacation home in LA for a week, but alas, jobs and obligations intervened and most of them begged off.

We wound up scaling back the plans and spending more time with Christine’s BFF Mandy and her husband ChunPeng and their newly adopted cats!  During the day, Christine and I took Anders around LA while Mandy and ChunPeng worked, and at night we all hung out together for dinner, played with the cats, and the men worked on their PS3 skills.

Here are some photos from the first half the trip.  Some links to the places we went:

• Anime Expo at LA Convention Center
• Travel Town Museum
• Griffith Observatory

We had a quick weekend getaway with Michelle, Steve, and Bryce to Boulder, Colorado.  With extensive mountain trails, a biking culture even more avid than in the Bay Area, excellent breweries, and an amazing downtown, Boulder left an overwhelmingly positive impression on all of us.

We’ve been to this annual Berkeley chalk event last year.  This year, Anders was more into the art.

Some photos captured of Arden at 14 months old.  She’s really starting to develop a personality now as she is interacting with the people around her.

This last Christmas, we made a trip out to Texas to visit Harrison’s parents in Laredo, TX, and Christine’s sister in Houston, TX.  Christine’s youngest sister flew in from UK to join us as well as Christine’s mom came in from Taiwan to join in on the festivities.

Our trip was split into two parts, the first half in Laredo, and the second half in Houston.  Some of my memories of the Laredo:

• The gang of 3 geese in my dad’s townhouse complex attacked me and Anders.  I kicked the lead geese in the body and he improved his disposition.
• Christine, Mom, and the kids went to a Christmas party at the complex, and proceeded to win a bundle of prizes from the drawing.
• Mom and Dad watched over the sleeping kids as Christine, I, and Shine-May enjoyed Avatar in 3D.  I loved that movie.

Other memories from the Houston leg of the trip:

• Really enjoyed the Oyster Po-boys in Houston.  Sooo delicious.  Christine loved the etouffee and the gumbo.
• Steve and Michelle’s new MDX was beautiful.
• Steve cooked his pot-roast dinner and green bean casserole dinner.
• I picked up some bread pudding from a place Steve recommended.  It turned out to be an African-American only type of place.  The pudding was awesome, but the minority on minority discrimination was not.
• We exchanged gifts including germs, and almost everybody wound up a little sick and feverish at the end.  Germ summit 2009.

Any other memories that you all remember from back in December?  As many of you now, my memory is spotty at best!