since my official start on the nisei week court back in august, almost all of my weekends have been filled with community events. don't get me wrong, i love going to these events, but i haven't been able to go on short weekend trips. so, when i saw an obligation-free, three-day weekend on my calendar last month, i knew i had to take advantage of this rare opportunity. first person i thought of to visit was my friend tori who is studying at uc davis.
i left saturday afternoon and arrived just in time for dinner. tori's friend, mel, suggested this place called the dumpling house and they were some of the best dumplings i've ever eaten. after dinner we walked around downtown davis a bit and got froyo and went to a coffee shop to talk. later, we went to mel's place a watched a few episodes of "master of none."
the next morning tori and i went back to downtown davis to grab some bagels and also killed some time at this cute little asian market called ho ho market. not only did they sell asian food, but also skateboards. then we went to go pick up mel and headed to uc davis to go on a hike. as someone who went to school in a major city, it was really cool to see a school surrounded by nature, especially since i was with two students studying sustainable agriculture.
after our hike, we headed to san francisco, which took almost two hours from davis. our first stop in the city was blue bottle coffee where we consumed some much needed caffeine. after blue bottle, we headed to japantown where we, of course, ate more, and did a little window shopping. we also ate dinner at mifune where the portions were HUGE.
the last thing on our to-do list for saturday was to go south to san mateo to dessert republic. we ordered the tiramisu and shaved iced, which looked like a pot of dirt and an actual plate of sashimi. both were quite appetizing and the perfect ending to my very short trip.
although it was an extremely short trip, it was nice to just get away from LA for a bit and hang out with an old friend. when life gives you a free weekend, you have to take full advantage of it. for me, that means spending almost a third of the trip driving while listening to podcasts, eating a lot of good food, and hanging out with good people. i hope to visit tori again before she graduates this spring (if i have another free weekend).
until then, i will be heading to new york this weekend to take advantage of another three-day weekend!
xoxo
