Girls' Night Out and Cool Cousins (1 of 3)

I can't believe how hard it is to stay up with the blog now that school's back in session.  But I would be remiss if I did not memorialize some of the precious moments I shared with my cool cousins last weekend.


First, we had a quick Girls' Night Out before the Viajars rolled into town.  We found ourselves on California Street (disappointed that the Carnellian Room was closed).  The problem is, that put us at the bottom of a VERY steep street.  So at 10:30 at night, my cute younger cousin that flew here from New York City strutted her stuff in 3 inch heals to hail a cab only to be flabbergasted that no one wanted the business - not once, but several times!!  Check our her look of shock:

So a couple of us thought we'd suck it up and pay the $5 to take the cable car up California Street . . . 

 

only to learn that it was too full!!  It didn't deter us though - - we finally got to the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar.  It was kind of like Rain Forest Cafe for grown-ups!  But it was a nice place to have a drink and end our first girls' night.

  

On Saturday, the Viajars rolled in around lunch time where we tasted the curry from Brian's Magic Curry Kart first hand.  Delicious!  


And, after driving for at least 7 hours, they were most excited about playing Settlers of Catan - a strategic game where players build settlements, cities and roads by spending various resources.  

PJ was happy to have dominated the first game.  And Uncle Jun didn't waste time teaching the newbies so they could be equipped to play at night.  

Imagine all of us in a hotel room in San Francisco, steps from Union Square, staying in to play this game on small table squished between two double beds.  Yup - that's what we did until 1 am.  In fairness, one game was an hour and the second game, no one wanted to loose easily so it lasted for 2 hours.  


But we had plenty of these to keep us up.

We did manage to get out of the room for dinner.  On our way there, we stopped to pay homage to Jolibee (the McDonalds of the Philippines) near Red Ribbon Bakery (where we bought some Pan de Sal for the morning).  But Darin described it pretty accurately - we're all coconuts (brown on the outside and white on the inside).

 For dinner, Uncle Jun treated us to yummy Southern Italian food at the Pope Room in a nearby Buca di Beppo's . . .

  

and we were happy to have a reason to celebrate . . . it was Darin's @5th birthday!

No Darin, we didn't get the memo that you weren't a fan of having a corny restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to you.  You were a great sport and deserved that bottle/drink.  : )

  

Even your wife was proud.  

Then it was time for our dessert!