wondertwin type of harmony

Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants are corduroys
Gobble gobble gee and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving.

- Adam Sandler

Headnote: This post is colossal.

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Thanksgiving this year was homey and warm and cozy and downright comfortable.
Flew out to LA on Wednesday night to meet Sam & Marns.. And experienced Marns' and her 'i drive twice the speed limit + change lanes every 3.5 seconds' driving.

Them: "What do you want to eat?"
Me: "JUST BRING ME SOMEWHERE WHERE I CAN SEE.........."

True to my request, we hit up Monterey Park.
And thus we ended up at JJ's. Met Cliffy C., his friends and several enormous plates of HK-style deli goodness.

JJ's.

Annnd then the journey began.
We left LA at 4ish in the a.m and it was us and the long winding road for 5 hours. We did a starbucks run, chowed down on some plasticky rotisserie chicken and saw the sun rise somewhere along the way.. Before we knew it, it was ciao SoCal and buen giorno, NorCal.
Sam made fantastic time whilst I drifted in and out of sleep. [*Evidence of me being a sucky traveling companion part 1]

We got to Cupertino without much of a hitch and we all headed to Los Gatos to satisfy Sam's egg craving with gigantic portions of fluff-melettes.

At Los Gatos Cafe.

Back to Park Circle where I played Guitar Heroes on the wii for far too long, polished off an entire pecan pie on my own (Thanks, Sab), and proceeded to fall asleep on an ottoman. All this whilst Sam was slaving away in the kitchen preparing the stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner. [*Evidence of me being a dreadful traveling companion part 2]

After which it was to the W to get some shut-eye and to prep for dinner.

The Dub.

Getting ready to leave for dinner.

En route to Marin.

Dinner was predictably awesome. 12 people snug in the dining space, passing food from side to side. The simple chatter of family and food all-round.. Delish Turkey with 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, Sam's fantastic glutinous rice, a modified version of poke, a heeuge bowl of chap chai and even more pecan pie. Artichokes, too. Mm hmm. Talk about variety.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I ate like there was no tomorrow, people.
Suffice it to say I promptly went into a tryptophan induced food coma shortly after.

2.
Day 2 saw us heading into San Francisco, going head to head with the rest of the Black Friday crowd. We fueled up with some naan, ginger tea and we were ready to go, go, go.

Hola, San Francisco!

Brunch at Naan & Curry

Nordstroms.

We had dinner at osha with Charmaine, Queena and Sabbers where I rediscovered my love for Thai food. Fanfreakingtabulous.

Dinner at osha.

Then it was back to the W where we (they) had merlot, played a zillion games of bridge and ate leftover pad thai from osha. Upon us repeatedly telling Clemence that to discover your partner, you have to *observe* the game, the quote of the night emerged:

Clemence: "Okay lah.. So Bridge is a woman's game lah!"
Us:

The Kudus sisters
Posed magazine flipping

3.After lunch with Sam's Fam, durian-flavored gelato, cheesecake hunting, cranberry trolling, and the great GPS discovery.. It was Sayonara, San Francisco.

Sam: WOO THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE CHECK OUT MY USHANKA!!
Va: .__.

Gelato*
Sesame + Durian gelato with Grandma in the background

This is where the 6 hour drive back to LA comes in. An hour more because of the horrendous hour-long jam on the one-laner leading to the I-5. The ride was pretty much a blur to me.. Peppered with Mika and curly fries. Annnd me sleeping 85% of the way. [*Evidence of me being a terrible traveling companion part 3]

Crazy major props to Sam for still being up for boba/game time after all that driving.

Back in LA with warm boba tea & MarnkiePants.

4.
Last day*

Brunch in Little Tokyo

Hit up the garment district and I left with one too many black trash bags stuffed with houndstooth prints and shiny flats. And a pink polka-dotted rolly bag, too.
The Grove after, for a 180 from garment. Fake reindeer running atop electrical wires and long lines of kids (& parents) waiting to take a photo with Santa. Winter Wonderland at The Grove indeed.

Mirror shot no. 56

HAHA wtf is up with our expressions?

And then *swoosh* I was back in Vegas, back in my bed..... Back home.

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There are still parts 4 thru 753 of undocumented proof of me being an awful traveling companion and evidence that Sam is the best one ever. Happy Thanksgiving, folks.