Hello from California!

I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am to be here right now. We weren’t confident that I would be able to get the time off work so I’m just over-the-moon happy that it worked out so we could spend some time here with our families. It’s a quick trip and we’ve got quite a bit packed in the short amount of time we’re here. But, still, some California is better than no California. You know?

This post is more of a recap of the last five days since they all blended together in one massive weekend. It was a combination of our not-so-fun adventures from Chicago to our baby brother’s graduation from UCSD to celebrating Fathers Day! All smashed into one big happy post.

Harrogate –> Indianapolis –> Chicago –> LAX

Ankur and I flew out of Chicago since Knoxville doesn’t do direct flights to California. So, we woke up early on Wednesday morning and had 8 hours of driving ahead of us. We stopped in Indianapolis to see our Aurps and SadiDadi who happened to be there for the weekend for a conference!

Our flight was scheduled for 5:10PM so we thought we would be able to stop for a short half hour lunch and make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Well, we made it to the airport on time. But, our flight was delayed due to bad Chicago weather…

…And then it got delayed five more times.

…Until eventually it was cancelled.

So after sitting around waiting for 5 hours, we scrambled to get another flight the following day, got a hotel for the night, and attempted to get our luggage before it was shipped off to California. (Unsuccessfully. So I slept in my shirt that smelled like Indian buffet).

But we made it.

We reached California the following afternoon, made the 2-hour drive back home from LAX (Oh, SoCal. Some things will never, ever change. Like the 405 freeway), and showered and proceeded to nap for a few hours.

Eventually, we got up and met up with some friends for dinner in Tustin at Sichuan Impression. It’s been a while since I had Chinese food and this place was really, really good. We then went back to their place and played my new favorite game, Psych. It’s made by the creators of Heads Up – if that’s any indication of how FUN it is! 🙂

Friday

Ankur has never been to see my papa’s office before so it was a pretty exciting day for us. I could tell my dad was pretty excited to show Ankur around and Ankur was equally excited to learn and see how Papa runs his practice. My heart bursts a little inside when these two spend time together because they’ve got such similar personalities and their demeanor is pretty identical. People always say that women gravitate toward guys who are similar in nature to their father. I believe it. They’re twinsies.

We also got our bloodwork done to make sure a year of med school didn’t eff up our insides. And, afterward, we followed it up with some boba and donuts.

Since our bloodwork was done, we figured we were allowed to spike up our glucose intake without being shamed for it. So we went to a nearby coffee shop and ordered milk tea and almond cookies.

And then, to satisfy Ankur’s sweet tooth (because of course milk tea and almond cookies aren’t enough to do the job), we found a donut place nearby too.

There’s a cute little donut shop near Papa’s office called Crafted Donuts.

I wanted to order one of each but we managed to have some self-control and order only two of them – the Cookie Butter donut and the Almond Joy donut. Even just getting two was probably too much because of how big they were.

While we were out and about gallivanting around Papa’s office all day, Ankur’s mama and papa were on their way down from the Bay Area. They made it to our home in the evening and we had dinner and went to bed shortly after since we had an early wake-up call the following morning.

Saturday 

We woke up at 4AM and drove down to San Diego to watch Nikhil graduate from UCSD. He graduated with a double major in Physics and Electrical & Computer Engineering. Talk about genius, am I right?

It was blistering hot and the intensity of the blaring sun made me five shades darker. But it was all worth it to be a part of this huge milestone. Nikhil is now going off to Cornell to start his PhD in Applied Physics. Proud family over here.

After the graduation, we met up with other family members and went to BJs for lunch. It was so fun watching all the graduates running around the area with their caps and gowns and their beaming family in tow.

After lunch, we drove back to Orange County and continued the festivities with a small dinner party and more food and drinks. I thought I’d end up passing out pretty early, but we kept the party going until midnight. #ForeverYoung

Sunday

I was so fortunate to get to celebrate this Father’s Day with both of my Papas. (In their cute, adorable matching outfits).

Ankur and I drove to Bruegger’s Bagels and Starbucks and picked up a few breakfast sandwiches and pastries for everyone. It was a simple and delicious brunch. Shortly after we ate, we were on our way back down to San Diego for another graduation ceremony. This one was Nikhil’s departmental graduation.

During this ceremony, he was called up on stage at the beginning because he received high honors and an award. So, again, proud and beaming family.

After the graduation ceremony, Nikhil chose to eat at The Taco Stand. Which makes sense. Because he’s moving to the other end of the country, he probably wanted to get his last bit of Mexican in before leaving San Diego.

I may have teared up a little bit as I bit into my burrito. There’s nothing like a SoCal burrito. Nothing.

Now, here we are. Monday morning. In a few minutes, we’re going to say goodbye to Mama and Papa and new-graduate Nikhil Mathur as they make their way up to the Bay Area. But we’ll be reunited with them tomorrow evening when we leave to go visit NorCal for a few days!

It was an eventful and action-packed weekend filled with lots of food and drinks and sunshine and hugs.

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers, fathers-to-be, and father figures! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! <3

Questions of the Day:

• Have you played Psych yet?
  
• What did you do this past weekend?