Saturday 01/09/12
Today I met my mums sister for the first time. My aunty natty had moved to America 25 years ago. I was excited and kind of nervous.
Yesterday we managed to find our first affordable grocery store on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge so we were able to cook ourselves a brunch, an omelette with spinach, onions, garlic! It was amazing to cook and have fresh ingredients. The tastiest meal we had at that point!
We had new roommates arrive yesterday afternoon while I was waxing my legs. Molly and Aaron a couple in the Navy on a few days leave. She was originally from New Jersey and he was from Michigan. They were both adorable and really easy to chat to.
Ate Lilbeth, Kuya Ed and Stephanie picked us up outside the hostel at 3pm after they finished work. They hadn't changed except Stephanie was grown up and turned into a gorgeous adult but she was still the same person. The plan was to take us around San fran by car then go to Wanut Creek to meet Carl and Aunty Natty and have dinner. I told them we might as well go straight there so we could spend the most time with Aunty Natty. It took 45 minutes or a bit longer to get there.
Walnut Creek is a nice suburb town with a parade of shops and where Ate Lilibeth works. We were having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory which reminded me of The Big Bang Theory. Aunty Natty and Carl arrived and it was crazy as she reminded me of mum and lola eling. She is so cute. We hugged tight and took lots of photos. She said that Neil was handsome. She asked me to set up Carl and Red with 'Iris' (Irish) girls so they will have beautiful children, i told her they will do just fine and have beautiful kids anyway!
We sat down and looked at the huge menu. So many pages to get through. I settled for pork pulled BBQ bun and it came with fries and a coleslaw. Steph and Carl ordered a spinach and artichoke dip and avocado egg rolls to start, which came on huge plates so the table to share. Both were good! The egg rolls (which contained no egg) were so good and Neil especially loved them!
The portions were huge, I did ok by not eating the top roll and leaving the coleslaw. The BBQ sauce was a bit sweet but the fries were good thin and crispy. The family ordered two deserts so we could taste as no one Had space for a whole desert, carrot cake cheesecake and raspberry chocolate cheesecake. Im not a sweet person but they were yummy. Stephanie bought me and Neil a cocktail each, we both had mojitos, thanks Stephanie! And Kuya Ed and Ate paid for dinner, thank you family, being well looked after.
We then got in the car and went back to their house to meet the neighbour and the dog Thunder who you could hear yapping at the door. After a chat and drink we had to go as it was late. Kuya ed, ate lilibeth and aunty natty drove us all the way back to San Fran. Ate Lilibeth as loving and caring as usual apologised for not being able to have us at her house and next time hopefully they would have a house of their own. I told her not to worry and dinner was more than enough! She wanted us to be safe and look after ourselves. Aunty asked about mum and told us how she worked in the city. How she is going back home and wants mum to take her. Talked about our trip and casinos (ate and aunty love to gamble) She is so cute I loved her straight away.
They dropped us off outside our hostel and we said our goodbyes and thank you's, with people asking for change while we were in the middle of hugs. I knew they would worry! We arranged to meet on Tuesday before we left for Vegas.
On the way home we picked up a low calorie on sale margarita mix, small bottle of tequila and ice and decided to have a few drinks. We invited Molly and Aron to have a bev with us and they met us downstairs in the dining room with mr jack daniels and captain morgans! We got to know them and their adorable love story. We played drinking card games and got drunk! William Hester the most interesting guy invited us to hear him DJ at a club but we declined as we'd settled in and had enough alcohol to get through the night. He entertained us for an hour before he left telling us some of the stories he writes like one about a boar boarding a train "all a-boar"!