Simply SuLee: A long weekend away to play at Berkeley.....

Jeff's school had it's 10th anniversary Gala over the weekend and we thought this would be a great time for me to tag along, meet his classmates, and take in the city....alone. :-)
Five days and four glorious nights of living the 'bk days' (before kids) again....ahhhh, it was marvelous, but i missed those crazy kids. Even though it was strangely wonderful to be by myself, my mind couldn't help but think of how much the girls would've enjoyed tootling around San Francisco with me.

Slept in for the first time in forever on Thursday morning.  It was nice not to 'have to' get up, but age reared it's ugly self because my body actually hurt from being in bed too long. :-) Had good intentions of going for a run that morning but instead, got a coffee and took in the campus. It was lovely and what a melting pot of students.
Decided i would be adventurous and try the public transportation system called BART. I was told i cannot call it 'the BART' and still don't know why. :-) Oh Seattle/Tacoma, why did you not think to do this? Our traffic woes could be lessened because of it. Felt like such a big girl too!
Made it over to a small little town called Emeryville, where they had a great shopping center similar to Gig Harbor's Uptown, plus Trader Joe's and Marshall's, all within walking distance of each other. Hung out there for the majority of the afternoon and came back to the room to rest. Again, wonderfully strange to be able to 'rest'.

I was greeted warmly by Jeff's classmates that evening as we indulged in yummy Indian cuisine for dinner.  We then headed off for bowling, where i beat Jeff by one point on the first game which impressed all of his classmates, till the wee hours of morning. Morning came too quickly as i promised to join a few of his new found friends for a 5:45 am run. As you know, i normally go this early, but not when i've gone to bed at 2 am! Like always though....i NEVER regret going for a run afterwards, even if it killed me to get up for it. Fortunately, i was able to come back and sleep a little more before i took in San Francisco for the day. I must have walked 20 miles and LOVED every minute of it! Came home in the dark, and to be honest, i was a little frightened because all of a sudden my surroundings were no longer familiar, but fortunately i got off on the right stop and found our hotel again. Decided we would try sushi that night and even though i am Asian, i am still not a fan. California rolls...yes, full on sushi...no.

The next morning i had nothing planned for the day. I slept in until 9:30, turned on the t.v. and watched what 'i' wanted to watch, a chick flick, and two episodes of CSI. I did not leave the room until 2:30!!! Planned on going for a brisk walk but my legs begged me not to, as they were beat from the adventures of the day before. I still got my exercise gear on though and headed out to get something to eat. The doorman said, "You might be a little cold in those shorts and it's supposed to rain today". I said, "I'm from Washington, i will feel right at home then". :-) Since it was Saturday, the little town of Berkeley came to life. The people watching was at it's finest and i enjoyed just walking up and down the streets to see all of the unique characters.

That evening was the Gala at Fisherman's Wharf and we got all fancied up, took a limo to our destination, mingled, ate more yummy food, enjoyed adult beverages and ended the evening with dancing.   Ahhhh........

The weekend was amazing, but what was even better was being reminded again, how much i still enjoy spending alone time with the love of my life.

Getting ready to land.

Can you believe i went down here all by myself?

Followed these two fellows into the city.

I was greeted by San Francisco to these two....
the guy without the shirt really needs to exercise and lose a few pounds.

YES HE does!

Wanted to do the trolley cars but the lines were horrendous.

What frightened me about this guy was he had scrubs on.
Hopefully they were donated to him and this was not just a side
gig for him.

Break dancing is still in!

Four floors of Nordstrom heaven!

I made a shoe donation today. :-)

This is my new friend Omar and this is why i felt it was totally
justifiable to buy my first pair of Toms.

Proof that i did not get out of bed until 2:30 on Saturday. :-)

Do you think he has many offers?

Why go to a barber shop when you can get groomed on the street?

Totally organic Farmer's market.

Do you know what these are?
My southern friends should be able to get this one right.

Besides BART, this was mainly the mode of transportation around Berkeley.

Look at the dirty old man sneaking a peek.

Pink hair is still just wrong to me and especially on a guy.

He cleans up well.

Okay, this is one of my favorite shots. The room was very dimly lit with a few candles flickering
and i was able to catch this with my ISO setting at 1600.