Early last week, my brother Adrian called and asked about my plans for the week. He was on vacation from one job and spring break from the other. He and his girlfriend, Alexis, had rented a condo up in Lake Arrowhead and invited Sean and I to join them for part of the trip.

“We’ll probably be just sitting around eating, drinking and relaxing.”

I liked the idea of going up to the San Bernardino Mountains. I used to go pretty often in high school and college with church and school groups, but it’s been nearly 10 years since my last trip with family. I wasn’t sure if I could get away during the busy first week of spring quarter, but I was able to leave early on Thursday and take Friday off. Sean and I drove up Thursday afternoon. Traffic was light due to the holiday weekend.

We made a pit stop at my mom’s for to-go burritos and capirotada (Mexican bread pudding, a Lenten tradition). I’d been craving capirotada for weeks and dug into some leftovers my Madrina Chilo left behind when she visited my grandparents. I’d like to believe she knew I was stopping by and left this for me because I’m her goddaughter.

We arrived at the condo just in time to enjoy some views of the lake at sunset from the balcony.

Adrian and Alexis were great hosts. There were no luchador fights, just a lot of smiles and good drinks.

As Adrian promised, there was a lot eating, drinking and games. We played card games, Taboo, Uno, ping pong and king’s cup. It’s a good thing we were all staying in the condo since no one was going anywhere after king’s cup.

The condo is right on the lake and is a short walk away from Lake Arrowhead Village. Each day, we walked along the lakefront path to the village for groceries and drinks. On Friday evening, Alexis’ co-worker and friend drove up, our group grew to six.

It was a little too cold to kayak or go swimming in the lake, but we did spend a lot of time on the balcony just staring at the water, sipping sangria and enjoying some time in the sun.

Although I’ve been to Lake Arrowhead many times, I’d never stayed so close to the lake. We didn’t take advantage of the proximity due to the cool weather, — there was still some snow on the ground — but it was nice to be able to walk out from the bedroom and be immediately by the water.

I’m thankful to the little brother and Alexis for the hospitality.

While a bunch of Angelenos were all excited about a rock from Riverside County making a very slow trip to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA), Sean and I decided to go to Riverside County and see some more impressive rocks… and trees.

In the middle of the week, I suggested taking a trip to Joshua Tree National Park to celebrate our second anniversary. A few things made it attractive: neither of us had visited; it’s close (2 hours is close in Southern California); it’s inexpensive; and it’d offer lots of great views/sites to photograph. About the first one, I’ve been to the Coachella Valley and Palm Desert several times with friends and family but I’d never been to the park. My Mojave Desert camping experience had been limited to Kern River. Sean was down.

We headed out Sunday morning and arrived in Joshua Tree early in the afternoon. Our first stop was at the visitor’s center to get more water and some maps. Our plan for the day: lunch at the Hidden Valley picnic area; exploring the Hidden Valley nature loop; and then hanging out at Key’s View until sunset.

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Sean and I spent Labor Day weekend in Napa and San Francisco. It was a fun trip and I’m glad I got to see some Bay Area friends. I used to go up monthly for school. Most of those trips were day trips, but I occasionally had time to hang out with friends.

We arrived in San Francisco on Friday afternoon and headed out to Sonoma. Despite rush hour holiday traffic, we made it just in time for Suzzy and Terry’s wedding rehearsal dinner. It was fun to reconnect with Sean’s NY friends who I hadn’t seen since December.

The next morning, I did my long run in the neighborhood near our hotel in American Canyon. I found myself running along the American Canyon wetlands. After brunch, I too Sean back there to check it out before getting ready for the wedding in the afternoon.

We split a cab from Napa to Sonoma with some friends staying in the same hotel. Suzzy and Terry’s wedding was held at the Gundlach Bundschu Winery on the edge of the vineyards. It was a short and sweet ceremony where they both spoke about the importance of their families.

Afterward, we cooled down with many glasses of white wine and snuck in to the cool cave between the vineyards and the patio where the reception was held.

Suzzy and Terry had a fun and low key wedding. We danced and drank more, took pictures in the photobooth and then boarded the shuttle to the after party bar/club. We got a ride back to our hotel with the same cabdriver. Taking a cab was definitely worth it.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and had a quick picnic lunch at a park. We drove to SF and decided to visit the Golden Gate Bridge since Sean had never been. We parked in the Marina and walked from Crissy Field to Fort Point and then on to the bridge. (Thanks to Alex for the idea.)

As expected, it was cold, windy and crowded on the bridge, but worth the view. We left the Golden Gate Bridge and headed over to our hotel. We checked in and then took BART from Union Square to the Mission where we met up for burritos, a mini Mission mural tour and ice cream with Rio.

As soon as we came out from the 24th Street BART station, I thought it would be nice to check out some of the Mission’s famous alley-filled murals. I didn’t even have to bring it up to Rio as he suggested it as a good way to walk off our dinner.

Sean and I took the opportunity to take some “hip and urban” pseudo engagement photos.

Rio and I tried to be serious.

We ended our evening in the Mission with some ice cream at Mitchell’s Ice Cream. It was delicious.

On Sunday, took BART in to Berkeley for lunch with our friend Mariam. I’ve been reading Mariam’s cooking/travel blog for a while, but never tried any of her delicious dishes. This time around, she offered to make lunch. We were too hungry to stop to take photos of any the food. Good thing Mariam has photos and recipes on her blog: sesame chicken, Chinese chicken salad, clams with black bean sauce, and spicy eggplant. We were stuffed, but we couldn’t turn down an offer for ice cream, Turkish delight, and Iranian tea. It was nice catching up with Mariam about travel and puppies.

We left Mariam’s apartment and took BART back to San Francisco. After picking up the car at the hotel, we made a quick trip to Nob Hill (Bob’s Donuts!) and then drove to SFO.

I wish we would have had a little more time to catch up with friends, but the weekend went by pretty fast. There’s always next time. We’ll be sure to bring warmer sweaters and coats.