San Francisco 2017

This past weekend, I went to San Francisco to meet up with Nanette and Joanne! I met Nanette in college when I visited SF for a convention (we're in the same sorority) and Joanne through Instagram! I'm so happy I got to spend quality time with 2 women I respect and admire, and I also got to meet up with old/new friends and my cousin too! Here's a recap of the weekend:

China Live Opening Party

As soon as I flew in, I met up with Nanette for the China Live opening party. We feasted on dumplings, wontons, gua bao, beef noodle soup, and more! At first, I was freaking out about being in sweatpants and a hoodie, but it was so crowded no one even looked twice. I also got to check in my luggage, so many thanks to China Live for hosting such an accommodating and awesome opening party! 

Pier 2620 Hotel

Hold on, I need to talk about my hotel in Fisherman's Wharf. The corner of the room had PERFECT DECOR and was one of the main reasons I booked it. Room inspo! I actually booked Pier 2620 through a collaboration with HotelTonight, an app that is perfect for last-minute hotel bookings (up to a week in advance) at a great price. In retrospect, the location probably wasn't ideal for me since it was so far north of where I explored all weekend, but it's great if you're wanting to be in Fisherman's Wharf. 

PS - Use the code KARLAO to get $25 off your first $135+ HotelTonight booking! 

Napa Valley

The next morning, Joanne drove us to Napa Valley for wine tasting and sightseeing. I'm so glad I went with a pro! We went to VGS Chateau Potelle for food & wine pairing, stopped by Long Meadow Ranch for a little bit more wine and food at Farmstead, got dessert at Bouchon and Kollar Chocolates, and then ended with more wine at Ma(i)sonry. Overall, a fun day of bonding with my girls! 

There was someone sleeping on the left side of the table... check out my photo cropping skills though.

Exploring SF

The next day, I spent all morning with Nanette before heading to Joanne's Passion X Purpose event. We started at Cafe Réveille for some amazing coffee and food, then walked to SFMOMA, got lunch, and then finally arrived at Sweetgreen to reunite with Joanne.

What everyone has been going to the SFMOMA for: Cloud Cities.

The Passion X Purpose: Bay Area Boss Moms talk was so inspiring! I loved listening to strong women talk about their views on health and motherhood. Below are Katie Hintz-Zambrano of Mother Mag, Shahidah Zareef of Boss Mom Nation, and Joanne Encarnacion of GOFITJO. Makes me wonder if I should put something together for women and passion projects in Dallas. Hmmm... 

Later that night, I met up with my college friend Andrew who was in town for a GDC 2017! Then I went home to pass out like an old lady because the next morning was coffee with Jeffrey, Anson, Jimmy, (and I also got to meet Eza and Cam)! Then straight to lunch with my cousin Brandon and his girlfriend Robin before taking off. My heart is full!

In love with Eza's style!

PS - I also came home to great news: I got a promotion at work and am now a Senior Developer! Proud to be representing women in technology, and I can't imagine a better end to my birthday month.

Taiwan 2016

I can't believe it's already been a week since I came back from Taiwan! It feels like just yesterday we were walking and eating non-stop around Taipei. I have my Swarm history pulled up ready to blog about some places I've been and what I've eaten! Here we go.

We got in a bit late our first night, but we still managed to stop by a 7-Eleven to grab some beers and walk around Raohe Street Night Market, one of the oldest night markets in Taipei. It was my first time at a real night market with all the works! The best thing I ate was the pork pepper buns that I burned my lips and fingers on... they shot hot grease out at every bite, but the peppery flavor, tender meat, and green onions were so worth it. The worst thing was the stinky tofu I didn't even eat but could taste in my mouth just from the smell... I just can't ever bring myself to try it - especially since I don't even like tofu!

Pork pepper bun (胡椒餅)

Braised pork rice bowl (滷肉饭)

The next morning we waited about an hour in line at Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿) because I heard it was the BEST Taiwanese breakfast in Taipei. It was really good... worth a try for sure, but never worth another wait! Make sure you research what you want beforehand because there is NO English menu and workers are very impatient!

Don't even know the names of half the things we ordered :) Thank you, kind lady in front of me, for ordering for us!

Then we were off to Taipei 101 for some sightseeing and my first time ever at Din Tai Fung! 

The hype is real. Thinnest but strongest dumpling skin I've ever had, with delicious juicy meat inside. So gooood!

Next was one of my favorite stops... Jack & NaNa Coffee Store. It was the cuuuutest coffee shop in an alleyway, and I definitely had the best iced latte of my trip here. It was really interesting to me that almost all the "hipster" coffee shops took forever to make your coffee... like 10+ minutes. They REALLY care about coffee here! Another note is that "iced" drinks in Taiwan include like 6 pieces of ice and all melt before you finish your drink.

Our friend Chang also took us to Syntrend, a large mall of electronics, games, toys, and more, and that night, we ate a bountiful feast at a small, homey seafood restaurant.

The next morning, we woke up early and visited the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.

Between our picture-taking and Thien's Milly Rocking, the huge doors opened up, and we were able to see the Changing of the Guards. It was a pretty cool experience! We took the scenic route back to the subway and ended up crossing a very pretty pond area!

Afterward, we went to Coffee Megane, another great coffee shop. They have really cute Japanese lunch plates, but we too early for it! The drinks were still really good, and I got a curry toast which had the fluffiest bread ever.

Then we took an Uber to Elephant Mountain! It was a great stair master session, and the view was beautiful at the top. I liked it better than Taipei 101 since Taipei 101 itself really makes the skyline. This bro was chilling on the rock for the longest time, so I had no choice but to just include him in the photo.

After we climbed back to the bottom, it started POURING. We thought we saw an old man jack an umbrella, but the whole city seems to have a "take one, leave one" umbrella policy, which was pretty cool. For dinner, we went to the best beef noodle soup restaurant ever: Lin Dong Fang (林東芳牛肉麵). The greatest noodles. Most tender and flavorful beef. Amazing broth.

Drool drool drool. My only regret is that we didn't come here more than once.

Later that night, we met up with Cary and went shrimp fishing, where you can catch, cook, and eat your own shrimp! There are a lot of fishing spots along the same street in Shilin district (northern Taipei), so we just picked one.

It was actually really relaxing, and I wish we did it for 2 hours instead of 1. I ended up being too scared to rip off the shrimp pincers and had to have someone else do it every time I caught one... Eating the shrimp was definitely rewarding! We just tossed the shrimp around in salt, grilled it, and it was so perfect and fresh!

Cary then took us to SoShow Bar, one of the best cocktail bars I've ever been to! All of the drinks were so strong, but you couldn't taste anything except the exotic fruity flavors! And they were all carefully crafted, so it took awhile to get the drinks, but they sure were pretty. 

New morning, new coffeeshop. Untitled Workshop has the CUTEST wallpaper!! Totally Instagrammable after editing the incandescent vs natural light ;)

After coffee, we headed to Huashan 1914 Creative Park to see Studio Ghibli's Animated World! It was pretty amazing to see so many of Miyazaki's films rendered in 3D! We also went to the Upside Down House, which made for some trippy photos.

Kiki's Delivery Service

My Neighbor Totoro

Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke

Spirited Away

Spirited Away

He's in the Upside Down!

My next favorite adventure was going up the Maokong Gondola to drink tea on top of the mountain! It's an easy metro ride to the gondola, which takes you straight up to the top where you can walk around and visit all kinds of different vendors, restaurants, and shops.

Going up!

The specific teahouse we wanted to go to was YaoYue Teahouse (邀月茶坊), about a 30 minute walk from the gondola stop. It was hot, humid, and a little rainy, but I think the food and tea were worth it! It was the best dim sum I've had in a long, long time... and the view was so relaxing. I loved how they showed us the process of making and how the first cups were for smelling and the rest for drinking. We asked what one of the pots were for, and they spent a minute searching for the English word... "basin." That didn't really answer our question, but the tea was amazing :P

On Friday, we checked out the Tim Ho Wan in Taipei (slow service, but their BBQ pork buns were just as good as I remembered when I ate them in HK!) and then made our way to the National Palace Museum. It was a huuuge museum packed with tourists, so my favorite part was the more spacious Zhishan garden (free entry with a museum ticket).

On our last full day in Taiwan, we visited the Beitou Hot Springs! It was my first time at a hot springs, and it was pretty cool. It was just SUPER crowded. I wish we made time to go to Wulai, but the typhoons definitely interfered with some of the plans. Overall, it was still worth a visit!

Later that night, we went to Shilin Night Market. It was definitely one of my favorites, especially because I got to see the temple. We got more pork pepper buns, flour wheat noodles, and an infamous fluffy bread filled with cheese. I also bought some penis-shaped pineapple cakes to take home, and the TSA flagged my backpack and made me re-scan it... EMBARRASSING! One of the lady TSA agents came up to me and asked what they were made of hahaha. So be prepared that you might set off alarms if you decide to take some home, I guess?

Whew, that was really long. See you again next time, Taiwan!

Bonus: Thien Milly Rocking on ANY BLOCK!

🎼I MILLY ROCK ON ANY BLOCK🎶

A video posted by Thien Tran (@9plus1) on Sep 23, 2016 at 11:04am PDT

Rhode Island 2016

It's been awhile since Brian and I went on a trip, just the two of us. We decided on Providence, Rhode Island since we're a fan of the northeast. We stayed at Hotel Providence, right in the heart of downtown.

The cutest luxury boutique hotel

To our pleasant surprise, the staff let us know that we had come during PVD Fest, four days of live music, food, and visual art installations in the streets of Providence. It was AMAZING because the streets were always so lively, and we even stumbled upon an outdoor performance by The Heavy.

The Heavy

Right after we checked in, we went to eat dinner at Duck and Bunny, a cozy restaurant that serves all sorts of crêpes (think pasta, pizza, sushi, and also your average crêpes). It was soo delicious! They also gave us free cupcakes on the house since we were visitors. I swear, everyone in Rhode Island was extremely nice to us! 

Brian's Tuscan crêpe pizza and my roast beef & gorgonzola crêpiccini

That night, we also grabbed some cocktails from the Eddy, which was a few streets away from our hotel. It was such a gorgeous night to be out and about!

The next day, we walked around Brown University's campus. Although we rented a car, we decided to walk to a lot of places. The best way to see a city is to walk because you can take in so many details!

Afterward, we went to the Providence Athenaeum, the 4th oldest library in New England (my Snapchat said "country," but it's actually the 7th oldest in the country - oops!). 

Then we stopped by the RISD Museum. It's free on Sundays, but we were so close, we decided to stop by anyway. Speaking of RISD, it was also their graduation weekend, so the whole city felt festive all around! 

The museum had so many beautiful spaces, including stairways and their garden.

For a light lunch, we went to Figidini for their small plates! My friend Larissa had suggested this place for their oven roasted artichoke, and it did not disappoint! We also go the lamb and sausage combo and some grilled scallops. Sooo good! 

Another place to grab some drinks is Faust in the Dean Hotel. I originally wanted to stay there, but we weren't able to book it! It was only a couple of blocks away from our hotel though, so we walked over here almost every day for their coffee shop and bar. Gorgeous space!

On Sunday, we had another early start and went to The Shop for some coffee before heading to Newport.

I absolutely recommend this place for its coziness, Stumptown coffee, and delicious toast!

When we got to Newport, we went for a walk along the cliff. The fog made it so, so beautiful. Brian and I were super happy and spent awhile walking around!

When we were ready to head to the Newport Lobster Shack, we took the scenic route (always the most rewarding)!

Ahh... fresh lobster!!

Accidentally waited in this line to find out that the food truck (on the left) is what we wanted. The shack was only selling whole lobsters for you to cook.

We were the 3rd group in line... the payoff:

Lobster bisque, lobster roll, lobster bites, lobster dinner. Mhmmmm.

I had never had such fresh lobster before!! It was amazing and worth waiting/eating in the cold!

The next morning, I started feeling sick... over the course of the day, I had chills and aches, but I was grateful it was a beautiful sunny day! We visited a couple of beaches and had lunch with a great view of the ocean. I really got to make the best out of this trip with Brian. Here's to many more!

Recap video below!