good times - 4th of July week

i decided to spend my july 4th by driving up to norcal to visit jenie. the last time i was up there, she and john pointed out that i come up and visit every three months. at first i disagreed with them, but when we started to count back to the times i'd come up, it was totally true. so i was a bit overdue this time - not since february. i think this was the best trip so far! not only did i get to escape the smoldering summer heat that has overtaken LA, but the drive up was beauuuuuuutiful (even the notorious cowpasture off the 5 didn't seem AS bad). as of this year, bops and i have known each other for 10 years. TEN YEARS, MAN! we couldn't believe it. we met in the beginning of our freshman year in college, attended the same ministry together, and lived together our last two years of school. even though she and i are totally different-even more so now that we live apart and are growing into different people-we have been through so much together, we have history. we endured some really challenging seasons together. we laughed, cried, encouraged, and sharpened one another. to have that much story and investment with another human being, how do you just stop?

this was also a trip of firsts for me! it was my first time across the Golden Gate Bridge!and my first time eating raw oysters!!!we went to Tomales Bay, north of San Franciso, where we met up with her small group from her church, and feasted on an assortment of corn on the cob, oysters fresh from the bay, galbi (korean marinated meat), pasta, and dessert. by the time we were done, i thought i was going to explode. and i think it didn't help that wherever i was sitting and talking to someone, there was conveniently a plate of food always sitting next to me. this was also the first time i was meeting and interacting with her small group. she had previously told me so much about them, but in my heart, i secretly wanted to validate them myself so that i felt assured that she was in good hands, that she was being taken care of by the right people. i have to say, i think part of the biggest reasons why this particular trip was so fun was because of her small group! mostly all of my friends are either married or have kids, so it's been a quite a while since i've hung out with predominently unmarried folk, particularly believers at that. i couldn't believe how much energy they had to just hang out ALL day long, how much they enjoyed being with each other, how much they couldn't wait to see each other again. it was really nice and kinda strange at the same time. i've gotten so used to the joyful noise of screaming children and having a halfway decent conversation with a semi-distracted parent or keeping up with a friend's neverending balance of spousal relationships and everything-else-in-life, that to have a conversation about anything else (with the exception of maybe social issues or something read on the news) has stumped me a little. geez...just reading this is making me wonder how square i've become. am i losing my edge?? where is my sense of adventure and spontanaeity?? i will say, though, that even though i often feel as if i am living out Bridget Jones on my own at church, i am so thankful for the community that God has placed me in here in LA. if the Junc is close to anything that feels like home, then i can't believe how lucky i was to have found it. hoohoo! okok...i'm going off.
after we left Tomales Bay, we stopped by the road to take some pics, then continued on our journey towards the beach.
considering how sort of on the fly going to the beach was, we did pretty well with a few blankets, a packet of cards, and an umbrella. it almost felt like we were the rejected cast from "lost". HA! some of the kids even decided they needed shelter from the unforgiving sun and took it upon themselves to use the tarp to make themselves some shade. it initally started with them sitting in the chairs and holding it over their heads, but then they got ambitious and started hammering(??) things into the sand and setting up a structure that resulted with this:
we stopped at a dimsum restaurant for dinner and ended our day with fireworks. i got a little scared by some of the loud noises that came from the fireworks, but olivia, who was lying next to me, was there to protect me: