bonus: sacramento, california

saturday 30 november - monday 02 december

two weeks in indonesia flew by and before we knew it we were on our way home. BUT vacation wasn't quite over for me; i still had a couple days in california before really heading back to reality.

our travel day started off super early at 5am as we zipped through empty streets on our way to the jakarta airport. we made it there in plenty of time for our flight to bali, which meant bumming around and random breakfast snacks: chocolate buns, beef sausage bun, coffee in red holiday cups (!) and (free) sugar donuts from JCo, and provisions for later (chocolate mint candies and purple yam puffs).

it's a good thing we had our morning fill of snacks because once we made it to bali's international terminal things were sorely lacking due to airport construction. we wandered and napped and splurged on neck pillows for the long flights ahead (red for deb and black for me). for our next round of snacks we bought some cappuccino tim tams, bacon/ham sandwiches (limited options), and the true star--haagen-dazs crispy ice cream sandwiches.
we had been waiting to get the ice cream sandwiches, and they did not disappoint. debby got the  caramel, and i chose the vanilla with chocolate. for $9 (yes, that's nine US dollars--EACH) we were treated to a totally self-contained (read: no melty drips or broken wafer bits) ice cream sandwich with the delicious quality you come to expect from haagen-dazs. excellent treat before boarding a full flight to taipei.

the rest of our travel day was spent on a plane to taipei (5 hours sleeping, reading, and watching junior master chef: aussie edition, wolverine, the amazing spider-man), a few hours walking around the taipei airport (hello kitty lounge! and charging stations galore), and finally a plane to sfo (11 hours of sleep mixed with more movies: people like us and madagascar 2). we landed in san francisco  around 7pm the same day..technically speaking. deb's parents treated us to some in-n-out burgers and fries before we passed out in the car. 

the next morning started with a nice breakfast of hash browns, apples, persimmons, and jane's sourdough bread (chocolate and cherries--yum!). ah, i can't tell you how much i missed fresh produce! (we would definitely make up for it in the next couple days~) after breakfast we left novato and made our way to deb's place in sacramento. 
stopped by the sacramento farmers market (we got there a little late so things were close to wrapping up, but we still picked up a few things), trader joe's for some lunch items, and safeway in search of it's-its (they were all out but luckily we found some at good ol' reliable target), then we had a nice californian lunch of tj's kale and edamame salad, mandarins, sugar snap peas, brie with big wheat thins, red grapes, and G7 coffee. the caffeine started to kick in, and we got noticeably extra chatty. just in time for a walk around the neighborhood with thea and her dog callie. the weather was typical of a northern californian fall/winter--mid 60s, cool and sunny--which felt great after the balminess and humidity of indonesia. after our walk we met up with some of deb's friends for vietnamese spring rolls. SO good! it's a good sign when you lose track of how many rolls you've wrapped and eaten and are still chomping away. on our way home we took a detour to east sacramento to look at the decorated houses. they even decorated the sidewalks with lighted archways. fancy~ once we got home, we capped the night off with a proper dessert of vanilla it's-its.

my last day of vacation was deb's first day back at work. i bummed around the apartment checking out cyber monday sales, watched some tv (hello, saved by the bell), and made myself a california snack of sugar snap peas, grapes, brie and wheat thins. 
debby had about an hour for lunch, so we went to jack's urban eats; went halvsies on the turkey sandwich and the california cheese steak with a side order of urban fries (garlic fries with blue cheese and herbs). so flavorful and so filling. deb went back to work, and i made a quick stop at the arden mall for some see's lollypops to bring back (chocolate, butterscotch, cafe latte, vanilla, and christmas mint...and the free chocolate sample, of course). i walked around the mall a little but just wasn't in the holiday shopping mood, so i made my way back to the apartment and packed. deb got home around 530pm, and we were off to zumba! this was my first time at a real zumba class and managed not to make a fool of myself, although that's not to say that my sense of left and right and coordinating my arms and feet were close to being correct :P hey, A for effort, right? an hour of cardio, a quick shower, dinner of thanksgiving leftovers at jae hyoun's, and my last day in sac was coming to an end. deb dropped me off at smf (smurf!), and i waited patiently for my red-eye back to new york...back to reality.