day 6 SF: Sta. Rosa -> Kaiyen (5.17.07)

Sta. Rosa, 17th May 2007 - An impromptu overnight stay at Kaiyen's house off the next day with some reminiscing over the old STC yearbook. We took some time talking a little bit about those years - which was funny, because although we shared common one-time or another classmates, we never were in the same section together. I remember her though because thumbing through the yearbook years before, when I first received it after graduation, I looked through each of the pictures, and I made note of her, since she was listed as coming from San Fernando, Cebu...a "lungsod" prior to Sibonga, Cebu, which is where my dear mother comes from.

Talking as girls are wont to do, we missed breakfast and coffee, so Kaiyen hauled me to a great Vietnamese restaurant...where we gobbled up the pork chop, rice and soup (it made me nostalgic for Filipino food)...I cannot possibly remember the Vietnamese names...yummy brunch!

Then, a visit to Korbel where we happily partook of the free champagne tasting. We missed the garden tour by a couple of minutes since we took some pictures when we first arrived at the winery, but the nice guy who poured us the wines was friendly enough to talk about the selection and even looked at our identification cards (ahay, the price of looking young and cute like a juvenile teenagers...tee-hee).

After getting sloshed over 4 glasses and more pictures - I even got a feature in Kaiyen's photo album - she drove us off into the forest - and not an ordinary forest at that.

These were populated by giant, fat redwoods...and aside from noting the tallest, the oldest and even unusual ones, I was sorry to leave this park behind without Kaiyen getting her 4-leaf clover.

A quick sneak back into her house to check if her hubby was around since they had to sync on their plans, then we managed to drop by the Charles M. Shultz museum where my fave beagle frolicked. There wasn't enough time though, you would need at least one and a half-hours to go thru it and read the comics...but I contented myself with snapshots with the famous gang. A tour of the downtown afterwards convinced me that I really should come back here and book myself in a hotel if ever I got the chance again...it looked like a charming little town which had the conveniences of a city but the warmth and friendliness as well as cute little stores with antiques and other baubles to warm the cockles of my heart.

I couldn't survive going back to San Franciso without eating, so Kaiyen took me to "In-N-Out" burger...and a good thing too because my stomach was sticking to my spine by that time...I was told that I shouldn't leave the state without tasting this burger, and I must say, they were right..the burgers and fries tasted really different from what I had expected after eating a zillion MacDos and Jollibees and Burker King burgers. They were supposed to be authentically fresh (I had visions of the cows being slaughtered at the back of the burger joint)...

Then it was time for me to go back...and before I crossed the bridge back into dear old Sanfo, we stopped to get a few more pics on the other side. It was getting cold at that time, and although we shivered, we still managed to smile and gave a good shot at looking cool without showing we were cold.

Kaiyen had to call in sick to accompany me that day and she did more than I expected her to in keeping me company and touring me around. More than going around Sta. Rosa and getting to visit the sites, the most important take-away for me was discovering Kaiyen, and talking to her has given me a more complete picture of her than that of seeing her pictures and reading her posts here on Multiply.

Hasta la vista Kaiyen...won't be saying goodbye because surely, surely..we will meet again..if only to share more food and adventures...*grin*

- Jun 10, '07 10:41 PM