Return to Up2You Cafe

Our lunch at Nijiya and quick pit stop at Cafe Hue still left me craving dessert. Aaaaaand, since we were in the area...

Why not go back to Up2You?

My mind was doing somersaults with glee because we had five people in our group that day...

In search of dessert....ending at K-Pasta

Although TORC and I had that splendid chocolate mousse dessert at Cafe di Roma...

I still wanted to make a quick stop at a local South Bay institution...

It's usually a hit or miss thing and in this case...

"Game On!" - The SD Fair, Part 1 - The Sights

Earlier last week, we three plus TC's friend KDD headed out to the San Diego Fair (which I still refer to as the "Del Mar" Fair)...

We bypassed the traffic on the 5 on a side street...seeing the fair from afar before heading into free parking...

Mignon once again

Also in the same vicinity of Old Pasadena was a cute little chocolate shop that I'd been to several times before.

It was just up the street and around the corner from 'Lette Macarons...

Cafe di Roma

If you haven't noticed, summer has been a fun but busy time for me. I can finally go out and enjoy lunch with friends and not be stuck in an office eating leftovers! Gawd, I felt so repressed! Until now!

TORC was finally on vacation as well. That's the good thing about being an educator, we know will get a summer vacation, although hers is longer than mine. No more grading papers! We had a lot of catching up to do...

Return to Babycakes

Our last stop for the night would be what we thought would be dessert at d bar.

Unfortunately, it was closed on Mondays!

Aaargh, so plan B and C was set in motion...

'Lette Macarons

Man, were we ever going to make it to Marvin's booksigning? Not to worry...we still had a few hours before heading over to Vroman's.

There were just too many stops along the way, but boy, were they worth it. We just had to enjoy the beautiful day in Pasadena...

Huapango's

Well now...fortified with a few drinks, we strolled over to Huapango's across the street.

Mr. TJ really likes the Happy Hour there and also a particular hot waiter...

Osteria Origano

This weekend, I met up with a few of my co-workers to celebrate the retirement of our former co-worker, MFH...

We all met at the beautiful home of Mr. TJ who lives in the historic neighborhood of Talmadge, where he whipped up a few drinks before we headed out to our first stop...

Return to Nijiya for lunch plus Cafe Hue

Sometime last week TC's friend KDD spent the day with us. We thought it would be fun to have lunch at Nijiya.

To make it even more fun, we had more adults - myself, Bert as well as D! The more the merrier. I'd given the girls a choice of Japanese or hotpot (TC already had it earlier that week at E & Drink) and Japanese won out...

Euro Pane Bakery

After our last stop at Cream Pan, we relaxed while we enjoyed the drive up to Pasadena, passing through crappy construction on the I-5. Once we arrived in Pasadena, Cathy showed me the barn where the floats are kept for the Rose Parade as well as a portio of the parade route, and several notable restaurants and landmarks in the area.

We still had plenty of time to kill before the book signing, so lunch was in order!

I remembered one of Cathy's older posts on this European bakery (linked at the end) so that was where we had our mid-day sustenance...