soh's blog ⭐️✨

I thought it would be really hot in Los Gatos. It was actually a lot chillier than I thought it would be. For some reason I think California is all the same as one state, but I keep forgetting that it's a huge state and norcal is not socal and vice versa. So I was a bit chilly especially in the office. Is it just me or do tech offices blast the AC super hard?

Nick's coworker made this cute Zoey crochet keychain! I will protect her with my life. If you didn't know, Zoey is my favorite HUNTR/X member and I love her! It's so well made. She is very talented and was really nice to hang out with during lunch time and breaks.

We stayed in a little downtown area of Los Gatos. It was really cute and the whole street had good shops and restaurants to visit! I had to visit the Barnes & Noble just to see what books they were highlighting. I don't buy from B&N too often since I prefer to buy books secondhand but I love to go to see the book displays and to find new books to add to my TBR!

A random fun fact for you, there was some type of event happening at our hotel and I was wondering what it was about. Well, I saw a banner in the hotel lobby showing previous presidential candidate Andrew Yang promoting his newest book... and lo and behold, he was doing a speech at the event in the courtyard area! We were able to see some of it on our balcony.

We also watched a lot of Celebrity Jeopardy on cable TV. I'm really into game shows and especially trivia game shows. I got one of the final Jeopardy questions very easily!

Answer: "The name of this virtual assistant was inspired by an ancient library once said to contain all the world’s knowledge." Question: What is Alexa? (Because the library of Alexandria)

Anyway, the office was very nice! Both Nick and I were working as per usual, so there wasn't anything super exciting. I got to meet his coworkers which was cool, they were super nice! I also got the Daybreak ARC (advanced reader copy) all of a sudden while I was at the office which was a great surprise! It's one of my most anticipated books so I was happy to have the chance to read it early.

On our last day at the office (Thursday) we decided to walk on the nearby trail! Okay, this day was really hot admittedly but it was nice to walk on the trail and see the reservoir! It was huge! Photo for proof.

On Thursday evening we rode the Amtrak train to Sacramento along with one of Nick's coworkers! It was Nick and I's first time riding the Amtrak and it was fine. It was a 3 hour train ride which was quite long but we ended up spending the whole time talking.

They graciously hosted us in Sacramento at their house. They had the cutest two husky dogs! So well behaved and adorable. One of them would wait right next to our door whenever we'd go into the guest room and wait for us to come out. Isn't that just so cute...

We also had some delicious eats in Sacramento! So many good places. We finally tried malatang for the first time and loved it. I have been wanting to try it for a while since when I was still on TikTok I would get those videos of people going and guessing what their bowl will cost and then showing how much it actually cost.

Here's some more food photos from Sacramento. Everything was very good, which was amazing compared to the office food. The office food was actually pretty bad. The New York office had much better food!

We happened to go to the Farmer's Market which was full of local goods like fruits, vegetables, food vendors, and even artists! I got a little mini haul of stuff. I really love the postcard and I put it on my prints wall as a reminder.

His coworker also taught us how to play mahjong! It's something I've always had interest in since watching the anime Saki a long while ago. Does anyone remember that anime or was it just me that watched it? Anyway, a little difficult to get right but really fun! I want to get better at it!

Here's the rest of my haul. We were checking out the nearby Costco and I got some really comfy shorts! Also a few other things like the clear pen organizer, Sanrio clear pouch, the Light Azumarill Pokemon card, and the mini Pokemon tin (which came free with the card). I've wanted that Azumarill card for a while so I'm happy I got to get it for a decent price!

It was an early flight both there and back. I'm not meant to get up at 4AM, let me tell you. Also, there was a government shutdown which meant TSA agents weren't getting paid which impacted airports. Thankfully, with TSA Pre-Check we were able to get to our gate in time for boarding. The flight there was 5 hours and the flight back was 6 hours... probably one of the longer flights I've been on (that I remember). But we made it and arrived at JFK!

After landing we just got to the hotel and unpacked before grabbing some dinner. Near our hotel was this burger place called Skinny Louie and it ended up being the most amazing smashburger place ever. Voted best burger in Miami AND New York!

For the next 3 days (Tuesday to Thursday) I went to Nick's office since he had the offsite for work. Luckily it was only a 12-ish minute walk from our hotel! Very cool office and it made me reminisce about my time working in big tech. The food was decent but I'll take free food, snacks, and drinks!

They also had really nice bathrooms and amenities in the New York office. I took lots of outfit of the day photos in the all gender bathroom. Don't mind that I do the same pose in every single photo I take, it's the inner millennial...

There's lots of great food in New York. I mainly stayed in Manhattan during my trip but everything I ate was so tasty! Here are just some of the foods I tried, like Joe's Pizza (pizza time) and a traditional lox bagel. Apparently the dough in New York is really good because of the tap water they use? I could taste the difference!

The tacos above were from Los Tacos No. 1 and they truly are number one. My favorite food is tacos and they have to have the best tacos I've had. I tried both their adobada and asada tacos but I preferred adobada!

Some more meals, the sushi was from Sugarfish which is a restaurant I've always wanted to try since all the influencers I watch eat there when they want sushi! It was really good and it came with a lot of other stuff I wasn't expecting (like tuna sashimi, edamame, and a bunch of sauces/extras like green onion, lemon, etc). This was the night Nick had his work dinner, so I grabbed dinner on my own and ate while (re)watching some Gossip Girl.

The bagel was from another place near our hotel that did breakfast food. The bagel breakfast sandwich was quite delicious but the iced latte was a bit watery. I think I'm just spoiled since I live in coffee central (Seattle).

More delicious food! Pad See Ew was lunch from the day we did so much shopping, so it was super filling and delicious! They also gave us a free salad which was so good that I' am'm still thinking about it. It had like a passionfruit ginger dressing which was refreshing!

The chicken shawarma was from a halal cart in the general vicinity of our hotel for dinner. Nick's been craving this kind of chicken shawarma ever since he tried it for the first time in Toronto, and he said this one really hit. It's the spicy sauce that's missing from most shawarma/Greek places near me, I think.

There were a lot of great bookstores to visit in NYC. We went to a couple different ones, like Kinokuniya, The Strand, and the 4-story Barnes & Noble! As a bookworm it was like heaven getting to walk around and look at all the different books. I bought a total of 4 books on this trip.

Yes, we did do some touristy things! Of course we visited the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Getting to see Starry Night in person was quite an experience. Nick just kept staring at it being like "wow..." and it was cool for me to recognize a lot of the artworks because I took a lot of art/art history courses in high school and university.

As a Gossip Girl fan, I had to visit The Met steps and take a photo like how Blair and Serena would sit on the steps when they attended Constance! Also went to Grand Central Station which is in the first shot of the pilot episode.

We also went to the only official Nintendo store in the US, Nintendo New York! We went a little crazy here, not going to lie... don't ask me how much we spent here. But we got a lot of cute things, and some were souvenirs for other people, okay!

We also went to Central Park and walked the entire length of it, which was a lot of walking! You can see the photo of the skyline I took in the first photo of this blog post. My legs and feet were so tired after each day because we would walk to most places but I liked how everything was walkable. Shoutout to walkable cities!

Anyway, here's some of the things I got from my trip. I did get 2 other books and a Manhattan magnet, but I just didn't take a photo of it with everything else. There's also more stuff that Nick and I got for the both of us, and souvenirs for others. My favorite has to be the Strand crewneck!

Anyway, thanks for reading! Ending off the post with a photo of Nick and I while we were outside the library, and the sunset we caught while waiting to board our plane back to Seattle.

The place was pretty much empty when we got there, but it got busier over time. We ordered 4 kinds of pork and got the combos, which included rice and some soybean paste stew (된장찌개), the Korean equivalent to miso soup. Alicia also ordered tteokbokki (떡볶이) with ramen noodles in it. The food was delicious! If I had to say one complaint, it would be the table they gave us was too small. There were so many side dishes and plates on the table that there was barely any space for anything else.

After we filled our bellies, we went to Snakes & Lattes, a board game cafe. Nick had never been to one before, so I was really excited to take him here! We ordered some drinks and played four board games in total. The first one we played was Telestrations After Dark, the game that’s like telephone but with drawing involved. It was hilarious! None of us are great doodlers, so it was fun to see how our drawings were interpreted. We also played Cranium too, with Nick & I vs Alicia & Thomas. We also played Taboo! Cranium and Taboo are such classic board games.

I took the bus to the movie theatre after work and bought my ticket at those ticket machines at the front. Side note: I love to use ticket machines! I wish everywhere had them because it means one less interaction. I actually came a little too early for the movie, so I had to wait for the theatre employees to finish cleaning up the theatre before I could go into the theatre and settle in. 

When they finally let me go inside, I found that I was the only person in the theatre. I knew that Spiderman had been out for two-ish months already, but I didn’t think the theatre would actually be this empty. I thought more people would walk in during the trailers, but no one ever did. It was just me, all alone in that empty theatre. Also a first!

Onto the actual movie review: It was AMAZING! The animation was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I’ve watched a lot of anime and animated movies. They somehow made the entire movie look like a comic book but also had such fluid animation throughout it. As for the music, I’ve already listened to the entire soundtrack on Spotify because my boyfriend said it was a good album. I already liked the soundtrack, but the movie made me appreciate it even more! Now I had scenes to connect to certain songs. I can’t listen to What’s Up Danger without feeling chills because of the scene it’s connected to.