Our bicycle training rides this summer have finally paid off, as we both completed our Bike MS “Waves to Wine” rides! During the September 17/18 weekend, Rob rode 75 miles on Saturday starting from Mission Bay (UCSF) across the Golden Gate Bridge, up the coast on highway 1, ending at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park. Lisa provided much needed “SAG” support for our team during the first day. The climb total for the day was 4161 feet. Then on Sunday, we both started before sunrise for the final 75 miles, for a climb total of 4060 feet.

We’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this event to fight multiple sclerosis. We both met our fundraising goals and truly appreciate everything our friends and family have given. We rode with Rob’s work group (Team Chevron), whom retained the Top Corporate Fundraiser title for this year with over $64k raised. We welcome anyone who would like to join us next year! =)

Rob’s Ride profiles on Strava: Day 1, Day 2
Lisa’s Ride profile on Strava: Day 2

It’s been one year since our wedding in Italy (May 29th) and it feels like it was just yesterday. As our anniversary date came and gone, we would reminisce often about our travels through France and Italy, especially as a few of our friends are there now (oh, how envious we are!). A few months ago, we decided to celebrate in the windy city of Chicago. Chicago seemed like a great place to continue our quest for new experiences in new places, without going international. Chicago is well known as a close competitor to New York as being the greatest foodie paradise in the US (and perhaps the world). We had heard tons about the world-renowned chef, Grant Achatz, and Rob had just finished reading his new inspirational memoir about Achatz’s battle with stage 4 tongue cancer (“Life, On the Line“).

We took advantage of flight deals from Virgin who was adding the O’Hare destination from SFO on Memorial Day weekend. Lisa worked her deal-finding magic to get a great deal on hotel stay right off Michigan Ave. So, we were then ready to plan our eating destinations!

We secured dinner reservations at Achatz’s Alinea in Lincoln Park area for our actual anniversary date, even though we’d be dining at many great places throughout our stay. Alinea was recently named #6 top restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine, and the coveted top spot in North America. Alinea completely blew our minds. It was the perfect meal for us. Rob had the wine pairing with our 18 course meal, which even elevated each course. Each item was so complex, yet simple at the same time, and completely different from anything else we’ve experienced before. Topping off the whole experience was Chef Achatz artfully piece together our dessert on our table! Such a surreal experience! Check out the video!

We basically ate our way through the city, and fit in some sightseeing in between. The weather was hugely unpredictable (perhaps not to the locals), starting at 45 degrees and wet when arriving on Thursday afternoon, to 85 degrees, sunny and humid by the time we left on Tuesday. The rain was only a minor nuisance, since the rain came in short spurts, but came down heavy and strong when it did. We hit up all the typical landmarks and tourist traps, in addition to simply walking around and exploring. Highlights included:

-The ginormous Art Institute (free on Thursday nights)
-watching the Heat come from behind to knock out the Bulls of the Eastern Conference Finals at the United Center
-freshly-made churros and tortas at XOCO for lunch
-awesome $22 prix-fixe lunch at Blackbird
-scary glass ledge on 103rd floor of the Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower)
-Buckingham fountain (from Married With Children)
-Frank Gehry designed BP Bridge and Jay Pritzker Pavilion
-The Bean
-Intelligentsia coffee (x2)
-Chicago Blues club
-Standing in line for 90 minutes for Doughnut Vault
-Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House
-10 course “experience” meal at Graham Elliot (and seeing a glimpse of Graham Elliot)
-Cocktail tasting menu (4 drinks + 4 small bites) at Aviary (after eating 10 courses at Graham Elliot)
-awesome complimentary pastries and corned beef hash for Sunday brunch at Ralph Lauren Restaurant
-18 course meal at Alinea (and Chef Grant Achatz serving us dessert)
-spicy Szechuan food in Chinatown in 80 degree weather
-walking around Wrigley Field during a Cubs game
-Deep dish pizza at Giordano’s
-Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s
-night view from the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of John Hancock tower (nicest view from the Ladies room)
-cab ride from a former boxer, Estaifan Shilaita, featured in a new documentary, “The Chosen Champion“

Here’s a map of our dining excursions across the city.

View Chicago in a larger map

In an effort to get back into shape and try something new, we both have taken up road cycling. We’re training for the 150-mile Waves to Wine fundraiser 2-day bike ride in September (from San Francisco, up the coast to Mt. Tam, to Rohnert Park, then finishing in Sonoma County). We’re riding with Team Chevron, which have organized rides every Saturday morning to help us prepare. It’s a fun, new, and healthy activity that we both enjoy and something we can learn together. Hopefully it’ll be effective to help us get back into shape!

In April, we took a short weekend trip with Lisa’s younger siblings to Scottsdale, Arizona to visit her eldest sister, Judy. It was fun to hang out (iPac movie theaters), eat (Italian, chicken and waffles!), Fry Bread (a must in Arizona!) and attempt to hike up Camelback Mountain. We made it part way up, with a casualty along the way (well, nothing serious, just vomiting). It didn’t help that we had a little bit of a late start, so the sweltering AZ heat was already beating down on us as we began the hike. Despite the difficulty and heat, it was a good challenge and nice to see the mostly flat Scottsdale from the near-top. Of course, the real reason for the trip was to meet Judy’s new bf, Chip. After introductions over gelato and affogato, we headed to the Giants v. D-backs game together. Hopefully Lisa didn’t scare Chip too much with her teasing. It’s just her way of making him more comfortable, and shows that she likes him. It was a good day for the Giants and a great day for all of us, even topped off with fireworks! Although we only spent a few hours with Chip, we are looking forward to hanging out with Judy and Chip again soon!

Scottsdale phoots

It seems this year has been full of baby announcements. Many of our friends have welcomed or will welcome new family additions month after month this year. We welcome Erin Wong (Michael and Grace’s beautiful daughter) to the world! Also of special note, congrats to Rita and Sam on their new baby, expected in October.

Even though many of our friends are having little ones, we must not forget the older ones. Since Lisa’s god’s son, JJ, and his older brother Stephen aka “Bubba” are starting up baseball season, she has been going to as many games as she can for support.

We also had a short but sweet visit from The Pham’s (cousins from Seattle). Tim played in a sand volleyball tournament in Santa Cruz so Lisa and Rob took a day trip out there. They were able to see Kristina, Tim and their extremely cute baby, Myles. Lisa had a great work out making Myles laugh. Hope we get to see them again soon!

We took a mini family vacation with Rob’s mom’s side of the family to San Diego to SeaWorld. We had a great time spending time with family and walking around Old Town. It was a short trip, but we had a great time seeing everyone and look forward to our next meeting.

Last but not least, we want to congratulate 3 of our cousins graduating from High School and College! Rhonda from Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Rachel from Walnut High School and Linda from U.C.Davis. We wish all of you the best of luck!

If you are feeling generous you can donate to Rob or Lisa’s bike ride (for Multiple Sclerosis)!

Chicago gallery
Alinea gallery
Aviary gallery
Graham Elliot gallery

Hello again! It’s been a while (ok, half a year…) since we’ve updated this site/blog. Before the wedding, we intended to update this blog with all our Eurotrip details and wedding activities. Yet, we also told ourselves that we’d keep it updated even after the wedding. Somehow, we let that slip once we posted all our wedding pictures back in August. Even though it may seem from the lack of updates that we’ve completely fallen off the edge of the Earth, we are still here and living our everyday married lives. We are now determined to keep this blog thing alive, no matter how many (or how few) read it. It may evolve into a pet project for Rob’s photography hobby, or perhaps just a periodic update on our travels and eating adventures, but you can be sure there will be at least something new here every week month quarter.

A lot can happen in half a year, yet it’s difficult to top our first half of 2010. Lisa had matron of honor duties for two of her best friends, Michelle and Rita. Michelle and Thommy’s wedding in August was local (South bay), and was fairly straight forward since they wanted to keep things simple and fun. Lisa had fun playing wedding planner for some parts and put her previous experiences to good use. Rita’s wedding gave us a great excuse for another vacation. Rita and Sam’s Maui wedding and Chinese reception in San Jose (October) were fun times with friends and each beautiful and memorable events. However, Lisa is now relieved that her matron of honor duties are done for now (just matron duties now… .

Our time otherwise has been full of fun, short weekend trips (LA in September for Rob’s grandma’s 80th birthday, Portland for Thanksgiving, Vegas in December, cooking class in Napa in January). We’ve indulged by eating/drinking our way through these trips, including Urban Farmer, Ad Hoc, Farmstead, Wine Spectator Restaurant at Greystone, Bouchon (Vegas and Yountville), Bistro Jeanty, Auberge du Soleil, Craftsteak (Las Vegas), Delfina, and others… And btw, we both turned 30 in 2010… spent Lisa’s birthday in Maui (helicopter ride over Molokai, lunch at Plantation House, dinner at Banyan Tree restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton) and celebrated Rob’s with dinner at Benu in SF. We finally cracked open that Cristal with Vince and Jen on Christmas Eve to celebrate and bring in the New Year a little early. Needless to say, we should be on diets for the next couple months!

Congrats to our friends and cousins who became parents this year (or added to their families)… welcome babies Duncan, Isabella, Malia, Myles, Trevor and more!! We’re at that age now when wedding invitations slowly turn into baby showers and extravagant weddings turn into birthday parties at the park. We’re really going to enjoy seeing all these little kids grow up over the years!

This marks our very first Chinese New Year as a married couple. Sadly, this means the end to those little red envelopes from our parents and relatives. But, this also means that we are now the bearers of gifts and little red envelopes to the little ones. We are actually quite excited to begin handing out Lai See to our favorite kids of friends and family. Lisa is loving the whole thing and can’t wait to continue all these Chinese traditions (and torture our kids just as our parents did). Someday, we must learn how to make sharkfin soup, sea cucumber, Hainan chicken, and dong to recreate those massive New Year dinners just like our parents. Until next time… Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Our wedding celebrations have all wrapped up, and we’re finally back in the normal swing of things. We’re now an old married couple, just enjoying life and each others company… blah!! hehe =) We’ve kept busy with bachelorette and bachelor parties, wedding and baby showers, weddings, and baby birthday parties. Lisa especially has her hands full, being matron of honor for two of her best friends in August and October. We’ve got plenty of wedding activities and baby events to attend lately, and happy to celebrate with all the new families!

Since our last update, we’ve received our wedding ceremony photos from Italy, as well as our photos from Kurty from the Lulu celebration, and New Asia banquet photos from Andy and a family friend. We’ve sifted through all 2000+ photos and picked our favorites to post on our website photo gallery. We’ve been having fun putting together a book/album of our events as a physical keepsake, so that we don’t just leave all the photos in the virtual and digital world. We have to keep reminding ourselves that not everyone has Facebook or is technologically savvy. We’re sure our grandparents and parents will appreciate photos they can hold in their own hands.

Please enjoying flipping through a condensed and abridged set of our photos from all three events:

Italy Ceremony on May 29th, 2010

Wedding Celebration at Restaurant Lulu’s in San Francisco, CA on June 25th, 2010

Chinese Banquet at New Asia Restaurant in San Francisco, CA on June 26th, 2010 – (BEWARE and be patient for this ginormous collection of 600+ photos to load. Happy browsing!)
We also have separate banquet albums organized by families/friends in case you don’t want to look through all 600+ photos for people you actually know.
Rob’s Mom’s family
Rob’s Dad’s family
Lisa’s Family
Rob and Lisa’s Friends

We’d appreciate any photos you’d like to share with us. Please contact us to arrange a transfer.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Thanks to everyone who made it out to sunny San Francisco this weekend to celebrate our marriage! Well, those of you who were in SF Thursday and Friday know very well that it wasn’t exactly sunny all weekend… We especially thank everyone who travelled through the super thick trademark San Francisco fog and made it (eventually) to our celebration on Friday evening. However, we had some luck with the sun poking out just before our dinner began, and it just got warmer from then on, making for a gorgeous weekend in the Bay Area.

The day began with Lisa getting her hair and makeup done downtown with her sisters (Mabel and Judy), and Rob checked into our hotel suite with Vince and Danny. Kurty, our photographer, met us at the hotel and began documenting our day. We walked around the block to Restaurant Lulu as Kurty snapped a bunch of photos in the urban landscape. Rob’s best friend Vince introduced us as we cautiously climbed atop a table to recite our vows. Once we took our seats, the feast began! By now, you all know how much we enjoy food. For most of you who already knew this, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that we had never-ending heaps of food served on Friday night. We received multiple comments about how much food there was, and that’s pretty much what we were going for… We wanted to ensure everyone had good food and drinks to last the entire evening! For anyone local to the Bay Area, we highly recommend coming back to dine at Lulu’s in the future. We had an absolutely great time and hope everyone enjoyed the live jazz band, caricature artists, photoboof, and awesome DJ (Herb Digs). The night turned out exactly as we had envisioned (just a big party with good food and wine, hanging out with friends and family without all the typical cheesy wedding stuff). For those of you who are interested, our Friday dinner menu consisted of:

Appetizers:

Antipasti of olives, mushrooms, and beets

First Course:

Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels
Apple and Blue Cheese Salad With Walnuts, Buttermilk Blue Cheese, Frisée & Champagne Vinaigrette
Wood Oven Baked Lulu Wild Mushroom Pizzas

Second Course:

Rosemary Scented Chicken With Warm Potato and Lettuce Salad
Grilled Rib Eye Steak With Escarole, Potatoes and Olive Butter
Wood Oven Roasted Salmon With “White Gazpacho” Tomato, Grape, Cucumber Cous Cous
Potato gnocchi With Wild Mushrooms, Peas and Parmesan
Platters of Assorted Seasonal Vegetables
Macaroni and Cheese

Dessert:

Lemon and Coffee Gelato
Christopher Elbow Chocolates: Strawberry Baslamic, Fleur de Sel, Peach, Venezuelan Dark, Champagne

Round Two! (7pm):

Tiger Prawns
Crispy Potato and Chive Cigars
Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Skewers
Seared Ahi Tuna on Cucumber wheels
Pulled Pork Sliders
Artisanal Cheese selection
White truffled French fries
Taco Station with pulled pork and chicken, guacamole, various sauces
Desserts Petits Fours (chocolate flourless cake, passion fruit chiffon cake, chocolate madeleines)
Caramel & Strawberry popcorn

Wine and beverages:

A HUGE THANK YOU to our vendors for making this such a successful event:

Darla and the staff at Restaurant Lulu, San Francisco, CA
Jon Casey Caricatures
Doug Shannon Caricatures (facebook)
The PhotoBoof!
Live 4-piece band – BASSment
Christopher Elbow Chocolates
Flowers by Dave Wong of Absolute Elegance
DJ Herb Digs
Kurty Photography
Leung’s White Crane lion dance team

We’ve posted the PhotoBoof! pictures in our gallery. Please contact us if you’d like a digital copy of any of the individual photos (without the border).

We’ve also posted caricature drawings in our gallery and on facebook. From our gallery, you can download the high resolution copies by clicking the “DOWNLOAD IMAGE” link in the upper right corner.

So, moving on to Saturday night… Some have described it as “entertaining” or “loud” or “the most Chinese-y wedding they’ve ever attended”. We can just simply call it memorable. The evening started at 5pm for a traditional tea ceremony with the family. We had a fun time posing for pictures in front of our beautiful 1980′s-esque prom picture background with our cousins and friends. Special thanks to Andy for scrambling around to take photos for us through the evening! People began pouring in around 6 and didn’t stop until 43 tables were full and we were finally ready to make our grand entrance (1.5 hours after the original start time… but really, have you ever been to a Chinese banquet that started on time?). After bilingual introductions by our fabulous MC “Show me what you get!” aka Sandy, the White Crane lion dancers performed an amazing, death-defying bench routine for a good 20 minutes. Once the jellyfish and meat appetizer plate was served, we moved on to an interesting dancing/singing game… After Sharkfin soup and Abalone were served, Lisa and her mom changed into her cheongsam, then we literally ran through all 43 tables for toasts (mostly people we did not know personally). Another couple of dishes were served, then a fun kissing game with Rob’s cousin’s (plus a surprise guest, Jenny). Then chicken (heads included), lobster, sea bass, and fried rice to cap it off before impromptu dancing with the in-laws, cake cutting and apple cider toasting. Then dancing ensued amongst Lisa’s parents and their friends, accompanied by some good (and not so good) Chinese singing and karaoke. We had a great support table of friends who braved it and stuck with us through the crazy spectacle of loud, Chinese singing and games. Thanks also to all the family and friends who figured out some way of entertaining themselves and enjoying the evening. We can’t say that we’re looking forward to doing that again anytime soon (or ever), but it was fun and definitely a memorable night and end to our wedding weekend!

Thanks to Grace, Rhonda, Judy, and Andy for letting us use your pictures for this blog post (If we didn’t ask you beforehand… sorry, and I hope you were ok with it. hehe). You all took great photos, which really captured the events! We’ll be posting pictures soon from Friday and Saturday nights in our Gallery, as well as ceremony pictures from Italy!! Stay tuned…

We’ve been back home for about 2 weeks now, and finally back in the normal swing of things. It feels good to be home, but we probably could’ve used a couple more days off work to recuperate from the vacation itself… We’re now running around (not yet frantically, but possibly soon), tying up all the loose ends for the wedding celebration plans in San Francisco. It’s exciting, if not a little bit intimidating and nerve-racking, to think that all our families and friends will be together with all eyes on us. However it all turns out, our goal is that everyone has a good time and enjoys themselves, whether it be indulging in the mass amounts of food we have planned, or taking part in competitive dancing accompanied by a glaring live Chinese band, or simply enjoying watching all of the events from a distance and hopefully squeezing in a nice little chat with us newlyweds.

We’d like to thank Rob’s mom and Lisa’s new mother-in-law and grandmother for a fun-filled wedding shower last weekend. They were extremely gracious for opening up their home and providing delicious food! Thank you to everyone who attended and gave gifts. We are truly appreciative and grateful.

Since our previous update, we had one last day in Rome. After a morning walk through the Colosseum and Roman Forum, we decided that we had done enough sightseeing over the past three weeks. So, when in Rome, we decided to do what Romans do… Shop! We joined an afternoon tour to a nearby outlet mall named Castel Romano, which was full of name brand shops, namely Valentino, Diesel, Hugo Boss, Frette, Ferragamo, D&G, and a massive Zegna store (Rob’s favorite). This spelled nothing but trouble as Rob felt like a kid in a candy store, with deals on current season items at crazy discounted prices. After some major wallet damage (and purchasing an additional large suitcase to carry all our stuff back home), we headed back to our hotel for probably our nicest and best tasting meal in Rome. We relaxed and savored our meal at the St. Regis grand café, enjoying delicious carbonara pasta, fettuccini, delectable French fries and tiramisu, a nice espresso and tea, and some fancy complimentary sweets. The evening was complete with a entertaining piano man playing all the great cheesy romantic classics as an old couple danced in the middle of this opulent room, sparkling with the light from the huge chandelier hanging high above.

We caught a quick flight back to Paris, and checked into our hotel literally just off the airport runway. It is here, where Lisa had a taste of the nastiest sausage ever. The sign said “andouille”, but we didn’t realize that the traditional French andouille sausage is composed of the entire gastrointestinal system of the pig (according to wikipedia. maybe it was “andouillette“?). The smell and taste still haunt Lisa to this day!

Our last day in Europe was spent at Roland Garros, just on the outer west side of Paris. We had grounds tickets since it was the last day of the tournament (men’s singles finals) and tickets inside the Court Philippe Chatrier sell for thousands of dollars. Instead, €16 got us open seating in court #1 which was right next to the main event. The whole morning was overcast, after some showers earlier. Like an act of the tennis Gods, the clouds began to part and the sun was in full brightness only 5 minutes before the finals match began. After Nadal took the championship over Soderling and left the stadium as the new world #1, we also left Roland Garros with souvenirs packed in our bags and and ready to head home.

The flight back home was made easier in the comfort of business class, but is still no good substitute for a good night sleep. The highlights of our 6 hour lay-over in Washington D.C. Was seeing/meeting Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser (USA beach volleyball Olympians) in the Red Carpet Club, and munching on tasty Potbelly sandwiches.

After all the traveling through France (Paris, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Monaco) and Italy (Ventimiglia, Milan, The Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Florence, Venice, and Rome), we’ll remember this trip for the beautiful sight of the Eiffel tower in all its glory, bite-size macarons from Pierre Hermé literally melting in our mouths, standing in amazement at the beautiful and vast gardens, chateau, and Queen’s hamlet of Versailles, the little scoopfuls of creamy and flavorful gelato in Florence and Rome, driving an Italian supercar through the picturesque Tuscany hills, saying “I do” at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and enjoying new experiences together as we begin a new chapter of our lives.

UPDATE: Photos from France and Italy are now in the Gallery! Uploading to Facebook and Picasa soon…

What better way to explore the Tuscany rolling hills than by driving a bright red Ferrari F430, right? We had a 4 hour tour with Red Travel in Tuscany driving parts of the famed Mille Miglia route, and stopping at one of the picturesque hill towns of San Gimignano. We were lucky to be the only car on this particular tour, which can have up to 6 cars at times. Tuscany is somewhat similar to the Napa region back home in California, but many times bigger, more rustic and perhaps even more charming. The valleys and hills never seem to end with acres and acres of vines which are harvested to make the delightful Chianti wine. The twisty roads were fantastic to drive, and Rob was kept entertained by testing the car’s awesome handling and power a little bit in the back roads. The only bad part of the tour is that Rob now wants a Ferrari more than ever.

Monday, we attempted to venture out to Bologna for our reserved Ducati factory and museum tour, but missed it by just 30 minutes! However, we were able to successfully make it out to the legendary town of Maranello for the Galleria Ferrari museum. The city is also the site of the giant Ferrari Factory, headquarters, F1 headquarters and Fiorini test track. Once again, Rob was in heaven.

The next day, we left our apartment in Florence for a quick stay in Venice. We can see how someone could easily fall in love with the charming little bridges over the narrow canals and tiny streets, which seem to form a crazy maze throughout the entire small island. Despite a minor setback with the slightly confusing vaporettos, we were checked into our hotel on Guidecca island and freshened up before heading back to the main island (15 minute sloooow free shuttle ride). We met Vince and Jen at San Marco square, and explored (got lost in) the maze of streets to find tasty gelato and snacks. We found a nice little pasta place for a fun dinner to hang out and share travel/wedding stories with Jen and Vince. After Vince was buzzed after his 4 shot glasses of Pinot bianco and local cabernet, we walked it off and spent a few minutes under the romantic lights in San Marco square to listen to the jazz bands battle across the courtyard.

We are now in Rome, and have already seen some major sites like the majestic Trevi fountain, the extravagant and vast Vatican city, and 3 gelato shops within 24 hours. We seriously need to lay off the gelato and pasta as soon as we get back home… Our temporary home in the St. Regis in Rome feels very dreamy, sort of like an old movie set or something, and it’s a fun way to spend some of last few days in Europe. We’re back in Paris in a few days for the French Open at Roland Garros, and then finally back home. It’s been such a great and memorable trip, but definitely a long one. We’re feeling some cravings for some good beef chow fun and a good ol’ hamburger, so we’ll be happy to be home soon.

It’s official! Rob and Lisa were married at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 12:30pm.

On Saturday morning, we leisurely prepared ourselves for the ceremony. We picked up some small pastries at the bakery downstairs from our apartment for breakfast, got dressed, and walked down the block (5 minutes) with Kami, Jon, and Lexie to the side entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio. Our wedding coordinator’s assistant and two photographers met us just outside to walk us up to the Sala Rossa (“red room”) of the town hall. We walked into the room accompanied by Italian classical music, and then the ceremony was conducted in Italian by the Vice Mayor of Florence, and translated into English. Of course, Lisa didn’t get through it without shedding some tears. The ceremony was short and sweet, exciting and new, simple and memorable.

We took pictures around the Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio, and Michelangelo garden. We felt like celebrities for a few hours since all the tourists were taking photos of us. We expect to get our official wedding photos delivered in a few weeks. In the meantime, here are a few quick snapshots from the day.

Much appreciation to Ben Singleton and his team from ItalyWeddings for making our wedding day as smooth as possible. Lisa’s calla lily bouquet and Rob’s boutonnière were perfect and exactly as we had imagined. Thanks for making our wedding day worry-free and memorable!

We ended the day with a spectacular intimate dinner at Il Cibréo ristorante in Florence near the Basilica di Santa Croce. The dishes were all amazing! The day will definitely be a wonderful day to remember, and an experience we’ll enjoy telling our friends and family.

With love,
Rob and Lisa Lew

Since our last update, we sped through Milan, Lake Como (Como, Bellagio, Varenna), and the Cinque Terre (Vernaza, Manarola, and Via Dell Amore trail to Riomaggiore). The center of Milan is a high-end shoppers paradise… Stopped into the global flagship Zegna store, and visited a 5 story Ferrari retail store. We had a very classy dinner on the 7th floor atop the la Rinascente department store (think similar to Bloomingdales) with an impressive close-up view of the ginormous Milan Duomo, and a DJ playing mostly American popular club/lounge music. They served complimentary champagne, and we ordered pellegrino, an excellent 2005 Barolo, risotto and funghi amuse bouche (complimentary), bean lobster bacon black pasta ravioli, saffron marrow risotto, and passion fruit panna cotta. Such a whirlwind tour of 3 very different areas, but all worthwhile and a great experience!

We arrived in Florence on Wednesday evening, and early the next morning we met with our wedding coordinator, Ben Singleton from ItalyWeddings. He helped us complete the final paperwork at the US consulate (Nulla Osta), the Atto Nottorio at another Italian office building, and then the Sworn Statement at the Firenze town hall to approve our marriage. Prior to our final approval, we had to answer a series of 4 interesting questions: 1) Have you ever been married or divorced? 2) Are you related? (brother/sister, cousins, you get the point…) 3) Are you mentally stable? and last but not least, 4) Have you or have you tried to murder your previous spouse (it’s ok if your murdered someone else; just not your spouse!). We’re so relieved that Ben was helping us with all the paperwork because it’s quite complicated and he makes the whole process effortless and stress-free.

After our paperwork was completed, we walked around and walked the side streets of Florence to avoid most of the other tourists and tour groups. We had a great dinner in a cute little restaurant called Trattoria 13 Gobbi (“13 hunchbacks”, a recommendation from Rick Steve’s), where we had super tender and tasty green gnocchi and veal ossobuco. Today, we checked into an apartment one block away from the Palazzo Vecchio, where we will be getting married. We climbed the Duomo dome at 8:30am to avoid the crowd, and glad we did. The views of all of Florence were absolutely spectacular. We also did a run through of the Accademia, to see the “real” statue of David which was also quite the sight. Afterwards, we bought some tasting tickets for the Firenze Gelato Festival.

It’s less than 24 hours now until the ceremony, and we’re super excited! Details from the wedding day will come tomorrow! This will be our last update before we tie the knot and the last time it will read Lisa Vuong & Rob Lew..

Ciao!
Lisa Vuong & Rob Lew

As our time in the south of France has ended, we’ve discovered that the small cities along the Côte d’Azur are nearly the opposite of Paris, but in a good way. All the rush and sensory overload of Paris contrasts with the lazy strolls through the streets of Nice and the glitz and glamour of the Monte Carlo wealthy, seen sun bathing atop their yachts and the rocky beaches along the Promenade Anglais. This is Lisa’s idea of a true vacation… relaxing and taking in the sun. The weather is warm (mid to high 70′s), which is typical vacation-like weather, if not a bit sticky after walking around for a couple hours. We’ve found that the Niçoise food is tasty (salade Niçoise and fresh seafood) and people are generally very nice (pun not intended… sorta). We had our first taste of European gelato on Saturday (then our second taste 2 hours later).

We had dinner at a local supermarket cafeteria, which was surprisingly good. Then we picked up with some stuff at the market, including a baguette, cheese, salame, bacon chips, and gariguettes (small, sweet strawberries). The next morning, we set off to the small town of Antibes with Jon, Kami and Lexie. We found a street market with a bunch of little stands selling cheese, sausage, herbs, socca (apparently a Niçoise specialty), olive and sun dried tomato tapenades, bar soap, scarves and macarons. We stopped by the Picasso museum along the coast, then walked along the old fort walls along the beach and piers.

One thing we did not expect was the one and a half hour break between trains when we attempted to catch one to Cannes from Antibes. We were stuck at the Biot train station near Antibes from 2:30-4pm, since no trains run during that time at all. We lost a bit of time there, but finally got to Cannes for the last day of the annual Cannes Film Festival. We didn’t see anyone famous, but we saw plenty of people waiting to see someone famous. It was plenty warm in the sun as we walked up and down the streets filled with a mix of tourists and people dressed up in tuxedos and gowns attending the festival.

Monaco was like a playground for Rob, since it is the historic site of the legendary Monaco Grand Prix (Formula 1). We missed the actual race by one week, but a lot of the track and grandstands were still set up. We walked through Monaco, through the pit lane and along the massive yachts. The casinos and hotels are very extravagant and we saw a Ferrari or Aston Martin at least every five minutes.

We missed our 9:49am train to Milano because we weren’t aware that the ticket lines would be so long (mental note taken for next time…). So, we had a 3.5 hour stop in Ventimiglia, Italy. This actually turned out to be rather convenient, giving us time for our first Italian lunch in Italy (spaghetti, lasagna, and tiramisu) and time to send some of our stuff back to lighten our loads. It only cost about €70 to send back 15kg. of stuff back home. Not too bad… After a couple of scoops of gelato, we were back on the train to Milano.

Internet is scarce here if you don’t already have a wireless plan in Europe from Orange or something like it. However, we can usually count on McDonalds for free “wee-fee.” by the way, the McD’s are awesome here. The touch screen ordering system is quick and convenient, the Chicken Shake is very tasty (like an instant shake-and-bake type of thing), and the decor is definitely a step up from the ones back in the states. However, the self ordering system at McD’s and the train stations failed us a couple times since most of the machines require credit cards with the little chip embedded.

Also, we forgot to mention the absolutely delicious French macarons here. Forget what you think what good macarons are if you’ve only had them in the US. Take the best macarons from Bouchon or Paulette’s or Miette, and multiply that goodness by at least 10, and you get macarons from Paris. We especially enjoyed these little pieces of heaven from Pierre Hermé, though the ones from Maison du Chocolat and the famous Ladurée are also unbelievable. Even the ones from McCafé are just as good (or better) than the ones back home. Amazing. And dangerous… Most are only a just over €1, so we’ve been easily tempted throughout our time in France.