SF Date Overnight!

Kelvin's parents planned to drive up and visit us this month and, after Kelvin saw an advertisement for the play "Kim's Convenience" in SF, they stayed through the weekend to help watch the kiddos. We haven't done it often, but we got away for a quick ~24h date to "The City" which was fast but enjoyable. 

Kelvin is a "maximizer," and while the play alone was enough entertainment for me, he found and bought tickets for a comedy show on Saturday night featuring Sebastian Maniscalco, who he likes and I don't know, in Rohnert Park (just outside of Santa Rosa, about 4 hours from home).

We left Iver's soccer game at halftime (he scored a hat trick in the first half and ended up with five goals, leading his time to a 14-0 shut-out and continuing the Grim Reapers' undefeated season!) and headed south. 

We stayed at a Hampton Inn hear Graton Casino, which hosted the show. Sebastian was definitely funny, irreverent at times (but not as much as some comedians), and we both laughed a lot. Even though the show started at 8 p.m. with an opening act by Mike Young, I stayed awake until bedtime! 

On Saturday morning, we headed an hour south into San Francisco and after having a bit of a panic of where to park the RAV-4, which, with the cargo box, wasn't able to enter some of the nearby parking garages (and street parking was full!), we found a different garage with a handicapped side near Union Square.

We ate dim sum for brunch in Chinatown at Hang Ah, the oldest continuously operating dim sum restaurant in the U.S., dating from 1920.

All the dishes were made in house and were delicious.

We did a bit of shopping before heading to the Toni Rembe Theater for the performance of Kim's Convenience, which opened as a play (by Ins Choi) in 2005 and became a Netflix series in 2018 (I really enjoyed the show when I watched in a couple of years ago). 

The show features a Korean-Canadian family who runs a family convenience store in Toronto, and exhibits many funny and heartwarming moments and storylines. Many themes (including the emphasis on hard work, achievement, filial duty, and saving money), are very relatable and quite hysterical, especially if you have immigrant Asian parents (or in-laws :)).  The play's author (Ins Choi) starred as "Appa" (the patriarch) in our performance; in other theater productions, he has starred as Jung (the son). He was incredible and I found the 90-minute play really well done. Kelvin, who watched a few episodes prior to the play to get "the flavor," also enjoyed it.

We then busted out of the city to head home to Humboldt, seeing many "Waymo" (driverless) cars along the way.  We ate some delicious Thai food in Ukiah and made if safely home with enough time to tuck in the kids, who were happy to see us! 

It was a whirlwind 24 hours but a fun one! We appreciate Kelvin's parents for holding down the fort at home!