last weekend

Last week at this time, I was hanging out with my sister. 

Please pardon me while I put my head down and weep at the comparative shittiness of this moment. 

Thanks! It's so tragic when really fun things end, but we must soldier on and bravely try to reclaim those joyful feelings by immersing ourselves in fond remembrance. 

Or something. 

Julie's vacation was longer than our visit together, so by the time she got home and posted 800 photos on facebook, I was already a couple of days into a doozy of a work week. I *did* recapture our joy, though. It would have been impossible not to! There was a lot of joy there, man. Those of you lucky enough to have a mutual friends in Julie will have already seen (or chosen to NOT see, you jerks) the 800 photos and videos of our fun time, and I won't annoy you by reposting them here. I do have a few that I actually took all by my silly self, though! Yay, me. Let's have a look:

I snapped this photo on my way to work on the morning of the night Julie was arriving. It was super froggy out, and I was stopped at the crossing for a train, which was on the very same journey that we'd soon embark upon!

Fast forward! Here we are with the lovely Beth at a brewery in OB, having just begun a riotous round of Jenga. 

This was before it reached the ceiling and I won

Then after a strategic stop for fish tacos and margaritas, we went out to the pier

lurve.

And Julie tried on the fisherman face before ultimately being consumed by dat shark. 

See how happy everyone is to be the fisherman?

It was lovely out there on the pier

Whoa, whoa, wait a minute - that last one isn't the pier! We're already on the train! This trip is going by so fast. 

We took the de-luxe fancy panty train up to lasagne beach. Look how pretty:

We arrived and ate a lunch of champions, then we were swooped by the inimitable LaLa Lady Herself and her betrothed Himself. I wonder if those two are in any photos... yes I think so. Be patient. 

Here's the swanky room Julie booked 

We checked in then headed right back out to this spot

LOOK HOW FUN

LOOK HOW GORGEOUS

I can't with these people. 

We went for sushi after that spot, which was so yum and perfect and delicious. They *got* us. And when Julie pointedly requesting "quite a bit" more wasabi, they brought us this:

Meanwhile, John spent an hour doing nerd magic to concoct a wasabi potion with chemical reactions and periodic elements. By the time he looked up, we'd eaten all the fish. 

We saved him one.

Lots of food and sake and sapporo and wasabi and fish and sake and sapporo and sake and sake and sake was consumed. Oy. 

We ended the night in Julie and John's bed - all of us - watching SNL preview clips and then settling in to listen to Colleenie being smart and articulate despite the presence of her mother and aunt on either side of her, petting her and murmuring encouraging love sounds. 

The next morning, Julie texted me a photo of the adorable faces that were back in the bed, waiting for me to come join them. 

I replied:

shhhhhhhhh

Then we ate some more and laughed some more and before any time had passed we were forced to leave our nice hotel and suffer the scenery

My room was an apartment

I had a dining room table and a living room set

Two balconies. Two bedrooms

Julie set a style standard that rivaled Colleen's previous watermelon and laundry basket statement.

Colleen makes everything prettier

These two are like totally into each other.

It was tragic to have to leave, but eventually I was deposited back at the train station for another deluxe ride, at the end of which my boy chauffeur awaited to carry me home for our much anticipated, raucous superbowl party.

go sports!

For more details, go look at Julie's facebook page!