2012

Happy new year! Another fresh year before us. I just love the optimism and positivity that a new year brings. It's amazing how turning the page to a new calendar incites people to want to be better, do better and try harder, and we aren't an exception. We will be working on our Villanueva Family Goals, stay tuned for a future post.

We rang in the new year with a low-key, family-friendly weekend in Sausalito and had a great time. We started off at the Bay Area Discovery Museum where the air was crisp and the sun shone bright. There were so many people because every New Year's Eve the museum hosts a "Noon Year's Eve" party for all the little kiddies, complete with bubbles, a DJ, goodie bags and giant beach ball drop! Too cute.





After soaking up the sun and running off some energy, we headed over to Cavallo Point Lodge at historic Fort Baker, right next to the museum where we booked a room for the night. It was our first time there and we will definitely be going back.





We stayed in one of their contemporary hotel rooms which had a beautiful minimalist quality accented with lots of natural elements like stone flooring in the bathroom, beautiful wood and floor to ceiling windows that seemed to bring the outdoors in. I especially liked their eco-friendly efforts.

For dinner we met up with our good friend April and dined at Intramuros, a Filipino restaurant that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I've heard a lot of good things about it and had to see for myself. The verdict: good but not great. See my Yelp review for more details! Nevertheless, the food was satisfying and the company made it a great evening all around. Being our first time there we went a little overboard on the ordering:





After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we got cozy in our pjs, tuned in to Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve and welcomed the new year with our two little boys. The next day we checked out of Cavallo Point and headed to San Francisco for dim sum at Yank Sing, another establishment on our "to eat" list. The food was amazing - perfectly formed dumplings, fresh crispy lettuce cups, melt-in-your-mouth peking duck and more. It's definitely on the pricey side and not somewhere we'd go regularly, but hey, we had to start the new year off right! It's a must-try for anyone who's a fan of dim sum.

Our last stop before returning home to Vacaville was a visit to my friend/coworker Rosa. Rosa and I have been friends since I first started at Genentech and she has been a constant supporter of both me and our family. It was her first time meeting Lucas so it was an especially nice visit.

All in all it was another wonderful family mini-getaway. We look forward to what 2012 has in store for us...happy new year to you and yours!