ktula’s family and friends flew in from United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and China. Betty and Liam came all the way from Ontario. We are truly blessed and loved having friends and family gathered to celebrate with us.

The day of the banquet came and went in a blur. The event went by with people telling me what to do and where to go. I’m glad we had photos, so I get to know what happened that day.

Sister Betty took a detour from her business trip to spend some quality time here during the Memorial weekend. We didn’t plan anything big, just having good food and hanging out. She was so much fun to be around.

Per her request, we went to Crab Pot on Pier 57. We arrived early but were told we had to wait at least 45 minutes to be seated. Seattlelites and tourists filled up the hallway outside the restaurant.

We had 2 orders of seafood to share between the 3 of us. That turned out to be just the right amount of food. While we were waiting for our seafood, we had some pretty good sourdough bread. Then our giant bucket of seafood arrived – crabs, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp in the shell, halibut and salmon skewer, corn cob, potatoes…. We sampled each ingredient and were amazed how fresh and tender they were. Steam was really the best way to truly taste the freshness.

It didn’t take us long to finish tableful of food. What a fun meal. I can’t believe all these years reside in Seattle, I waited this long to try out Crab Pot. I’ll certainly come back here whenever I have serious crave for fresh seafood.

Betty headed to LA on Monday morning, left us with fond memory and delicious snacks from Taiwan that will feed us for a very long time.

As father’s birthday approaching, Betty planned a Sunday lunch for his 80th birthday. It’s not the easiest thing to find present for my dad, whom has everything he needs. 2 days before his birthday lunch, I decided to fly to Taipei to celebrate his birthday with him.

Betty and I kept my trip home a secret. The moment mom and dad saw me, they were puzzled and couldn’t register why I showed up in the living room. Then almost at the same time, mom and dad cheered for my returning home. Mom ran to give me a hug but halfway decided to smack me with pair of socks in her hand. Dad was very surprised and very happy. The house all the sudden came alive. Mom and dad scrambled to make bed for me, even though it was nowhere near bedtime.

Lunch went well, Dad was in high spirits the entire family gathered for his birthday. He talked about his wishes of a strong family bond. Toward the end of the meal, he talked for an hour of his life as a young man in the military. That was pretty awesome. And he kept saying my surprise visit was the best present, he loved it.

Per Dad’s request, we had dinner with Liam at DinTaiFung (鼎泰豐). The dinner ended with the traditional battle for the right to pay for the meal. With decades of practices, Dad claimed victory over Liam. Poor Liam got scolded for not winning the bill.

During my 3-day stay, dad and I bonded around eating and in search of food. We walked to nearby street vendors selling traditional Chinese breakfast. Or swamping travel stories in tiny conveyor belt sushi store.

There were several memorable homemade dishes – dad’s hand-rolled red bean paste wheat buns, mom’s several bamboo dishes, microwave steamed cod (amazingly easy to make and tasty).