Category Archive: vacation

Big Sur camping weekend!

Posted by Lisa On October 5th, 2011

Kevin, Lola and I took a marvelous four day weekend to go camping in Big Sur!  We met up with our good friends Brian and Brianne from Long Beach and we had a blast!

Friday, September 30

We left at 6am on Friday morning in hopes of beating the traffic and of getting into the Big Sur area early enough to find a camping site.  Yes, we were those people that didn’t make reservations.

We are in desperate need of a bigger car…Lola could barely fit in the backseat with all our camping junk!  And the other sleeping bag may or may not have fallen on top of her during the ride a couple of times, haha.

Any gloomy morning can be brightened up with a dozen cupcakes!  Kevin baked those for Brianne since her birthday was just after our camping trip.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing dogs hanging their heads outside of car windows.

We made a few stops along the way, taking in the amazing views of the California coast.

I truly love this state.

“Hello!“

We drove up and down the coast trying to find the perfect camping spot.  After a few sites told us there were 1-2 spots left but either the campground was too expensive ($65 a night?!) or there were too many bugs or it just didn’t feel right it was approaching 12noon and we were starting to get nervous.  One campground (Kirk Creek) we had passed previously we had heard some good things about but after seeing the sign “Campground full” we didn’t think much of it.  On our way back up the coast in hopes that we could snag one of those spots that we had previously passed up on Kevin said we should just drive through the Kirk Creek campground to see if we might get lucky…and we did!  We actually got the last spot in the entire campground.  And the campground was amazing to boot!

We set up our tent, took a little nap in the sunshine, and while patiently awaited the arrival of Brian and Brianne we decided to start cooking dinner before the sun started to set.

On the menu Friday evening?  Sweet potato chili (recipe here) and cornbread cooked in the dutch oven (recipe here).

Pouring the batter into the dutch oven

Letting the magic happen

We had never cooked anything other than a cobbler in the dutch oven before so we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out.  We had to let it sit for 45 minutes to cook so we decided to enjoy some beverages and watch the sun start to set.

Classy boxed wine from Target

Wine in hand, sun shining

Brian and Brianne pulled up just as the cornbread was finishing up so we could dig in!

It turned out perfect!!

We set our chairs out overlooking the ocean and the sunset, eating our giant bowls of chili and fresh cornbread. Not too shabby!

Enjoying the view

For dessert we surprised Brianne with the cupcakes that Kevin had made…yum!  We played a game of Rummikub and tried to keep warm by the light of the lantern (we forgot to buy firewood that first night, d’oh!)  Kevin, Lola and I hit the hay a little early because of our early morning and because it was so dang cold outside with that ocean breeze.  But it was a great first day nonetheless!

Brianne’s birthday cupcakes

Saturday, October 1

We woke up bright and early and got started on breakfast…breakfast burritos with soyrizo!

Kevin cooking up some breakfast!  Our campsite only had shade in the late afternoon so at just about 8:30am the sun would rise above the hills and we’d get an early start on our suntans for the day.

We left mid-day to drive up to Monterey to pick up a few things (air pump for the air mattress [kind of important] and firewood) and we had lunch out that way as well.  I gotta say, it was a little strange being at a Target in the middle of our camping trip.

We got back to the campsite mid-afternoon and took a short hike down a trail that leads straight from the campground down to the beach.

Beautiful!

Lola is so at home at the beach

B & B climbing the rocks

Brian surrounded by water

Pretty seaweed!

Kevin and Lola always have to climb to the highest point and look down at me for the obligatory photo.  This trip to the beach was no exception.

Lola’s paw prints, the ocean, and the sun setting

We found this cool damned-up area that had a small wading pool and a small waterfall that was just Lola’s size.

She spent a good while “fetching” for rocks (they all sank to the bottom but she never stopped trying to look for them!)

Me and Lola

Lola wading in the pool and me in the background

Brian’s dangerous leap-from-one-rock-to-another-over-a-wading-pool stunt.

I love this photo of Lola.

We headed back up to camp to get started on dinner while the sun was still out.  On the menu Saturday evening?  Cheese enchiladas, cilantro lime rice, and avocado/tomato salad (courtesy of B & B).

Brianne cooking the enchiladas in the dutch oven!  We weren’t sure how it would turn out so we kept our fingers crossed.

While B & B were cooking, Kevin and I decided to go sit and watch the sun set (something, we realized, we haven’t done much together surprisingly!)

Those clouds were amazing!

After the sun set we were happy to find out that the dutch oven is the perfect place to cook enchiladas!

Cooked to perfection

Eating by moonlight

Dig in!

That night for dessert we had the ultimate camping treat…s’mores!

Sunday, October 2

We woke up bright and early to find little muddy paw prints on our storage bins and even on the side of our car…crazy raccoons!  Luckily they didn’t get anything (that we know of).

After a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon (or fake sausage for the veg-head over here), we left mid-morning down the road to Sand Dollar beach and picnic grounds.  It was pretty overcast and chilly that morning but luckily the clouds burned off and we had a good dose of sun for the majority of our time there!

View of Sand Dollar beach from the top of the stairs

Stairs down to the beach

Brianne, Brian, Lola and Kevin testing out the water

Brianne at first thought those were bear paw prints until she realized that Lola made them, haha!

I took a few portrait photos, the only one I was missing was Brian!

Brianne

Lola

Kevin

Kevin and Brian braved the coooooold waters and went swimming for about 30 minutes.

Lola watching Kevin and Brian in the water

Eventually Kevin and Brian made their way out and Kevin immediately made a new friend (some other dog, I swear that guy is the Dog Whisperer!)

We made our way back up to the picnic area for some lunch.  After eating, Brian and Kevin decided to attempt to hop over a 4.5 foot tall fence.  Surprisingly, they both did it (after many attempts, I might add).

Alley-oop!

I don’t think so, sir.

Me taking a self-portrait in between their attempts to jump over the fence.

Success!

Kisses from Lola over the fence

A view from below

B & B!

Back at the campsite we sat and tried to soak in the final rays of the sun.

Looks like I got a bit of a tan from the beach, hallelujah!

On the menu for Sunday night?  Burritos with Spanish rice and more of that amazing avocado/tomato salad (courtesy of B & B).  And for dessert?

PEACH AND BLUEBERRY COBBLER straight from the dutch oven!! (recipe here)

That crust was so good!  Next time we just gotta let it cook a little longer but otherwise it was amazing.

I thought I’d take a picture of our dish-washing station…Brianne, Kevin and Brian hard at work!

Group photo by campfire!

We had such a fantastic time…not only did we score an awesome campsite, the weather was lovely, and the company was superb!  I think we should probably put in our reservation now for this time next year at Kirk Creek, what do you say B & B?  🙂

Edmonds family camping trip!

Posted by Lisa On August 5th, 2011

The Edmonds gang spent months in anticipation for our camping trip to Taylor Creek and the time had finally arrived!  Kevin’s family has been camping at this spot for nearly 30 years (!) and this was my third trip to TC.  The last time the whole gang went camping together was at Granite Creek in 2009 (just a couple of months after moving to SF and a few weeks after adopting Lola, see the post here) and the last time we as a family were at TC was in 2007 so it was definitely time for another camping trip!

This campsite is about as rustic as you can get: no running water (except for the spring up the road), no cell phone service, and no toilets (not even an outhouse).  But it’s got everything else that other campsites are missing: it’s quiet (rarely do we spot other campers when we’re there), there are unobstructed starry nights, we’ve got a private creek and private hiking trails.  And that’s why the family keeps coming back after all these years.

Wednesday 7/27

Kevin, Lola and I woke up earlyearlyearly and got on the road at 7:30am.

Lots of fog over the Oakland Hills to greet us

Beautiful views of countryside and clear skies (somewhere off of Hot Springs Road)

Kevin and Lola in the car

We passed a ton of cows on the drive up the mountain…

Mama cows and their babies

Moo.

Lots of meadows–I think this one was aptly named “Big Meadow” (so creative, I know)

Pancake rock!

We arrived (9 hours later!) and were sad to find out that the family’s favorite spot was already taken.  🙁

We drove up the road a bit and found another spot that wasn’t as good but we were pleasantly surprised that it worked out as well as it did.  Kevin, Lola and I held down the fort for a couple of hours before the next group arrived.

We read a couple of short stories to each other with Lola listening in

Beautiful day!

The swimming hole right next to our campsite…perfection!

The next group to arrive was George, Dorothy, Judith, Joshua and Katelyn and it was just us until the third group arrived on Friday.  Our first evening was mostly just setting up camp, eating hamburgers and hot dogs (and veggie burgers/veggie skewers for the vegetarian in the group!) and hanging out around the campfire.

Kevin and George with the bonfire

Thursday 7/28

The group woke up bright and early for another fun day of camping.  Except for this little girl who did not want to get up…

Lola, snuggled up

We were finally able to encourage the tired pup to get up and get the day started!

First thing on the to-do list?  Gather fire wood.  George, Kevin, Joshua and Lola were in charge of that item (thank you guys!)

Alley oop Lola!

While the muchachos and Lola went to get fire wood, the rest of us muchachas got dressed for some creek time…

Katelyn and her genius innertube

Dorothy and Judith hanging out by the creek

After the guys got back with the firewood it was creek time for them too!

Lola’s favorite thing to do was hop/jump/leap across the creek to fetch her ball (oh yeah, and shake and get all of us sitting on the bank wet too)

Kevin, George and Katelyn (the brave ones) in for a dip

After some time by the creek it was time for lunch and time to put up the hammocks!  Kevin and I purchased these hammocks in Nicaragua in 2004 and had yet to use them so it was about time!

Can’t get much more relaxing than this

Bliss.

Kevin squished into the seat hammock (and his butt was about 1.5 inches above the ground, haha)

Dorothy and Kevin relaxing in the shade

Lola couldn’t wait to test out the hammock either, haha

Lola guarding our campsite (her favorite place to be: the kitchen)

Katelyn keeping cool in the shade

Friday 7/29

Another bright and early morning!  After breakfast (breakfast burritos, mmm!) we went for a short hike to another swimming hole down the creek.

Pine cones covering the ground

George, Kevin and Lola trying to find us a nice spot to sit and relax

Lola again loved jumping over the creek to catch her ball.  We got her in the creek for a bit too, here she is jumping to catch a ball.

Beautiful skies!

Can’t get enough of these rock formations, trees and sky views

Lola looking back at Joshua and Kevin

My favorite photo of the camping trip!  Lola in the foreground, Joshua and Kevin in the background.

Can you spot Lola?

Back to the campsite to wait for our third group to arrive (Sarah and Rob!)  We spent the time eating lunch and putting reading glasses on Lola (just what any normal family would do, right? You can blame Katelyn for this one, haha)

Lola, the librarian

We were expecting them mid-day so when they hadn’t arrived by mid-afternoon we started getting worried and sent out a search party.  Ten minutes later the search party spotted their car and back to the campsite they went.

Just a little after they arrived the group got dressed and took a 20 minute hike to what the family calls “Flat Rock”–a really awesome spot where the creek has a waterfall and it flows down huge, flat rocks making great spots for sitting and relaxing.

Flat Rock

The girls: Katelyn, Sarah, Judith, Dorothy and me

Tall rocks and bright blue skies

Sarah and Rob

Lola biting the mini rapids

Katelyn and Josh building a damn, Lola biting the rapids

Kevin, George and Joshua decided to hike up the mountain a bit while the rest of our group made our way back to the campsite.  Here are some photos that Kevin took on the hike…

The view of Church Dome (where we’d be hiking to the following day, yikes!)

I love this miniaturized (is that a word?) photo that Kevin took

Lola with her hiking backpack

After the two hikes and three swimming holes that day Lola was pooped!

Proof of above statement

What makes a good evening while camping? Talking around the campfire of course…

George and Sarah

Dorothy and Kevin

Sunset

Saturday 7/30

Another early morning camping (our last full day, waah!)

Kevin putting on his shoes, enjoying the view out our tent

After breakfast the group packed into two of the cars and made our way upupup the road to the trail head for our hike to Church Dome.

Joshua, Sarah, Kevin, Rob and Lola sizing up Church Dome

Lots and lots of water breaks…

My cute little hiking husband

Sarah and Rob

Family photo!  Me, Kevin and Lola

What a view!

Beautiful flowers in between rocks

Kevin and Lola looking out onto the meadows and forest

After hours of hiking upupup we finally made it!  Time for lunch.

Group shot at lunch (thanks Sarah!)

While half of the group was satisfied with the hike and ready to make our way back down, the other half didn’t get quite enough and wanted to push on a little farther.  Can you guess what group I was in?  😉

While Judith, Dorothy, Katelyn, Lola and I stayed back to take a short nap, the rest of the group made their way up to the top of Church Dome.

Lola digging a hole (first time I’d ever seen her do that!)

She was trying to get to the cooler soil for her nap, so adorable.

From our spot down below we could see a few ants walking at the top of Church Dome–they looked a lot like the rest of our family (click the photo to zoom in; Sarah, Rob and George on the left, Kevin and Josh on the right).

Once the other part of the group met up with us it was time to make our descent off the mountain.  But first…a group photo!

Beautiful.

Although the hike down was much faster, it wasn’t necessarily any easier (let’s just say that a few butts slid down the rocks).

Lola was pretty exhausted too.  I had never seen her so tired before!  Every few hundred feet she’d make her way to a shady spot and lay down.  Poor girl!

Lola’s 198th break

So Kevin, being the great dog dad that he is, decided to help our little girl out by giving her a piggy back ride!

She only stayed on for about 10 minutes but I think it helped the tired pup out a lot

View of Church Dome…I can’t believe that just a couple of hours before we were on that peak!

Happy (and tired and sore) hiker Lisa

Not five minutes after backing George’s truck up on the road his back tires got stuck in the soft dirt.  D’oh!

The group trying to get the truck out by digging holes and putting in big rocks behind the tires.

When that didn’t work, George had the whole group (minus me and Lola) pile in the back of the truck to weigh it down and hopefully get the tires to grip the dirt to move on out.  That didn’t work either!  So the last resort was hooking Rob’s Ford Escape SUV up to the front of George’s truck and with luck we were able to pull the truck out of the dirt!  None of us could believe that the little Escape could pull out such a huge truck but hallelujah it worked!

No one can say that we didn’t deserve a nice dip in the creek by the time we got back to the campsite and that’s exactly what we did.  We can’t say that the creek wasn’t any cleaner after we got out, but at least we were.  🙂

Dinner was massive burritos and dessert was peach/blueberry cobbler (well-deserved after our long day of hiking!)

Judith serving up the cobbler…yum!!

Our last sunset

And we spent our last evening around the campfire enjoying each other’s company…

Joshua, Katelyn and Judith

Joshua, bright fire, and grey skies

Writing with light in the dark–that’s me writing out “Taylor Creek” using a flashlight (I was writing in cursive backwards while Kevin took the photo, see our “Earth Hour” post with other photos like this here)

Sunday 7/31

The rain finally decided to make its full appearance on Sunday morning as we were packing all our stuff up.  Although it didn’t make for a very pleasant last morning (especially since we were trying to keep all our junk dry while packing it up) I’m just happy it otherwise stayed dry the whole week!

On the drive home…until next time Taylor Creek!

Celebrating 5 years in Reno!

Posted by Lisa On July 25th, 2011

Now that we’ve got internet at our new apartment I can finally post the anniversary message I wrote for Kevin to celebrate our five years of marriage…

Five years ago today we were gettin’ hitched.  We were surrounded by so many friends and family on that hot summer evening in San Pedro and the day could not have been more perfect.

To commemorate such a milestone in our relationship I thought I’d make a list of some of my top five favorite things about our marriage:

Five of my favorite adventures

  • Australia
    • Sand-boarding down the dunes on Moreton Island, the eco lodge in the Glass House Mountains, hanging out with the huge group of kangaroos, eating an apple for dinner in the park watching the trapeze artist in the trees, walking with our luggage through downtown Sydney for what seemed like forever, watching the sun set over Darling Harbor and the Opera House
  • Hawai’i
    • Our honeymoon was our first major trip together and we had such an incredible time snorkeling with sea turtles, eating dragon fruit and pineapple and papaya from fruit stands on the side of the road, waking up early to watch the sun rise (on the wrong side of the island!), hiking across a volcanic crater
  • Nicaragua
    • Braving the bus ride to Granada, being the translator between Kevin and my homestay family, going out for pizza and beer with Erin, cracking jokes with Danffer and Dorelia, getting to show Kevin the country that I had called home for three months, and of course, getting engaged
  • Moving to San Francisco
    • This move really opened up my eyes to the world beyond Long Beach and I have enjoyed every minute of it—we have grown so much closer and our relationship is so much stronger because of it, Kevin being able to go back to school to pursue one of his passions meant a lot to both of us, growing closer with my sister Jessie and reconnecting with our dear friend Carleigh, and we have kept ourselves very busy exploring and falling in love with the Bay Area (mainly to fill this blog up with fun things!)
  • Bringing Lola home
    • I think that Lola was one of the best decisions we made together—she is the apple of our eye and makes us so incredibly happy, she many times gives us a reason to get off our rears to get outside and go for a walk or make a trip to the park which is so good for us, and she is such a great companion for us

Five of my favorite things about our relationship

  • Wrestling
    • This may sound weird but Kevin and I love to wrestle and play fight with each other and it’s one of my absolute favorite things, more than anything it just shows how goofy we are and the fact that we’re able to be that way with each other is so perfect to me
  • We learn so much from each other
    • I know that I have grown by leaps and bounds being with Kevin and I think it’s the same for him and it is my hope that we continue to grow and learn from each other for years and years to come
  • How much family means to us
    • This is not only a favorite of mine because of how close we are with our families and what wonderful families we feel we married into but because I know that our kids are going to grow up in the same kind of close-knit family which is really important to me
  • How alike we are
    • Although we have a lot of differences I think we are a lot alike as well which makes us a great pair
  • How much we laugh together
    • We are constantly cracking each other up and I can’t think of a better trait to have in a relationship than a shared sense of humor. It’s so nice having someone who laughs at (almost) all of the goofy, dorky jokes that I come up with. He’s like my personal laugh track!

Five things that I’m most looking forward to in the next five years

  • Traveling
    • I’m not sure what’s exactly in the cards for us but we plan on doing a lot more traveling in the years to come—on our wish list: La Virgen Gorda island in the Caribbean, a return trip to Hawai’i, Kevin’s first trip to New York, somewhere hopefully in Europe (like Ireland), and lots of camping
  • Buying a home
    • This one is definitely not set in stone but it’s a goal of ours and I would love nothing more than having an entire home to fill with memories
  • Seeing where life takes us with our jobs
    • I’m excited to see where Kevin ends up as an Aircraft Mechanic and I’m excited to see where I end up in the field of education, I know that there are great things ahead for us both
  • Gardening
    • We tried our hand at a flower garden at our last apartment and we’re looking forward to starting a vegetable garden at our new place, we both want to grow a lot of our food and I can only imagine how the incredible home-grown dinners are going to taste
  • Starting a family
    • We both want children very much and can’t wait until the day that we’re finally parents, that is one chapter in my life that I truly can’t wait to start with Kevin

The night of our anniversary (Friday, July 8th for any of you wondering) we spent the evening exploring a small part of our new city: Jack London Square.  We weren’t sure where we were going to eat so walked around for a bit trying to scope out a good place for dinner.

At first the place seemed dead, so much so that we were wondering if we weren’t really supposed to be walking around down there, haha.  But looking into the windows of all of the restaurants we figured out where all the people were since every place was packed!

We finally decided to eat at Bocanova, a pan-American grill, and holy smokes and I glad we did.  They serve small plates but just about every plate we got was fantastic.

Bocanova

Bottle of locally-brewed beer to share

Papas fritas, green/yellow beans, and a salmon tartare (I gotta be honest, I didn’t know what a tartare was until the plate showed up, haha)

And what anniversary dinner would be complete without dessert? We were STUFFED but just had to get a dessert.

Kevin about to start in on his cheesecake

Cheesecake and croissant bread pudding with Mexican chocolate ice cream (YUM!)

The happily married couple of five years!

Jack London’s cabin

We came out of the restaurant to a huge group of people taking salsa lessons, how cute!

The next day we were off bright and early to meet Carleigh to take our two pups to Pet Camp for the evening while their parents went to relax in Reno!  We’ve never left Lola at a pet boarding place before but we know she was left in really good hands since most of the staff worked with Kevin and remembered Lola really well.

Bye bye puppies, hello Reno!

We made a quick stop in the cute little town of Auburn…

A giant gold miner statue

Welcome to Reno! This was my first real visit to the city (I think I had driven through it before growing up)

It was just Kevin, Carleigh and I for the day and into the early evening since Scott was at a conference at another hotel.  After checking in we went straight to the Island Buffet (not the best buffet in the world, but it did the job alright).

Then it was off to the POOL!

Yum, water

Beautiful pool!

After the pool we went to have some drinks at the bar inside…

Carleigh and martini.

Then we got ready to go out to dinner at Naan and Kabob across the street from the hotel.  I cannot complete this blog post without saying how AMAZING the food and service at this place was. We were so incredibly impressed by everything about the restaurant and I can’t believe we found such a place in Reno!

All dolled up!

Me and Kev at Naan and Kabob

After dinner we went to pick up Scott and went straight to the slot machines!

The Peppermill, the hotel/casino we stayed at

I was up about $100 but quickly lost it between Kevin and I 🙁 but Carleigh ended up being the big winner of the evening with a $300 win off a penny machine!

Concentrating a little too hard on their machines

She’s a winner!

Can you see us in the reflection of the ceiling?

Scott listening in to the “Yeee Haw!” machine

“Texas Tina”

Pretty casino ceiling

After a late night at the machines we surprisingly were able to get up early for some morning pool time!  Even at 8am it was hotter than heck out so was totally worth it for a dip in the pool.

On the way out of Reno we ate atPeg’s Glorified Ham n Eggs (sounds like the *perfect* place for a vegetarian and a vegan, right?) and it was surprisingly an amazing little breakfast place! I was so impressed by the food in Reno, something I was definitely not expecting to say after the trip.

Eat at Peg’s

My vegetarian skillet. Holy moly it was SO good!

I was SO incredibly happy that we were spending our anniversary weekend in Reno instead of moving like we had planned on. Thank you Carleigh and Scott for suggesting such a brilliant idea and for letting us tag along!

Photo of us in front of the casino’s wedding chapel

Catalina with the Girl Scouts

Posted by Lisa On July 25th, 2011

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was lucky enough to spend two days and two nights with my niece’s Girl Scout troop in beautiful Catalina!  We jumped on the Catalina Express and an hour later we were in Avalon.

The last time I was on a boat to Catalina it was 1998 and we were in the middle of El Nino.  And the boat was full of 100+ seasick 9th graders.  This trip, luckily, was a lot less eventful.

Like aunt, like niece–me and Katelyn!

The only time I had ever been to Avalon it was at the Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI) in Toyon Bay so I hadn’t been to Avalon before.  The town is super cute and I quickly fell in love with it.

Welcome to Avalon!

Views of the boat and the island (see the casino in the background? I think I’ll have to check that out next time around because, as you can imagine, there is no “Gambling” Girl Scout badge to be earned, haha)

We were too early to check into our hotel so after leaving our luggage at the front desk we went to explore the main drag on foot.

Three of the girls…and a giant hamburger.

J…and a giant buffalo.

The girls looking out onto the water

The troop!

Feeling adventurous?

Like I said earlier…like aunt, like niece, am I right? 😉

J being contemplative

We stayed at the Hotel Atwater…it was very cute but the windows and walls were paper thin!

Mr. Ning’s…it’s what for dinner.

I had the shrimp egg foo young…I’ve never seen egg foo young served like that before! It was beyond delicious, though.

After dinner we walked around some of the neighborhoods taking in the sights…

“No Turkeys Allowed”?!?

S and B with the mermaid/man/cat bench!

I love this bench

We went back to the hotel pretty early to get some rest before the big day of snorkeling…

Rest? Did I say rest? I meant to say goofing around.

We were up bright and early to get to our appointment at Catalina Scuba Luv a few blocks away.

The girls looking out on Lover’s Cove, our snorkeling destination

Me and Katelyn getting suited up!

S and her giant flippers

Mom and daughter in wetsuits

The clouds were parting just as we were walking to the snorkeling site, so cool!

Lover’s Cove

Following our snorkel guide down the steps

Mom and daughter in wetsuits again but this time *with* their masks on

Hot, I know.

Much better.

The group! Katelyn, Judith, B, S, J, the snorkel guide guy, and me

It wasn’t easy getting out of the water as Katelyn is demonstrating above

The group post-dive

Since the girls were already soaked we decided to stop off at the little beach to let them do some swimming

S taking a dive off a floating platform

Katelyn’s cannonball!

S post-swim

After getting cleaned up we decided to head out on foot again to check out the town.

An adorable dog in a golf cart! So cute.

We  decided we were ready to take or exploring to the next level so decided to take a little trolley around the island (yes, we were those people).

The girls gave the trolley a thumbs-up! Or at least Katelyn did.

Me and my fabulous niece!

One of the stops on the trolley route was the Wrigley Memorial Garden…it was totally news to me that Mr. Wrigley, as in Wrigley gum and Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field, had a huge part in the preservation efforts on Catalina Island and for that reason his memorial and a beautiful garden are located there.

Cacti, cacti everywhere!

The girls were fascinated by the heart-shaped cactus (and apparently so was I)

The mosaic ceiling on Wrigley’s memorial

Judith down below!

More trolley fun…me, Katelyn and J

Maureen and Judith

B enjoying the ride

J acting like a goofball

We also did our share of shopping (because there ain’t that much to do!)

Hahaha, these two crack me up!

Yes I told them to jump in the golf cart. But they did so willingly (as you can tell from their facial expressions)

View of the island near sunset

Our final morning we were there Judith, Katelyn and I took a long walk up, up, up a steep staircase to get a good view of the bay.

Katelyn and Judith enjoying a scrumptious chai tea before jumping on the Catalina Express back home

I was so so so so happy when Judith invited me along to the troop’s Catalina trip, it’s so nice being able to still be connected with the girls and the troop in the two years since moving up here!  And I really miss those stinkers a ton.

Trip to Long Beach!

Posted by Lisa On July 22nd, 2011

Thursday, June 16

That afternoon I set off on a week-long trip down to Long Beach.  Lola and I jumped in the car and made our way down the too familiar 5 freeway.  This time, though, we went a slightly different, more scenic route–we went down the 101 until we hit Gilroy and then took the Pacheco Pass (highway 152) through beautiful winding roads and around the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area until we got to the 5.  This was at the suggestion of Carleigh and I’m glad we did it since it made the drive a little more bearable.  🙂

Our only real stop on the trip down was at Casa de Fruta (also at the suggestion of Carleigh) which is a huge compound with a farm, train track, pond, and tons of fruit/nuts/gift shops.  Lola and I walked around a bit and then quickly jumped back on the road.

Casa de Fruta farmhouse

Casa de Fruta railroad

Casa de Fruta peacock (that Lola desperately wanted to get a hold of, haha!)

Casa de Fruta rusted and beat-up jalopy

Casa de Fruta carousel

Casa de Fruta’s Casa de Choo Choo

Friday, June 17th-Sunday, June 19th

The main reason I went down to Long Beach this weekend was to join my niece’s Girl Scout troop (the one that I used to be a co-leader for) on their trip to Catalina!  I took a ton of photos so I’ll make a separate post for the Catalina trip.  Stay tuned!

Sunday, June 19th (Father’s Day)

As soon as I got off the Catalina Express I was off to my in-law’s house to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad-in-law George and my brother-in-law Thomas (dad to Sophie).  With me to celebrate were my mama-in-law Dorothy, sis-in-law Sarah and her boyfriend Rob, a good family friend Judy and Sophie!  Sarah and Rob had just returned from living in New Orleans and it was so so so good to see them.  And I realized that I hadn’t seen Sophie (my other niece) since Christmas 2009 (1 1/2 years!) so it was a special treat to see her after all this time.  She has grown SO MUCH!

She had lots of fun playing with her buddy and cousin Lola…

Sophie and her sidekick

Sophie gave Thomas an adorable gift: the card was in the shape of a fish that said “Dad, you’re a great catch” and inside was a fishing pole with a bag of fish bait (trail mix) attached.  So cute!

Sophie and her Auntie Judy playing with the iPad

Mmm…strawberry shortcake!

On the way back to her mom’s house, just chillin’

Monday, June 20th

The weekend following the Catalina trip was my 10 year high school reunion so I asked my boss if there was any way I could work from home (Long Beach) during the week so that I could stick around for the event and she graciously said yes!  Lots of appreciation for my job that week. 🙂

Here’s my view from my laptop each day in my mom’s dining room:

Aren’t those stools so cool?

My work buddy

I worked a full day (with a few walking breaks here and there with Lola) and that night I met up with Brianne & Brian at Open Sesame on 2nd street.  I’ve been to this restaurant a handful of times before and I can’t get over how amazing their food is!  Their dolmas (grape leaves) leave a little something to be desired but other than that the food is incredible.  It was so nice catching up with two of my favorite buddies too!  Lots of laughs and story-telling was shared over dinner as well as plans to catch up again during the week.

Tuesday, June 21st

Vacation detour: I actually came down with a really painful health issue so took part of the day off work to visit the doctor’s office.  After seeing the doctor, though, I didn’t feel any more confident about the condition and had to anticipate another doctor’s visit the following day in Norwalk (with Dorothy) and then another doctor’s visit again in Norwalk on Thursday (with my mom).  After being bounced around between doctor’s offices and feeling scared because I didn’t really know what was going on luckily the issue cleared up on Friday evening and the rest of the trip was spent much more comfortably.  The main lessons I learned from this experience: advocate for yourself with the doctors and receptionists/phone operators and read any online forums about the issue that you can find!  That’s where I read about the at-home treatment that ended up helping with the problem.

After going to the doctor’s on Tuesday I spent the rest of the afternoon resting up so that I could meet up with my brother Derek that evening.  We went first to visit my lovely Auntie Tina which included a couple of hours of hilarity (both by Derek and Tina and even the nurses at the front desk!)

Tina and her favorite nephew

Wednesday, June 22nd

Like I mentioned earlier, Dorothy accompanied me to my second doctor’s appointment and after getting the run around again we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening together.  We checked out a couple of new (to me) scrapbook stores and then spent a couple of hours just hanging out in the garden with Lola and talking.  I was invited to dinner with her and George and I had an amazing shrimp and asparagus pasta…mmm, mmm, mmm I can taste it right now!  🙂

Thursday, June 23rd

My mom accompanied me to my third doctor’s appointment and we then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening together.  She took me to Ranchito, an AMAZING Mexican supermarket in Westminster.  At first we went there specifically to get a giant fresh squeezed juice but then ended up buying a bunch of food and inviting Derek over for dinner at my mom’s house.  This supermarket is incredible–they have an entire counter dedicated to the jugos naturales (natural juices).  There are a few options available to order–I got the Azteca with orange, spinach, nopal (cactus), pineapple and honey and it was SOOOO GOOD!  My mom got the Vampiro with pineapple, orange, beet, celery and apple which was good but a little too beety for our taste.  The woman behind the counter throws the entire piece of fruit or veggie into the juicer so no nutrients are lost.  I wish there was a Ranchito by our place in Oakland!  We’re on a mission to find something like this since it sure beats Jamba Juice!

The huge counter dedicated to fresh juices!

Take yer pick!

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Although I didn’t buy anything from the meat counter I couldn’t help but take a photo of the HUGE chicharron–they fried up the entire skin of a pig!  Crazy and so gross at the same time, hahah.

Friday, June 24th

I had intended to go to my friend Alison’s yoga class in Irvine at Yoga Shakti (she teaches a few times a week, check her out if you’re in the Irvine area!!) but my health issue became extremely painful that day so I slept for a long time that afternoon.  When the pain didn’t subside I finally followed the advice on the online forum posts I had found and after taking a second nap the issue had begun to clear up!  Again, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of doing your own research and trying to heal yourself naturally.

That night I met up with Dorothy, Brianne and Brian at Judy’s house for some dinner and games.  We used to go over to Judy’s to kick each other’s butts on Wii and hadn’t done that in a long time so we had a blast.

Saturday, June 25th

I was so happy that I was down in Long Beach for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Manazar Gamboa Community Theater!  I was honored to have known Manazar through my mom (he was my mom’s writing mentor at the Homeland Cultural Center in LB, directly behind the new theater) and it was so perfect that I was able to attend such a wonderful event honoring his life 10 years after his death.  Here’s a Press-Telegram article which talks about Manazar’s life and the theater (and my mama’s even quoted!)

Beautiful mural of Manazar on the side of the theater

The entrance

The program–see my mom’s name? 🙂

My beautiful mama

Mom with some of the Homeland staff

The growing crowd

African drummers

A very cool belly dancer who shook her hips while balancing a sword on her head.  Now that’s talent.

My mom reading Manazar’s biography and two of his poems

She is at home in the spotlight!

Right after my mom finished talking I had to take off to meet Carleigh at the Long Beach airport!  She flew down for the day so that we could go to our high school reunion together.  It was lunch time so we rushed off to Open Sesame (yes, the same Open Sesame I went to on Monday) for some more amazing Mediterranean food.  Then we took a stroll around Colorado Lagoon with the Lola-meister.  It as such a beautiful day and I had never walked around the entire lagoon before!

Carleigh and Lola

We dropped Lola off and went to get our nails done for the event.  I’ve only gotten a pedicure a handful of times and I always forget how nice they are!  Then we went home to get dressed for our reunion!

Me and Carleigh all dolled up

The reunion was interesting but definitely not the highlight of my week in Southern California.  It was nice reconnecting with a couple of folks and I just hope that more people attend our 15 or 20 year reunion.  🙂

Sunday, June 26th

Carleigh, Lola and I packed ourselves into the car and after a quick breakfast at Grounds we were on the road!  7 hours later we pulled into San Francisco to unpack and ready ourselves for another week in the city.

Weekend of parties in Long Beach!

Posted by Lisa On May 31st, 2011

Wednesday, May 25

Kevin and I got on the road on Wednesday evening with the Lola in tow.  The drive down was pretty uneventful (the best kind of trip down the 5 highway, I’d say!) and we got in at midnight.

Pretty cows out to graze!

Lola was quite intrigued by the cows

Our pretty little girl stretching out her legs

Thursday, May 26th

We were fortunate enough to stay at Kevin’s parent’s house for the trip and were treated to a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast.  We just hung out most of the day, running some errands and soaking in the sun (oh, the sun!)  As Dorothy was watering the garden, she quickly learned how much Lola LOVES the garden hose…

Watering her grandpup! Haha

That evening we met up for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ (our go-to place when we’re in town!) with none other but Brianne, Brian and Brianne’s sister Laura.

Oh how I’ve missed you!

Cutie pie

Kevin and Brian, stuffed silly

Kevin and Lola, posing for a photo at home

Friday, May 27th

For the few weeks leading up to our trip down south I was working with Kevin’s mom and sister Judith to plan a surprise graduation party for Kevin on Friday night.  We had a guest list of around 40 people and were anxious to get the party started!  But first, a lot of shopping and preparations to make sure that Kevin didn’t find out until the last possible minute (and since we were staying with his parents it proved to be a little difficult!)

The plan that afternoon was to have his brother Thomas take him out for a few hours while Dorothy, George, Judith and I prepared the food, cleaned the house, and got the backyard all ready to go.  Unfortunately, Thomas had to go to work at 6pm (the same time the party started) so he had to drop Kevin off at 5:30, so the surprise was a little premature.  Nevertheless, Kevin was extremely surprised and had not idea what we had up our sleeves!

The guests started arriving…

Dan, Judith and Kevin

Jessie and her niece Lola (with Valerie, Vanessa and Rose in the background!)

Dan, Chris, Kevin, Brian, Dominic and Jayme

Same as above plus Dorothy, Loren, Shani, Andrea and Ron

Jess and Brianne

Mmm…veggie skewers! Oh yeah, and burgers & hot dogs for the carnivores

Christian (my mom’s boyfriend Steve’s grandson)

Lola and her new best “friend” Christian (he quickly wore her out [which is not an easy thing to do!] and so she got a little annoyed towards the end of the party since he was still full of energy and wanted to play!)

Me and Brianne

Kev and Jessie

Jess and Matt

After chowing down we brought out the cakes and said a little something about the man of the hour–for those of you that don’t know, Kevin just completed a two year Aviation Mechanics program at the College of Alameda.  It was a full-time program in which Kevin went to school from 4:30-10:30 every night for two years.  He ended up at the top of his class (no surprise here!) and just last week, at the recommendation of his instructor, was offered a job at Rolls Royce working on the V-22 Osprey engine!  It was SO great being able to celebrate Kevin and all of his accomplishments with the people that love him and it was even more wonderful that he was able to announce his new job just a week out of school.  We’re all so proud of you, Kev!

Applauding the guest of honor

The ADORABLE airplane cake the Dorothy baked and Shani decorated

It also happened to be Dan’s birthday so we sang a little song for him and gave him a cupcake to celebrate

Christian said he wanted the candle (not the cupcake, surprisingly) and said he was going to save it to put it on *his* birthday cake

A Cookie Monster cupcake will do that to you

I think everyone who attended really enjoyed celebrating Kevin and his accomplishments, thank you to everyone who was able to make it!

Saturday, May 28th

The main reason we made the trip to Long Beach this weekend was to celebrate with my good friends Kim and Frank on the day they got hitched!!

That morning we met up with my mom, Jessie, the Julians and Matt’s girlfriend Alexis at what other place but The Potholder?!

The whole gang

The wedding was scheduled to start at 4:30pm at the Art Theater in Long Beach–such a cool wedding venue!

The marquee said “A Love Story: Kimberly and Frank”…so cute!!

Jess, Steve, me, Kevin and my Auntie Tina in front of the theater

Me and Jess all dolled up

Me and Kev on the red carpet

Inside the theater they were showing silent films

Steve chowing on some popcorn (they had bags of it in the lobby for people to eat!)

Me and my mama

The ceremony was short and sweet, officiated by Kim’s dad Guy (who actually married Kevin and I as well!)

Kim and her mama Terry walking down the aisle.  What a beautiful bride!

The reception was behind the theater under a big tent…

Beautiful flower arrangement centerpieces

Lots and lots of wine for the masses!

Me and my party dress

Guy greeting my Auntie Tina and Jessie

Kim coming by to say hi

Hugs all around!

Matt and Alexis with the bride

Portrait of the bride…

…and the flower girl Bella

Me, mom, Tina, Jess and Kim (LOVE this photo!)

Me and Shan

Kim and Frank cracking up at Stacey (maid-of-honor’s) hilarious toast

The shoes…so perfect!

First dance

And Bella decided it was her time to show off her firefighter pole slide!

Susuico family dance (Stacey, Jay, Bella and Tasi)

Mom and Frank dancing

Kim and Steve dancing

Dancin’ shoes (mom and Jess)

Mom and Steve

Diane and Dave

Jess and Terry

Pretty sister!

Me and Kev (our obligatory shot)

They had an awesome candy bar for people to fill up little popcorn bags with treats…

The kiddos could be found swarming the table most of the evening

I swear she posed that way on her own! Haha

Their cake was AMAZING–made by one of her girlfriends Diana!  And it tasted better than it looks, no joke.

The adorable orange bride and groom to go with the citrus theme.

The ol’ hula gang!  Sayuri, Cat, Kim, mom and me

Finally warm enough weather to wear something that shows off my tattoo!

The evening was perfect and we felt so incredibly fortunate to be able to celebrate with our good friends Kim and Frank as they start a new life together!!

Sunday, May 29th

After a late night we met up with Brianne and Brian at The Coffee Cup Cafe for some good eats.

Me and Bri

We hung out with them for a few hours trying to distract Brian as Brianne went out to prepare for his very own surprise party, this time to celebrate his birthday!  That afternoon we had to pretend we were saying bye for good and that we wouldn’t be seeing him again until our next trip down, but little did he know that we’d be turning right back around to their apartment a few short hours later to celebrate with him and friends/family.

A video of the surprise!

Birthday banner made by Brianne

Cake!

We got the chance to see our friend Lara and meet her brand-new baby Audrey!  Audrey was a total sweetheart and it was great being able to meet her after only seeing photos all this time.

Lara, Brianne and Audrey

Ted and Lara

Me and the flying baby!

Monday, May 30th

We were treated to a home-cooked breakfast of waffles covered in strawberries and a breakfast veggie stir fry (or bacon if your name is Kevin).  It was nice being able to spend a couple of hours at home with Dorothy and George before making our way back home to SF.

Unfortunately the ride home was nowhere near as smooth as the ride down.  9 1/2 hours later we finally parked in front of our house.  Let that be a warning to anyone who thinks they can avoid the awful traffic on the 5 on a holiday!  🙂

We had SUCH an awesome trip, thanks to everyone who made an effort to see us and we can’t wait to go back!

Mexico City!

Posted by Lisa On May 23rd, 2011

I was given an amazing opportunity at work to make a trip down to Mexico City in early May and I had such an incredible time!  I will be taking over Registrar duties for the Teacher Education students that study at our Mexico City campus and so I went with my boss and another administrator to visit the campus, visit some K-12 schools, and work on a plan for the fall semester.  It had been many years since I last visited Mexico and the only places I had ever visited growing up were Tijuana, Rosarito, and Baja California so I was really excited to see other parts of Mexico and to be immersed in a Spanish-speaking country again (the last time I did that was in 2004 when I was studying abroad in Nicaragua).  I have to admit, I was really nervous about how I’d do with my Spanish but I was SO happy to find out that it came back pretty quickly!

A map of Mexico for those of you not familiar with where Mexico City is…

(I may or may not have needed a refresher myself before my trip!)

Monday 5/9

I jumped on a plane from SFO in the afternoon to Benito Juarez airport in Mexico City.  The flight there is 3.5 hours and it was a pretty nice, easy ride in.  Dinner was $7 worth of cheese, crackers and dried fruit…

4 crackers, 4 pieces of cheese, 3 pieces of dried apricot and 2 pecans. Scrumptious.

We landed around 8pm (Central time, Mexico City is 2 hours ahead of CA) and after crawling our way through customs we were finally standing on Mexican soil!  We took a cab to our hotel (more on our hotel later) and after checking in it was around 9:30pm but we were starving so we went to the restaurant on the first floor called Sanborns Génova.  We were given a basket of bread, crackers and tortilla chips (all in the same basket) to hold us over as we waited for our food.  I ordered the most amazing shrimp tacos I have ever eaten in my entire life and I swear I dream about them even now!  Hahah.

The most delicious shrimp tacos ever created.

After dinner we went up to our respective rooms to try to get some sleep before the next day’s activities.

Tues. 5/10

We met for breakfast on the first floor and I was so impressed with the breakfast brunch!  There was such an amazing spread of fresh fruit (including papaya and mango) and some amazing fresh-squeezed orange juice and a huge basket piled high with pan dulce (my favorite).  And to top it off, there were about 6 cages filled with parakeets chirping along in the breakfast lounge.

The beautiful breakfast lounge on the first floor.

Oh how I wish I could eat like this everyday.

Chirp, chirp!

Our university’s campus is within two blocks of the hotel we stayed at and it was such a beautiful day so the quick walk was enjoyable.

El Monumento a La Independencia El Angel (The Angel of Independence monument) just a few blocks away!

Neat outdoor decorations in front of a church

The hotel and university are in the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) which is known as the gay-friendly part of town

Beautiful statue of Diana La Cazadora

The following are photos of the Alliant International University (the university I work for) campus in Mexico City:

The front of the campus

The front entrance (once you get past the security guards, of course)

Beautiful courtyard in the middle of campus!

I loved these posters, showing our different campuses (San Francisco, San Diego, Hong Kong, Tokyo amongst the others in California)

The library

I would LOVE to have that view from my desk!

We were in a few meetings through mid-day but my boss and I got lucky with having the entire afternoon free to explore the city.  Our tour guide Sarah (who works for the university) led us downtown for lunch, sight-seeing, and some shopping.

We went to lunch at a restaurant called El Mayor which is on the roof of a building that oversees the excavation site of Aztec ruins.  The view was INCREDIBLE if you can imagine and the food was pretty darn good too!

Overlooking the ruins of the Aztec pyramid Tenochtitlán

La Catedral Metropolitana (The Metropolitan Cathedral)

After lunch we made our way to El Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (a really neat museum) and passed along the way…

A few life-size, plastic Jesuses

Necklaces with the Pope’s face

A beautiful Día de los Muertos statue

A gorgeous street scene

The museum is in an incredibly beautiful building with a gorgeous courtyard in the middle…

Beautiful, intricate details everywhere

Lots of gorgeous stained glass windows

Breathtaking murals

Incredible walkways

Most of the exhibits were closed that day but the one exposition I was able to see was the photography of Flor Garduño.

This was my favorite photo of hers (Google her name and you’ll see some incredible work)

Sarah left us at the museum to go pick up her kids and then met up with us again after about 45 minutes of exploring the museum.  Her kids are Beatríz (10) and Oliver (7) and they were so incredibly adorable!  They have such great, spunky personalities and were fun exploring the city with.  We took a cab to an outdoor market to do some shopping.

A beautiful church we passed on the way

Me, Bea and Oli in the taxi

The outdoor market

Beautiful alebrijes (brightly painted fantasy creatures, so cool!)

Sarah and Oli about to jump on the metro

Trudy on the metro

After parting ways with Sarah and her family, we had an hour or so to relax at the hotel (read: take a nap!) before heading out to dinner.  The concierege recommended Fonda El Refugio for dinner which was just a few blocks away and it was the perfect choice.  The special for the day (manchamanteles) sounded really good but I wanted it without meat (it came with a choice of pork or chicken) so I asked the waiter if that would be possible and it was cracking us up because he and about 3 others waiters stood in a circle and discussed if it would be possible for a few minutes before letting me know that they would be able to make the exception for me.

At the end of the meal we were provided with three lollipops covered in plastic wrap and a small bowl of hot water and were told to dip our lollipops in the water for a few minutes until the plastic fell off and then to suck the lollipop.  I had never experienced anything quite like that before and it was interesting to say the least!

After dinner I decided to explore the hotel a little bit to capture some photos.  We stayed at the Hotel Geneve which was built in 1907 and is an historic hotel and building.  My room was on the third floor and there were so many little corners and hallways to explore, I don’t think I saw even half of it.

View from the street

View looking out on the street from the 3rd floor hallway window

The third floor hallway (kinda spooky!)

The lobby was one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen in my life: floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with old books, chandelier, stained glass windows, gorgeous seats, fresh flowers, art everywhere…

Courtyard

Some neat details found in the lobby…

Vintage telephones

Antique safes

Display with women’s clothing

Display with a bullfighter’s clothes

The bar/lounge (too bad the singer they had performing that night was awful otherwise we would’ve spent some time in there!)

Me sneaking in a photo of myself (proof that I was there! Haha)

Wednesday 5/11

We woke up bright and early to meet at the campus so that we could begin our day visiting two K-12 private schools in different parts of the city to work on partnerships with them.  Both schools are bilingual so all students are fluent in both Spanish and English (and not just speaking but in analyzing literature and philosophy in both languages).  I was so incredibly impressed with the schools and, although I realize they are private schools and are not the typical experience for every Mexican public school student, these schools reminded me of how far we still have to go even with our public schools.

We did a lot of driving that day, from one part of the city to the other.  We passed Los Pinos, which is the residence of the President of Mexico.

And we also drove through Chapultepec Park which is the largest city park in Latin America.  It reminded me a lot of Golden Gate Park in SF and I’d love to explore the park more next time I’m in Mexico City.

After the all-day visits we ended up back at the campus for an evening reception for our recent graduates who earned their Master of Arts in Education: Teaching degrees.

We got back to our hotel around 6:30pm but I wasn’t feeling too hungry so decided to make a visit to the hotel’s gym downstairs to run 4 miles on the treadmill in preparation for the Bay to Breakers 12k race I had signed up for that was only four days away.  I hadn’t run on a treadmill in a long time and I realize how much I thrive running out in the open and not in a cramped room with no fresh air and no pavement/gravel beneath my feet!  I think next time I’m out of town or out of the country I’ll plan it better and go for a run out in the city instead.  But it was nice having the gym to fall back on!

Thursday 5/12

We were up at 5am to pack our bags and get ready for one last school visit (our appointment with the school was at 8am and it was in a hard-to-get-to part of the city, hence the ridiculous wake-up call).  After that final school visit we said our goodbyes to Sarah and the other staff and made our way back to the airport.  The flight back was 4.5 hours and luckily I slept most of the way!

I had such an incredible time and feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go there for work.  Although I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me to take on the Registrar duties for our Mexico City students I’m really looking forward to it!

¡Adiós, México!

Valentine’s Week & a trip to Monterey

Posted by Lisa On March 2nd, 2011

Like I mentioned in my last post, I arrived at the SFO airport late at night on Sunday 2/13, the day before Valentine’s Day.  Kevin picked me up at the airport and he suggested, since we weren’t going to be able to spend any time together on Valentine’s Day itself, that we do a crazy late night dinner after picking me up.  So at 10:30pm we got seated for dinner at BJ’s in San Bruno and enjoyed a nice dinner together (and shared a yummy pazookie as well!)

We’ve never been big on V-Day or anniversaries either, but Kevin sure pulled out all the stops this year.  In addition to suggesting this cute late night dinner idea, when he picked me up at the airport he gave me a King size box of Junior mints (my favorite!) and the card game Skip-Bo that we had been talking about getting for a while.  Then on Monday (V-Day) I had to go to work but he had the day off so he suggested he meet me at the office for lunch before he drove to class.  He surprised me with some of the most delicious, homemade (from scratch) devil’s food cupcakes I’ve ever had (and even had a few extra for some co-workers).  And lastly, he got me a frame with spots for four photos: he put one of us from our wedding, one of us about 2 years into our marriage, one of us and Lola living in SF, and he left one spot empty for when we have a baby.  What a sweetheart!  Okay, enough of the mooshy stuff.  🙂

The following weekend (President’s Day weekend) we decided to get away for the night and take a trip down to Monterey!  We realized we hadn’t taken a real vacation (just the two of us, and no Long Beach doesn’t count) since we went to Australia in 2008!!  Yikes, we gotta do a better job of getting away more often.  Carleigh and Scott graciously volunteered to watch Lola that night, so we packed up her bag and dropped her off at their place on the morning of Sunday 2/20 for 36 hours of play time with her best friend Bailey!

Looks like Lola on her first day of school!  Her bag was packed with lots of goodies to share with her friend Bailey.

We were recommended by C&S to drive down Highway 1 and we were glad we did.  Such a gorgeous drive along the coast.  Sure makes us appreciate this amazingly beautiful state of ours!  We stopped off for a quick visit to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Somebody’s a major fan of the lighthouse with their “I Love Pigeon Point Lighthouse” license plate frame

I love old, run-down buildings

Thar she blows! Unfortunately you couldn’t go inside the lighthouse itself.

View off the coast

Ahoy matey!  Kevin sporting his binoculars.

Me sitting on a nicely decorated Pigeon Point Lighthouse barrel (aka a trashcan with a lid, gross).

Before checking into our hotel we drove down to Carmel to get some lunch at Carmel Belle (yummy food but super small portions and a pretty hefty price tag).  We did some window shopping and then walked down to the beach.  There were TONS of doggies out and about and it was such a gorgeous day.  We enjoyed walking along the beach and taking a break to soak in the sun.

Then it was time to check into our hotel!  Our hotel was just a block up from Cannery Row so it was nice to be so close to all the action.  Although working across from Fisherman’s Wharf in SF and knowing that I would never recommend anyone stay in a hotel out that way, I couldn’t help but get excited about being in the middle of this tourist trap in Monterey!  Haha.

Gorgeous mural of a whale around the corner from our hotel

Random old-school scuba gear on display

When Kevin saw this banner of John Steinbeck he jokingly asked me, “Why do they have a picture of Saddam Hussein up?” Hahah.

A really neat mural of fishermen along the beach.

No, we didn’t spend our money at the wax museum (they were closed, haha).

After the mandatory stroll down Cannery Row, we ate dinner at Paradiso Trattoria (pretty yummy food, especially the cilantro spread they have for their fresh baked bread…amazing!)

This was our view from the restaurant.  Gorgeous.

On Monday we woke bright and early, ate the continental breakfast at the hotel, and then checked out to go out and enjoy a drive and a walk along Ocean View Blvd. and the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail–by far the highlight of our trip!

Lots of breathtaking views to be had…

It’s a long way down!

And then, as we were looking out at the rocks and crashing waves, we spotted a furry thing scurrying across the rocks…who knew squirrels lived in the rocks along the beach?

They came up really close to us, probably looking for some eats.

Not only did we see lots of squirrels, we also saw harbor seals basking in the sun on some rocks!

Beautiful rock formations

Kevin taking a photo of the ocean

And tons of seagulls to look at and take photos of…

Seagull in action, leaping across the rocks!

Kevin taking a photo of a squirrel. They became good buds that day.

It was so so so nice to get away, just the two of us.  This being the year of our 5th anniversary of being married and our 10th anniversary of being together (!!!!) we have to take more time to celebrate our relationship and this was a perfect start to that!

Weekend in LA

Posted by Lisa On March 2nd, 2011

I flew down to LAX on Fri. 2/11 for a work retreat at our LA campus and decided to stick around for the weekend to see some family!  My mom and her boyfriend Steve came to pick me up in Alhambra and we went straight to one of my favorite restaurants out that way: Noodle World.


I spent most of my time with Mom and Steve out in San Pedro.  We took a 2 mile walk down Paseo Del Mar and when we were looking out over Royal Palms beach, we happened to spot a mermaid!

But then we realized she wasn’t alone.  Alas, she and her three friends were with a full crew taking photos.

We then enjoyed breakfast at the Lighthouse Deli (yummy batter-of-the-day pancakes!)  That afternoon me and my mom went to visit my aunt in her new digs in Garden Grove.  For those of you that know my family well, I’m happy to report that Tina is doing GREAT!  🙂

Then we made our way back to San Pedro to The Corner Store for a wine tasting benefiting the Marine Mammal Center of San Pedro.

Lots of incredible desserts like these fudgy, red velvet cake pops dipped in chocolate.  AMAZING!!

Then we zipped on over to Busy Bee (a famous sandwich shop that I had heard so many good things about but had never tried before) to buy a boatload of sandwiches to enjoy with Brianne & Brian and my brother Derek who were coming over to Steve’s for dinner and games!

Mmm…check out that greasy goodness on the sandwich wrappers. 🙂

Brianne and Brian and Catalina Island in the background

Not the best photo, but the three of us enjoying the sunset

Gorgeous view, eh?

We spent a good few hours laughing our rears off playing a game called The Game of Things (highly recommend this game for groups, so much fun!)  Kevin even joined in on the fun in SF via Skype!  He was my partner during a few rounds and it was great to have him join in on the game for a bit. 🙂

The next morning we were up bright and early for some yummy breakfast (egg, muenster cheese and honey mustard paninis with cottage cheese/oranges and a piping hot cup of joe).

Then we drove down to Long Beach and I spent a whopping 2 hours in LB the entire weekend.  I went to visit with my in-laws, Dorothy and George, and we had a great little visit.  George cooked up some yummy and slightly spicy chicken salad sandwiches for us to enjoy too. Yummy!

After the short visit with the Edmonds family (and an even shorter appearance of my bro-in-law Thomas) we drove down to pick up my brother Derek to get some lunch at Portillo’s Hot Dogs in Buena Park and then made another visit to my aunt Tina.

Derek, a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, made a visit to the windy city last year and found out that Portillo’s (a Chicago-based restaurant) had a chain out in Buena Park.  Here he is enjoying a dog covered in goodness (as you can see, he’s not the biggest fan of the Lisa blog paparazzi).

We then made our way back up to San Pedro to make a visit with Steve’s grandson Christian who is an adorable kindergartner.  We spent a good amount of time drawing mutant animals…

And then as the sun was setting, Christian insisted on taking me on a flashlight tour of Steve’s backyard where he showed me, amongst other things, the place where his cat is buried.  Haha!

After that we rushed off to LAX and I was home around 10:15pm on Sunday. I had a really fantastic whirlwind of a trip and can’t thank my mom and Steve enough for the hospitality!  🙂

Christmas: The Long Beach edition

Posted by Lisa On January 7th, 2011

One of the biggest perks to working for a university (me) = two weeks off at Christmas!

One of the biggest bummers to working for business that is busiest during the holidays (Kev) = not able to spend Christmas day with family 🙁

BUT we were able to finagle a few days before Christmas for a quick, shotgun trip down south. We decided to surprise Kevin’s mom Dorothy so she was the only one in our families that didn’t know we were coming down. We had a good week or so of talking up how sad it was that we weren’t able to come down at all for the holidays…if only she knew…hehehehe.

Monday 12/20
After Kevin got off of work that afternoon we jumped in the car and made our way down to Long Beach. We got in around 1am Tuesday morning and after quickly saying hi to my mom, we hit the sack to get ready for our big surprise the next morning.

Tuesday 12/21
Kevin’s dad George helped with the surprise telling Dorothy that he had a doctor’s appointment that morning that he wanted her to go to with him. So our plan was for Kevin to call Dorothy on her cell phone and have her on the phone when we knocked on the door. Here are two videos of Operation: Surprise Dorothy for Christmas 2010! 😉

Kevin trying to make small talk with Dorothy as we prepare to get out in the rain and knock on the door
As you can see, we didn’t plan it out as well as we had hoped but we surprised her nonetheless! If you look closely in the background you can see Lola tear through the house running after their cat Sebastian! Hahah, poor thing!

Thomas was there and Judith, Joshua and Katelyn came over for a yummy breakfast of waffles, french toast, and bacon.


They were enthralled with the story Kevin was telling.

A little gift exchange…

Katelyn showing off her new shirt
Josh showing off his new shirt
Dorothy and George fighting over who gets to open the gift 😉
The bicycle glasses we got them!
Family photo! Kevin, me, Katelyn, Joshua and Judith (and Lola too)

We spent the whole day with the family and enjoyed a yummy spaghetti dinner together too.

Lola relaxing at the Edmonds’ home with Kevin

Wednesday 12/22
We met up with Thomas and his girlfriend Ashley for breakfast at The Potholder Cafe in Long Beach.




That afternoon we spent a few hours hanging out with my mom (like old times!) and then met up with my brother Derek, our friend Brian, my mom’s boyfriend Steve and the Chinese student living with my mom while he studies at CSULB Jeremy for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ (me and Kevin’s favorite chain restaurant!)

Lola and her new roommate Luke

Thursday 12/23
We woke up early so that me, Kevin and my mom could go to Westminster for our annual Chinese massage (annual for me and Kev, more often for my mom!) It was EXACTLY what we needed and we enjoyed it so much. My mom asked the guys to snap a few photos of us for proof, haha!

Kevin, the mummy
My mom and me

We then went to fill up our tummies with some yummy Chinese food at Seafood Cove #1.



That afternoon around 4pm we jumped back in our car and made our way back to San Francisco so that Kevin could be at work the next morning at 6am.

We were in LB right when the crazy rain was happening, but the clouds parted for us on the last day and the sun poked through, seemingly taunting us and begging us to stay! 😉

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