Posted by Lisa On January 10th, 2013
We spent a week in Long Beach for the Christmas holiday, staying with my mom and Aunt Tina at their home. Lots of fun outings throughout the week and a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Delmar side of the family and a fun-filled Christmas Day with the Edmonds side of the family.
My fave: crinkle nose!
Enjoying a “meal” in the sunshine
Skyping with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Rob (who were in Detroit for Xmas), messing around with the silly faces app. Hilarious!
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? 🙂
Posted by Lisa On October 4th, 2011
Moving to Oakland has been a bit of a culture shock when it comes to having a dog. We were plain spoiled living in San Francisco with their 35+ dog-friendly off-leash parks and their countless other parks that are accessible to dogs on leash. This is one of the biggest things I miss about living in the city.
Oakland has a total of 5 dog parks and just about every other piece of grass in the city is off-limits to dogs. It doesn’t even matter if the dog is on leash, our little Lola is not allowed to set a paw on the grass.
Granted, living in the Bay Area we are still pretty spoiled compared to other cities across the States. Even with our measly 5 dog parks in Oakland, surrounding us are cities that have as many (or more) dog-friendly spots that we’re just a quick drive away from…and we have been taking advantage of those spots!
This is an amazing 500-acre park set in the Oakland Hills with miles and miles of winding trails. It’s a great place to let Lola off-leash except we have to pretty careful for the joggers and mountain bikers. Kevin and I have gone to this park twice now and each time we can’t believe that this amazing forest is just minutes from our apartment near downtown Oakland.
Kevin getting a whiff of wilderness (I don’t think he knew I was taking this photo when he bent down to smell that fallen tree, haha)
Sun through the trees
Me ‘n Lola
There is a small city surrounded by Oakland called Piedmont and they have a great park that allows dogs to run off-leash. The trails are mostly paved but when you’re in the park you’re surrounded by a huge canopy of trees that no matter how bright and sunny it is at that time, it’s cool and shady in the park. The creek running through the middle doesn’t hurt the view either. Kevin and I have gone walking the trails and me and Lola have gone running a couple of times as well. This is a little gem!
Alameda dog exercise area (aka Alameda dog park)
Now sure why it’s got such an official-sounding name, I just call it the Alameda dog park. This is a huge fenced-in dog park just minutes from the beach on the island of Alameda and the best part is it’s only a 10 minute drive from our apartment. I take Lola here at least once a week and she has a blast running around with the other dogs.
No dogs allowed…
After a trip to the Alameda dog park last week Lola and I drove by the beach in Alameda and I couldn’t pass up such a beautiful sunset so I pulled over, brought Lola out, and had to tie her up to the fence because of the “No dogs allowed” sign that greeted us.
“No dogs on beach”
Lola didn’t seem to mind!
That girl is always happy, no matter if she’s tied to a pole or not.
Sun setting over Alameda
Can you spot San Francisco in the distance??
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!
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
Five of my favorite things about our relationship
Five things that I’m most looking forward to in the next five years
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
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.
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.
Posted by Lisa On June 12th, 2011
Kevin and I, along with another Redlands alum Danielle, made the trip down to Palo Alto yesterday afternoon to see our friend Beka’s film screening! She’s in her final year (more like final days) of the MFA program in documentary film and we had been anticipating seeing her film “Sick as a Dog” for months! This was the same film that Lola helped out with (see blog post “Lola the movie star” here).
Stanford is such a gorgeous campus. We definitely need to make a visit here again soon.
The screening was at Annenberg Auditorium
When we arrived, just minutes before the event started, the theater was PACKED! Danielle scores us three seats right in the middle of the theater and it turns out that who else was sitting right in front of us other than Beka herself! It was meant to be.
Beka and her boyfriend Omar just a few minutes before the show
The films were incredible. Danielle and I had attended Beka’s event last year when the students were all finishing their first year and it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown in terms of their abilities and the film topics (therapy with horses, experiences of Korean-American deaf students in the Bay Area, a film about a Navajo punk rock band, and one about a Silicon Valley robot nerd who fell in love with a Nepalese woman over Skype and met her in Nepal a day before the wedding [all caught on film]).
The directors
Beka (with the mic)
They had a little reception outside afterwards where we were able to spend a few minutes with Beka and her family.
Beka and her mom, aunt and sister
Beka and Omar
Danielle, Beka, me and Kevin
Beka graduated today and we couldn’t be more proud of her!!!
Posted by Lisa On June 12th, 2011
Last weekend we were invited to the happy celebration of Mia’s first year on this planet! Mika blew us away with the amazing decorations, it felt like we were stepping straight into a magazine spread!
The cutest “Happy Birthday” banner ever.
Orange and pink candies, cookies, and cake!
Mini milk bottles for the kiddos to have milk and cookies
The whole spread
Some cute family photos of the cutest family in Alameda…
This was taken just seconds before Mia snapped the elastic band on Matt’s party hat! I wish we caught that on video. 😉
And lots of photos of little miss with her special birthday cake (made from scratch by Mika)…
Blowing out the candles with mom and dad
She’s thinking “I can get used to this!”
Grandmas and Daddy trying to get in on the birthday cake action…
I can’t get enough of that face!
An incredible neapolitan cake for the rest of us (made from scratch by Mika!)
The end result.
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!
