Hermosa Beach Fair and Other Excursions

For my run yesterday, I went on the fire trail with the puppy. Usually the fire trail is only a section of my run, but today I decided to go to the end of the trail and back for my workout. The trail is mainly downhill with small hills and flat areas, but coming back up is killer. According to this site, it's about a 2 mile run (I don't know if that is the there and back distance or not). It wasn't too hard of a workout, but it was a beautiful day and the views on this trail are incredible.

I had originally wanted to go for a run with my Mom, but she wasn't home when I woke up and I ended up going by myself. Right when I finished my run and got back to the car, I saw that she had called and actually hadn't gone for a workout yet. My mom, Johnny, and I ended up deciding to walk the fire trail again and take in all the views (it was a really pretty morning). Roxy was very excited to get two walks in one day, and I felt very accomplished for doing my hike run twice.

After a quick, random lunch of a bagel thin with cream cheese, a dumpling, and lots of fruit, I headed to Long Beach to meet up and spend the night with a few of my sorority sisters.

We walked around 2nd street, went shopping, and feasted on food and pizookies from BJs. Sadly, my camera was forgotten at home, but here are some pictures I found that can show you the amazingness of a pizookie. We shared the regular chocolate chip and the red velvet pizookie between all of us. It was literally gone within minutes. Too much deliciousness.

I want one againnnnn

Ours only had one scoop of ice cream. So sad.

After going back to my friend Katie's house, we decided to go to the movies and see Hangover 2. Maybe it was just the fact that it was late at night and we've had a ton of sugar, but I found the movie to be hilarious. Obviously it wasn't brilliant, but every reference to the first movie made me laugh and the story was just so ridiculous. It was very similar to the first one (in the set up of the movie, not what happened the night of the hangover), but I guess why change something that works.

I laughed a lot, and had a good time watching it and so did the rest of the audience. I love when the theatre is super into the movie. It makes the movie so much more fun when you can laugh out loud with everyone else.

When I got back home today, I met up with my friend Sophie to go to the Hermosa Beach Fair. It was such a cute little set up, and there was so many street vendors...aka prepare yourself for picture overloads.
It took us 30 minutes to actually find a parking space--half way in we did find one but this mean lady stole it from us, and then laughed. Ugh, some people are so annoying. I felt road rage being summoned up inside me and I wasn't even the one driving. Eventually we did find a place that was decently close, and we didn't even have to parallel park (which would have been a disaster). We walked over and enjoyed the fair.

One of the many cool painting exhibits

How cute are these? They're actual four leaf cloves. What a perfect present idea! cough cough

This booth was so cool. All the jewelry was made from the gears used to run watches. The rings were the coolest, but they were too small for pictures.

The vendors were really amazing, but the fun part was hunting down all the free samples. I didn't know there would be any at the fair, but there was so much good food being given away. Here's just a few:

Although this salad was delicious, they were only advertising the almonds. Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like the most financially savvy decision.

YUM YUM YUM

At one station, Sophie and I were asked if we were 21 or over. We both sadly said no, but the guy still let us have a sample of frozen, shaved red wine. It was actually one of the best tasting samples at the fair.

And I'm obviously a little to excited to have it. I know... such a dork.

A large array of dips and soups actually led to our only purchase of the day, black bean and vegetable mix to make soup for dinner.

So many to chose from...

We ended our little excursion by walking to Hermosa beach. Even though it was beautiful, it was so windy that the sand hitting our legs was actually stinging us.

Finally, we headed back to my house to make some dinner. We used the Coyote Country Seasoning Co.'s Black Bean Vegetable Soup that we had just bought. To make it more of a meal, we added more black beans and some orzo to the soup. With some cheddar cheese on top, it was a super delicious and healthy meal (the soup without any of the additions was only 50 calories a serving).

I'm really glad Sophie and I could hang out today because she's leaving for the summer on Wednesday. I'm going to miss her!

Happy Julia: skype calling Scott tonight, the Hermosa Beach fair, relaxing and talking on the couch with my college friends, coming home to a clean room

Raincheck

I have a busy day today, and I'm running super behind (shocker), so there won't be any elaborate post tonight.

But prepare to hear allll about my weekend adventures in Long Beach tomorrow!

And enjoy the great weather outside :)

Clueless!

I have had such a busy day. Which consisted mostly of shopping... I know life is hard for poor, little me.

I woke up early, and discovered with the rest of my siblings that my mom had bought Frosted Flakes. Usually, our house does not contain any sugary cereals whatsoever. We grew up on plain old Cheerios, and I even learned to love Grape Nuts as a little kid (lots of milk to make it soft and then add honey or brown sugar), so the presence of a sugar cereal is rare. Even though I have been eating very healthy and yummy breakfasts, I did not hesitate to fight my way to get a bowl of cereal (no picture...it was a jungle out there).

My brother had his big 5th grade history fair today, so I walked with my parents to go see. He was Powhatan (aka Pochohantas' dad).

It runs in the family

A little bit later, I met my Mom and Grandma at PF Changs for lunch. I ordered beef and broccoli from the lunch menu so it was a slightly smaller and came with rice and soup. I ordered brown rice and egg drop soup.

So. Much. Food. And then I went shopping with my Grandma because nothing says shopping moment of truth then trying on clothes with a full stomach.

Sadly, I was buying clothes for my sorority so I can't unveil or wear any of the outfits for awhile. Still, I got to go shopping and get lots of goodies (they are technically my birthday gift). My favorite part about shopping is bargain hunting. Seriously, if you leave me in TJMaxx for hours I will be the happiest girl in the world. So my Grandma and I spent 4 whole hours walking around Del Almo hunting for good finds. Which is nothing to laugh at because according to Wiki, Del Almo is the 14th largest mall in the US...see you learn something new everyday!

So many bags! Many with just one item inside... I know it's wasteful but

I've secretly always wanted to have a Clueless moment

The bargain shopper in me left very happy. Almost everything I got was seriously on sale. A skirt from Anthropologie was originally $99 and I bought it for $19, and everything at Gap was 40% off. Score.

I did get one thing I want to show off share with you guys. This "sharing" is an annoying habit that I'm very guilty of doing frequently. I got new sunglasses on sale! I always lose my sunglasses and I'm really picky about buying new ones, so I'm pretty excited. They're going to be super useful when my family goes to HAWAII in a few weeks! But more about that later.

Awkward photo.

Hopefully by posting this I can spare Scott all my "look at what I got!" moments that he has to suffer through. Hah, nope he's still going to experience them. 


Dinner tonight was brinner, and I made PB&J oatmeal: maple syrup oatmeal with a little bit of peanut butter and lots of strawberries.

Since I had a huge lunch and a bajillion snacks (for real, it was bad), this was all I was really in the mood for. It was delicious. I love having huge packages of strawberries in the house.

I didn't work out today, but I feel like all that shopping has to count for something. I'm excited (kinda, ish, maybe not) to go for a run tomorrow morning though before I sleep over at a friend's house.

Happy Julia: sunglasses, the most adorable youtube kitten video in the world, seeing friends at lunch

Quick and Easy

So here's a quick run through of my lunch and dinner:

For lunch I made myself a quesidilla with black beans, chicken, and cheddar cheese. I also had a small plain salad with Trader Joe's Goddess salad dressing.

It was so good that I almost forgot to take a picture

Dinner was simple spaghetti with sauce and a salad with Italian dressing. I put copious amounts of parmesan cheese on both items. Yumm I love Parmesan cheese a little too much... I put it on any and all Italian foods and salads.

Oh and my single carrot just for good measure

And that's the quick and easy post for a pretty uneventful day. Thanks for bearing with me!

Happy Julia: watching Modern Family and the Biggest Loser, going to Rite Aid with the sissy