Gifts from Napa

The gifts have been unwrapped and the family is all cozied up together for the holiday season! After feeling particularly proud of my wrapping of my Mom's present-- wine from Napa in a branded box and fancy wrapping paper--I realized I never shared one of my favorite memories since my move up to the Bay Area.  I didn't go on too many big trips this year--though graduating, getting a job and apartment, moving to a new city, and family emergencies have been more than enough adventure for one year--but I did check another thing off my bucket list! With Scott's secret planning, he whisked me away for a quick trip north of the city to go wine tasting in Napa and explore Petaluma for an afternoon.

We drove up to the Castillo de Amorosa winery in Napa and after my giddy freak out, Scott and I parked the car and instantly set out exploring. The whole winery is built to look like an Italian castle, and the building materials actually came from Tuscany. Scott had signed us up for a tour, so we grabbed some pictures of the flowers, vineyards, views and sampled grape seed oil before meeting our enthusiastic tour guide.

After pointing out the careful details of the decoration and walking around the castle, our tour finally made our way down to the cellars and learned more about the wine we were going to taste. It was so fun seeing the rows and rows of barrels underground, and we made a stop to taste wine that was still fermenting.

Finally, it was time to actually wine taste! Scott splurged and bought us the better wine tasting package so we got to try a ton of different wines. The experience of being in a dimly lit wine cellar trying glasses of $80 bottles of wine in Napa was exhilarating and hilarious at the same time. Scott and I had fun acting fancier than we were while both admitting that at this point of in our lives wine tastes like wine. One exception was a dessert wine that tasted like "liquid gold," and I could have the whole bottle of sweet wine.

Scott and I got caught up in our wine tasting experience and totally got sucked into the gift shop allure. We got three bottles of a Pinot Grigio that we had liked and I threw in an adorable wood box with the winery logo stamped on. I've had two bottles and the box decorating my room for so long, it's nice that I could finally give the gifts away today for Christmas! And I even have to admit the cute box looks even better in my Mom's kitchen.

We ended our wine tasting trip back at the car, but not before sneaking a grape or two from the vine! 

The rest of the night was filled with lots and lots of sushi for dinner before checking into our hotel and watching some guilty pleasure reality TV. 

The next morning we started our drive back to SF with plans (by Scott) to stop in Petaluma for a fun lunch. We grabbed a patio seat at a restaurant right by the river that runs through the town. While eating we saw a little brewery across the water, and decided to check it out after we paid our check. Sitting on a patio now on the opposite side of the river, we tried a few beers including a sample of mead for the first time. 

We ended the weekend's little day trip by looking through a few of the many antique shops that lined the downtown street before stopping at a retro ice cream parlor for some sundaes.

Napa and Petaluma was a perfect mini trip and a fun part of exploring a new part of the Bay Area. It also makes me happy that I could turn an amazing weekend into a great story and gift for my Mom and grandparents during the holidays (especially if it means I get another glass)! Tis the season after all!

Comic Con Road Trip

Scott has been going to Comic Con since high school, and my jealously has been slowly growing each year. I've gone from not watching any TV in high school to slowly developing a (too?) large amount of dedicated shows that I can quote and happily discuss. From a Game of Thrones obsession (Kahlessi) to casually doing Troy and Abed's friendship hand shake, my dedication to the shows that Scott and I watch has grown exponentially. In the last year or two, I've decided that some way or another I was going to join Scott and experience the nerdiness myself. Even better, this year one of my best friends from college was going to be there working at Marvel's booth.

After pulling some strings, Scott got us tickets for Saturday. Once I heard the news, I made an appropriate Game of Thrones T shirt purchase (You know nothing, John Snow) and started planning.

Our brilliant plan was to drive down to San Diego after we both finished work on Friday. I got off a few hours early to make it to San Jose, and by 6pm we were in a car full of snacks and slight delusions about the length of the drive. Luckily, we've mastered road trips with a formula of rediscovering songs from high school and making an In -n- Out stop at Kettleman city for dinner. All it took was a little caffeine and finding some country radio stations, and we finally managed to roll into Encinitas at 1am.

While we had plans to get up early, the long car ride had taken its toll and we waited until a few minutes before the con started to slip inside. We were really lucky to get some free passes in exchange for helping out at opening and closing through Scott's family friend, so after hanging around at the booth for a bit, it was time to explore.

My first impression was that Comic Con literally had the best people watching I think I've ever seen in my life. While not everyone was in costume, there were all types of outfits out there that ranged from impressive and expensive to extremely questionable. Besides an impressive GOT cosplay, it was more fun to watch and judge discuss the outfits with Scott than take any pictures.

The actual expo itself was a little overwhelming during the first walk through. There were lines, people pushing, and a bunch of things/booths that I didn't recognize. But I still managed to grab a creepy photo (it's a special talent), see the cast of Arrow (I only have seen a few episodes from when my brother had a control of the TV after his wisdom teeth, but that is a beautiful man), and walk by the man behind The Oatmeal (who is also good looking?! What about all that talk about the blerg?).

Once we were back at our booth, Scott and I made a game plan for our next couple of hours. We decided to sit in on a panel for Grimm since we had finally caught up on the season finale the weekend before. 

We were able to get into the conference room quickly, and listened to the Family Guy (funny) then American Dad (so awkward and quiet) panels before Grimm came on. Since it's not crazy popular, it was awesome to see the entire cast at the panel and be pretty close to the front. 

After, Scott and I headed back down to the main area in an attempt to say hi to my friend at Marvel. Instead we stumbled upon the Avengers signing, and with a boost from Scott (best boyfriend ever), I saw Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans,  and Colbie Smulders in all their good looking glory. My day was made, and luckily I was able to stop by and say hi an hour later once the mob died down. 

The rest of our time at Comic Con was spent grabbing some food from Ralph's before helping to close the booth we were working at. Although I think Scott and I were both exhausted, we had big plans to go out in the gas lamp district.

We swung by Point Loma to pick up Scott's friend, and wandered around downtown San Diego until we decided to try out Lucky Bastard. We grabbed beers and a booth and hung out until Maddie swung by for a half an hour. Eventually, we called it a night and headed back to Encinitas with a lazy Sunday and long drive ahead of us the next day. It was a perfect mini trip to San Diego, and a check off the bucket list that I hope to cross off next year. 

Weekend Trip to Eugene, Oregon

A trip to Oregon has been in the making for years. One of my best friends from home and I spent all of our last semester in high school making pro and con lists for our top college choices. When I finally decided USC and she decided U of O, we promised that we would visit each other. Fast forward to senior year of college, and we both realized that the time to visit needed to happen soon.

I booked my tickets to Eugene through Allegiant Air for only $98 round trip (!). Sure the airline only had one flight in on Thursday and one flight out on Sunday and charged for not only checked but carry on luggage, but I was ecstatic about the price. Since my friend Turner and I can share clothes and I don't have Friday class, I didn't end up paying any extra fees. (Unless you count the In'n'Out bribes I made to get a ride to LAX and back.) I stuffed everything I could into a backpack for my one free personal item, and promptly fell asleep for the whole plane ride.

I got into Oregon in the afternoon, and updated Turner on my life while we drove around Eugene and through campus. While LA was about to have a huge rain storm, Eugene was beautiful with clear skies, suburbs, and pine trees all over campus. I definitely missed all the nature. Our first activity was heading to the U of O gym to take a Zumba class. After subtly finding a way to get me into the gym, we realized that we had forgotten the tickets to get in the class. Instead, we ran a few laps around the indoor track and finished with a 15 minutes on the stepper. It was fun seeing how nice their gym was (especially in comparison to our school) and I was getting a little envious.

Once we got back to Turner's apartment, we made a frozen pizza and watched some mindless TV while getting ready to go out to the bars around the area. It was a ton of fun, and as always I reveled at how cheap drinks were everywhere outside of LA. The whole night was such a good time and may have ended with us eating two boxes of gluten free mac and cheese.

Friday was a much needed lazy day with the exception of walking around campus and Turner giving me a quick tour. Since we checked campus tour off of our weekend to do list, the rest of the night was spent guilt free watching America's Next Top Model marathons, cooking a crock pot dinner, making cookies (and eating cookie dough), and talking about nothing in the best way.

In the weeks leading up to the trip, I only had one request: to eat a VooDoo donut. I may have a slight obsession with donuts* so visiting one of the more famous donut shops in the US was a bucket list item. *Actually my whole family does--it was the one dessert everyone liked, so we all went crazy. Plus any surf trips came with a guaranteed promise of a donut stop. Saturday morning, we slept in and made our way to downtown Eugene. There was a decent line, so I had time to check out all the options and look around at the hilarious signs and donut names (so many dirty puns) and decorations. In typical fashion, I got too excited once there and ordered my top 3 choices--maple bacon bar, chocolate and rice crispy with drizzled peanut butter, and a VooDoo man.

I ate the delicious maple bacon bar for breakfast (because the bacon makes it the most breakfasty, duh) as we drove to beat the rain and go shopping. I was enjoying the zero sales tax (craziness compared to CA's 9%). I obviously had not gotten into the Oregon spirit (or realization that I was going to eat three huge donuts by the end of the weekend) because while it was raining out I bought a new bikini top and Los Angeles tote bag.

After shopping and dropping off the rest of the donuts off at the apartment, Turner, her friend and I all met up to take a Top 40 workout dance class that I had heard about all weekend. It was a different teacher than usual so the class turned out to be more comical than anything, but it felt good to be active and work off at least part of the donut.

And speaking of the donuts, I ate half the rice crispy donut between the workout class and dinner just because it was unbelievably delicious.

Turner's boyfriend and friend joined us for dinner and we went out to a local restaurant that for the life of me I can't remember the name of. After sharing an order of cajun tater tots with the table (which we were told was a necessity), I ordered a mushroom sandwich with cheese and sun dried tomatoes which I happily demolished.

To celebrate our last night together, we headed out again to the bars for one more night out. After dancing and bar hopping, we ended our night with late night Taco Bell (plus the last half of the rice crispy donut) and having heart to hearts. The whole weekend was so much fun, and it was nice to spend it with such a good friend and in a new place. Instead of it feeling like a trip, being in Eugene felt exactly like being home and hanging out with my high school friends. This visit was in the making for 4 years and it was great to finally come the full circle from senior year of high school to senior year of college together.

PS When I got up early to catch my plane, I ate half of my VooDoo donut. It had a pretzel stick through its heart and jelly filling on the inside when you bit it. Very clever and a huge relief that apparently I was starting to get my fill of donuts for the weekend.

Surf City Half Marathon!

After 3 months of training and long runs everywhere from San Francisco to Santa Monica, the weekend of the Surf City Half Marathon was finally here. Running a half marathon is also on my new bucket list, so I was both nervous and excited to finally do it.

On Saturday, I drove to Long Beach to pick up my sister, and we both headed to the race expo to get my and my roommate's bids and swag bag. It was much funner than I thought it would be and Jessica and I spent most of the time grabbing all the free samples and admiring my new hot pink, long sleeve (!) race shirt.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out until we decided to grab a dinner downtown at Pitfire Pizza. Madison and I shared a pizza and spaghetti and meatballs (tip from my brother for our pre-race meal) before heading back, packing our running stuff, hyperventilating, and setting our alarms for 5:45 before finally heading to bed.

5:45 is a time meant for sleeping. Hearing my alarm and realizing that I was getting up to run 13.1 miles (which I had to keep reminding myself was something that I had not only chosen to do but also paid a decent amount of money for) made me wish for a few more hours of sleep. Especially since I found out when I'm nervous, I wake up and switch my pillows every hour of the night. I was happy that I already laid out all my clothes the night before, so it just took a quick change and grabbing my bag before I was downstairs eating my PB&honey English muffin.

The sun was rising as we drove the 45 minutes to Huntington Beach, and for once there was no LA traffic and the radio wasn't playing ads. We were trying to mentally prepare ourselves for the race, and the drive did actually help.

What didn't help was waiting almost an hour for the shuttle to take us to the starting line. It was really cold and we went from being intimidated to just wanting to get on the bus so we wouldn't be cold and late. By the time we made it to the start our heat was just about to begin. Without anytime to get nervous, we were instantly running.

The start was scenic and felt good. I instantly warmed up even though I had tossed my jacket to the side, and running the two miles to a three loop mentally made the first half go quick and painlessly. I ran the first half of the course with Madison which meant that I had someone to talk to.

For some reason, I had decided to train for the entire half marathon without listening to any music. It actually made the run feel much more special, and it became a more meditative experience. During a good run, I can just zone out and think about nothing for several miles or focus on mantras that motivate me.

Until mile 8, we were running to Bolsa Chica Beach on PCH. I was shocked about how good I felt--I didn't want to walk, was at a comfortable pace, and was enjoying having so many people around me to "target" since I usually run alone.

At that point, I grabbed a free Cliff Bloc (first time eating during a run) which helped get a little energy back. I was also tempted to grab a donut that people were handing out, but refrained when I imagined the stomach cramps that could result. As the race took us back to Huntington Beach, I started to get more and more tired. From mile 9-10 I was cursing the slight uphills (while also happy that my house was surrounded by so many hills during my training runs) and debating at what point to turn on my music. Mile 11 was a rough point--I finally turned on some Beyonce before realizing that without headphones, I couldn't hear anything. Luckily, at the point there were more spectators and I had made up several mantras that I was chanting in my head to make sure I didn't stop running.

Although slightly nauseous, I knew my one goal was to run the whole marathon. I had to keep reminding myself that I would be so disappointed if 2.1 miles from the finish line I started walking. It also made me think about how far I've come and how well the training worked. Achieving a goal was taking actual hard work, and I was amazed that this was possible for me. A red vine handed out by a spectator also may have helped too.

A huge motivator was also knowing that so many people came to support me. Scott drove out from Redlands, Jessica came to watch, and my two friends from school Andrea and Maddie had driven out as well. It wasn't until I was running the race that truly I realized how much it meant to me, and how much it helped keep me motivated.

I saw them right at the finish line and waved before crossing over with the biggest smile on my face. That smile quickly turned to shock when I realized that instead of relief, every muscle from my butt down was KILLING me. I could barely walk, but I still managed to grab all the free food and my medal on the way out before meeting up with Scott (who may have offered to carry me ;).

I cannot put into words how proud of myself I am that I completed the half marathon and stuck to all my goals. Finishing the race was a combination of awe at how feasible the race felt (up until mile 9 I felt strong and in the zone) and how much mental strength it took to not take walking breaks. I was amazed I could run so far and so long without listening to music and really focusing on myself, my goals, and at the same time nothing at all.

A half marathon has been a goal of mine for years. I would print out half marathon training plans and look up races, but never got past a three mile run. Crossing the finishing line was so empowering, and I'm already looking forward to my next one (not in the near future however). I was also beyond appreciative to have such an amazing support system and people around me.

Even better, we celebrated with a mimosa and some chicken and waffles from Roscoe's in Long Beach. My eyes may have been a little bigger than my stomach, but it was amazing (and I had the leftovers for dinner). What's the point of a half marathon if you can't brunch?

13 Bucket List Items Completed in 2013

One of my Christmas break goals was to make a Bucket List. After a full day of blog reading and wanderlusting, I finally finished. Since I have an obsession of making lists, a Bucket List is kind of like the ultimate list project. It also was partly a way for me to deal with fact that this is the year that I graduate and remind myself that there are fun things to do in the real world too. But being myself, I didn't feel completely satisfied that I couldn't include (and more importantly cross off) some bucket list items I already completed so far. Since this whole blog is essentially a self indulgent journal (and proud of it), I figured I would include the bucket list items that would have been completed if I had made the list one year ago:

13 Bucket List Items completed in 2013:

- Paris with my amazing boyfriend. It's the city of love and staying in an apartment, eating snails, going to the top of the effiel tower, frolicking at Versailles was all made even better by having Scott there.

- Go to Aushwitz in Poland. I never wrote about it on the blog because it felt a little disrespectful, but it was an incredible and depressing experience. It really changes the way you view history and humanity and made for an extremely reflective morning.

- Eat a belgium waffle in Brussels. This was pure deliciousness. Somehow, Scott and I only ended up having one Belgium waffle (and one mini one) during our weekend in Brussels, but the taste did not disappoint.

- Studied abroad in Europe. I don't even know where to start on this one, but Prague is one of the best cities in the world, and it was the best experience of my life.

- Learn some of a new language. I may not be great, but I was pleasantly surprised by how far my Czech came along at the end of the semester. A highlight for me was having a little conversation the young Czech girl at the Prague Zoo. I have never felt so accomplished after exchanging names with an 8 year old.

- Eat pasta in Italy. I love food and I love carbs even more. I think this is a pretty common bucket list item and something that I was looking forward to ever since deciding to go abroad. From pasta carbonara, gnocchi in white sauce, linguini and mussels, to ravioli with truffle sauce, I ate so much that I had to lay down at one point. That is a sign of success if I've ever heard of one.

- Grand Canyon. My Grand Canyon bucket list was made possible by Scott. I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but I had this idea that I would see it on a spontaneous trip. Seeing and walking around the Grand Canyon as a surprise road trip was perfect.

- Swim off the Amalfi Coast. You know those experiences that you can't believe are happening even while they are happening? Boating around Capri and jumping into the water felt like a movie (besides the very cold water) and was one of my favorite memories from abroad.

- Swim in the Adriatic Sea. Also cold, but the water was so beautiful. The seafood was amazing, the place was amazing, and the pebble beach was amazing. Also included in this section is river rafting in Croatia and all the adventures there.

- Go clubbing in Berlin. I had heard about Berlin's crazy nightlife, and I feel like our successful Saturday night met my expectations--a club called Matrix under a subway station complete with gogo dancers playing electric violins and dancing in cages.

- Storm a football field. Also known as the time my life felt like a football movie and the time that I did not get trampled. The whole experience ended with purchasing and passing around a bottle of Fireball whiskey.

- Girls trip to Vegas. Oh Vegas, the best place to be dressed up and 21. Bonding moments with the crew and ego boosts all around. A girls trip was definitely the way to take on Vegas because 1) getting ready became half of the party and 2) we only spent money on our dinner together.

- Have a crazy 21st birthday (and hangover) With my 21st birthday on a Tuesday and work the next day, I wasn't sure how my crazy birthday dreams would work out. Luckily I have amazing friends who took me out for a fancy drink at Terranea and then for a crazy night in Hermosa. It was fun that on a less crazy night I was the only birthday in the bar, and had a ridiculous number of drinks bought for me as a result. I wouldn't have changed any part of the night even though it brought the birthday appropriate hangover from hell.