Bang Bang (Guns and Stuff in LA)

It's Valentine's day! So let's talk about guns, sausages, and beer!

I'm currently waiting for Scott to get out of class to have some adventures around Redlands, so I thought I would celebrate now by talking about last week's "Explore LA" date. Last Friday, Scott was in town for my sorority invite (in which we were decked out as Hugh Hefner and a Playboy bunny). Usually, the following Saturday we catch up on all our shows and have a lazy day, but this time my house was holding a conference.

The conference left us with no where to stay, so we decided to spend the day out and about downtown. After a quick lunch (breakfast?) at Pizza Studio, we drove to the LA Gun Club by the arts district in Downtown LA. I knew a few people who had gone before, and it was on my "do before I graduate" list.

Scott and I had never shot a gun--I don't think I've even held one--so I was getting the nervous/excited feeling as we walked in. I'm not sure what I expected from a gun club, but I was shocked at all the options and was getting antsy as we took our numbers and waited to be called.

Luckily, we seemed to have beat the large crowd that came in after us, and soon we were talking to an employee about the best gun for beginners. The place gets mostly beginners looking for a fun activity, so I was't self conscious asking a bunch of questions. I wish I could remember the name of the guns we used, but we started off by renting a handgun that I can only describe as the Russian roulette type. I picked a target, and we were given headphones, glasses, and an aisle number.

We had bought a round of 50 to share, and I started off the first shot. Even with my first bad couple shots, the experience was exhilarating. I also was shocked at how well I got the hang of it. By the time I had finished my portion of the rounds (we switched off every barrel), I was spending most of the time admiring my handiwork.

Scott and I ended up having so much fun that we decided to rent another gun and go for one more round. This time we went for a semi automatic handgun that the army uses, and grabbed another target. This gun had more of a kick to it, and all my previous "skills" from before were completely gone. I think I only hit my target about 5 times throughout the whole practice. Scott on the other hand was killing it, and getting everything on target.

Finally, our bullets had run out, and we decided to finish up. We were there for probably about 2.5 hours (including wait time), and the club doesn't rush you to finish which was really great. The whole thing cost about $70 between two people so it was a fairly affordable date (as long as you split it) and was an adrenaline pumping activity. It was so much more fun than I expected, and it's always fun when even after 7 years there are still "firsts" for Scott and I to do together.

Our next stop was at a popular restaurant in the arts district called Wurstkuche for an early dinner.

It sells sausages and imported Belgian and German beers, and is one of those hipster-y restaurants that actually lives up to its reputations (so I heard). It was my first time eating there, and I ordered a simple kielbasa and German beer while Scott got the same (different beer) and fries. The food reminded me of Prague but even better. Ok, so Prague's kielbasa will always hold a special place in my heart but having a bun to eat it with instead of a single piece of dark bread was an improvement. 

It was so much fun just hanging out and eating good food, and by the time we got back to school we had just enough time to squeeze in two episodes of Community before Scott left. It was one of the more perfect weekends I've had all semester. A party with friends, adrenaline, good food, and Scott visiting makes for an amazing couple of days.

Now I just need him to get out of class!

The Last Weekender: San Francisco

San Francisco is one of my happy places. It was one of the first places I ever traveled too, and one of the few cities that I've had the chance to visit over and over. From going to Berkeley with my Model United Nations team twice during high school (complete with a day of sight seeing in SF both times) to two weekend trips to San Francisco in college for the Weekender, I was excited to spend the weekend in the Bay area.

(Every year, USC students head up to San Francisco for the Weekender--the weekend that our football team plays either Stanford or Berkeley.)

Every trip has been spent with good friends and have only lasted a weekend, but slowly and surely I've been checking off all the To Do's around San Fran---multiple trips and vintage shopping adventures on Haight & Ashbury, Golden Gate Bridge photo ops, eating a bread bowl with clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, shopping in Union Square, riding Bart and Muni all over the city, and exploring Berkeley. I was excited to relax this trip and just spend the weekend hanging out without worrying I was missing anything. I only had one goal for the weekend: to make it to Ghirardelli Square for the first time to try an ice cream sundae.

Since I had a night class until 8, we left for our road trip at 8:30 and started the long drive to my roommate's house in Los Gatos for the night. Despite an I'n'Out drive through stop (sense a theme happening?) and stop for gas and snacks, we made it to her house by 2am. After sleeping in and eating a Starbucks breakfast, we drove the last hour into the city. It was my first time staying in a hotel in the city, so I had zero expectations. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Union Square because my roomie's dad had work connections with the hotel. I was already impressed by the location and skyscraper, but my jaw dropped when we walked into our room and raised the blinds. Our room was on the 31st floor (woo! highest I've been in a building) and the view of the bay, city, and Alcatraz was incredible.

It was around noon and we started looking Ike's place's online menu for lunch. With some scandalous names and crazy combinations--the Kryptonite sandwich has 7 meats and 6 fried food items shoved in there--Ike's Place was recommended to us as having the the best sandwiches that are also the size of a small child. After ordering the Nacho Girl sandwich with avocado, lettuce, cheese, and salmon burger, we all hopped onto Muni to grab the food. Once we walked a few blocks and found the shop, we skipped the growing line and picked up our sandwiches, chips, and Ike's sodas to go. The concierge at the hotel told us the local thing to do would be to picnic in the park, so we grabbed a spot on the hill at Dolores Park and dug in.

With one brief stint of someone crazy yelling and strangers helping people fly kites barefoot, I think we all felt pretty satisfied that we were experiencing the true city. We hung out for awhile and somehow all of us managed to eat our entire sandwiches while promising we were never going to eat again.

Our never eating again plan quickly ended once we got back to the hotel, put on some warmer clothes, and taxied over to Gharadelli Square. While it was underwhelming, I wanted to finally check this tourist stop off my list. I wish I had saved more room to have a sundae all to my own, but the bites of the original sundae were absolutely delicious. After eating, we moved on to the next stop request of irish coffees. I tried a sip of a friend's, but seeing as how I don't drink coffee and don't like whiskey I was happy not ordering my own.

A quick taxi ride back to the hotel, and our food adventure continued with hotel treats. One of the best parts about our hotel was that we were allowed into the hotel's "club" which had free breakfast, snacks, and appetizers at 6. Our food intake for the day was already reaching all time highs, but we managed to grab several fried macaroni and cheese appetizers and fruit for dinner in the room while we got ready to go out for the night.

Friday night was spent at the Triangle Bars, and although I had a great time there last year, I ended up in a bad mood and having a pretty meh night. I'm going to blame it on sleeping on a couch the night before and walking all over San Fran that made me get tired and grumpy.

The next day we had breakfast and quickly threw on our USC game day outfits before catching BART to UC Berkeley. I always geek out over public transportation and BART has always been my favorite, so I was very happy to start off game day that way. The weekender game day went pretty similar to USC: we stopped at the frats to tailgate, ate a bacon wrapped hot dog, and headed to the stadium. It was fun hanging out with so many Trojans and friendly Cal students at a few frat houses. After spending half the game in the stadium and realizing we were going to win, we celebrated at the college sports bar Pappy's next to campus. It was so much fun being at a college bar which was actually affordable and nicer than the bar at USC. As much love as I have for the 90, having actual cheap drinks and a bright atmosphere was a very nice change of scenery. It was a ton of fun, but by the time we finally took BART back to the hotel we were all so exhausted that we napped and rested until dinner.

We ate dinner down the street from the hotel which was slightly expensive and average (except for an amazing Russian Mule drink) before heading to a bar called Playland. Although we were skeptical of the name, it ended up being so much fun. With a chiller bar on the first floor and a dance area on the second, we stayed there for most of the night and had a great time. A little after 1 we decided to try to bar hop with little success--we made it to another bar before realizing that it was a little too odd to hang out in or mention on the blog and called it a night.

Best drink of the night.

That Sunday was the end of my first week of half marathon training (btw training for my first half marathon!), so I knew I had to do my first long run or lose the momentum I had just started. I ran 4 miles down Market Street and along the harbor. It was nice being in cool air and getting to run downtown and along the ocean in such a pretty city before having to make the 7 hour drive back. Before leaving, I took advantage of free breakfast with a view at the club one last time before throwing all my stuff in my suitcase and heading out.

The rest of the road trip back was filled with In'n'Out (duh), playlists, traffic, and a million weird conversations. It was a little sad knowing that was our last Weekender as students, but if Instagram is any indicator of after grad life (obviously the best source to take seriously) then we will soon be one of the millions of alum that make the annual trip up to the Bay next year. 

The Reason for my Bad Blogging

I have been so busy from the second I moved back to school, and honestly it's only going to get busier. I am in a sorority on campus, and we move in early for "rush school."

While it's fun to see all my friends, this means 12 hour days with literally no time to do anything else (don't worry classes have not started). It's supposed to be very private information and traditions that we learn, so I'm not allowed to share the information and don't have time to take pictures throughout the day.

I miss blogging, but it's been hard keeping up with just reading other blogs much less finding time to write my own posts. So for the next week and a half, I'll probably just be a blog lurker before jumping back into this.

On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a workout or two (ish) the past few days. The first morning workout was a bit of a fail because I couldn't figure out how to turn the treadmill. Obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed that morning. Ends up there is a switch on the bottom of the treadmill you have to turn on first. Lamesauce. So I did 30 seconds of mountain climbers, lunges, squats, sits ups, and hip lifts (3 times each except for the lunges) until someone was awake and able to show me how turn on the treadmill. Since I didn't have to much time left until I had to be ready, I just finished up with a mile run.

Urban Running destination.

The other workout I had was a really fun one on Monday. A group of my friends and I went for a 3 mile run to the Staple Center at LA live. The run was a little quicker than I'm used to, but there were so many stoplights (and walking up to the light when it was red) that it was still enjoyable. Do NOT do that run unless you are with a big group of people. LA is not the safest place to be running around in. I'm already missing my views from home.

Beach side runs at home

Thanks for hanging in there everyone! It's been a little crazy and it's about to get crazier ;)

Summer's Over

I have had the most hectic day. I officially moved back to college.

I managed to forget my bath towels, razor, alarm clock, Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred, and a billion other things. I even had to deactivate my facebook which is causing me going through withdrawals. PS Scott I'm sad because I really want to write something on your wall along the lines of I miss you a lot:)

I'll be sure to catch you up on everything,  but I am exhausted.

Nice to see you again, LA.