travel

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Each year my family goes to SF for a weekend of holiday shopping… this year we had our own personal tour guide (my sister recently moved to the city) and got the “locals” approach to SF during the holidays.

Some highlights included:

– Scalas for lunch (we go every year)… had to get the lemon raviolis

– Drinks at the Clock Bar at the Westin SF (I highly recommend the Gene Persimmons 🙂

– Dinner Round 1 – Hops and Hominy… Gin and Jam cocktail and fried chicken… need I say more?!

– Drinks at Lipo – a DIVE bar in the middle of Chinatown that got put on the map after Anthony Bourdain visited them for their Chinese Mai Tai’s… worth a visit!

– Dinner Round 2 – Kokkari (no description needed… if you haven’t been yet… go… as in run there. now.)

– Breakfast at The Grove… lavender lemonade!?

– The Corner Store – alcoholic milkshakes and epic burgers… quite the way to end a fabulous feasting weekend

Please excuse my excessive capturing of every beverage I consume… I can’t contain myself.

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I’ve spent the last 2 weekends at Carmel Valley Ranch (1 for pleasure, 1 for business… kind of).  Due to the nature of the trips, I had a lot of alone time… and I couldn’t think of a better place to reflect, renew and refuel.  Here are some of the highlights:  a 3 hour solo lunch at (my favorite) corkscrew cafe (who said 3 courses at 2 in the afternoon isn’t acceptable?!), reading the “Happiness Project” in a 2 hour long bathtub session, room service (enough said), day hikes, exploring a new city, hot tubing with my mom and J, working out sessions with THAT view, exploring Carmel-by-the-Sea, talking to strangers and meeting new friends…

It was a rejuvenating couple of weekends but I’m ready to be home and enjoy the Christmas season at home…

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i would always say my favorite quote was “live your life to its fullest” (check out my fifth grade year book… there is proof!).  but it wasn’t until i met Jeremy that i actually started doing that.  we rarely say no, and therefore the past year and half has resulted in more frequent flyer miles than i know what to do with, and an expanding waistline – unfortunately the no’s also include decadent desserts and fun drinks (opps!).

to continue 2012 with a bang, we repacked our bags and jet set off to maui for the weekend (that sounded so much snottier than i wanted it to).  mom and dad were there for their annual romantic getaway, so it only made sense to crash their fabulous time!  we grabbed ta, and headed to kanaapali for a whirlwind weekend.

we took friday off and landed around 10am…  we grabbed mai tais and burgers (with pineapple…duh) at cheeseburger in paradise (i’d never been!), and then high-tailed it to the hotel to spend the rest of the day poolside.  after a few swims in the ocean we got ready and headed to kapalua for JB’s birthday dinner at merrimans… i mixed it up and had the ahi and ono for dinner (to die) and we over indulged with their “best of menu.”  a much more relaxing meal than the last time we were there (Jeremy proposed there :).

saturday we woke up early and headed to duke’s for macadamia nut pancakes and then walked to whaler’s village to catch the hula girl.  we spent the day on the yacht and enjoyed the amazing weather and insane snorkeling.  it was so great, even mom got in the water!  we had mahi with lobster sauce for lunch and mai tais on the ride back… our day concluded with cheering on the giants in game 3 of the world series (yay for the win!) at the hyatt.  we had dinner at the most gorgeous sushi restaurant there – japengo, and had a life changing meal.  we sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean and had a scrumptious meal (wagu filet?! sashami platter?! macadamia nut/mango sushi!?).  our epic day ended with a full on tsunami evacuation.  yes you read that right.  the island sounded the loudest sirens and anyone on ground levels had to evacuate.  nuts right?!

despite the absurd sirens sounded the majority of the night (update: the tsunami never hit the islands), i slept fine and woke up the next morning to quickly pack, grab breakfast beachside at castaways and begin the trek back home.

a quick 48 hours.. but sometimes your soul needs a hawaiian recharge 🙂

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We’ve been home the past few weeks (getting the house ready for fall, baking a lot and enjoying movie nights in our new home), but October turned into a big travel month for us and we’re kicking if off with a trip to Seattle (Jeremy’s been dying to go).  He had a work meeting there this week so I met up with him late Friday night and our “Best of Seattle” tour began.  We stayed at the Four Seasons which was walking distance from the Public Market (and where we spent most of our time).

Our favorite part of Seattle was the food… our top meals/snacks are below:

– Fish and Chips (with Vueve Cliquot) at Steelhead Diner

– Dungeness Crab Fried Egg Sandwich with Avocado and Beecher Cheese (and a side of KILLER hash browns and fabulous Bloody Mary) at Seatown

– Wagyu Beef, Caesar Salad and French Onion Soup (paired with Metropolitan Reserve 2006 Blend) at Metropolitan Grill

– Pistachio and Hazelnut Macaroons at Le Panier

– Mini Maple Bacon Donuts at the Public Market

Aside from the overindulging in the food department we tried to be cultured for once and took in a lot of the great museums Seattle has to offer.  We spent the morning at SAM (Seattle Art Museum) and then worked our way to Chilulay Gardens to see the gorgeous glass sculptures (the same artist that created the beautiful flowers in the lobby of the Bellagio).

The shopping was pretty amazing too and we couldn’t forget top stop by the Nordstrom flagship store!  Speaking of flagships… our trip couldn’t be complete without Starbucks from the first Starbucks ever (not that cool unfortunately).

We lucked out with the weather, only being graced with rain when we were indoors (HUGE plus), so we tried to take the gorgeous skyline in as often as possible (we even hot tubbed in the rooftop infinity pool!

I’m so glad we were able to see this amazing city, but we definitely we’re smiling when we landed back in warm and sunny California! Until next time Hunter boots…!

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We had a once in a lifetime experience this past weekend at the iHeart Music Festival… The two day festival had some insane highlights… My top 5 would be: 1. Usher (he’s just that amazing) 2. Swedish House Mafia (they really pumped everyone up and put on a great show), 3. Pink (she sang while doing aerial aerobatics and overall just kicked ass), 4. Bon Jovi (I could have cared less about them when reading the line up but they really put on a great show), 5. Lil Wayne (I’ve always wanted to see him live… Check!) Other trip highlights included: eating at Barmasa, reading the epic novel Gone Girl, going to Border Grill with Jeremy’s mom, soft pretzels at the arena, and playing craps. Luckily we have more of a break until our next Vegas trip (hopefully).