I figure weekends are a good thing to recap...that is, if I actually DO something instead of just lounging around! The constant perfect weather of LA pretty much forces everyone out and about, so things are looking good for a weekend recap.
Work was never ending on Friday. I left rather drained and exhausted. Preston offered to make dinner, but I decided to reward myself with a recipe from my 'sinful recipes' Pinterest Board.
Side note: I'm like an obese person trapped in a relatively thin body. I have a terrible relationship with food. I use it as a reward far too often! I blame my parents, mostly (as can be said for most things ;)), since all big life events were recognized by ice cream sundaes at Roy Rogers. :P None of this fares too well for my future as a thin person. I just try not to do it toooo often and I'm trying to rework what my idea of 'sinful food' is...like, right now...milk. Milk is a huge sin and I'm a sinner. Big time.
This is what I made. I was SUPER excited about it and it was pretty easy to do. Hilariously, as we sat down to eat it...Preston said, "Nothing like good old Hamburger Helper". Dammit. I didn't even REALIZE that I had just created a fancier version of Hamburger Helper. Haha!!
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| This a picture from the website |
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| This is a pic of the leftovers I'm eating today. Close enough. |
On Saturday, we drove down to San Diego in the afternoon to see Preston's 'Aunt' Andi. She's not his Aunt by blood, but she's known him his entire life, is one of his mother's best friends, and is as good an Aunt as any. ;)
San Diego is only about 2 hours from where we live in LA, so off we went. I think the most surprising part of this drive was how GREEN everything is!! The rain has made a noticeable difference in the landscape.
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| Green-ness. Stuff like this here is usually brown and dead. |
Andi is the Dean of a nursing school and was in town for a conference. Lucky for her, this conference is held at the famous Hotel Del Coronado.
The Hotel Del Coronado sits on the tiny island of Coronado just across the bay from downtown San Diego. It's a beautiful, old place with true Victorian charm. The hotel opened in 1888 and is rumored to be haunted!
We joined Andi at the restaurant overlooking the water. I got a salad, but Preston got a burger and the best fries I've ever had in my life. We decided this weekend that in the future, I should order what he does, because he ALWAYS picks better than me.
Though we only stayed a few hours, it was wonderful to see Andi. We were very grateful that she took the time to see us while she was so close! There was a beautiful sunset and perfect rainbow as we were leaving!!
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| Goodbye SD! |
On the drive home, we HAD to stop for a milkshake because. Well, because milkshake.
Sunday morning I met up with my old coworker Marcy. How does one describe what I mean? Marcy's not old...she's just from my last job. Ex-coworker? That makes it sound like we had a relationship that ended badly. Anyway, at this point...she's just my friend anyway. SO, I met up with my friend Marcy for another hike in Malibu.
We chose the Escondido Falls Hike. It was a good, and relatively easy hike. The trail started along a road through some pretty spectacular Malibu 'houses' (cough mansions cough). Along the way, there was a beautiful horse stopped along the side with a rider. As we passed, the woman rider asked us if she could use a phone. Of course, we obliged. Apparently the horse was quite spooked, so I soothed him while she made the call. I used to ride horses and I still love being around them. I got green drool all over my hands from his mouth and I was happy as can be about it. :P The woman explained that something on the trail was making the horse nervous. She reckoned there must be a coyote or something. In retrospect, it's odd that this gave us no pause, but we bid them adieu and continued on our way.
Hiking up and down the paved road, we finally veered off into a canyon. It was a mostly flat trail through shaded forest, which is somewhat unique in LA. The trail was pretty busy with other hikers. After about 2 miles, we reached the end and the 'waterfall'. It wasn't exactly the rushing, gushing image one typically has of a waterfall, but this is Los Angeles...where rain is an EVENT.
The 'waterfall' was actually pretty cool. It was a whole cliffside full of shrubbery and dripping with water.
We spent some time there cooling off and watching with horror as people washed their faces in what was probably just run-off water from the dirty, dirty hills.
All in all the hike was about 4 miles. We stopped again at Malibu Seafood on the way home. I was happy to find that the Ahi Tuna Burger was as wonderful as I remembered!
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| YUM! |
Once home, I said farewell to Marcy with plans to hike again soon. I headed out for my biweekly grocery shopping trip. I've fully converted to just shopping at Whole Foods. I LOVE Whole Foods. It's the best. Whole Foods is really an innovator and a leader in organic food and lifestyle.
I know A LOT of people complain that Whole Foods is SUPER expensive and while that can be true (see below)...I manage to consistently do my shopping there for around $100/week for both Preston and me. I LOVE Whole Foods.
I saw another 'celebrity' there, but I'll save it for my next celebrity round up. I also bought a bunch of game time snacks. Yum yum. One of these was 'organic brownie' mix, which seems like a ridiculous oxymoron. It was also absurdly expensive. So, I will agree that not EVERYTHING about Whole Foods is great.
Preston and I watched the game from home. What the heck was with the depressing commercials?? I teared up more times than I'm willing to admit. The 'like a girl' one? Omg. Amazing. And thank you. Thank you maxipad company. ;) I'm not a huge Katy Perry fan, but the halftime show was entertaining. Those sharks! They were the funniest and best things ever!!
I'm not at all a football fan, but man!! Those last few minutes were SO exciting. I recapped it for my cousin(who foolishly went to bed early!):
I dunno about you, but I think I have a serious chance at being a sportscaster. Career change??
JULIE! How was your weekend? :D
Helloooo Kelly!! Loved the weekend recap and seriously jealous of your amazing weather right now. It's been so windy and cold here lately it hurts to go outside. Like you, I made dinner on Friday night! It was chicken and shrimp penne pasta with a white wine/creamy tomato sauce with fresh basil and parsley. And of course garlic bread :D It was quite delicious and apparently I made enough for 8 people so we had lots of leftovers. Saturday, I had a wedding at NOON. Yes, 12pm on a freezing cold day in the middle of winter. It was one of my old pottery friends and neighbors from Church Street, and it was really cool to have almost the whole pottery class together again at a table. I was so happy to see Dutch's Daughter had their complete brunch buffett out for the occasion!! It was soo good. I stayed in Saturday night to dogsit Brit and Steve's adorable beagle, oh my gosh he is so cute. He curled up right next to me on the reading chair almost the whole time. Kiki was not overly thrilled about it though, that's usually her spot. Right now I'm reading "Into the Wild" have you read it or seen the movie? We must discuss! Sunday morning made buttermilk waffles and lounged around, until it was gametime where we watched at a friend's house. I brought baked macaroni & cheese. Another weekend gone by too quickly! :(
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