Las Vegas Spring 2014

I went to Las Vegas last weekend for a quick girls getaway. We stayed at MGM. Both nights we went to Beacher's Madhouse. I think the word "madhouse" described that place perfectly. 

Here we are waiting to get in to Beacher's the first night:

Here we are taking selfies outside the bathroom. We were probably trying to give our aching feet a break from our killer heels!

One of the girls in my group had some luck with the slot machines. She ended up winning about $100 which was exciting to watch. 

This is us on night two. I learned all about accessorizing from these girls. My plain Jane style just didn't cut it in Vegas. Luckily these girls shared their statement necklaces, purses, and earrings with me. 

This is us on our last night. We actually stayed out until about 5am even though we had to be at the airport at 6 and 7am. We stayed up all night and it was definitely a night to remember. 

I love having amazing, fun, spontaneous, smart, beautiful girl friends! 

Birthday Weekend

I decided that I want to go camping for my birthday this month! I was having a hard time choosing between wine tasting or camping. Ultimately, I decided to keep it simple and just enjoy the weekend in the great outdoors.

Next Weekend

JR has next weekend off so we're trying to decide what to do. We were thinking of going to San Diego. It has been years since either of us has been and we've never been there together. I asked my friend (she used to live in SD) for suggestions on what to do and where to eat. She suggested Balboa Park, Hillcrest, and Little Italy. I've also heard people suggest the Gaslamp Quarter.

For the past four years I've been living with my parents rent-free. This isn't the ideal situation for someone in her mid-twenties but I've put up with it because I'd rather spend my money on exploring the world and experiencing new things than paying rent.

But.... I feel like the time has come for me to start thinking about a grown-up life. A life where I have to pay rent, pay bills, and be responsible for myself financially. So, my New Years resolution is going to be to cut back on traveling! Wahhhhh!!

San Jose, CA

I'm going to drive my grandma to San Jose next weekend. I'm looking forward to getting out of town, spending time with family, and (of course) eating lots of delicious food. 

Vegetarian Camp Food

This past weekend, JR and I went camping at Lake Casitas to celebrate his 25th birthday! This was my first time going camping as vegetarian. Normally, I bring cheeseburgers for one night and chicken breast for the second night. This time I had to get a little bit creative. I wanted something easy (I only bring foil, a pan, and a spatula), budget friendly, savory, and filling (because JR is a meat eater). So, I bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes.

The first night we had baked potatoes. I poked little holes in the potatoes, wrapped them in foil and threw them on the grill! Talk about cheap, easy, and filling! We topped our potatoes with cheese, salsa, sour cream, green onions and butter. Yumm.

We saved one potato for breakfast. We chopped it up, and mixed it with soy chorizo and eggs. We turned this into breakfast burritos using the salsa, cheese, and sour cream. I highly recommend soy chorizo from Trader Joes.

My sister met up with us for the day. For lunch, we had sandwiches. Since JR and Kelsey are meat-eaters, I really wanted to prove that giving up meat doesn't mean you're stuck eating flat and boring grilled cheese sandwiches all the time. Eating like a vegetarian is delicious! I wanted our sandwiches to be special. I wanted the ingredients to be piled high. I bought some cheese rolls and croissants for the bread. Inside, we put spicy hummus, tomatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, cheese and tons of avocado. Avocado is important because it really turns the sandwich into something special.

The second night we feasted on sauteed veggies. They came out delicious and definitely filling. We had zucchini, squash, red onions, white onions, green onions, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and one slice of jalapeno. I had sliced and seasoned (salt and pepper) everything before we went camping so all we had to do was dump the veggies into the pan with butter and mix it around.

For dessert, we had s'mores made with Reese's.

Overall, I found that planning a vegetarian menu while camping makes my life a thousand times easier. For one, I don't have to worry about food contamination (did the chicken juices leak onto other foods while in the ice chest?). Also, I didn't have to worry about keeping the ice chest super super cold. One bag of ice lasted the entire weekend because I didn't have to worry about keeping meats cold. And finally, vegetables are cheap. I bought all my food for under $45.

Do you have any other ideas on simple vegetarian meals that I could make while camping?

San Jose 12/3/11

"Death is very likely to be the single best invention of life" -Steve Jobs

Saturday was the funeral for my uncle. I really enjoyed the service. It was thought provoking and inspiring! The speaker made some interesting points. Death is life's best invention because it reminds us that our time is limited. From the moment we are born our clock is ticking. Knowing that our time is limited, we should want to make each moment meaningful. I am inspired to live a life full of LOVE and meaning and sincerity and adventure.

After the funeral, we went to the Elks Lodge to eat. There was so much good food. I was actually tempted to eat chicken for the first time in months but luckily there was more than enough tasty meatless options to keep me distracted. It was just really nice to spend time with family.

Then, I went to Starbucks to meet up with my friend, Danny. One thing I really like about him is that he lives the way I kinda want to live. I love that he doesnt hide his feelings. He'll say things like, "Sarah's so cute, I just love her" or "I was so excited to see you, I couldn't sleep last night." I just love how sincere he is because I think most people are too afraid to express themselves like that. But yeah, life is short so we should tell/show our friends that we love them!

We got to FaceTime with Sarah for a little bit, but it was kinda hard to hear her because we were at Starbucks and they were making blended drinks. Most of our conversation was us waving at each other.

For dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory where I had the most amazing pumpkin cheesecake ever. I need to go back to the Cheesecake Factory soon, but next time I'm only going to order dessert because life is short! Hahaha.

What a weekend!

SLO ->Guad ->LB ->Torrance ->Oxnard ->Cam ->MB ->Big Sur ->MB ->Guad.

=Over 650 miles in 3 days.

Work M-F and play F-Su... This is my dream life! :)

Flagstaff 2011- Day Two

We slowly woke up and got ready for our day.

To start, we went to the coolest coffee shop/restaurant called Macy's. Everything looked sooo good, I had a hard time deciding what to order. I ended up choosing some fancy soy latte and vegan waffles from their amazing all-vegetarian menu! I loved that everything was vegetarian. Love love loved it!









After breakfast, we walked around downtown. We went back into a lot of the shops we went to the night before during artwalk. It was nice to go back when it wasn't so crowded. I bought a couple little things.

Christine had to be at NAU for the football game at 2:30 and we had lunch plans with some friends including a friend from high school, Justin (actually I've technically known him since preschool I think). We were really short on time, so we just sat with them for like 15 minutes and then went off to enjoy the game. Since we didn't have much time to catch up over lunch, we made plans to BBQ in the evening.

Christine is part of a club called Chain Gang so I sat with Cassie and her swim team friends while Christine fulfilled her Chain Gang duties.





Christine was able to save me a seat next to her so I went down to sit with the Chain Gang... right behind the football players. It was smelly! Also, number 69 had a mullet.



Christine was able to leave after the first quarter. Per the boy's request, Christine baked cookies as a contribution to the BBQ. So, we went back to the apartment and Christine did what she does best... baked cookies!





After the cookies were done, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some other BBQ essentials. Then we were off to the BBQ.

Here's a pic of my cheeseburger with no meat. I did end up taking a 10 second break from being a vegetarian so that I could try a tiny piece of lamb. Hahaha. I just wanted to be able to say I tried it, plus it smelled really flavorful. I'll admit, it didn't taste bad!



Unfortunately I didn't take any more pics at the BBQ. We spent the evening watching Netflix, eating, and laughing. We left at about midnight.

I had such a fun day. I really like Christine's friends, Flagstaff, and of course, Christine. <3

Arizona 2011

It all feels so "Eat, Pray, Love" which is weird because I really hated that book/movie when I first read the book and again when I tried to watch the movie. The reason why I thought the book was so annoying was because I really didn't like the main character, Liz. I felt like she was really selfish!

But, one thing I learned recently (interestingly, I heard this on the radio during a segment with the psychic, Miss Bonnie. LOL) is that when you're unhappy, you have to be a little self-ish. Not selfish, but just self-ish. But it's true. There are times when you just really have to focus on yourself. It's not being selfish, it's being self-ish. There is a difference.

So anyways, I've been doing lots of road trips which has been great, but I really wanted to do something more for myself. Something that involved flying. Soooo I'm going to visit one of my best friends (Christine) in Flagstaff, Arizona! It's going to be a short visit, but I'm really looking forward to just getting away for a little bit.

The one thing I'm worried about is this:

(The California girl in me shudders at the thought of anything colder than 60 degrees! But this won't be a repeat of my Europe trip, I'll for sure pack weather appropriate clothing.)

P.S. As I was looking up the weather forecast, Christine texted me and told me to bring an "h2o proof" jacket. We have the same thoughts at the same time... true friends. <3

Weekend Road Trip 9/16/11

Right after work Friday, I drove down to Camarillo for another weekend getaway. My sister's apartment is turning into the weekend party place and I love it!

As soon as I arrived, Kelsey and her roomie, Lindsey, were ready to go to dinner. We drove back up to Oxnard and met my mom and nino who came separately. Our wait was almost 1.5 hours just to get seated! BJs is the place to be on a Friday night! While we waited for a table, we took some pictures...

When our food finally came, we were disappointed to find out that they made my sister's order wrong. They took her pizza back and offered to buy us dessert! Of course we got pizookie!

I love my sister's roommate. When the desserts came out (we decided on sharing two pizookies) Lindsey was like, "I always feel like it's a competition when you're sharing a dessert." Hahahaha... Judging by the photo above, Kelsey was in it to win it!

Kelsey drove us back to Camarillo and we had another fun photo shoot/dance party in the car.

Back at the apartment, we just relaxed and had a fun little slumber party!

____

By the time I woke up the next morning, my sister had cooked us all a delicious breakfast! Such a little Martha Stewart! We all took our time getting ready. By 10:30 I was back on the road with my favorite little travel buddy. <3

I drove down to Torrance to meet up with my friend, Michael. He just moved back to California after attending grad school in Virginia. Yay!

We ate at El Torito Grill. It was so nice to just catch up on each other's lives. Mike actually drove back to California from Virginia and turned it into a road trip. It was a baseball theme road trip where he and his friend stopped at various baseball stadiums along the way! Sooo cool!

I thought the tortilla looked kinda funny...

After lunch, we were soooo stuffed! Mike suggested that we go shopping! We drove to a nearby shopping mall which was half indoor and half outdoor. As I was walking around, I started recognizing some of the places. I realized that I had actually been to this mall before!

They had this cool used book/CDs/video game store. I bought a Sheryl Crow CD for $5.

We tried to take a picture of ourselves to send to Sarah, but it was really difficult because Mike is like a foot taller than me. We eventually took a good pic that included most of both of us.

Then, some man offered to take a real picture of us. :)

Hanging out with Mike made me really miss my college life. I'm so glad he's back in California, but it's kinda depressing because now Sarah has left the state :(

Anyways, I had to leave so that I could drive to Culver City to drop off my Auntie Julie's cane (she left it at our house during Labor Day weekend). When I got to her house, we chatted for a bit. I was disappointed to find out that I had just missed my cousin, Miki. She left for work right before I showed up. I told my Auntie that I would have liked to visit Miki at work, but I didn't have a GPS and I didn't want to get lost. Auntie Julie was so cute, she was like, "Want me to show you how to get there?!" So we hopped in the car and drove to the grocery store Miki works at.

One cool thing was that my Auntie had a handicap parking thingy so I got to park right in front! We said hi to Miki, but she was super busy so we just walked around the huge store. Auntie Julie pointed out the Jamba Juice, Starbucks, bank, pharmacy, florist, bakery etc. (the store was huge).

After that, I dropped Auntie Julie off at her house and was back on the road again.

I drove to Krispy Kreme where I bought 3 dozen doughnuts. Yum!

Then, I drove to Camarillo to drop off doughnuts with Kelsey and Lindsey. Lindsey was at the gym, so I just waited around for her to come back so I could say hi. I left about a half hour later.

On the drive back home, I blasted my new Sheryl Crow CD and I just felt happy. I love making little road trips. I love getting away. I love visiting old friends. I love spending time with my family. And I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. <3

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day Three

Day three consisted of MORE EATING!

Our first stop was Pho Y! This place was packed (always a good sign!). When it comes to pho, I can't help but take a "30-minute break from being a vegetarian"! I did order mine without meat though :)





Then after pho, even though we were super stuffed, we went to Tapioca Express. I tried honey milk tea which was super sweet.





After that, we went to Gilroy to shop and then headed home.

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day Two

We took our time getting ready at the hotel. We checked out around 11am and were on our way to San Jose.

My cousin knew all the popular food places. Our first stop of the night was The Counter on Santana Row. It was so fun customizing our orders. I had a veggie burger.





Even though we were STUFFED, my cousin convinced everyone to try Hello Desserts! This place was amazing!



I got a Fruity Delight. Soooo yummy! Suddenly, I wasn't so stuffed anymore. I finished the whole thing!

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day One, Part Two

We got to Santa Cruz at about lunch time. Luckily, the hotel let us check in early! I love staying at (clean) hotels!

!



We rested for a few minutes and then got back in the car and drove to UC Santa Cruz! I have been on the campus twice before. It's hard to believe that the first time I was here was like 8 years ago and the last time I was here was like 5 years ago! It makes me feel old!

The campus is really beautiful with lots of trees, hills, and roads perfect for skating!



Since nothing was open on campus, we drove downtown and had lunch at a little cafe. We were super excited that they served breakfast all day, but in the end, none of us ordered any breakfast items.



We walked around and shopped downtown for a couple hours, but no one bought anything. I saw a pink Santa Cruz skateboard that I considered buying but ended up not. But I'm still thinking about buying it... hmmmm...

Then, we drove down to the boardwalk. We walked around there for a little while. We were expecting it to be in the mid-70s, but it was much colder! Brrrr.



After that, we drove back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner.

For dinner, we walked across the street to Caffe Lucio.



This restaurant has character! Lucio himself looks over every plate and you can hear him yelling at the servers in his Italian accent. Then, in the middle of our nice dinner, our waitress turns on a disco ball and then all of a sudden it was a party! There were flashing lights, a disco ball, and Black Eyed Peas blasting on the stereo!

I really like Santa Cruz! I enjoy the hippie-ness! The best thing is that it has been super easy to find good vegetarian food at every place we've been to!

Tomorrow, we're driving down to SJ to do some shopping and visit with cousins <3