Hi friends! How's your week going? I've been having fun hanging out with my cousin Noelle and her boyfriend, who are in town from the San Francisco area. It's kind of funny how Noelle and I grew up in Jersey together, and now we are both Californians! I've been having fun playing host taking them to do some fun activities around San Diego, including a hike up Iron Mountain yesterday. And speaking of doing fun touristy things, today I want to talk about a very touristy area of California: Los Angeles. Admittedly, LA has, at times, underwhelmed me. It's a city that is hyped up so much, I imagine that there are a lot of people out there that have felt this way. Another cousin of mine, Michelle, was living there when I first moved to California, and in visiting her, I've spent ... [Read More]
California
Inn at Sonoma Review + My Favorite California Road Trip ’16 Eats
As a California transplant, I'm always in awe of how vast and beautiful this state is. Having been born and raised in New Jersey where you can drive from the top of the state to the bottom in a couple of hours, it's amazing to me how massive California is. There are so many awesome places to visit and explore, and we've gone on many weekend getaways and vacations without even leaving state lines. This was the case two weeks ago, when my hubby and I set off on a California road trip vacation. We traveled from San Diego up to San Francisco to meet my parents, who flew in from the East coast, stayed there a night, then headed into wine country for the remainder of the week. We elected to stay in Sonoma at the Inn at Sonoma, which I was excited about because while I had wine ... [Read More]
Weekend Escape to Big Bear Lake
"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny space you occupy in the world." - Gustave Flaubert With my hubby and I both home last weekend with nothing on the agenda, we decided to take a road trip to a place we'd never visited before: Big Bear Lake. Located in the San Bernardino Mountains about 2 1/2 hours away from our house in San Diego's North County, Big Bear Lake is a popular destination known for its winter ski slopes as well as summertime water sports. My hubby had brought up the idea of camping in the area mid-last week. However, all of the campsites at the lakeside campground I wanted to stay at were already reserved. Plus fires aren't currently allowed there because of the extremely dry conditions and high fire danger, and that's kind of my favorite part of camping, ... [Read More]
Solvang: California’s Taste of Denmark
One of the things that I love about living in California is that there are so many cool areas to go on road trips to, both within the state and in neighboring ones. I've been itching to go on a weekend getaway, and so at the end of last week, my husband and I journeyed to the Santa Barbara area for a few days of wine tasting, hiking, and exploring the Danish capital of America - a town called Solvang. I like traveling to unique little places, and Solvang is definitely just that. It's a quaint, Danish-styled town in the Santa Ynez Valley that was founded a little over 100 years ago, and is home to a population of just 5,000+ people. Solvang is about a 4-hour drive from where I live in northern San Diego County. Pretty much the whole drive, you're traveling right up the Pacific Coast ... [Read More]
My New Home
Greetings from SoCal! Fortunately the move went pretty smoothly last weekend and I've been busy unpacking and getting things in order. Even though we're living a good 45 minutes north from where we resided last time we lived in the area (for reference for any locals, we lived in Mission Valley before and just moved into Oceanside), I'm already starting to feel at home and am glad to be back! I didn't know many people in the Bay Area and am enjoying having friends again! The first day we were here, a couple of our friends came over to help us unpack and see our place. We drank some wine and caught up, and it was a nice break from the madness of moving. Last night, I got together and had some Greek food with one of the first friends I made when I initially moved to San Diego. Her ... [Read More]
Sayonara San Francisco Bay Area
Happy Friday! It has been a little crazy around here because... I'm moving back to San Diego tomorrow! And I closed on my house there yesterday! The signing process got delayed a bit because of the intense wild fire situation going on there, but my new home should be safe from harm and is officially ours. :) I'll share pictures soon! Oh, and have I mentioned that it has been so hot in Morgan Hill all week? It's "cooler" here today, which means 90 degrees instead of yesterday's 99 degrees. It's May madness! While I am so excited to be going back to San Diego, I have had a lot of fun since moving to the South San Francisco Bay Area 14 months ago. I thought it'd be nice to reflect on my favorite memories of living up here, so here we go: Hiking - This is the most rural ... [Read More]