Hi friends! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. My long weekend was a great one, and here were some of its highlights: I kicked off my weekend with a walk along the beach with my little family. I had planned on getting an at-home workout in afterwards, but wound up not feeling like it at all. Most of the time when I'm feeling this way I just push through an exercise session, but once in a blue moon I just skip it - especially when I've worked out every other day that week as was the case on Friday night. Instead of working out I baked banana bread, read blogs, made white broccoli pizza and watched a movie.....and it was fabulous. Saturday morning I met up with a few other women for a hike at Torrey Pines State Beach. It was a perfect day weather-wise, and ... [Read More]
hiking
Embracing What is | Monserate Mountain Hike Recap
Hiking is one of my favorite ways to clear my head, enjoy nature and practice mindfulness. I always consider it time well spent as I'm trekking up a mountain, feeling the breeze, and taking in the scenery, and every time I reach the peak, I do so with a grateful heart. (source) However, just as with everything in life, sometimes hikes don't go exactly as planned. This was the case last weekend, when I set out to try hiking a new trail: Monserate Mountain in the nearby town of Fallbrook. Sometimes when hikes don't go exactly as planned, it's because I get lost while I'm actually hiking; other times I get lost trying to get to the trail itself. The latter was the case last Saturday. One of the challenges of finding new hikes is figuring out how to actually get there, since I find ... [Read More]
Hiking & Camping on Catalina Island
Happy October! Tomorrow marks 5 years since I married my man. Normally I'm not huge on anniversary celebrations, but since 5 years feels like a milestone, I wanted to commemorate the occasion by doing something memorable and fun together. Instead of going on a relaxing weekend getaway to wine country or something obviously romantic like most normal couples probably do, us nuts decided to embark on what turned out to be the toughest endurance challenge of my life hiking around Catalina Island. Buckle up for this long weekend recap friends - it was most definitely an adventure with a roller coaster of emotions! Catalina is a gorgeous little island off the coast of SoCal that has this sort of Mediterranean vibe to it. I visited there for the first time earlier this year with my mom for ... [Read More]
Returning to My Favorite Farmers’ Market: Little Italy Mercato
Hi there! Hope that you had a great weekend. I was more than ready for the weekend on Friday, and I kicked off my 2 days off with a hike at my favorite trail area with my hubby and this maniac... We hiked for a bit under 2 hours, and it felt so nice to be out in nature after a long week! ... [Read More]
A Labor Day Weekend Full of Hiking, Food & Booze
Hi friends! I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend. Not surprisingly, I must say that 3-day weekends are pretty sweet! There seemed to be 3 themes to my last 3 days: ... [Read More]
My New Favorite Hiking Spot: Elfin Forest
Meet my new favorite place to go hiking: When I moved back to San Diego County a few months ago, it was funny because although I was back in a general area that I had lived in before, I'm 45 minutes north from where I had lived prior. It has been like learning the ins and outs of a whole new place, although the area is familiar. One of the first things I started searching for in my new area was new favorite hiking spots. After all, hiking is one of my favorite things to do. It's not only a way that I get exercise and exercise my dog, it's also a meditative practice for me. It's a way that I process things and clear my head. Often, I start off a hike with a dilemma or just something that I'm contemplating, and by the time I get back in my car, I've resolved it. Escondido's Elfin ... [Read More]