Saturdays Away part 2

This past Saturday I had the option of staying at home alone, cleaning my apartment, grocery shopping etc., and preparing for my parents visit...or I could go watch some friends jump out of planes. I chose the second option and joined Lana, her husband Brendan, and Joey on their way just north of wine country for sky diving. They each had a groupon for it, and since I have a hard time doing things that could potentially injure myself, and since my job can't be done well on crutches, I volunteered myself as photographer. The weather was great...until we got there :( As they each signed away their lives promising not to sue the clouds came, then the sprinkles, and their take off time got delayed. We went to town to grab lunch and then it progressed to raining. We decided to make the most of our day, so they rescheduled their skydiving date and since we had to drive through wine country we made a few stops on the way home!

Props to Joey for some great recommendations. There are over 400 vineyards and it's easy to be overwhelmed by all the choices. The first place we visited was Frank Farms and we knew it had to be good since Oprah had visited! They had a delicious champagne with a green apple finish...yum!

Our second stop was Prager & Port, where they had quite a unique decor and we couldn't help but add to it!

Thanks to Joey, Brendan and Lana for a great day of adventure and friendship! As always, I'm looking forward to my next trip to Napa & surrounding areas. If you are ever visiting this area, go north of Napa! There are some cute towns and tons of vineyards near Calistoga and Helena and the wine is just as good, just not as commercialized! 

Saturdays Away part 1

As promised, I went to visit Jenn the other week. I hadn't been to SLO for a few months, and with her hubby having to work a few weeks of night shift, it was a perfect time to visit and get some quality girl time! We started off right with dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo (home of Cal-Poly). After some great conversation, we missed the early movie and opted to wait out the next showing at Barnes and Noble. The movie was well worth the wait! I'd been wanting to see Bridesmaids ever since seeing commercials for it! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all things SNL and especially the women who've been a part of their sketches! Plus, I've been down the isle quite a few times as a bridesmaid so I felt like I could identify with this plot. Fortunately nothing this crazy has happened at any of the weddings I've been a part of. It's just SO SO SO funny! You have to go see it! We laughed so hard we cried!

The next morning we re-lived my first visit to her house a year before by getting some Old West Cinnamon Rolls...seriously, THE best, after my mom's of course!

Then we went down to Avala Beach for some coffee.

 Next stop was to a pier to see some Elephant Seals...and man, were they big!

 We made our way to a cute little downtown where we did some window shopping and some real shopping at the local farmer's market. Jenn convinced me to get an artichoke and gave me an easy recipe on how to prepare it. Sure, I grew up eating artichoke in dips or salads, but didn't know anything about how to pick a good one, let alone how to cook one!

We came home to the good news that her hubby had the night off so I headed home to PA. I'm always so thankful for my time with Jenn, and I can't help but think that she's opened my eyes to some new possibilities of things that I can do with my life, outside of nursing, and that's all I'm gonna say for now!

Slice of Home

(this is about 3 weeks late, sorry!)

Last Friday my friend Jenn (one of the many!) passed through town and we had a little slumber party. We grabbed dinner at Califia with a few local girls. I've decided that I need to be more intentional with my friendships here, especially with the women here, now that all my traveler girls are gone. It was great to try a local place, and enjoy it with both new and old friends. After a great dinner, Jenn and I came back to my place and we talked about what life is like for 2 East Coast girls (who've both lived in MD, VA, & NC) to live in California. In my mind, this state may as well be it's own country as the way and expectations of life are just so different at times! Our main topics jumped from East v. West Coast views on drinking, marriage, kids, and lifestyle. Always nice to be around someone who shares similar views, whether we still hold to our EC mentality, or have slightly altered them and adapted a little bit of WC into our perceptions.

On Saturday we grabbed breakfast at a yummy little cafe, I may have written about this place before as they have the BEST spicy hot chocolate I've ever had! We caught part of a local parade of some cute elementary kids, then headed to the Stanford Mall. This place alone is worth visiting just to see the gorgeous flowers and people watch! It also has a decent variety of mid-high end retail stores. Jenn has some fabulous style and walked away with the most adorable, and what I deemed seasonally transitional, gray wedges! I wish I was brave enough, but I love my feet too much to risk blisters or numbness. Shortly after she hit the road with loose plans to see each other soon, but next time at her place!

Sunday I got inspired to bake and set my mind to make some loaded chocolate chip cookies! If you've had the privilege of tasting my mom's, they aren't quite as good, but almost! I really haven't done much baking since becoming a travel nurse. This is partially due to not having most of my supplies, but also just a lack of ppl to bake for! I enjoy it when I know the ppl who will enjoy it. I went to the Villa, a house comprised of 4 girls from the church I attend (2 are in the above picture), and while borrowing their Kitchen Aid mixer we visited with one another. As I said, I'm trying to be more intentional about the friendships here and what better way than to make ppl cookies?! After an enjoyable afternoon of grocery shopping, cooking, and baking together it was time to deliver the goods. I left some with the girls, then headed over to the Bungalow and Graceland to make a surprise cookie drop off. They were all about to watch a movie, which I begged out of saying "I have to work the next few days"...little did I know I'd actually be canceled from work! Now I feel lame, but oh well, I was just trying to be responsible!

Monday and Tuesday...oh how I wasted them! Both days I was canceled due to low census. Here's how it works, they call around 5:15-5:25 and say "You're canceled for the first 8 hours" so I go back to bed, sleep in way too late b/c my black out curtains work all too well, then laze around the house in my PJ's, get hooked on a Masterpiece Theatre show "Downton Abbey" on Netflix, get a call around 1-2 saying "You've been canceled the rest of your shift" and then continue to be not very productive! Sad right? I just wasted hours of my life...but the British mini-series was SO good! Oh, and I was a little more productive on Tuesday when Jenn (different one, Duke RN one) came down from the city and we laid out by the pool while doing a few loads of laundry!

On Wednesday my Western MD hometown friend Morgan came to visit from Modesto. We had the perfect girls day filled with pedicures, good food, great conversation, a chick flick: Jane Eyre, and happy hour @ Starbucks! I was so happy to see her, and again we revisited the E v. W coast life differences. This time talking about how people can tell we're not from out here because of how honest, opinionated, and open we are about our lives. It meant a lot that my 6 month pregnant friend would drive 2 hours to see me. After getting our half-priced frapps she hit the road, again with loose plans on my end to go visit her at her home soon!

Thursday I went up into SF to hang out with my college/traveler friend Christine (you may remember her from my camping post). We had plans to hike up Twin Peaks, the highest point in SF with some great 360 degree views of the city. We couldn't find great directions for a "trail" and didn't want to just walk on the road, so we ended up driving to the top. IT WAS SO COLD & WINDY! Seriously, my ears hurt for hours after that! Like I said, great views from up there! Check them out below.

After that we walked around the Castro district, this is one of (if not THE) most openly gay areas in America. Let's just say...it was interesting. Then we drove back to her place and we meandered a few blocks over to the Marina district which consists of some chains and  local boutiques and restaurants. We went on a mission! I had recently just heard of this service Benefit (cosmetic company) provided of eyelash tinting. I'm very blonde, which means my eyelashes are non-existent w/o the help of mascara. I decided it was worth trying once! So I took my seat and began the quite painful process of eyelash tinting/eyebrow tinting & waxing. I've never dyed any hair of mine so I was not prepared for the "burn" and didn't know what to expect, but about 5 minutes into the 15 minutes a small, lone tear was running down my face. Christine did a great job of keeping the situation light, and comforting and encouraging me. I was learning that beauty IS pain!

I do agree, LAUGHTER is the best cosmetic (and it's usually free!)

So long, Farewell, I'm not Heidi Klum so I can't pull off saying Alvederzane, Goodbye

With the exciting news of my staying here in Palo Alto for the summer, there is also the sad news that all the girls I started with will be moving on :( Granted a few will be about an hour away, but it won't be as easy to coordinate a late dinner after work or a quick run to Anthropologie together. It took 2 tries, but we managed to get our group together for 2 final farewell dinners.

On Thursday night some of us met at SoCal in downtown Mountain View for tapas and Sangria where we reminisced on these last 13 weeks together.

And then on Saturday night we met again at the Wine Room (super cute!) and then had dinner at our favorite place in downtown Palo Alto, Evvia.

The owner of Evvia took a special interest in us that night and figured that if this many ladies were together then some celebrating must be going on, and he got us into the "nightclub" next door for free. I am not a dancer AT ALL and this is not my scene, but now I can say that I've been and I didn't waste any money on it! Hey, it bought me more time with some wonderful friends...and a few laughs at the clientele's expense. 

Inspiration

Looking at me I'm not the epitome of fashion, but I love looking through Lucky magazine or browsing the Refinery 29 website to see the new trends for each season. Recently I've been inspired by these blogs and just wanted to share them with you: Atlantic-Pacific, Cheetah is the New Black, and Sterling Style.

Sure, I'm not 5"8 & size 4 or have long hair but I can still find inspiration from these women for my 5"1, size 14, and above shoulder length hair. GASP! Yes, I disclosed my size. C'mon, be real. I am ;) That's the size of the average American woman and ya know what, I'm ok with that so you should be too. I don't have to go buy their designer clothes or bare my legs or rock a fedora plus oversized sunglasses and sky high platforms! Although I do wish I could rock the fedora---I've tried a few on but my hair color blends in with the hat, and they really look best if you have longer hair.  I can still be inspired to paint my fingernails a fun color or try a bright lipstick. The orange lipstick didn't look good on me, but my friend and I sure got a laugh out of it! I did decide to invest in my skin care/quality make up so I bought the always raved about Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer w/ spf and some Nars illuminator. My make up drawer feels fancy, and my wallet feels a little lighter. And my skin...I think it's glowing :)

   

Muir Woods

I am now a proud owner of an annual membership to Muir Woods. Yes, you heard me right. Miss little-not-so-outdoorsy has a membership to a state park! What can I say? The smart shopper in me won out and it was a great deal seeing as how I've got company coming this summer and it will pay for itself after one more visit! This all came about when my friend Tonya was trying to squeeze in some sightseeing before her move north to start her next contract.

Our day started off with a walk around Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies (the West Coast version) that are most famous for being in the background of the opening scenes of the Full House intro. On a sunny day like we had, I could have easily spread a blanket and laid there all day reading my Kindle. It was so pretty and serene.

We then headed to Squat & Gobble for some food---which was supper yummy! Then made a pit stop at Crossroads, which is a store similar to Plato's Closet. I've been reading all these inspiring fashion blogs and this store had been mentioned several times so Tonya was gracious enough to let me explore since we were just a few blocks away. It was a let down, but maybe it will be a gold mine the next time!

Since we were heading north and had to cross the GG bridge we stopped so I could actually get out on the bridge to take some pics and feel how much it shakes 'n sways with the traffic! 

Our main destination for the day was Muir Woods, which is just north of San Fran, and is home to the famous California Redwood Trees. When doing the math---which occassionally I'm good at---it was better deal to pay $20 for the year long membership than $5 per person every visit. So in my purse, amidst my grocery store discount cards and Ann Taylor credit card sits my Muir Woods membership :) The trees were AMAZING! I've never seen trees this big, and these aren't even the biggest ones out here! I wore the wrong shoes so we stuck to a simple trail but I'm planning on going back...with tennis shoes...next time! Here are a few pics to give you an idea of just how "big" big is!

very unattractive pose and quite bright, but look how wide! 

Before leaving the park we stopped at the cafe to try their grilled cheese sandwich which was featured on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate" by Tyler Florence. It was yummy!

Of all the travelers in the group I started with, I'm going to miss her the most. She's definitely taken on a big sister role in my life and it's been so nice to have someone "look out for me" and share life advice. I have a feeling we'll be staying in touch :)