Spring Break Day 3

And here we go!

Day 3, we woke up to beautiful, warm weather! (Finally) And I was glad J was finally getting to experience the California I know and love.

We ate at the most delicious little cafe by some railroad tracks. The food was perfect, the lemonade was fresh, the sun was shining and we had a gorgeous view. I really couldn't have asked for anything more.

J occasionally likes to point out that I am obsessed with photographing my food. This is true.

Then we headed off to the zoo! Coincidentally, I am in love with zoos and was prepared to spend the ENTIRE day there. My compatriots, unfortunately, were not.

Regardless, we went to the reptile house first, where I was sufficiently creeped out. (PS- I HAVE TO upload the video of J as the Snake Whisperer. I know it sounds like it can't possibly be true but the video will blow your mind. Keep an eye out for it.)

We waited in line to see the pandas which J absolutely fell in love with :) You can see it if you squint and look REALLY closely.

I was a fan of this camera-shy bonobo...

And this giraffe

And this boy :)

And this peacock that was accosting people on the sidewalk.

Then we said bye to M, who was going to spend the night on a friend's sailboat, and J and I headed back to the island for dinner.

J had never been to the beach at sunset and I had never been to the beach at sunset wit a boyfriend and it was as romantic as everyone would have you believe. It was incredible :)

And of course, because I'm that food photographying obsessed girl, we ate an UNBELIEVABLE dinner of crabbed stuffed, bacon-wrapped shrimp which
A) revealed the fact that I am NOT allergic to shellfish, like I had previously believed and
B) it is possible to become addicted to mashed potatoes.

Spring Break Day 2

Day 2! Wahoo!

So the day started out with breakfast because I am a complete sucker for breakfast food. Luckily, J indulges me in this and did not complain about walking in the rain to find this delightful little place.

Maybe he looks a little unhappy but they took forever getting the pancakes to us!

We went back and hung around the room for a while because M is most definitely NOT a breakfast person or a morning person and refused to move from her window bed until 11. (You can see the window bed in the back!)

Then, once she was ready, we headed out for more food! more Tex-Mex! Or Cal-Mex? I'm not even entirely sure. Again: total sucker for ALL food if we're being real.

It was right by the beach so we popped by and had a photo shoot since it was still too cold to do much else.

We started walking around Pacific Beach where, we found out, M has Snow White like abilities to call animals to her. Who knew?

Then we found the most entertaining little shop that was actually 20 shops in one building. We spent a solid 3 hours here, probably boring J out of his pretty little head.

At some point, after the wig-trying-on debacle in which M had an entire store fitting her for wigs she had no intention of buying (it all just got so out of hand...) she was approached by a man who was high out of his mind offering us flowers. After spending a semester in Europe and being well-versed in the ways of creepy men offering foliage, I turned him down politely but M accepted and we continued on our merry way to Starbucks. It wasn't until we were in the bathroom that she asked me why I hadn't taken one.

Me: "I don't know. They're just kind of creepy. It's like, why are you giving me flowers? At 11 at night? High out of your mind?"

M: Pause. "What do you think he meant when he said 'Spread the love' when he gave it to me?"

Me: "Maybe just pay it forward?"

M: "OH MY GOODNESS, DO YOU THINK IT HAS AN STD ON IT? It does. It probably has herpes on it or something and I touched it! Ahhhheajtr."

She washed her hand for about fifteen minutes, disposed of the flower and hounded our taxi driver the entire way back to the hotel, asking if there were men known to hand out STDs on the street.

Yes. This happened.

Finally, we went in search of the alleged sauna and hot tub that were supposed to have been on the roof. There was none of those things. It was just cold and despite this smile, I was frowning on the inside.

Stay tuned for Day 3!

Spring Break 2011

For reasons I don't understand, I just can't seem to remember to blog about big things. I realized I mentioned that I would spending Spring Break in San Diego and I never blogged about how it went! So without further ado, spring break :)

This was J's first time going to California and I was so excited for him! I had gone to San Diego once before and had had an absolutely amazing time and I was so ready to share that with him :)

We checked into our room which turned out to be absolutely gorgeous and headed out to Coronado Island to meet with my navy friend, M!

The first thing we did was dine on delicious Mexican food. It's something we have plenty of in Texas but J and I are kind of addicted to it and it's ALMOST as delicious in San Diego as it is here ;)

M showed us around Coronado, which used to be where she lived until her boat got shipped to Washington State. According to her, this was her first time seeing the sun in months and she kept squinting and demanding to go tanning, even when it was 50 degrees outside.

And unfortunately, it was 50 degrees out :( (Who knew the weather got that way in California? It was March!) So M took us to her navy base so I could buy a jacket on discount! I had absolutely refused to pack jeans and sweaters because it was spring break and I was in some kind of denial.

It was very cold.

After roaming around the island until dark, we realized we didn't have a way to get back to the hotel. I wasn't opposed to getting a cab but M insisted that she knew a way to get us back for cheap. (Note: I love M but she has never had a good idea in the entire time I've known her. This is not an exaggeration.) First, she made us take the bus to the apartment where M had been staying to pick up her luggage. We were joined by a rolly bag, a duffel bag full of shoes and another full of alcohol. She's kind of crazy. (Another note: she was staying in the ghetto.) So we trekked back to the bus stop where we rode to a train that basically took us to Tijuana and back. That train broke down and, with all of M's luggage, we had 2 minutes to run clear across a parking lot to the last train that was heading into the Gaslight District, where we were staying. So we ran and ran. Some bottles broke, some people screamed and I leapt on to the train at the last minute, squishing in between a group of men and the door.

I sustained very REAL injuries but played it off like a champ.

M decided that she 'knew' which stop was ours and forced us off the train a solid 5 miles away from our hotel. Of course it started to rain and we didn't have umbrellas or ponchos and were still carting around all of this luggage. M kept leading us in every which direction and refused to let us act for directions until it started to pour and she got hungry. It turns out we had been walking in the opposition direction BUT, after much adventuring, we made our way back.

I didn't realize how much had happened in the first day haha I guess tomorrow, I'll have to come back with Spring Break, Day 2 :) But at the rate I'm going, it'll probably be another 3 months before it shows up. I suck.

Disclaimer: M is actually a wonderful person and an amazing friend. She's just a bit feisty, very opinionated and finds trouble absolutely everywhere she goes. She's a doll :)

Way Back Yesterday

A year ago today...

We started out as a group of Batman villains and of course, Scream. We had a Batman. We had worked hard on our costumes and had brainstormed on our themes until October 30th.

We made our way into Central London, a group of costumed merry-makers taking up a whole cart. You would not believe the looks people gave us haha

There was a little of this

A little of that

And A LOT of ridiculous dance moves and impromptu photo shoots as our makeup started to run and our costumes got a little scarier. At least J's definitely did. Did I ever share the story of his run-in with the pedestrians? We were leaving the club and a guy walking by called out to J, asking him why he was so serious. J, in all his creepy splendor, limped towards him, laughing maniacally. Needless to say, the minute J got within 10 feet of him, the guy BOLTED.

By the time we left, my feet were killing me, I was freezing and super excited about hopping into my nice, warm bed. We walked to the bus stop across the street and waited. Waited. Waited for about half an hour and no bus came :( Half of us decided the bus probably wasn't going to show up and so we started our trek in search of the next bus stop. For reasons I don't even remember, none of us had a smart phone with us so we wandered, analyzing the bus routes posted on each of the stops. Can you believe that it took us about 45 minutes of walking before we found a bus headed our way? We literally walked over half of the way home. It was slightly ridiculous.

But all of this was a year ago today :) Happy, happy times.