A BIRTHDAY ROAD TRIP

tis true, my twin and i turned 26 last weekend and to celebrate we took a quick road trip to monetery. to make the most of our weekend, we headed up to san luis obispo on friday after work. it was a tough task but we made it. we stayed the night in slo so we could get an early start the next day, a reservation at the copper cafe was a good reason to set an alarm on the weekend.

this place was a DREAM. i’m already trying to plan another trip to slo so i could stay at the madonna inn and be surrounded by pink at all times of the day. *i hated pink as a kid and i think i’m making up for it now…*

*cody making fun of the fact that i ordered three drinks with my breakfast* yes, i bought one of those goblets from the store and will be drinking all of my liquids out of it forever.

did i mention these two joined us for the trip?? dang i love them. (best roommates ever)

post breakfast we went to see bubblegum alley- where you can surround yourself with other people’s spit and bad breath by choice! no, we did not contribute to the wall…

we continued our drive up north by stopping in morro bay to try and see some otters. SPOILER ALERT: we didn’t see any otters but we did see a corgi so we consider that a win.

after our corgi sighting, we continued on to cayucos for some cookies and stumbled upon a vintage store where i almost took home this jacket…some serious thought went into deciding against this jacket. i toss and turn at night wondering if i made the right decision.

and so the road trip continues to big sur! this was a long stretch for us; it took a few hours to get to the next stop… a lot of snacks and some terrible views were consumed within those hours (see below).

so we didn’t get the obligatory bixby bridge picture… as we approached the crowded bridge it was a pretty unanimous decision “DON’T STOP! KEEP GOING! WE’RE ALMOST THERE!” we were so close (yet so far) to monterey and as much as we wanted this road trip to be about the journey, we really wanted to just stop driving. in hindsight, we could have used another day (or two) to really explore but you live and you learn right?! once we got to monterey, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed straight to dinner to drink and eat our weight in pasta – WE DESERVED IT.

before embarking on our journey back home, we wanted to see the beautiful 17-mile drive. i know what you’re thinking…”before you drive the 6 hours back home, you’re going to drive 17 miles to see beaches?!” the answer is yes, and like i said, “you live and you learn.” i loved our not so little road trip up the coast and spending time with my loved ones in a car for hours on end. would do it again in a heartbeat.

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our weekend on film below. xx

SEDONA: A WEEKEND GETAWAY

sedona is one of my favorite places to visit, as i’ve mentioned here, here and here. it’s just close enough for a quick weekend trip, yet far enough to escape the city life in los angeles.

{i originally wrote this post a year ago and never got around to actually putting it up on the blog…why? because sometimes life happens and you move on to different things BUT since it’s now a year later, on memorial day weekend, i decided why not post it?? it’s like a weird full circle moment. a lot has changed since the last time we were in sedona, more on that in another post.}

this memorial day weekend i spent most of my time reading and soaking up some vitamin d in santa monica. as i’m typing this, courtney and leo are flying back from england…i’m waiting to pick them up from the airport and trying to distract myself from the excitement that i will soon be reunited with my two favorite people…it’s been a long two weeks. aaannywaaayy, last time we were all in sedona was to visit the newest member of our family; squirt the mini horse. for a long time, leo was the newest member of the family- taking in all the love, attention and glory… not sure how he’s been coping with the fact that squirt has stolen his thunder, but i mean look at this horse! he’s stolen all of our hearts!on our way back to the house, we stopped by the mcguireville annual tractor and engine show. each year the town hosts this show over memorial day weekend putting all their tractors on display. we didn’t stay long, not that there wasn’t much to see but if we stayed any longer, we would’ve melted into the asphalt… so we went to the creek to cool off.

before our long weekend came to and end, we had to make one last visit to see squirt. we just couldn’t get enough of him! after saying goodbye to the little guy, we headed back to the house for a bonfire, cake and some tunes. god, i love sedona.

DAY TRIP: SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

this past saturday my sister, brother-in-law and i took a day trip to santa ynez to see the lavender fields. courtney and i had seen pictures of the fields online and knew we had to see it in person. online the field was described as a place where you can roam, explore and even have a picnic- we didn’t pack a picnic but we did pack all of my cameras. as our gps kept telling us we were getting closer, we all were on the lookout to get the first glimpse at those luscious fields of lavender. “your destination is on the left.” we pulled up and realized our fate…DON’T TRUST THE INTERNET. we got out of the car to get a closer look because surely this couldn’t be the place but it was. we were experiencing the “expectation vs. reality” in real life. maybe the field was having an off day…or year, but we couldn’t help but laugh about the whole thing. maybe it was the two and half hour drive that had us a little delusional but we just couldn’t stop laughing. we did get to see some lavender, the dirt to lavender ratio was much higher but at least we can say we saw some lavender!with our time at the lavender field cut short we decided to explore the santa ynez valley and check out the danish town, solvang. we loved going in and out of all the shops and restaurants… we may have consumed too many sweets but you can’t go to a danish town and not have aebleskivers!

MOAB UNDER CANVAS

i don’t know who started throwback thursday but i’m glad they did because i’m using it as an excuse to share some old photos. about two years ago, i had bangs! okay- that’s not what this post is about but when i had those bangs i took a road trip to the wiiiild west. i went through nevada, arizona and utah. i was talking to someone recently about utah and told them of my favorite places on my trip- moab under canvas; no electricity, no wifi, just the red mountains and the stars.

this place was an absolute dream. we were just 15 minutes away from town so we would go to the local grocery store to stock up on snacks (wine) and pack lunches for our days at the arches national park. one night as we were on our way back from the store, there was a lightning storm. we grabbed some food, sat on our deck and watched the sky and the mountains light up. it was beautiful… probably dangerous, but so beautiful. moab hasn’t seen the last of me, i’ll definitely be back.

DESERT X

after our failed attempt at camping in the desert this past weekend (who knew the desert got so hot? -that’s sarcasm) we decided to make some lemonade with our sour lemons so we stopped by the desert x exhibition on our way home to see mirage by doug aitken.

ACE HOTEL & SWIM CLUB

awhile back i had made a list of hotels that i thought would make for the perfect little getaway. recently i had the opportunity to visit one of the hotels, so i packed a bag, called my friend and headed to the ace hotel & swim club in palm springs.

mind you, this is no hotel but rather a museum; you are constantly surrounded by art. from three giant letters greeting you at the entrance to a nautical roped lounge chair by the pool, it’s hard not to have a kodak moment around every corner. in our room we had a record player along with a vinyl selection of earth, wind and fire, neil diamond, and the doors; it’s like they looked into my soul before giving us our room key. this place is truly amazing, during our stay i couldn’t help but think “i know what i’m doing to my apartment when i get home” this place is like its own pinterest board! we all know that saying “it’s all about the journey, not the destination”, but with the ace hotel, it’s definitely all about the destination. i can’t wait to explore and visit all the other ace hotel locations. next stop: downtown los angeles?  stay tuned!

“YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” i’m sorry but our room came with a walking stick and a shawl… how can we not ?