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.

Processed with VSCO with e1 preset

our weekend on film below. xx

A WEEKEND IN CHICAGO

this past weekend my sister and i went to chicago to see our two friends tie the knot. there is something magical about that city in the winter, maybe it’s because i’m not from there and i’m born and raised a cali girl so i’ve never really experienced “seasons” but i fell hard for this place and it’s crazy weather. i mean the weather wasn’t ideal for exploring and on the day of the wedding, i experienced rain like i’ve never seen before but since it was my first time to chicago, i wanted to make the most of our quick trip… so i made an eatinerary – see what i did there?? this basically determined where our time was being spent based on which restaurants we were eating at. saturday we pretty much dedicated that day to catching up on sleep, crying and dancing. i’m a great wedding date by the way.

the next day, the weather decided to chill and stop raining sideways, so we were able to spend some time outdoors. first stop on the eatinerary- goddess and the baker. this place was PACKED… so we ordered quickly, snagged a spot and devoured our breakfast. we didn’t get any pastries for the road because we had many more stops to go on our eatinerary and didn’t want to get full before we got to the rest. it’s all about pacing yourself right?? i am kicking myself for not getting at least one pastry to try… my biggest regret of 2018. HANDS DOWN.

to try and walk off our meal before the next stop on the eatinerary, we headed over to millennium park. as we approached the park, we could see an ice rink peaking through the trees,  we smelt the christmas tree and felt the crisp air on our cheeks. it felt like we were stepping into a hallmark movie and i never wanted to leave.

next up on the eatinerary was some schnitzel, pretzels and cheese from the christkindlmarket. we underestimated how crowded this place would be (on the 1st weekend of december…who were we kidding??) we looked at as many vendors as the mob would let us and squeezed our way to the front of some store to purchase some christmas trinkets. to emphasize just how crowded it was- this was an outdoor market and i was sweating from all the body heat. unfortunately, because of the crowds and the fact that we had to catch a flight later that night, we had to cut our time at the market short and weren’t able to try the schnitzel, pretzels or cheese but we made sure to grab a hot chocolate in the cutest little souveneir mugs on our way out!

going from one hot chocolate to the next! this was a must for our trip as we’ve read here, here and here . mindy’s hot chocolate… god this place is good and it’s got all the awards to prove it. courtney had the old fashioned and i the dark oat milk… i have never tasted something so diviinnneeee. to top it off, there were homemade marshmallows in our drinks. yep! HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS. i’m ending this post on a deliciously positive note. until next time chicago! xx

A DAY OF RUINS

i was planning on posting about the rest of my trip to peru much sooner but well…life happened…between work and an unexpected surgery, i’ve only just finished organizing my thoughts and notes that have been left on my phone for too long. so here it is in all it’s glory, part 2 of my trip to peru, “A Day of Ruins”. in case you need a refresher, you can find my first post here.

our day began with the ruins at ollantaytambo which for the record are at the bottom, middle and top of a mountain…just for the record! so, we began our ascent to the top. much like the burning in my thighs, it’s hard to forget about these incredible views. we were up among the clouds, face to face with the mountain- it was definitely worth the climb… you know, just for the record.

after our morning “workout”, we went to see the town of chinchero. as we went deeper into town, the quieter it seemed. the little noise we did hear was only from our own footsteps on the cobbled ground. our guide brought us to a church; it was sunday. it felt like we were standing there waiting for something to happen and then the church doors opened. out poured what seemed to be the entire town of chinchero; talking, eating, playing. this quiet part of town was now filled with color, laughter and food. i felt surrounded and consumed and i loved it!

our guide told us that after church, the women gather to talk about their community and discuss items of “business” while the men play futbol. i think these peruvians might be on to something! just below the plaza was a marketplace with food, trinkets and lots of peruvian goods, so we went to have a look. surprisingly i didn’t buy a thing! rob, however, couldn’t help himself…he just HAD to have it.

we ended our day at pisac with some more ruins on top of another mountain, with more incredible views…are you sick of it yet?? me either. stay tuned for the main event…peru post number 3…MACHU PICCHU!

MOOD BOARD: SUMMER LOVIN’

after polyvore sold their soul… discontinued their website leaving no trace of its existence, i had to look elsewhere for a creative outlet where i could organize all of my thoughts, ideas and inspiration. a friend had told me about canva, a website she used frequently so i decided to give it a try. while it doesn’t offer a community like polyvore, canva has all the design allure and then some! whatever your purpose for creating may be; social media, campaigns, presentations, i mean it when i say it… canva has it ALL. i created this mood board using canva because summer is upon us and i’m having a moment with all things made of straw. sue me.

PLAYLIST NO. 3: SUMMER DAYDREAM

Pergo, Italy / 9-4-2016 / 35mm Pentax

summer is officially upon us… i know that because 1.) it’s june 2.) i’m sleeping on top of my blankets 3.) WATERMELONS EVERYWHERE… i love watermelon, nothing says summer quite like a sweet watermelon… i’ve put together a playlist with some tunes that have been keeping me company in this summer heat. grab your swimsuit, slather on that spf 100 (skin cancer is no joke) and don’t forget your speakers.

you can listen to the playlist here.

1. “maybe (luck of the draw)” – the vaccines
2. “fields of blue” – tennis
3. “don’t delete the kisses” – wolf alice
4. “radio” – sylvan esso
5. “real love baby” – father john misty
6. “don’t take the money” – bleachers
7. “big sis” – sales
8. “hunger” – florence + the machine
9. “so sad, so sad” – varsity
10. “on + off” – maggie rogers
11. “let’s find an out” – snail mail
12. “next of kin” – alvvays
13. “stay high” – spector
14. “outer space” – liz cooper & the stampede

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.

A PERUVIAN WELCOME

i’m finally getting around to posting about my trip to peru. this trip came together for me pretty last minute…i really didn’t have much time to prepare for my departure so when i returned to my life in LA, it was just as i had left it…with an unmade bed. SO…first things first, make my bed. secondly, try and keep some food down. unfortunately, upon my return i had a visit to the urgent care and the ER (dehydration and a possible parasite) everything i tried to consume would not agree with me, my stomach or my mom’s habit of force feeding her children to make sure they’re eating enough. so my pictures from peru went unseen and unsorted. looking through them now i’m reminded of all the things that we had done, all that we had seen. we were up among the mountains, clouds and ruins; experiencing a different culture, learning about peru’s history and exploring its land.

technically, our first night in peru was spent in lima. we had landed a little after midnight; checked into our hotel, had a pisco sour at the bar, went to sleep (more like took a nap) then woke up early the next morning to catch our flight to cusco. it’s still kind of a blur to me but when we landed in cusco we were greeted by a woman called nielda at baggage claim. we followed her to our shuttle van where her husband, jose luis was waiting for us. we strapped our luggage to the top of the van and off we went to the sacred valley! once we got out of the city center of cusco, jose luis had pulled over to ask if we wanted to stop and see how peruvian textiles were made… all of us a little delirious from our journey in weren’t really sure if we were up for it as we were supposed to be heading to our lodge which was still about an hour away…and then jose luis said “llamas”. my eyes widened and i calmly told everyone to get out of the car…quickly. 

after giving us some coca tea, they began their demonstration on how to create textiles using minerals, llama wool and bugs…yes bugs. as she told us, they sacrifice a bug for the color of their blood; add lemon juice and mix with a salt crystal. it also doubles as a lipstick…i thought she was kidding but then she proceeded to smear the blood across her lips and i thought “damn that color looks great on her”.

on our way out, they let us feed the llamas! it was everything i had imagined my first experience in peru would be.

the next morning, jose luis and nielda met us at our lodge, we had such a great time with them the day before we ended up hiring them for the next couple of days to be our own local tour guides! close to where we were staying was the town of maras. i was familiar with this town as i had heard about the salt mines located there. that’s where we began day two of peru. these expansive and primitive pools were gorgeous to look at. essentially, it’s more of the same but the vast majority of them consumed you once you stepped foot on the mines. it was incredible. even more incredible is that they still mine the salt themselves through each pool.

after exploring the pools, we made sure to stop at the market up top to get some salted goodies to bring back to the states. unfortunately, those goodies didn’t last long, they didn’t even last long enough to make it out of maras…whoops! we couldn’t help ourselves… it was that good.

next up were the incan terraces of moray. it was only about a 15 minute drive from where we were and my oh my what a beautiful 15 minutes it was.

the actual purpose of these terraces isn’t fully known. jose luis was telling us that it is believed that the ruins were used as an agricultural laboratory by the incas. each terrace differed in temperature by roughly 27F creating micro climates to test crops and experiment with them. he said it was that or there were aliens here…

as we continued to roam the ruins, i noticed nielda had gone off on her own, we continued to climb. as we were heading up the hill i see her running towards us. i thought “no need to run, we won’t leave without you” but then as she held out her hands i realized she was running to show us what she had been doing for the last 20 minutes…

CATCHING A FRIGGIN DRAGONFLY. she caught a damn dragonfly with her BARE HANDS. nielda, queen of dragonflies.

 

THE COLOR FACTORY

and now for the main event… the event we planned our whole trip (and outfits) around…the color factory! this pop up museum is an interactive experience encouraging folks to create those instagrammable moments (RIP kodak) and play with the hues in each room. under the creative direction of leah rosenberg and the art direction and design of erin jang, you find yourself completely immersed in the work of multiple artists. from tom stayte’s room filled with selfies to the giant yellow ball pit filled with 207,000 balls…

…get ready, this place is pretty spectacular.

GIRL’S TRIP: SAN FRAN

ahhhh girl’s trips…there really is nothing better than a good old fashioned girl’s trip. imagine us out all night, drinking fancy cocktails, walking in uncomfortable shoes and talking about all the crude things that girl’s actually talk about when no guys are around…a real sex and the city vibe you know? cut to us in our hotel room laying in bed, dana passed out and i using the massage tools we bought in chinatown…real ragers we are. in our defense, we had arrived early saturday morning and wasted no time in getting our feet on the ground and our bellies full. two things you should know about dana and myself…. we first bonded over donuts, then dogs…aaannnnd the rest is history.

first on our list (after many hours spent on yelp) was the ferry building marketplace. we walked through all the vendors, pet all the dogs and tasted all the fruit…we also had pie for breakfast. we came up with a couple of different hashtags for the weekend…#carbfest #dogsdogsdogs #kenzieanddanasweekendoffun all of which we only remembered after the weekend was already over but i guess that’s what happens when you are living in the moment…or stuffing your face with all the good food that san fran has to offer. seriously sf…i’m impressed.

after our morning at the ferry building, we started to make our way to the museum of ice cream. you might be thinking, “but kenzie, didn’t you both already go the museum of ice cream in la?!” why yes dear reader…yes we did and my reason for why we had to go see it again in sf is well… because…FOMO…and they had re-released tickets for the saturday we were going to be in town so it was like…. MEANT TO BE. we got these tickets very last minute and it kind of threw a wrench into our food itinerary so we had to rework our schedule a bit but it all worked out…we got the penis cookies in the end (put that on a bumper sticker).

the next morning, we hopped out of bed bright and early and headed to mr. holmes bakehouse. when i say “hopped” i mean that in the most literal sense possible. neither of us brushed our hair, i barely put my pants on but we wanted a cruffin so damn bad… love (food) makes us do crazy things.

stay tuned for more from our trip!

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.