30 August 2011

Three Things

Summer may almost be over according to the calendar, but we're in Southern California. That means there's definitely still a few more beach weekends to go! Here are three of my picks depending on what type of beach day you're looking for:

Santa Monica - Between the boardwalk-esque pier and Promenade shops, you can escape the Los Angeles heatwave and enjoy the beach breeze without having to get sand all over your feet.

San Clemente - Gorgeous view from Calafia Park. Beautiful beach, nearby trails and yummy eats like Hapa J's around the corner.
Laguna Beach - Thousand Steps Beach has an intimidating trek to and from the beach but is definitely worth the leg workout!

29 August 2011

Localizing - Runyon Canyon

My awesome former-track-teammate-roommate-forever-friend Allison visited over the past weekend. For her first time on the West Coast, we made sure to check off a few must-do & sees like stepping into the Pacific Ocean, driving through Rodeo Drive, eating In & Out and, well, lots of eating.

The eating will definitely get covered via Food Love Friday posts and a Localizing shoutout to the amazing Jonathan Gold and LA Weekly for putting on one heck of a pancake breakfast. I think I'm still dreaming about Fig's blueberry butter and Nickel Diner's irish carbomb and mable bacon donut holes.

But I digress. Back to the subject of this entry.

In between the grubbing, we bravely took on Runyon Canyon for a Saturday morning hike. Despite the heatwave, we made it up Route A to where it intersected Route B for a great 360 view of the city. No celebrity sightings but more than enough off-leash dogs to entertain us along the trek. At the end, we came across an outdoor yoga session - if only we weren't too tired to join in :)

23 August 2011

Three Things

This week features my favorite flea market finds:


Dress form found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.
It's actually pretty true to my size as well - perhaps a sign that a DIY venture in my future should be sewing related?


Square leather ottoman with nailhead detailing and great varying shades of tan at the Melrose Trading Post. I debated and haggled hard for this baby.


Refurbished coffee table from disregarden at the Melrose Trading Post.

21 August 2011

SF Outside Lands

As my apology post indicated, I spent the other weekend up in the Bay Area for SF Outside Lands (and to visit/transport a Portos delivery to my Alameda family and visiting with friends anddd eating all kinds of delicious food). Mind you, it had been 2 years since my last three-day music festival (Lollapalooza 2009, if you were wondering), and I do not recall it taking that much out of me energy-wise to recuperate back into anormal schedule.

Then again, post-Lollapalooza week was actually just a week of packing in preparation for three weeks in Shanghai, one week in the Philippines and a move to Greenville. And I guess one's 23 year old self can probably bounce back from three days of sun, music, drinking and little sleep than one's 25 year old self. I digress.

Minus the hot mess of logistics it took to get to and from the Golden Gate Park, the festival was a really great experience. Saturday probably took the overall award for best rocking out day as we essentially spent afternoon into evening with Ok Go - Arctic Monkeys - Black Keys - Muse.

Here's a short clip of when Matthew Bellamy took to the piano onstage. That Kate Hudson is a lucky lady.

Other highlights of the weekend for me were Best Coast, The Shins and Major Lazer. The Major Lazer set was a straight-up hour long dance party on the sunniest day of the festival - gave a new meaning to Sunday Funday, no bottomless-mimosa brunch necessary.

Mucho thanks to the friends and family that made it a great weekend as well!


19 August 2011

Off Week

Sorry for the delay, folks. Three day music festival last weekend + big application go-live this week = blog slacking.

No more excuses and back to the posting starting tomorrow...but because I feel guilty, here's a sneak peek:

Food Love


Baco Fiesta from Get Your Lardon

Yes - you are not dreaming this. The Baco is a Bacon hard-shell-taco wrapped around potato and cheese. Yum yum yum and definitely not for the faint of heart.

12 August 2011

09 August 2011

Three Things

[that I can't get enough of right now]

  1. KIND bars - my favorites are the Almond & Coconut or the Dark Chocolate Cherry + Antioxidants.
  2. Jouer Mini Tinted Lip Enhancers - normally I just swipe on Pangea Organic's lip balm, but Jouer's Bellini has become a part of my simple morning makeup routine.
  3. LUSH's Godiva solid shampoo - smells so good, takes a while to completely use up...and I have super long (still curly, if you're wondering about my digital perm) hair now.

05 August 2011

Food Love

Chicken cilantro sausage & fontina cheese omelette from Kings Road Cafe in Studio City

03 August 2011

Localizing - 6 Man Tournament

The Charlie Saikley Volleyball Tournament is one third Halloween, one third athletic competition and one third weekend-long party. Better known as "The 6 Man," it's an annual tournament that brings in crazy crowds of spectators and really talented volleyball players to the courts just south of Manhattan Beach's pier.

Part of a full weekend of South Bay's International Surf Festival events, the competition starts early Saturday morning. Alex and I headed out to witness the action from the start, and the games were well underway by the time we got to the courts around 930am. What a crazy sight - people dressed in theme with their team names dressed in kilts, as Golden Girls (above), wigs, tutus, capes...you name it.

At the very least, teams wore matching bathing suits or boardshorts. Some went all out - the WWE team had a portable wrestling ring that they would put up around their half of the court, and the Running of the Bulls team actually had a man dressed up in an inflated bull costume.

As someone who highly enjoys themed occasions (or as our friends across the oceans refer to it as "fancy dress"), Saturday was an amusing mix of sport and costume brainstorming. Looking forward to what the teams come up with next year!

02 August 2011

Three Things

  • Sunny summer West Coast late afternoons = making plans to avoid traffic getting the beach. Sunny summer Atlanta late afternoons = making plans to avoid the line for getting into Sweetwater outings. Both very fun and great in their own special ways.

  • Humidity has struck the West, making me wish I could be near a river where I could improve the kayaking skills I learned in April. My friend John took a few of us out to North Carolina where we ran the Lower Green and learned basic wet exits - so much fun!

  • July & August are always associated with my IMLP Bootcamp memories. Three summers ago, we were at Junior Bootcamp in Danbury. Two summers ago, Senior Bootcamp at Shanghai. Last summer we all had training at Crotonville before our Graduation in Atlanta. Miss you all!