Three Things

• I absolutely love the abundance of Jacaranda trees in LA. It makes my runs and walks more enjoyable, stuck-in-traffic scenery more bearable and overall life more colorful.

• Melrose Trading Post has become my favorite use of 2$ (the entry fee) and area to wander around on Sunday mornings. How awesome is that bed frame? How often can you get Argentine empanadas then walk less than 10 feet and get made-to-order crepes followed by browsing vintage postcards and prints?

• Tawny versus the vintage Wedgewood gas oven continues. Can anyone explain why my cupcakes turned into minature mountains of chocolate yum? Without actual proven measurement, I'm pretty sure my oven cooks at least 30 degrees higher than the dial reads or about 10-15 minutes faster than recommended.
  

Happy Father's Day

Miss and love you (and Mom, Aleki and Stitch too) from the West Coast!

Land of the Food Trucks

In Greenville, we only had Sexy Taco - and by Greenville standards, it (both truck and brick&mortar version) was amazing.

Los Angeles seems to have an endless amount of brightly colored, inventive food trucks running amok the city, and as someone who loves all types of foods and to explore different areas of a new city - it's like a daily scavenger hunt to seek out and try different vendors. Thankfully, there's a few different apps that help to aggregate instead of having to follow via Twitter individually:

• Roaming Hunger - covers various cities over both coasts <3
  
• Find LA Food Trucks - massive Twitter feed dashboard
• TruxMap - another fun Google Maps locator available for non-Angelenos

So what's won over my tastebuds so far?

Fresh Fries LA goat cheese and raspberry fries

Coolhaus baked apple ice cream and snickerdoodle sandwich

Lo and behold - as I've been crafting up this post, my twitterverse research and browsing has made me stumble on some greatness from the mobile-culinary powers that be: every Monday, 6 food trucks come to the parish down the street!

Roots

Perhaps a quick history lesson would be good:

• Birthplace: Palo Alto, California
• States Lived (chronological order): California, Florida, Texas, California, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, California
• Expat Status: March - June 2010, France
• Pseudo-Expat Status: July 2010 - April 2011 , Back and forth between South Carolina and France once a month
• Current Residency: Los Angeles, California

Got it?

Good.

Welcome to my observations as a West Coast-native returned from living in the East and South - a mix of tributes to the things I miss from various places located in that timezone three hours ahead and amusing witty banter on the adjustment to Los Angeles. Good chance it will also feature a lot about the things I love: travel, food, fashion & technology.