So I promised a recap of our Halloween craziness, and then, well then we got engaged, and I got obsessed with wedding planning. So I've read every post of every wedding blog known to man but neglected my own lil blog.
Anyway, here we are... all wolf power no shame.
Here's me with my awesome friend Jessie, who named our costumes "Wolf Trash." It's like white trash, but into mythical creatures like unicorns...
Oh, by the way, I got carded twice and then served a margarita with no tequila. I could not figure it out and was getting a little annoyed. Then I saw these pictures and realized I looked about 12. LOL
Whose says spooky can't be lovely? I love the October issue of Martha Stewart Living with the candy inspired baked goods and these very chic candy jar decorations. I'm a big fan of thinking outside the box for Halloween.
Rob and I will be going out with friends for live music and drinks dressed as a subtle but fun Halloween duo. Pictures to come...
Rob and I had an amazing fall weekend filled with pumpkin pancakes, hilly hiking, homemade mac & cheese and the Jamaica Plain Lantern Festival!
We topped it all off with Apple Cider Hot Toddies, which I found on Erin Ever After. I never thought I'd enjoy a whiskey drink, but these are delicious. I'm thinking of adding them to Rob's birthday dinner and calling them Hot Robbys :)
After an overwhelming ten days of traveling, all I really wanted to do was relax with some wine and my favorite person, Rob.
Luckily, both of these ingredients were close at hand as we took our last California adventure to Sonoma and Napa.
And because the right man was critical to this excursion, I'm sharing "At Last" by The Do with you, my friends. It's a song about finding love and knowing it's "the one" :)
Wine country is a perfect place to be in love, from the delicious wines to the beautiful views.
My favorite part of our tour was lunch (big surprise) in Yountville. We hooked ourselves up with the perfect picnic at a deli...
Then found my new favorite treat at Bouchon Bakery. MACARONS!
Aren't they beautful?! The bakery has a location in NYC, so I'm a very happy girl.
Rob found a kindred spirit. Robert the chef meet Robot the chef.
And I fell in love with the vines, the food and, of course, my man.
So, I have a small bone to pick. Everyone told me that I would LOVE San Francisco. Even Brett Dennan, with his mellow but catchy tune had me ready to have the time of my life. He doesn't even know me. Yet I gotta say that San Francisco was just meh.
That being said, I still love this song and there were a couple super fun things about our visit to this foggy, cold metropolis.
To start, the Chinatown is pretty fabulous, and we got to see (and taste) hand-folded fortune cookies.
Speaking of tasting, I made it the the mecca of Californian chocolate, Ghiradelli Square. A chocolate caramel milkshake? Yes, please!
We also got to spend some time with Rob's mom who lives there.
Admittedly, my favorite San Francisco memory is all about the drinking. We spent some time in an authentic Tiki bar -- The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar. It was so much fun drowning the cold away with scorpion bowls and mai tais! I collected these umbrellas from our many drinks.
Being the ultimate tourists, we climbed Lombard Street, known as America's most crooked street, and visited Hoit Tower.
The bottom line is that we did not leave our hearts in San Francisco, but we did have a good time and visit some great people.
One of the best parts of our trip was driving up the Pacific Coast Highway. It was beautiful, scary and filed with twists and turns. We stopped every so often to take in the scenery or enjoy some delicious eats.
In honor of the journey, here's some excellent cruisin' music, Pacific Theme by Broken Social Scene.
Now back to the drive. We headed north from Santa Monica and our first real stop was in Santa Barbara, where we feasted on the freshest, most delicious mexican food at La Super Rica.
Apparently this was a favorite spot of Julia Child's. That lady knew what she was talking about. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
The next portion of our northward drive took place a couple days later, after a stay in San Luis Obispo. It was time to hit Big Sur. Originally we wanted to hike here, Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park.
We were able to take the easy stroll down to this beautiful waterfall, but, alas, the real hiking here was closed due to recent forest fires. Boo.
So we ended up further into Big Sur on the Pine Trails. It wasn't the amazing hike we had hoped for, but I did get familiar with some redwoods.
To recover from our exhausting (not quite) hikes, we headed up to Monterey for dinner.
This turned out to be a surprisingly wonderful part of our adventure. First we saw hundreds of seals on the beach.
I mean this shot looks like it should be in National Geographics, seriously. Then we found a pink candy store. Admittedly the taffy here had mystery flavors that still confuse me, but it was pretty.
And finally we dined at Montrio Bistro, my personal pic for best meal in all of California. The lobster mac & cheese was the best I've ever had, they had tasting size desserts for just a touch of sweet to finish, and they were very vegetarian/ pescatarian friendly. yay!
My only regret is that we did not stay in Monterey over night, especially since our next part of the drive was stopped by two car accidents and made for a late night arrival in San Francisco. Which will be the next part of my recap.
I am an East Coast transplant from Michigan. I spent 5 amazing years living in NYC as an actress and waitress. I have recently returned to NYC after grad school in Boston and will always live in a city…ALWAYS. I recently graduated with a Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Emerson and am learning the ropes of the marketing world. I love art, especially theatre and music. This blog is dedicated to my love of the latter and to the many things that make my heart sing. Oh, and I make kick-ass cupcakes.
