Trip to D.C.

Sometimes I need some rain and a change of scenery and company to hit the refresh button on my life. We had a wonderful and relaxing time in D.C. The biggest highlight of the trip was getting to spend time with our families. We also got to see a few museums and lots of art. We ate delicious food and slept in.

Weekend Forecast

Happy Easter! Washington D.C. - here we come! Mark and I are headed to D.C. to spend Easter weekend with his mother and her husband. My parents will also be stopping in for a few days :) I'm so excited I could explode.

photo via: Design*sponge

Santa Barbara

Mark and I decided to take a trip to Santa Barbara for Valentine's Day weekend. We were thrilled to find out that our friends May and Jay were thinking about going there as well. We combined efforts and planned out a great weekend. We drove up to Santa Maria on Saturday evening and stayed in the Radisson there which had a cute little patio.

After a good nights sleep we headed out early to start our wine tasting. We drove from Santa Maria to Solvang and visited these five wineries:

1. Foxen
2. Mellville
3. Rusack
4. Sunstone
5. Kalyara

Foxen and Kalyara were our favorite. Foxen was very rustic, with the tasting room in an open barn building and Kalyara was fun and had the best wines. It was only 4pm when we finished the tastings and we were all exhausted and hungry so we went to the Hitching Post for dinner. May and Jay ordered Ostrich and Mark and I split a HUGE 26oz steak. We also managed to get a free roasted artichoke appetizer which was amazing and made me rethink my dislike for artichokes. You would think that we would have been full from all the food but we couldn't resist the cute Danish pastry shop where we got coffee and dessert. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing. We dropped our stuff off at our Bed and Breakfast, A White Jasmine Inn, and hung out at an arcade.

We woke up to a faint knock on the door and little breakfasts' in a basket. After packing up we headed to the Warf where we pet baby sharks and other little sea creatures. Then we grabbed some crab cakes and clam chowder at a Restaurant on the pier. Our next stops were the Missions and the Courthouse. The Courthouse has a tower with a great view of the city and ocean. We managed to finish everything on our check list by 2pm so we spent the rest of the day walking around State street and window shopping. We ate dinner at a great restaurant called Pierre Lafond Bistro which was a great way to end the trip.

Haiti Pictures by Jessie Phelps

These photo's were taken by my friend Jessie Phelps while she was in Haiti. Her portraits are absolutely beautiful but most importantly she gives us a look into others lives. Lives that are so very different from the ones we live. Yet when I look at their faces I also see the similarities. Life is life, we all experience pain, love, fear, etc., but I have to wonder, what are their dreams, what do they wish and hope for?

Burlington Vermont

Burlington Vermont is probably one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. Maybe it's just because I never see snow anymore but there is just something about this quaint little city that makes me miss the east side. The trip was good, it was mostly spent in meetings but I did get to go snowboarding for a couple of hours on Thursday (pictures of that coming soon). My hotel overlooked Lake Champlain and the mountains behind it, something I wouldn't mind waking up to more often.

Snowboarding!!!!

I have heard that you are sore after snowboarding. But I think that sore is really the wrong word. It is more like paralyzed.

Andrea, Joey, and I headed to Mountain High last weekend to go snowboarding. I was very excited about learning so I had bought a pass that included lessons. I took my first lesson which was very disappointing, I had hardly learned anything. But then Andrea came to the rescue and actually taught me how to go down the hill without falling a hundred times.

After I got home I thought that I wasn't really that sore until I tried to walk up the steps to our apartment. Then it hit me and I could hardly move for the rest of the night. I kept trying to get off the couch and I really couldn't get up. After days of stretching I was finally back to normal.

I plan on being a pro snowboarder by the end of the season so I guess my body is just going to have to get use to it.

San Francisco Take two

On thursday Andrea and I decided to make a spontaneous trip to San Francisco to pick up new thrift/vintage clothing for our e-bay store. She had not yet been to San Fran and has lots of friends that live there so we were both very excited for the random vacation. The thrift stores were ok, a little expensive but we got a few really great items. We got burnt out from thrifting the whole day Saturday so we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Andrea's friends (who were nice enough to let us crash at their place). They gave us a good perspective of what it is like to actually live there. I was super impressed with how little (by that I mean none) they drive. Mark spent the weekend hanging out with Jon. He surprised me by cleaning the whole apartment. I'm pretty sure it has never been or ever will be this sterile.

We (Mark and I) are planning to take a trip to San Diego in a few weeks with Jon, Lindsay, and Andrea. We figure that we should take advantage of living here and see the west coast.

L.A. Couple Barely Escapes Blizzard of 08

I was not so secretly hoping for some snow during our visit to Columbus this past weekend. Christmas was dissapointing and and not so white. March snows in Ohio are notorious for being blizzards so I should have thought it through before I started wishing away so carelessly. Sure enough we were pummled with 20 some inches (don't quote me on that, I'm just quoting a guy at the airport). Of course we didn't let it ruine our weekend. So here's what happened.

On thursday I headed to CCAD to meet up with old friends and teachers while Mark and a van full of guys headed to the woods for some quality cabin time. While the boys ate 6 pounds of pasta and 2 dozen donuts I opted for sushi and edamame with my bf Sara. I agreed to attend the CCAD Industrial Design Freshman Recruitment where we try to convince as many freshman as possible that Industrial Design is the best career available at CCAD (which I guess is true). The boys worked off their dinner with some Wii Olympics (the new video gaming system). I however got ice cream with a couple friends at Jenny's and reviewed my friend portfolio. Then I headed back to Sara's where we ate chocolate chip cookies and watched Lil' Bush untill we were too tired to keep our eyes open.

On Friday I headed back to CCAD with Sara and chit chatted with friends until the boys made it through the growing snow mounds back to Columbus. We spent the rest of friday with our friends who are getting married soon. The next day we surveyed the damage and decided to head to the store on foot for supplies. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and consisted mostly of food and sleep. That night I was determined to get out though. I had some friends going to a local dance spot and was hoping to meet them there. We didn't find out that it was closed until we were there so we headed to a near by friends house where we spent the rest of the evening.

On Sunday my parents met up with me in Columbus. We got lunch and went over taxes (blech!). Mark met up with friends for lunch. Then we were off to the airport to head back to sunny 80 degree LA.

I met a very nice man on the plane which made the hours fly by. He was telling me all about his creative wife and two little girls. His wife sells the cutest little handmade stuffed animals on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5550996

So now we are back and Mark just made a delicious dinner so I better go.