Hollywood :D

A couple weekends ago, Jeremy and I were surfing on our computers and I stumbled across a great deal on a new flight that Virgin America was offering. Round trip tickets from San Jose to Los Angeles was only $70 per person! Naturally, I couldn't pass up a deal so good, so we jumped on it! So last weekend was our big adventure to LA.

We planned our flights to maximize our time while minimizing cost, most often easier said than done :) But we managed to get a cheap rental car and to find a decent hotel to top off our preparations. We few out early on Saturday morning and arrived around 8am (yeah, it was early). We are not really crazy about seeing celebrities or shopping in ritzy stores, so we planned to keep that part of LA as a bit of a stop over not a main destination. 

We set out toward Runyon Canyon that is north of Hollywood to go for a bit of a hike to start our day. There were a LOT of people on this hike, which was pretty surprising. I was very amused with all the guys running round with their shirts off while showing off their muscles that they must work on every day. Jeremy was not so amused. This picture was taken looking south, toward the city and ocean. You can't see the ocean because of the notorious smog that covers all of LA, but it was still nice. 

Once at the top, we had a great view! 

We got all hot and sweaty getting up there, but it was worth it. 

Then we headed out to drive through Beverly Hills and we stopped for a stroll along Rodeo Drive.

This part of the trip was short, but we had to see downtown Beverly Hills. We were glad we did, because not only could we do some great window shopping, we also saw a pretty sweet car. 

We had our brief jaunt through the ritzy part of town, and off we went to the Getty Museum. Neither of us are crazy about art, but this museum was pretty cool. We were already near the northern edge of LA, so it wasn't really out of our way to get there. The museum is perched right at the edge of the northern hills, so it (like Runyon) had a great view of the city. 

We were a bit tired after this, so we decided to take a nice drive through Santa Monica on our way down to Manhattan Beach were we stayed the night. Dinner was at Mama D's and it was incredible! I think that most restaurants with any form of the word Mother are probably gonna be good. Mama D's definitely lived up to my expectations. 

Nice views on the way to Manhattan Beach.









On Sunday, we walked down to the ocean to enjoy the day. We lathered on the sunblock, and set up our make-shift blanket (which was actually a tablecloth... I brought it because it was thin and water resistant since we only had carry on luggage) and enjoyed the clouds, because the sun was not shining.

After a while, we went walking down the boardwalk, and it was so fun to see all the cute houses along the beach! They have a great idea of making short roads each block so that you can have ocean view homes. They were so cute! 

At the end of the day, we considered going back to Mama D's for dinner, but figured that would be a bit of overkill. Therefore we went to the indian restaurant next door, and it was very tasty! Love me some chicken tikka masala. 

I've reached the end of the LA adventures, but more are to come! Stay tuned! 

Wine Tasting in Sonoma

Last weekend Jeremy and I went to Sonoma for the day to do some wine tasting :) We had such a great time! This is the second time we have gone, and each time I think it gets better. We are starting to learn the ropes a bit about how to make it a bit more affordable... and we have come across some pretty good deals! Turns out, a lot of the wineries have some kind of coupon that they have given out to other wineries to spread the word about them. These coupons are AWESOME because usually they are either Complimentary wine tasting for 2 or a 2 or 1 deal. Fantastic! Since neither Jeremy nor I are wine connoisseurs, we aren't that picky as to which wineries we actually go to. So how do we decide which of the hundreds of wine tasting locations to go to...? You got it. We let the coupons tell us. Letting the coupons be our guide, we went to two different wine tastings on Saturday and didn't have to pay for anything! Woot! So a great time, totally for free. Here are some pictures of our lovely day.

Jeremy and I went to this AMAZING  Indian restaurant called Yeti in Glen Allen. I mean, look at this nan! It was basically the size of a guitar. We nick named it guitar-nan as we ate it. YUM! 

 

 Jeremy and I went to KUNDE family winery first. They were very nice and had some nice wines.

 

While we were at KUNDE, they took us on a tour of their wine caves where they age the wine anywhere from 3-24 months. Check out all the barrels! The guide said that there are over 6,000 barrels of wine in this cave. This is the view from the front door.

 

 A little ways in, we came across some branches along the tunnel, and behold! more tunnels lined with barrels of wine!

 

 This is the room at the end of the tunnel where they have dinner parties, receptions, etc...

 

Here Jeremy and I are outside of the wine cave

 

This picture was actually after lunch, we were enjoying the sunshine and the pretty flowers along side the creek. Got a bit of thumb in there, but whatever. Jer looks like he is thinking, "I'm so glad to be here, but my belly is so full of delicious nan that I just want to take a nap!"

 

 And lastly, Happy Easter! We enjoyed the day with delicious food and with friends from our church. Jesus is risen!

Girls Weekend!

My sisters and mom came out to visit a couple weekends back and we had a blast!! We filled up our days with beaches, shopping, hiking, and lots and lots of laughing :) Enjoy the pics!

Wilder State Park in Santa Cruz had some great paths along the beach

Betsy and I enjoying the ocean

 Dolphins!

 Nice views of the coast, plus a nicely timed shot of a sea gull :)

 

On the lookout for sea otters and dolphins

 

 Buncha lazy sea lions

 Holly has good timing! Notice the huge spray that (thankfully) didn't get me wet

 Frogs!

 Happy happy after our nice walk

 

We had to wait FOREVER to get on this ride (it seemed to be a bit challenging to fill up all the seats every time) but it was so much fun! 

 

 Wow that was great! Much better than expected :)

 Holly digging through her bags hoping she will get lucky and the shoes will be on top so that she doesn't have to unpack the whole trunk to get her bag out

 Dinner at Chef Chu's. Yum! Good call mom!

 

At Fort Point checking out the Golden Gate bridge

  

Alcatraz in the background

 Headed down to the pier

 So glad all my girls could come out with me! Nice view from Land's End walk

 Pretty ladies and pretty flowers

 Heidi loved the tree. This was all her idea

 The pacific ocean from the edge of Land's End

 Big waves!

 Heidi loves her poses :)

 Enjoying a nice break before we head back up all those stairs

 Heidi wasn't so sure she wanted to join us at first... it is a bit narrow to get out to the point, but she made it!

 Love my sisters (and my mom, of course. thanks for taking the pic, mom)! I'm so glad that they came out to visit me :) I miss them like crazy, and I am looking forward to the next time we get to be together again.