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  • Category: USA

    • the farm

      Posted at 5:47 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 9, 2014

      When we woke up the morning after the wedding in Phoenix, we were definitely in the mood to keep it low key and have a relaxing day, but we also didn’t want to waste our last day in Arizona by laying around inside.

      Brunch is always a happy medium between liveliness and sloth, so I laid in bed creeping around on my phone for awhile to find a good place to go.

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      I kept seeing great recommendations for a place called “The Farm at South Mountain”, and it looked like it had a pretty decent outdoor area, so we rallied ourselves and set off.

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      We arrived to find the exact kind of place you’d want to spend a hot, sunny Sunday. It was a huge farm, with flower and vegetable gardens, a beautiful green picnic area where people snacked, lounged on blankets and played frisbee, and three cute eclectic restaurants serving delicious food, all ingredients for which had been grown on site.

      They even had a baby goat.

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      They were setting up for a wedding there later in the day, and I was pretty tempted to crash it, just so I could hang out there in the evening.

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      We had lunch there, my strawberry and feta salad that was totally scrumptious, and just enjoyed the sunshine. It was the perfect activity because we felt like we got to see a really cool piece of Phoenix, when really all we did was eat yummy things and sit in the sun.

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged gardening, outdoors, Phoenix, the farm, travel
    • time lapse

      Posted at 12:50 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 8, 2014

      It is cold and grey in the bay today, but this video made my heart happy. You never get sick of looking at those sunsets, and the Friday fireworks are amazing.

      Posted in exploring, Hawaii, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Hawaii, photography, sunset, travel, video
    • hole in the rock

      Posted at 8:56 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 6, 2014

      We made a quick trip to Phoenix last weekend for a wedding. We planned to just fly in and out, but the way the flights worked out, we ended up having almost three full days there.

      We didn’t have anything planned, so everything we did was pretty spontaneous. When we picked up our rental car, there was a pamphlet in it with a picture of the Hole in the Rock. It looked pretty neat, and it was way too hot and sunny to do anything inside so we decided to check it out.

      It’s a very short hike, really just a walk up the hill, but it’s gorgeous, and the rock formations are amazing. I kept looking around for diamond backs because I was certain I was going to stumble into a pit of rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any, and there weren’t any signs or anything.

      There were lots of signs about bees though, which I thought would be a less serious threat, but what do I know?

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      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Arizona, hiking, hole in the rock, Phoenix
    • we could run away

      Posted at 9:20 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 30, 2014

      Last Wednesday, my parents called me from L.A., they were in Phoenix and decided to take a spur of the moment trip out to SoCal to watch the Sharks play the Kings.

      We immediately decided we were going, but we were supposed to go to Phoenix for a wedding the next day, so it took a bit of finagling. We managed to switch our flights to leave from Long Beach, hopped in a rental car, and drove down.

      We were only in L.A. for 24 hours, but we had a great time creeping around Venice and watching the game from a suite at the Staples Center.

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      Venice is one of my favourite beaches in southern California, I love the vibe, the people, and the graffiti. People there are so unique and unapologetic, and I love seeing all of the colourful art for sale on the boardwalk. We were there last year and I found an artist doing these really simple, almost comic book-like drawings, but they were so beautiful.

      We stood and looked at all his paintings for almost an hour, because I wanted all of them and I literally could not pick a favourite, but eventually I got dragged away. I asked if he had a website where I could order some of his paintings, but he didn’t, and told me to come back because he was always there. He wasn’t there when we went back this time, so I shall spend the rest of my life fruitlessly searching.

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      I hadn’t noticed it the last few times we were there, but they have a really cool half pipe for skateboarding set up right on the beach. We stood and watched them for awhile, some of them were really good. I was pretty jealous of their skills, I tried to get the boy to teach me how to long board last year, but he pointed out that I would almost certainly be irreparably damaged due to my lack of coordination. He was not wrong.

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      Posted in art, beach, California, family, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 3 Comments | Tagged art, beach, California, graffiti, Phoenix, road trip, sharks, skateboarding, spur of the moment, travel, Venice
    • phoenix

      Posted at 8:29 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 25, 2014

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      After a whirlwind visit to LA yesterday, including the best hockey game I’ve seen in years, we hopped a flight for Phoenix this morning.

      We’re hiking Camelback first thing in the morning, and then we have a wedding tomorrow night.

      Weddings are always fun, I just hope I don’t get bit by a rattlesnake on the hike, because I feel like that would put a real damper on my dance moves.

      Posted in Arizona, exploring, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged camelback, hike, Phoenix, travel
    • venice

      Posted at 4:13 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 24, 2014

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      We decided last night to drive down to SoCal this morning. It was very last minute, and there were lots of reasons why we probably shouldn’t have come, but I usually find that those are the most memorable adventures.

      We’re off to Phoenix in the morning, but we’ve got all night to play in LA.

      Posted in beach, California, exploring, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged adventure, California, exploring, road trip, travel, Venice beach
    • street food

      Posted at 6:09 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 21, 2014

      One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do in the City since I’ve moved here is go to a Food Truck park. Food trucks are such a big part of the culture here, and I’ve eaten from them a lot, but they have events like Off the Grid, where you can try a bunch of different ones, and get drinks and hang out as well.

      While my sister was here we were driving to Half Moon Bay, and we were hungry. I looked up food trucks on the map to see if any good ones were around that day, and I found one, so we decided to go get some lunch.

      It was a really great surprise to discover that we weren’t just at one food truck, we had accidentally found our way to the SOMA StrEat Food Park, where a bunch of food trucks congregate every Thursday and Saturday nights.

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      It was a really cool environment, with lots of drinks, neat little areas like a barn and a school bus you could rent out for events, and a bunch of food trucks that switch every week.

      We scouted the place out and made our selections, I got beef sliders and crab stuffed wontons, the boy got an amazing pulled pork sandwich, and my sister was adventurous and got ox tail soup, and poutine.

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      It was a gorgeous sunny day, the food was delicious, although I was a little disappointed to discover a truck that was selling mac and cheese burgers after I was already too stuffed to eat another bite.

      Saturdays are Sangria Saturdays, where they have bottomless Sangria, and they also sell mimosas and lots of other drinks.

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      I was absolutely in heaven, to the point where, after yet another poetic exclamation of undying love, the boy responded with “Do you? Do you love it here? But do you love it?”, and I realized that I would need to try to be a bit more discreet about the depth of my feelings in case he got jealous and refused to accompany me on subsequent visits.

      But just between you and me, yes, I LOVED it there.

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      Posted in California, exploring, family, food, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged bay area, exploring, family, food, food truck, food trucks, Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, travel
    • why is the rum always gone?

      Posted at 3:35 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 17, 2014

      One of the coolest things we did while my sister was here was visit the Smuggler’s Cove, a really neat bar in the city. I’d never even heard of it before, but it was on her list of things to do during her visit.

      We did some shopping earlier in the day, and then started walking over there. After a brief but terrifying sojourn through the Tenderloin district (I wanted to make sure she soaked up as much SF culture as possible), we got there, but it’s quite sneaky, if you didn’t know where it was you wouldn’t be able to find it.

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      It’s on a quiet residential type street, the front door is plain glass with a very tiny sign on it. Once you go through the door, you find yourself on one side of a draping black curtain. Once you pass through the curtain, you find yourself in Heaven.

      The inside of the bar is a pirate ship. It’s 3 levels, complete with netting, masts and water features, and dark, ominous lighting. There are two bars, one upstairs and one down and limited seating (it only holds 50 people) so you have to get there early.

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      They have over 400 different kinds of rum, and their menu is a massive leatherbound book of rum recipes (and other liquor recipes) from around the world. It’s really hard to pick one, and dangerous too apparently, after my initial selection the bartender dissuaded me since I’d picked a fruity drink with 4 different kinds of rum and “there had been incidents in the past” with that one.

      I tried a couple different drinks selected at random, and all of them were delicious. We also had a flaming volcano, their answer to the fish bowl, that is served in a large wooden bowl, with 4 straws, and a fiery show as it’s served. It was very potent, especially since there were only really two of us drinking it, but it was also scrumptious.

      The Smuggler’s Cove is a very unique place, I would definitely check it out if you’re ever in the area.

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      Posted in California, San Francisco, USA | 4 Comments | Tagged bars, exploring, rum, San Francisco, Smuggler's Cove
    • asia sf

      Posted at 8:04 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 10, 2014

      I’ve been wanting to go to Asia SF for ages, it’s basically a San Francisco rite of passage and I knew it would be a really fun night out, I just needed the right person to go with.

      Asia Sf is a bar and restaurant where all the waiters are in drag, and they do cabaret/burlesque style shows on the bar as you eat.

      I took my sister when she was in town last week, and we had a blast.The show was great, everyone was there to have a good time, and the waiters looked amazing, one of them had the best legs I’ve seen on anyone, period.

      The food was delicious as well, which was a pleasant surprise, and their lemon drops were divine.

      I would definitely go back there with anyone visiting the city, as they say at Asia SF, “welcome to San Francisco, where the women are strong, and the men are beautiful”.

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      Posted in California, exploring, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Asia SF, burlesque, drag, drag queens, exploring, restaurants, San Francisco
    • surreal

      Posted at 6:36 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 4, 2014

      We were lost in San Francisco yesterday, wandering on random streets, when we came across the coolest building ever.

      It was covered in beautiful graffiti, and had antique furniture hanging from the windows and the roof of the building.

      I know this place isn’t for everyone, but when I come across something like this I can’t help but feel lucky to have lived here, even if it was just for awhile.

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      Posted in art, California, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged art, furniture, San Francisco, surreal
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