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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The reason we went to Toronto a few weeks ago was because my best friend Amanda was getting married. I don’t really believe in love at first site, but she is the closest thing to that I’ve ever experienced.
The second we met, at a party in the penthouse of a Honolulu apartment building thrown by friends of Swedish boy she was dating, we loved each other immediately, and were inseparable from that moment on.
She is one of those people who is really good at everything, her hand writing looks like calligraphy, and she is a former gymnast, and current model with a degree in Biology, she bakes amazing cakes, and she gets up at 4 am to watch Manchester United play soccer. You almost want to hate her, but you can’t because she is so kind, quirky and fun to be around.
We don’t get to see each other that often anymore, since we live across the country from each other, but I was able to go to her wedding and be a bridesmaid, and it was so much fun. Weddings are always kind of bitter sweet because you get to see someone you love at their happiest, but it’s also a time of change, and being around so many family and friends that you don’t know reminds you that as much as you love that person, you are just a small part of each others lives.
The good news is, even though we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would have liked (which is true at ALL weddings) her family was so amazing and fun that I had a blast partying with them. They have another family wedding in October and I am considering crashing it, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
A few lovely things because it’s Friday, and because I said so.
We flew into NYC at 5:30 am last Friday. After a few hours of creeping around trying to figure out where we were supposed to be going, we found our hotel in Midtown, dropped off our bags, and set out to explore the city. The very first place we stopped was Central Park.
It was a gorgeous day, apparently it had been cold for weeks before we got there, so the park was full of people running, walking and playing hockey. It was amazing to see the huge, beautiful park surrounded on all sides by towering skyscrapers. We climbed up on top of one of the big boulders and just sat there people watching and sunning ourselves like lizards.
One of the things I liked most about New York was how easy it was to get around everywhere, either on the subway or just walking. We walked about 10 miles a day every day we were in the city. If I lived there, I would have legs of steel.
We visited Central Park several times on our trip, and just spent hours walking through and looking at all of the sites, including the Belvedere castle which I thought was in my imagination since we walked all over the park and couldn’t find it, but we eventually made it there on our last stroll.
There were lots of great things about our time in New York, but those first few hours in Central Park were definitely one of my favourite things. It reminded me so much of spring time in Canada, when you finally feel the sun on your face after months of bitter cold, and even though there is still snow on the ground you can finally feel the end in site. Everything smells fresh and clean, and you just want to go play outside.
Our time in New York is going so fast, only two more days and we’re off to Toronto. It’s been such a busy, fun week though.
I worked from our Manhattan office today, it was really nice to finally meet a bunch of people in person that I’ve been talking to every day for months.
Also, I found a place that makes really good lemon drops so I’m pretty much all set.
I actually can’t believe it even as I’m typing this, but we are leaving for New York tomorrow. Also I haven’t even started packing, so right on schedule then.
Some of the things I want to see are:
Statue of Liberty : This one is pretty obvious, I think it’ll be pretty neat to see in person after seeing so many images of it all my life. Or maybe it’ll be super underwhelming and actually be like 10 feet tall, like the Mona Lisa is apparently very tiny and unimpressive.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: I’m really excited to visit The Met, and my mom is a painter, so it’ll be really fun to go see it with her.
9/11 Memorial: I remember exactly what I was doing when I found out about the attack on the World Trade Center. I was sitting on the bathroom vanity doing my makeup, and I heard my dad yelling from upstairs.
Central Park: I’ve always wanted to visit Central Park, especially Belvedere Castle. Even though it’s just going to be one big snowball, it’ll still be awesome to see. Actually I’m pretty excited about the snow, it’s been too long.
The Plaza hotel: I’ve wanted to visit the Plaza for so long that I can’t even remember when it started. I suspect that it was when I was about 9 years old, when I started reading The Babysitter’s Club books my Ann M. Martin. Stacey was my favourite character, and her favourite book was Eloise, a story about a young girl that lived in the Plaza hotel. I’ve never even read Eloise, I guess I just assumed that if Stacey liked it, it was probably amazing. It probably is.
And tons of other things. I know it’s all super touristy stuff, I’m also just excited to creep around and do some exploring, but I want to have a list just in case we do have some free time, we won’t waste it trying to think of what we want to do.
We’re going to be staying with a friend in Brooklyn for most of our visit, and I’ll be working out of our Manhattan office, or as is more likely, getting lost on the subway and crying on a street corner.
I’d love to hear any suggestions that anybody has for fun places to visit, or great restaurants!
loveliness. 