Burgers, Beer, Bands, and Boobs

Z and I spent the last weekend of March traveling down to Southern California (specifically Los Angeles and Santa Ana) to meet up with friends, family, and to attend Burgerama IV! Before driving down for Burgerama IV, Z and I stopped in Burbank to have lunch at Porto's Bakery & Cafe and feasted on their Cuban sandwiches, potato balls, and horchatta / dulce de leche lattes. Since we were going to stay at our old friend from UCSD's apartment in Silverlake, we decided to drive through Griffith Park and check out the scenery. I forgot that LA does have its beautiful parts that can sometimes be forgotten among the traffic congested freeways and urban sprawl. 

We arrived to our friend Di's apartment who's area that had the cutest little streets leading down to Sunset Blvd, where we went and grabbed a quick cup of coffee at Intelligentsia Coffee before heading to see a Comedy Central taping of The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail at Meltdown Comics. In this comic book shop's backroom basement, we were able to see comedy sketches by Fred Armisen and more thanks to Di's boyfriend! After the show, we drove into the boroughs of South LA to find a little food stand at a Tire Shop that only opens late at night after the tire shops closes. (No permits, but whatever--good food!) This Tire Shop taqueria has Tijuana style tacos that I absolutely miss since leaving San Diego to move up to San Francisco.  Finally putting my Spanish skills to use, we ordered tacos upon tacos and I am going to cry right now reminiscing about the handmade tortillas and grilled to perfection meats and spicy salsas. Could I have been shot or mugged going to obtain these tacos? Yes, but at least my stomach would have been extremely happy. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

After spending time with Di, we headed down to Santa Ana to stay with my sister and her boyfriend. I miss my sister so much! Seeing her made me wish that we lived closer to each other, but she is the happiest I have seen her for the longest time and it just makes me happy to see her this way! We ate at BCD Tofu House (for the best silken tofu dumpling soup around) and Alerto's (to fulfill Z's California burrito cravings)  while we were there, but also managed to sneak in some Guitar Hero and Mario Party Wii battles in-between.

Burgers, beer, bands and boobs--Burgerama IV definitely brought the essentials. For Christmas, I bought Z and I tickets to Burgerama IV because the line-up was ridiculously amazing and any excuse to come down South and eat better Mexican food is okay with us. The sold-out two-day festival at the Observatory also showed its ability to super-size itself with big-budget headliners while still keeping the local flavor of a packed parking lot festival filled with tie-dyed Burger ilk of all ages. Going into its fourth year, the festival wasn't short on growing pains as it continued to figure out the constraints of holding a massive festival in the middle of a business park. Some of my favorite bands at Burgerama this year were: Cherry Glazerr, Tennis, Death Valley Girls, Gang of Four, Weezer, Bone Thugs, La Luz, The Aquadolls, and ummm...I guess just about every band that played. Thanks Burger!

After that jam-packed weekend, Z and I drove up the 101 North this time instead of taking the dreary 5 North and toured the little coastal town that I was born and raised in:  Lompoc. Where is Lompoc exactly? It is probably best summarized by this Fresh Prince of Bel Air clip. Growing up in a predominately Caucasian-small town definitely had its ups and downs for me, but I'll save that for another blog post. We drove by my parents' old house and my old high school--Cabrillo High . The school looks exactly the same from the day that I first attended. Glad to see that some things don't change. Hope you all had a great weekend as well! Cheers!

Where's Arnold?

At the end of January, Z and I traveled out of the city to a little town called Arnold. Where's Arnold?  I had no clue before this trip that Z had booked for us as my late Christmas / early anniversary present. With Lake Tahoe to the north and Yosemite National Park to the south, the town of Arnold boasts a truly central location in the Sierra. Arnold is home to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, where the continent’s biggest trees grow. Featuring giant Sequoias over 300’ tall and 30’ in diameter, the park flanks the Stanislaus River with terrific fishing and swimming, too. 

On Friday, we left to make the drive over to stay in the most charming little A-frame cabin. Z did an awesome job finding the home, since I've probably talked his ear off about how beautiful A-frames are and how I would love to stay in one. We were lucky that the owner let us bring our piglet pug along with us too. Finnegan was super excited to run around and hang out on the deck porch of the cabin while we unloaded our car for the weekend. Below are some photos of the exterior of the cabin with a little nosy pug prancing around. If you look closely at the last photos, you might see an emo pug peering out from the glass door because his owner left him inside while she took too many photos of the cabin and outdoor surroundings. More to come shortly!

Newburyport, MA.

Newburyport, MA wins hands-down for the award for cutest town around. The entire downtown was decorated with pumpkins, flowers, scarecrows, bales of hay, and banners in preparation for October 31st festivities. I felt like I was in the middle of the 1998 Disney Channel movie, "Halloweentown". We stayed at the Essex Inn, a charming, historic Inn nestled on a tree-lined street in the heart of downtown where we could walk to various little shops and restaurants along High Street. Unfortunately due to all the wedding activities planned for us, we went from event to event with little free time in-between. Z and I had a couple hours or so to explore the town before a cocktail event and we managed to find a little shop with the tastiest bagels ever! Zane got a breakfast sandwich and I ordered a Lox bagel. We are definitely missing out on good bagels here in San Francisco. After breakfast, we wandered down over to the Merrimack River and took in the sights. (I kept humming the Dawson's creek theme...Sorry Z!) I'd love to come back and visit again and make time to visit the near-by Plum Island--known for its wild beach-plum shrubs growing on its dunes. Here's to that great New England charm!

In The Neighborhood

I finally developed some film that I took on a trip to Portland with Z. We got a terrific flight and hotel deal to stay in the downtown area within close proximity to the light rail and buses. We spent each day walking around exploring the different neighborhoods. Cherry blossom trees were everywhere and lined the streets to cute character homes. All the houses are so lovely and unique. After the rising prices to just rent here in San Francisco, the amount of space you can get up in the Pac NW made it seem like Disneyland. I know that a certain little spoiled pug would definitely love a backyard to run around in. Portland seems like a lovely place that I can definitely see myself living, but I know that I would start to get homesick after a while since I'm such a baby when it comes to those things. The following are some photos of the various neighborhoods that we explored. I'll post more pictures that we took on our trip soon!