2.05.2012

wow

it's been over a month since my last post and i didn't even finish blogging about my trip to cali. oh my! i guess it's been a busy start to 2012. so i'll just pick up where i left off...

my final day in california was one of the best! my flight left at 11pm which was nice since i had the full day to enjoy (it was not nice because taking the red eye back east is quite miserable). we started by visiting venice beach. since it was a wednesday morning, it wasn't as crowded as we expected. we rented bikes and rode from venice beach to the santa monica pier. they are only about 2-3 miles apart so we were actually surprised when we saw the santa monica pier. we rode bikes for awhile and then stopped for lunch at a cafe right on the beach. it was perfect. beach. sun. food. christmas music! i can't think of anything better. we walked around the beach and shops and then discovered that there are canals in venice beach. who knew they actually named it venice for a reason! we walked away from the beach to find the canals and they were super cute!
after spending most of the day in venice beach, we headed to downtown LA for sushi. we had dinner and then explored downtown. we saw the staples center where katy perry was in concert at that very moment (sad we missed out on that... not). we came upon occupy LA and decided we needed to get out and get a closer look. there were so many people and it was cool to see this famous movement!
soon our time came to an end and i had to get to the airport.
 thanks for the memories, LA! i had a blast and hope to see you again soon!

1.03.2012

word verification

to my blogging friends, please please turn off word verification so i can comment on your posts without going through fort knox! i have turned mine off so return the favor. it's as easy as this.


thank you!
-e

chocolate lava cake

thanks to mama pea over at peas and thank you blog for this delicious {and kinda healthy} chocolate lava cake. no sugar, no butter, no processed ingredients. except for a few chocolate chips, this is one healthy treat and get this... it tastes pretty darn good! not to mention, pretty simple and quick to make.
get the recipe here and let me know how much you love it!

1.02.2012

into the great wide open, under them skies of blue

LA gave us another beautiful, sunny day for day 5! allison had to work so coco and i headed out with a list of things to do for the day. on the top of the list was hiking up near the hollywood sign. the most adventurous part of the hike was finding the trail. it took us a long time, a few wrong turns, lots of u-turns, and a few near accidents but we made it. {barely}. surprisingly, there is very little information about where this trail starts. it was less hike and more walk up a dirt road but it did offer great views of LA, the ocean, and of course, the hollywood sign! i'm sure we could have hiked even closer to the sign but we had other things we needed to get done {like another trip to sprinkles cupcakes}. we headed back to beverly hills for lunch, cupcakes, and a drive through the hills to see the amazing houses. and i needed to have one celeb stalker moment. i found an address that was allegedly kim kardashian's {pause for a moment to judge me} and turns out, it really is her house! i know, i know, kim k is on the bottom of the "celebs i'd like to see" list BUT it really was her house and i'm convinced we passed her driving down the road. {also tom hanks, according to co}. that night, i took co to see the sites in hollywood then we headed back to long beach to rest up in preparation for my final day in cali!
 kim k's house