Hi friends! Hope that you all had a great weekend. Mine was a really awesome one! My friend Danielle was in town for a few days, and we had a blast catching up. After picking her up from the airport on Friday night, the weekend kicked off with me showing her my house for the first time and catching up over a glass of wine and freshly baked pumpkin banana bread. Saturday morning I gave my friend a taste of my life. First up, we got up nice and early for my favorite yoga class: a rock 'n roll flow class at Black Sheep Yoga. After 90 minutes of sweating, stretching, balancing, vinyasa flowing, and finishing in Savasana, we left feeling amazing. Afterwards we grabbed acai bowls in Carlsbad, and then we walked around town and on the beach for a bit before heading back to get ready ... [Read More]
wineries
Wine Tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley
Happy Friday friends! Since the weekend is almost here, I thought that today I'd talk about one of my favorite weekend activities: wine tasting. Besides just loving to try new wines and compare and contrast different varietals and vintages, I enjoy visiting wineries because I like to hear firsthand the stories behind the wineries and their products. There tends to be so much passion put into winemaking, and I love hearing about it. I also am in love with the beauty that typically surrounds wine country. This love affair first started when I studied abroad in Italy in college, met a local restaurant owner who offered to take two of my friends and me on a winery tour, and spent a day in the Italian countryside sipping wine with winery owners who spit their wine out in a seemingly ... [Read More]
Weekend R&R: Wine Sipping in the Rain
Hi friends! Hope you all had a glorious weekend and made it through your Monday well. The weekend here in the Bay Area was a dark, rainy one. We barely have gotten rain at all in the past year, and now it has been gloomy and rainy probably 6 out of the past 10 days. Crazy mother nature! Some notable eats of my weekend include this butternut squash enchilada casserole, recipe a la Sarah at Making Thyme for Health: A "quick run" into Whole Foods turned into me walking around for longer than expected, spending way more money than expected - but when does this not happen when I go to Whole Foods? I get a little too excited there, especially with my February gluten free diet. It's like the gluten free food mecca! My favorite find was Kind Healthy Grains Cinnamon Oat Clusters with Flax ... [Read More]
Touring Clos LaChance Winery in San Martin
Hi friends! Long time no talk. Happy 4th of July weekend! My parents, younger brother, and sister flew into San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon from New Jersey, and we've been having a lot of fun together ever since. We spent the afternoon that they arrived walking around Fisherman's Wharf, checking out shops, having a bite to eat, and sipping Irish coffees from the famous Buena Vista. Since my hubby and I just moved to the Bay Area a couple of months ago, this is the first time that my family has visited us here. It's been fun showing them around our new area and having them at our new home. Though my brother and sister have met Harley before when visiting, this is the first time that my parents have met her. Harley is such a character and big part of my little family, so it's ... [Read More]
Change of Plans to Our Camping Weekend {Eagles Nest Winery in Julian}
Recently my hubby has brought up the idea of camping a couple of times. He's a Marine and is definitely the rugged type. I, on the other hand, would not necessarily describe myself as rugged. However, I do consider myself to be open-minded and adventurous, and since I had never been camping before, I decided that I can't knock it until I try it. With that, camping became the center of our weekend agenda! In order to get my full approval to go camping, I had a few requirements that Adam agreed to: 1.) We must incorporate apple picking into the trip. 2.) Wine drinking must be on the agenda. The plan was for Adam, Harley, and me to head out to Julian, a town we recently visited for a grape stomping event. Before going to the campgrounds, we decided to go wine tasting at Eagles ... [Read More]
An Afternoon of Grape Stomping at Menghini Winery in Julian
Earlier today my hubby, father-in-law, and I headed out East to a more rural area of San Diego County, to a place called Julian. Known for their apple pies and being a close B&B getaway spot for people like us living in the city, Julian is a cute little area that Adam and I have spent some time in before. It's interesting because it's only an hour drive from where we live, yet you feel as if you're a world away. Roaming horses, rolling hills, empty twisty roads, snow, and cowboys are things you don't usually see in San Diego but will notice in Julian. The reason for our trip there today was to go to the town's Grape Stomp Festa at Menghini Winery. It was a beautiful day outside for the occasion, and I sampled a few glasses of sangria from local wineries. My girlfriend Jackie met ... [Read More]
