Smile! Local Drink

Only in southern California would there be a market for Rice Dream to make a Horchata drink - I just about fell over laughing in the store when I saw it.

Its actually pretty good.

Smile! Mountain Lilac

One of my fondest memories growing up was of my step-mom proclaiming that the Mountain Lilac was in bloom. She did it every year - when this hills of Valley Center turned a grey-ish, purple color. I had never seen one up close until my brother came home for a visit and on his way there, he had stopped on the side of the road to pick a branch off for her.

I was the first one to notice they were blooming this year. And I was able to find one close enough to a road for me to snap this picture. Spring is almost here :)

Hike! Leo Carrillo Ranch

So, I've been here in San Diego for 4 weeks now, and though I'd joined a gym, I felt like I was missing something.... Like - THE SUN!

Well, the other day I met my dad for lunch at a place described as a "cool and nice outdoors area" by an old friend. The place was Leo Carrillo Ranch. According to the google map, it just looked like another housing community, with just a little extra space around it... It looked like that driving up to it too...

The park ended up being closed on Mondays... so we had lunch at a picnic table we found, by a day care just off to the right of the picture above. Afterwards, I was going to go to the gym, but on our way back to our cars we noticed a sign for a trail - saying 2-mile loop. Exercise AND SUN! Perfect! So, I said goodbye and changed my clothes in the car!

At first, I was really confused... You start down this very steep hill, and there are a few forks in the road - but there are no signs telling you which way to go. I took all rights, just to be consistent, which led me to a main road. Again, there were no signs to where to go, so I just headed up the hill to the left, thinking I could loop around eventually. After following the road to the left again (so as not to cross the road), eventually I found another entrance to the trail. At this point the trail was nice, partially paved, partially packed sand/rock. Again though, there were more forks... and not many signs... I actually popped out onto roads many more times, but these times, I just turned around and went the other way on the previous fork.

After 40 minutes, 2.4 miles, and a bit of help from my smartphone's google map app, I found my way back to the entrance. The hills were STEEP, and frequent. There isn't much shade. But its pretty, and though according to the map, you are surrounded by houses and business, you stay blissfully unaware.

I will definitely go back. Its a very nice, varied, workout, with lots of pretty all around. Also, the trail is awesomely dog friendly. Though there were no directional signs, there were TONS of poop bag/disposal stations. Also, parking is super easy. I recommend not going on a Monday, so you can explore the whole area. 

Here's the address:

6200 Flying Leo Carrillo Lane

Carlsbad, CA 92009

Have fun!

Uninspired, but Busy

I've been finding myself 'drafting' a bunch of blog posts, but never loving them enough to post... I feel uninspired at best...

Here's a quick, what's been going on:

• Staying with the brother & sister-in-law, which is going great!! 

 

• Took a quick flight to Boise, ID to visit with my mom and step-dad, pick up my dog, and drive back down to San Diego with our other car. Milli and I had a great trip back down, stopping by the Ely, NV, Train Museum and staying in Las Vegas for a night.

 Milli hated Las Vegas, obviously.

• Joined a gym
• Spent 1.5 hours in our wonderful CA DMV... ugh....
• Chad promoted to Staff Sergeant 

• I turned 29

My super cool present from Chad!

•  Chad was awarded Navy Commendation Medal - his highest honor to date.

• Put our first offer in on a condo... weird to think someone thinks we have a couple hundred grand to spend on something...

And that's our life to date :) Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Welcome to Granite SW!

Today marks the last day of Granite NW... Chad and I have officially relocated to San Diego... the definition of SW...

Here's a quick recap:

During the Fall of 2012 Chad went to San Diego for Drill Instructor Training. Come December 19th he graduated with flying colors (of course). Which meant, we were moving to San Diego 45 days later.

Instead of taking a bunch of time to prepare for our move, we decided to postpone thinking about it till the very end... I worked for another three weeks... we took a week long vacation in Florida... THEN we started to pack. Knowing we couldn't do this move on our own, we called on my family for help - a BUNCH of my family! We flew my Dad up from San Diego to help us drive the big ole moving truck down. We flew my Mom over from Idaho to watch the cat and dog and take them and the other car back to ID until we were settled enough to pick them up. We were lucky enough to have my Aunt Leanne and Uncle David come over to help with the heavy lifting and pack up our moving truck! We even had our friend Melodie and Leo come over to help with that part! With all this help, we were able to pack, load and relocate an entire 3 bedroom house in just 4 days. 

 My Aunt Leanne!

To get to southern California we took the 5 the whole way down. Luckily, we never hit any snow. It did however rain and fog on us all the way until we hit California...

Our second sunrise.

Chad's first time driving the Jeep with the trailer

The awesome fog we hit on the Oregon pass... this picture makes it seem clearer than it actually was...

 While I was driving there was lots of singing going on!!

After a long... long drive. We made it! We are now living in an apartment in north county. Its hot here - up in the 50s! And there is a lot of traffic - like a lot. But there is also a lot of family here, a lot of good Mexican food and a lot of sun.

So this will be good. This blog will still be here, it will just be written from a different place in the US.

Taking Advantage of a Beautiful Day Off

I woke up this cold, November day, and I couldn't believe my eyes: It was Sunny. It was not only sunny, but it was my day off too! A sunny day off in November!!! What a treat!!

 

Did I mention it was cold! There was snow like frost on the roof across the street!

After a cup of coffee, some delicious leftover Thanksgiving stuffing and eggs, off we went! Just Milli and me - we were on our way to the Olympic Peninsula. The goal was to hike. I put two destination on our agenda - we were gonna visit the Dungeness Spit and Railroad Bridge Park.

Since Chad and I moved up here, people have been telling us to visit the Dungeness Spit. Its the longest naturally occurring Spit in the US at 5 miles long. I read on one of the interpretive signs that the spit is actually growing around 19 inches a year. At the end of the five mile long hike, over rocks and drift wood and birds nests, there is a lighthouse.

There is the slightest white dot in between the two pointy foreground trees... thats the lighthouse...

 

I didn't actually walk the 10 mile round trip spit... we drove along the coast to see most of it. Luckily, I had read before we left that since the Spit is a wildlife refuge, dogs are not allowed to hike on it. I figured Milli and I would just pull over somewhere and have a walk - what I didn't expect was that JUST as you turn into the Dungeness Spit property, there is a hunting ground.... and along that hunting ground there is a trail - a DOG FRIENDLY trail! A beautiful trail that travels along the beach for most of it, and allows you glimpses of the spit and its surrounding campsites and what not. The trail actually takes you straight to the entrance to the Spit trail (where we had to turn around). It was the perfect 3 miles hike.

 The first half of the dog friendly trail - it was so pretty.

The second half... along the water with the spit in the background.

 

Once we got back to the car, Milli passed out, so I drove around, back to the Spit trail entrance. Leaving Milli in the car (which I think she was totally grateful for) I walked down to the beach/Spit. Just to warn you - there is a $4 entrance fee - totally honor system and the money covers four adults. Once I got down there, I realized I had no umph whatsoever to actually walk ANY distance on the Spit itself, but I took a few pictures and walked along the beach a bit. It was amazing. The wind was blowing, it was cold but not TOO cold, it was beautiful.

The beginning of the Spit. aka, as far as I walked down it...

After my little hike, we got back on the road and went to the Railroad Bridge Park. This place was cool. The park is centered around an old railroad bridge (duh) - that was built long ago to allow trains to cross the Dungeness River for a railway between Port Townsend and Port Angeles.

The park is small and it includes the Dungeness River Audubon Center, a small picnic area and a mile or so long trail. The old bridge is beautiful. The river below is even prettier. Luckily, the hike was short cause Milli and I were tired.

 Dungeness River

Milli and I finished the day up with a cup of coffee (for me, water for her) and a nice drive home.

Looks like the perfect end to a perfect day, to me :)

 

There wasn't a drip of rain. There was no traffic. Almost no people at either place. The day was wonderful. It was the perfect day off.

Smile! Chocolate

I saw this in the store today and I JUST HAD TO get it!!

 

P.S. If you LOVE sweet, sweet food (like I do) it's totally delicious!!