California Girl

The past two weeks I have been on vacation in S. and N. California. I visited my Nana and Papa in Reseda (the Valley) and had a great time. I started reading the Harry Potter series (my Papa has thousands of books, I'm so serious) and we celebrated my birthday by going to our favorite pastry shop. We cooked paella and had a great time together. I headed down to the OC and met up with my good friends Ian and Megan. I celebrated my 28th birthday on Friday the 5th, went out to brunch, got to chill at Laguna Canyon beach and had a family BBQ at Megan's. Ian and Megan got married on Oct 6th in Santa Ana at this wonderful place called the Hacienda. I left the next day for San Francisco and met up with my parents (who flew in from Chicago) to visit my Uncle Bob and Jane in Jenner, where the Russian River meets the Ocean. It was amazing to see the rolling golden hills, the glimmering ocean, huge rocks out in the water, breath taking cliffs and all sorts of nature.

My parents and I took a drive up the PCH with the top down on their car, stopped at this amazing place for lunch right on the ocean and hung out on the beach and read. We then headed down to Sonoma but on the way stopped by the place where we lived until I was 7. That was crazy and a bit fun to remember times at that house. Of course we went to a winery on the way to Sonoma to visit my Aunt Katharine, went to another in Sonoma and then headed out to Napa for dinner at Bistro Jeanty, a quaint little French place (and had more wine!) Hey when you're in the wine country do as the Romans do right?! :) Mom and dad left the next day and Katharine and I hung out more in Napa and Sonoma.
We went to Opus One a beautiful winery with fabulous (and expensive) wine and only tasted...the price for the bottle was too rich even for my high-class tastes!
It was then off to San Fran to hang with my cousins (Franz and Michelle) in the Mission District. Good times there and I LOVE that area, loads of coffee shops, amazing places to eat, cool clothing shops, vintage stores and great Latin culture. I tooled around the city, went to SF Museum of Modern Art, had lunch at an amazing Cuban cafe and road the bus home...all in the rain! My other cousin Ben and his girlfriend Carla drove up from Santa Cruz to meet me there and we ate at Range, a great restaurant in San Fran that Michelle works at as the head pastry chef (she's amazing and one of the best in the city). Down south we went that night into the mountains near Santa Cruz to a little town in the redwood forest.
Ben has this great house on the top of this hill/mountain/thing surrounded by forest and nothing else. Ah, peace and quiet once again. I got to relive my childhood memories of Santa Cruz and the boardwalk the next day. This is another town I could see myself in...cool, crazy, tatted up, funky people. We headed to the pier and then to the boardwalk and rode on the 4th oldest wooden rollercoaster. Ah, I felt like a kid again. I finished the night off with dinner at a great crepe place (I had Alexander the Crepe!) I have a thing for cheesy names like that. After 3 hours of playing the wii late into the night (and getting my rear kicked) I headed to bed for a short stint, then up to go to the airport and head home. I had a flight delay in LAX, which made my long layover even longer so I got to spend nearly six hours in the United terminal...oh, joy! It was a blessing to finally be back in my bed in my home on Octavia street. I call this home now and it feels like home. So now to venture on into life here in NOLA and whatever comes next.