Palmy's

The moment we walked up to Palmy's in Pacific Beach, I was smitten. 

I was also surprised: I wasn't sure where we were going to sit. I definitely wasn't expecting to battle a Sunday brunch crowd on a Monday morning. And yet almost every seat in the expansive outside seating area was taken. 

It was easy to see why: the breezy coastal decor, dappled light and beautiful people gave off the very definition of "good vibes." 

But mostly I was surprised I had never heard of what obviously had to be a PB institution before, especially given the steady hum of influencer-type patrons buzzing in and out. 

As it turns out, the thing is... they've only been open less than a month. 

Coronado Brewing Co.

It's hard to know where to start when you come back to a blog you haven't touched in almost two years. It's even harder when your life has completely changed... the last time I posted anything I was pregnant but not yet a mom, renting and not yet a homeowner. Now I'm a mom of two with a home in OB. Wild. 

The hardest, though, is knowing where to even begin when the whole world has changed. 

Rather than take on the daunting task of trying to navigate all of that in my first post back, I decided to start simple: with a little brewery review. Coronado Brewing Co.'s tasting room and kitchen in Bay Park isn't new or trending. But it is kid-friendly and that's what brought us there this past Friday afternoon. 

Where'd You Go, 2019?

pc: @katieiredalee

To say I've been neglectful of this blog over the past year would be a massive understatement.

Somehow I got down to single digit posts in 2019... only 7 posts all year! And there was so much I wanted to write about! I didn't get to post as much as I wanted about our wedding, my yoga teacher training, about another summer spent with Groundswell or, especially, about being pregnant...

The year just flew by and so far 2020 isn't much different. Take this post for example... usually I get my annual recaps up in the first week of the month. Yet here we are, more than halfway into January. I'll blame it on pregnancy brain while I still can. ;)

This year I want to get back to writing and connecting here more, especially as I start new chapters in my life, becoming both a mother and an entrepreneur this year. I have a (great) feeling this will be a wild start to this next decade and I can't wait for all of it.

But before I kick off all of the exciting adventures ahead, I do want to make sure I jot down a proper recap and farewell to 2019. So here goes...

Capturing That Wild Light

While we were in the early stages of planning our wedding, we asked a lot of couples what they wish they had done during their weddings. It didn't surprise me that the same advice kept popping up: I wish we had hired a wedding videographer. 

I knew our wedding day was going to go by in a blur. I knew we couldn't be everywhere at once. There were parts of the day (me getting ready, him getting ready) that we wanted to be there for and wouldn't be able to. And we wanted to be able to relieve our wedding day forever and have something to show our kids one day.



But videographers are a big investment. One that, honestly, we probably couldn't have done without help from my mom. When she asked what she could do to contribute to the wedding, I immediately told her that putting her gift towards our wedding videos would be the most necessary and appreciated way to help us and I'm so grateful that she agreed.

Not only did we hire a videographer, we hired the videographer of my dreams, Steven Kopacz of Wild Light Films in Los Angeles, CA. Steven did such an incredible job on our videos (including our Super 8 Film that I shared last year) that they blow me away every time I watch them.

Which, I have to admit, is more than is probably healthy.

Steven totally exceeded any expectations I had for working with a videographer or for our wedding videos. Also, calling him a videographer doesn't quite seem to do him justice. From the sound to the cuts, these videos really do feel like a work of art created around our wedding. He is the nicest guy and so talented it's unreal. We're endlessly grateful to him for capturing our day, us, our friends and family just so beautifully.

I know I haven't had a chance to post more about our wedding here yet, but if I could give you one piece of wedding advice: if you can invest in it... invest in a videographer Wild Light Films. I am so happy we did and I get to retreat to this amazing celebration and see so many of my favorite people in one video anytime I want. And for that matter, as you will hear me gush about again and again in posts to come, invest in an amazing photographer our amazing photographer Alex (if you can book her... she books up fast and far out!), because without her we wouldn't have found Steven or half of the other incredible vendors that made our wedding what it was.

Among the Wildflowers

pc: @megankobrien

Adding this to the things I love about San Diego: after a rainy "winter" in Southern California, we tend to get what's called a "Superbloom" around mid-March.

The first time I heard about this phenomenon was around 2016/2017 when I got to experience my first desert Superbloom in the Anza Borrego desert. And this year, our rainy season was rewarded with an entirely different Superbloom experience: the Walker Canyon Ecological Reserve poppy fields in Lake Elsinore.

You Eat Clean, San Diego

I don't remember when it started happening precisely and unlike most major changes in my life, this one can't really be traced back to a decision or a moment. But at some point last year I slowly but surely started taking meat out of my diet.

I still ate meat during the holidays and on special occasions, but for the most part, it just hasn't even appealed to me. And in the absence of cooking meals around meat, I started to default hardcore to carbs... pizza and pasta more often than not.

While I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian just yet, I am definitely trending that way. And now that I've noticed this development, I realized I needed to start figuring out how to craft an actual plant-based diet instead of nervously retreating to pizza when I'm not sure what to make.

So I was really glad when Eat Clean Meal Prep reached out offering me a trial of their meal prep service. I've always been interested in meal prep services, but wasn't sure if I would like the food or if would make the most sense financially. Most importantly I was concerned about the abundance of plastic packaging as I'm trying to go plastic-free. But the trial seemed like the best way to give it a shot and break out of my carb-loading rut.

I requested a plant-based meal plan and came home from a girl's weekend away to a ton of delicious food and cold-pressed juices. Here's what I ended up with and what I thought...

Cheers, 2018!

pc: Alex Monette

Writing these posts at the start of each year is one of my favorite ways to spend New Year's Day. It helps me to reflect on the year as a whole and gain new perspective on what I thought mattered... and what actually mattered.

This year was a big one for us. Ryan switched careers, his father passed away, then my dad got sick, and moved in with us for a bit, we planned a wedding, and we got married. And those are just the really big things. As I wrote this post, I realized just how much we packed into every month of 2018.

Like Waves Crashin' On The Beach

 

Closing out 2018 with a glimpse into our wedding in this sweet video, our Super 8 short from our incredible videographer,  Steven Kopacz of Wild Light Films.

This was by far the best day of my year. And I am so excited for what 2019 has in store for us. Can't wait to share more of it, in this space, next year.

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Stay safe, love hard, be kind. <3

60s Surfy Beachy Breezy Boho California Bride

That's it. That's the search term I have typed into Google anytime I have even ventured to daydream about my wedding day. And if you have ever searched such a thing in the past 5 or 6 years, you have probably seen this dress: Grace Loves Lace's beautiful Hollie.

For a long time, I only ever pictured getting married in this dress. And since I first laid eyes on it, I've been obsessed with literally anything that Grace Loves Lace puts out. I don't think I have ever even seriously entertained the idea of being anything other than a GLL bride.

Until today. Today, when I have narrowed it down to not one but two GLL dresses that I am painstakingly, melodramatically trying to decide between.

Sadly, neither of the two is the Hollie (let's be honest, that dress would have fit my 27-year-old bod a lot nicer than my 32-year-old bod), but both of them are perfect in their own right. And I am so torn between them that my fearless bridesmaids have even gone so far as to suggest that I look at.... other dresses.

They have a point. If it's so hard to decide then maybe neither of them is The Dress?

So, for the first time since the very beginning of this wedding planning process, I typed in my search term again. And I didn't totally hate what I saw.

Hot Chocolate 5K/15K

Fun fact: there are like 200 days until Ryan and I get married. And I am no where near the shape I want to be in. So get ready for an onslaught of #SweatingForTheWedding fitness posts!

Starting with this one: a recap of my very fun, very hilly, very hungover Hot Chocolate 5K last Sunday!

After prepping our guest room and bringing my dad home from the hospital last Friday, then cooking and hosting my annual St. Patrick's Day dinner last Saturday (with the addition of a lentil Shepherd's Pie this year!), I hopped out of bed at 5:45am on Sunday morning and headed to the Gaslamp for my second 5K Sunday in a row with my friend Megan.

Yeah... I was not exactly setting myself up for a PR.

The Hot Chocolate 5K is sponsored by Sweet Valley Organics and it was on behalf of them and their lovely team that Megan and I got to participate. Sweet Valley Organics makes delicious organic dark chocolate-covered fruit and nut snack bites, with mostly fair-trade sourced ingredients. Their Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Toffee Almonds, Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Praline Pecans, and Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Cashews are suuuuuuper yummy. (These are wedding diet approved right?)

Miss B's Coconut Club

A couple of Fridays ago I finally visited a restaurant that's been on my list for a while now: Miss B's Coconut Club in Mission Beach. I am a total sucker for all things tropical- and island-themed and Miss B's is famous for its Island vibes. Vibes which were so necessary on the dreary, blustery Friday that my friend Makena and I headed in for some tiki-inspired cocktails.

That's right, San Diego gets March weather too! It may not be three back-to-back nor'easters, but a damp, gray, windy Friday afternoon is still just as much of a bummer.

Which is why we needed tropical atmosphere, comfort food, and giant skulls full of tequila, mezcal, pomegranate and cinnamon to distract us from the weather.

Three Cheers, Three Cocktails: A Toast To Her

Strong women... may we know them, may we be them, may we drink with them.

That's how the saying goes right? ;)

This past Sunday I had a chance to do just that and share drinks with a bunch of strong and wonderful women at a Galentine's brunch event hosted at one of my absolute favorite restaurants, CUCINA enoteca.

The event, which was to celebrate women we love with toasts in their honor, featured three delicious cocktails crafted by one of CUCINA enoteca's mixologists, Korie Rogers, featuring Pomp & Whimsy gin liqueur.

And honestly? These drinks were so delicious that it would be criminal not to share them with the world. Which is why I was super pumped today when the generous teams at CUCINA enoteca and Pomp & Whimsy let me know they were cool with me publishing the recipes.

So break out your jiggers, grab your gals and raise a glass filled with one of these amazing cocktails!

Thank You, 2017

There's been a meme going around the interwebs that goes something like this: "2016: Caterpillar; 2017: Cocoon; 2018: Butterfly." Cheesy? Yes. But also, accurate. At least for me.

2017 absolutely felt like a cocoon year. It started off with me still reeling from a rough 2016. I spent a lot of this year feeling vulnerable and apathetic, aimless and lost. I cried a lot on my way to work, I spent more time journaling than I have in years, I did a lot of going to bed right after I got home from work and I hunkered down for most of the year, not really having the energy or the desire to give much to others. I was just depleted... I couldn't "give" anything because I sort of felt like I had nothing left to give.

And for much of the year, what little I had left seemed to get exhausted by the news. Natural disasters, mass shootings, Trump's latest atrocity... there was never a time where it felt safe and so the cycle of vulnerability followed by my defense strategy of retreat and apathy continued.

But as I sat down yesterday reflecting, prepping this annual recap and looking at pictures from the year I realized that despite months of working through that depression, a lot of good stuff did happen in 2017. For instance, instead of deaths, there were births: 7 of our friends and 6 of my co-workers welcomed new babies into the world. Instead of poor health, there was self-care: unlike 2016 where I was constantly sick and stressed out and googling WebMD about my newly uncovered Lynch Syndrome, I don't think I visited WebMD once this year or had one health-related anxiety attack.

This was the year that Ryan and I began apart and ended engaged; the year that I recommitted to taking care of myself spiritually and healed so much through A Course in Miracles, surfing and solo travel; the year that I got involved by marching in protest, joining ACLU, making frequent calls to my representatives in Congress, donating when I could, making lifestyle changes and learning about important issues; and the year that I really learned how to let go of what wasn't serving me.

Ultimately, I'm thankful for 2017. It may have often been a dark one internally, but I see now how those dark spots were so necessary for what's coming up ahead. Here's a look back at everything that went into it...

Colorfornia

Up until a couple of weeks ago, it had been a year since I last went for a run. 

Well, 364 days to be exact. The last time I ran was this little race on the east coast called the New York City Marathon. It was a perfect day, a perfect run, a perfect race. And a perfect excuse to take a little time off after training for five months. 

Only a little time turned into a month and then a season and before I knew it, it had been a year. 

It almost certainly would have gone longer than that had the running angels over at The Color Run not reached out and offered me a couple of free entries to the San Diego 5k. 

I decided that a little 5k fun run was the perfect way to kickstart my return to running. Better yet, I decided it was also the perfect opportunity to achieve a lifelong dream... to get Ryan to run a race with me. 

Jake & Eggs

If you've been on the hunt for the perfect biscuits and gravy in San Diego, I have good news for you: I found them.

Jake & Eggs, a pop-up breakfast spot that takes over Ocean Beach's Sundara restaurant Wed-Sun from 8-2pm, has been on my to-do list all summer. When I woke up starving last Saturday morning with no plans, I decided it was time to #treatyoself to a nice breakfast.

There was a 15 minute wait when I arrived, but they text you when your table is ready, which is nice. It gave me time to wander around in Olive Tree Market and score some of my favorite Jackie's Jams.

Once I was seated and it was time to order, I was overwhelmed by how tasty everything sounded and looked. It is really hard to not order everything.

I ended up with some Dark Horse Cold Brew, Jake's Lemonade Sangria (SO GOOD!), a side of biscuits and gravy (SO GOOD!), and their Sweet Potato Hash with avocado subbed for eggs.  Their biscuits and gravy were honestly the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had in my life. The gravy is this fluffy, airy sausage and thyme gravy that is just like getting a warm hug from your food. I don't know how else to explain it.

Next time you find yourself in OB for breakfast, remember this little gem of a secret breakfast spot. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Jake & Eggs
(inside Sundara Indian Cuisine)
(619) 419-1207
1774 Sunset Cliffs Blvd
San Diego, CA 92107

You Can't Conquer The Ocean

photo credit // Groundswell Community Project

I think it was my fifth surf therapy session with Groundswell Community Project. I was paired up with a volunteer, a surf sister, Rebecca, who I hadn't met before, so I was introducing myself. I was giving her my elevator pitch, a quick synopsis of why I had joined their summer program. 

"Yeah, so I just learned how to swim a couple of years ago and this," I said, sweeping my hand to indicate the ocean on the horizon, "...is the next thing to conquer." 

We didn't have much time. Rebecca was listening, but at that particular moment she was mostly looking for the best place to help me get in the ocean as quickly as possible, trying to make sure I got on a wave or two on a particularly choppy day. Which is why I doubt she noticed when my own words stopped me in my tracks.

"Conquer" the ocean. Like it was just another achievement waiting to be checked off. Like it was something almost mechanical, merely requiring strategy, calculations and persistence.

Like it was even remotely possible. 

This sudden awareness of how I was describing the ocean was the seed of only one of the many salt water-soaked lessons that I learned with Groundswell Community Project this summer. I am profoundly and deeply changed after spending 8 weeks with their wonderful volunteers and their incredible force of a founder, Natalie Small. And of course, with Mother Ocean.

Only now, after reflecting on my experience for the past month to try and make sure I accurately articulate how it's changed me, have I felt able to share. 

Wonderspaces

For me, the buzz around Wonderspaces started with one picture some friends on a date posted on Instagram. In it, they were in a room with a giant floating spiked balloon. And for whatever reason, I just assumed they were in LA. That's where all the cool artsy stuff happens, right?

But within 24 hours of that photo showing up on my feed, the buzz grew steadily. My friends Makena and Liz both texted me separately asking if I'd heard of Wonderspaces. My coworkers were sharing snaps from their own visits in the kitchen at work. And more and more photos began to pop up on my Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

By the end of the next day, I was almost paralyzed with FOMO.

Wonderspaces, a traveling pop-up art exhibit that's here through July 30th, is the coolest thing to happen to San Diego in a loooong time.  As they share on their website, "you can think of Wonderspaces as a pop-up museum of extraordinary experiences.  Those experiences range from room-sized interactive art installations to virtual reality films and include art enjoyed at the world’s biggest festivals and fairs."

You can also think of Wonderspaces as an Instagram staging area or as a way to justify weeknight drinks, since all of their alcohol sales go to local charities. Because as I finally found out for myself last week, Wonderspaces has got a little something for everybody...

Super Bloomin'

Every year, we try to make it out to the Anza-Borrego desert at least once for a camping trip, usually at our favorite campground, Agua Caliente. But in all the years that we've headed out there, I've never once witnessed a Super Bloom.

In fact, I'd never even heard the term "Super Bloom" until last year, back when Death Valley exploded in a sea of color. This is because San Diego has been in a drought since I moved here almost 7 years ago. Now, after the wettest winter in years, we're finally out of the drought and we have our own desert wildflowers to prove it.

Thousands and thousands of them.

The Music Box SD

Over a decade ago, when I thought I was going to make my living by being a writer, I got paid to write about music. 

It wasn't often and it wasn't even the first thing I got paid to write about. No, the first thing was high school sports. The second thing was lifestyle pieces about dental lab technicians for a trade magazine (yeah). 

But the third thing? That was music, which also happened to be my "plan." As in, my career plan.

See back then, I was obsessed with Chuck Klosterman and I watched "Almost Famous" like once a week so I had a very romantic take on what it meant to venture into music journalism. In reality, it was both more and less cool than that: for me, it meant going to album release parties in New York City and interviewing my favorite musicians on conference calls from my car and even hanging out on the occasional tour bus. 

It was an exciting, anything-could-happen time, even when it didn't pay much or often or at all. Honestly, I was just happy that my art could live in the shadows of the art of my heroes. I liked the proximity of my creativity to theirs, no matter how irrelevant that proximity was.  

And today, though it happens less frequently and though I no longer get or want to get paid for it, I still jump at the chance to write about music and musicians from time to time. And now that I'm in my 30s, it's ideal for those times to also involve comfy seating, craft cocktails and healthy snacks. 

Because, 30s, amiright?

Stay Nasty, San Diego

I think one thing is clear now: San Diego cares a lot more than we get credit for.

The long-standing stereotype about San Diegans is that we're all a bunch of aloof, apathetic, carefree beach bums. We flake out on commitments or show up "whenever." Our offices are a place for flip flops and dogs, not suits and high heels. Our sports teams are terrible because we aren't good fans, we don't get argumentative unless it's about coffee, craft beer, brunch or tacos, and we aren't very engaged politically.

That's the rumor anyway. The turnout at the San Diego Women's March on Saturday told a different story.