Iceland's Golden Circle

When I began planning our winter trip to Iceland, I knew that there was only one thing I would want to do after a seven hour flight that was taking us seven hours into the future: start exploring. 

With only four days in the arctic, I didn't want to waste any time when we touched down. And it seemed to me that the most obvious way to kick off our Icelandic adventures was with a tour of the Golden Circle, a drive through three of the country's most famous attractions: Geysir, the location of the eponymous but mostly dormant Geysir and the very active Strokkur geyser; Gullfoss, one of Iceland's most impressive waterfalls, and Þingvellir National Park, the site of every major historic event in Iceland's history... and also, a filming location for Game of Thrones. (Priorities.)

Not That Kind Of Girl

I have a love/hate relationship with Lena Dunham.

This, apparently, seems to be the general consensus when it comes to Dunham and my theory is that your feelings about her (if you have any) are based on where you fall on the spectrum of being able to relate to her. For a lot of girls, Dunham grew up in a different world. For me, not so much.

Dunham and I are the exact same age, give or take 30 days. We both have an unhealthy obsession with pop culture, are raging liberals and hypochondriacs, and we fell in love with writing at a young age. We grew up in (her) or adjacent to (me) a world of affluence, where people with graduate degrees from liberal arts colleges and an appreciation for highbrow culture were a dime a dozen. We both lived in New York City in our early twenties, she still does. We have similar stories about shitty guys we've dated and shittier men we've worked with. Most tragically, we both thought people would want to read a book of our self-absorbed essays about all of these topics.

The biggest difference? Well, Dunham actually published hers.

Torrey Pines Gliderport

To be honest, I rarely get visitors from out of town. Which blows my mind considering how warm and beautiful San Diego is and how not San Diego-y the hometowns of my friends and family are. Come on people! I live beachfront now!

I digress.

Unfortunately, when I am lucky enough to have visitors in town, I go completely blank on the tour guide front. Embarrassing right, since I blog about San Diego and all? Gahhh. 

During Mare's visit back in March I was determined not to have this happen again. And the easiest way to avoid it was to pretend that I was visiting San Diego for the first time too. It was time to play tourist in my own city. So what were some cool, unique sites that I hadn't been to before?

Wanderlust 108 San Diego: A Mindful Triathalon

I'm not going to lie: I've loved telling people that I did a triathalon this weekend. This "joke" is extremely troubling to me because it means that I have inherited my dad's sense of humor and that is just terrible (sorry, Dad).

If you know me, you know this is my idea of funny because I only started learning how to swim last year and the last time I tried to ride a bike I crashed it into a telephone pole. True story. So, no it wasn't a triathalon in the standard sense. This was what they call "a mindful triathalon": a 5K, 90 minutes of yoga and a 15 minute meditation. These are things I can do without injuring myself or dying.

Sayulita Mermaid Yogis Retreat: Part II

For most of the country, May is a welcome reprieve from months of horrendous weather. But in San Diego, it's actually the start of our cloudy season. May Gray and June Gloom are aptly titled after the marine layer that typically descends upon us right when most people are celebrating the start of summer.

I know right? Boo hoo, we get a month or two of partly cloudy weather. Poor San Diego.

But I'm not one to shy away from complaining about the weather. It's part of the reason I moved here: I was unbearable to listen to when I lived on the east coast.

During the first week of May, I tried to suck it up, but it's legit bumming me out now. The morning that I started this post was no different: clouds, wind and rain. I wore a sweater and my winter jacket to work. Sweater weather? It just sends me tearing for photos and memories of warmer times with far lighter (and fewer) clothes.

Which is what prompted me to write the second part of my Sayulita yoga retreat recap oh... only six or seven months after it happened. Ironically enough, I left off right when things were getting not-so-sunny in Mexico. But rainy Sayulita is still blissfully tropical... and I'll take warm and rainy over cold and cloudy any day.