Pismo Get Away

Living in Central California, our beach trips consisted of maybe one summer trip and the standard November trip because of us kids playing in the Pismo Band Review.  I have good memories of walking around this small beach town and I've been wanting to go back for a while now.  Sean had never been and he has been begging me to go to Hearst Castle so we decided to do a weekend getaway as part of our anniversary.

We spent a day roaming the small streets of Pismo.  It has a completely different feel than any other beach city in LA or OC.  We talked about how we want to have annual trips up here with our kids because it has such a small town feel to it.  We had breakfast at this cute cafe where they served crepes.  Lunch was, of course, at the Splash Cafe.  Sean got their infamous clam chowder in the bread bowl (which I snacked on) and I had their fish and chips.  We picked up some tasty candies including sour tape, salt water taffy and cinnamon bears.  We took long walks along the beach and even fell asleep near some dunes.  We hiked up steep residential streets to a nearby park which had great views of the area.  It was a bit overcast while we were there but that didn't disappoint us.  Nearby was a Hanford Street so of course I had to get a picture with the sign. 

This was our view from our hotel.

This sign was halfway down the pier.  Don't you think it should have been at the beginning?!

The next day we headed up to Hearst Castle.  I was amazed with the scenery on our way up the coast.  I never remembered it looking so gorgeous.  I've heard the central coast was a must see in California but I never really understood why until I took that drive.  it was BEAUTIFUL!  For me, most of southern California is not very pretty so I had low expectations of the central coast.  Boy was I wrong.  I now understand Hearst when he said the reason why he built his home in San Simeon was because it was the most beautiful place in the world.  I would highly recommend that drive to anyone visiting (or living) in California. 

Our trip was the perfect amount of time.  Sean said his favorite part was visiting Hearst Castle but mine was more simplistic.  I've been wanting a "work" ring so I don't have to worry about damaging my wedding ring at work.  We found the perfect one with small inlaid shell.  Its the perfect memento from a fifth anniversary trip. 

Five Years Later

Sean and I were married April 17th 2009 which means this past week was our fifth wedding anniversary. 

We first met on April 10th 2008 when I was on a vacation visiting my brother in Los Angeles.  We were getting together with a group of my brother's friends to watch an episode of The Office so we stopped by Sean's house who agreed to carpool with us to Pasadena.  We had just picked up some In-N-Out so when we were at Sean's apartment I had a picture taken of me with my In-N-Out.  Because of this image we know what I was wearing when I met him. 

Later we played some Rock Band together.  We went to Disneyland after that and spent the evening together.  I can't remember if we ever rode a ride next to each other but I do remember thinking I wanted to.

 

Snuck this one off of Facebook, one where we were next to each other.

Once I returned to Boston from my vacation I added my brother's friends as Facebook friends.  I think I might have waited to add Sean last because I didn't want to seem like I was anxious.  Sean remembers seeing one of the other guys was friends with me and was wondering why he wasn't friends with me yet.  It must have been a few days before I added him.  We eventually started Facebook chatting with each other and one night I wrote a message to him telling him if he ever was bored and wanted to talk to a girl on the east coast that he could.  I left him my phone number and immediately signed off.  I was too nervous to wait around for a response.  Within the week he called.

I kept inviting him out to Boston for a visit.  I figured he could have a semi-free visit out to a great destination--it wasnt necessarily for him to come see ME.  That would have just been an added benefit.  When he finally booked his ticket, I sort of freaked out.  It was a lot of money and I was concerned that I was leading him on in some way.  I was really unsure how I felt about it.  In the end I figured it would just be a fun weekend with a cute guy.


He came and we had a blast.  He was introduced to Vacations by Heike, well organized and informed, escorted tours.   He saw and experienced so much.  By the time he left I knew this was it.  It was just a matter of time and we would be getting married.

It took a couple of months but eventually I moved to LA that November, was engaged in December and married one year and one week after we met.  The past five years have been so much fun.  We've had so many adventures both great and small.  We count ourselves extremely blessed.  We're probably one of the happiest to be married to each other couples you've ever met!

Saturday Morning Hike

Today for our hike we ventured to Elsmere Canyon.  It was a bit confusing when we arrived  because it shares the parking with the Park and Ride and Whitney Canyon (another hiking area).  Needless to say it was very crowded and there were a lot of bikers so this is definitely a popular place for all outdoorsy people.  The signage wasn't as obvious as in other places and there wasn't a map of the area but we felt confident where the trail began.  There were a lot more trails in the area than what showed up on the online map so at some intersections it was guesswork.

This was a much better workout than our previous hike.  It was a pretty moderate incline for a good distance.  As we neared the top we started to notice the hum from the electric towers and lines which were directly over us.  I wasn't a big fan of this.  I swear I could feel the top of my head buzz but Sean thinks Im making that up.  During this time all I could think of was, what if there was an earthquake and these huge towers came crashing down.  Then I thought, that would be a cool movie, seeing people dodge the towers as they are coming down.  :)

Some time after the power lines we started to head down into the small valley.  When we got to the bottom we noticed the trail narrowed into a single line trail along a tiny creek.  This was my favorite section of the trail.  It was very pretty and you felt like you were hours from civilization.  It was very shaded so this section would definitely be a doable hike during the summer months (the rest of the hike was only partially shaded).  My favorite part was crossing the creek which we did several times.  Since we're in our drought it was easy to jump across but if there was more water than you would definitely have to use the small rocks to cross.  At the end of this trail we noticed a breakout for the Elsmere Canyon loop which is 6 miles long.  Sean told me he wanted to come back and do that one.  I was on board for that!  Our last climb brought us to the parking lot where we were all of a sudden hit with the noise of the 14 freeway.  We were amazed that that small hill was such a strong sound barrier because we had no idea we were so close!

If you can get past the power lines than I would definitely recommend this hike.  It had some of the best scenery I've seen in Santa Clarita too!  

Sean loves how we have unique rock formations.

The cemetery over looks this area.  We'll probably end up there :)

Typical trail in the beginning of the hike. 

Look how green and gorgeous that is (by so cal standards)

 

One of the many creek crossings we had to make.

I found some tasty beverage along the trail!  Nope, just being the good citizen and picking up the trash we saw.

This was really interesting!  We saw several really old power lines and this one still had the wires attached.  

Medieval Times

Sean decided to surprise me with an adventure on Presidents Day.  He didn't tell me what we were doing and even as we got close he had me put on a blindfold so I couldn't see.  When I finally took off my blindfold I saw that we were at Medieval Times.

Sean's been twice before but I've never been.  It's a cool experience where you get to participate as a guest of the kings court and watch knights joust and fight.  They have you arrive an hour early so you can get your crown, take pictures with the King and get drunk.  Of course we opted for our Shirley Temples.  After perusing their "castle" looking at the horses and merchandise, they finally called us into the court.

We sat at our table and I observed that there were no utensils.  When in medieval times, do as the medieval timers do.  We were served by wenches (I sort of wish they gave us attitude like real wenches) and the meal was a lot of meat.  They make it not so heavy in the protein by serving you extremely hot tomato bisque (which was really good).  After the garlic bread came a half a chicken (that's right, I said HALF a chicken) and spare ribs.  It took a long time picking away at the meat with my fingers but I left very full.

The entertainment happened in between our eating.  There was a super cheesy soundtrack and a story line I couldn't understand but the showmanship of the horses and the riding of the knights were quite impressive.  Our knight was the Green Knight and he was quite good with the tricks.  He was a bit cocky though, smiling too much at the ladies.  Alas, I didn't flirt back enough because after each trick he would throw flowers to the maidens and I didn't get one of them.  I was excited when the jousting happened because it was all real . . . until they "fell" off their horses in defeat.  It was more like lifting-my-leg-over-the-horse-and-jumping but I guess you got to do it safely.  We had a few laughs at the apparent lack of stuntmanship (yes I made that word up).  But that soon was forgiven when I saw them sword fight.  I was quite impressed at how real that was.  The swords were clanking and sparks were flying (how come I've never seen sparks fly during sword fights in movies?) and it was for the most part pretty legit.

Alas our Green Knight was defeated but the ultimate victor was the kingdom next to ours so I'll count it as a win for us.  It was a lot more entertaining than I expected and I'm really glad Sean surprised me and took me to it.  But next time we want to bring kids.

Go Slytherin . . . I mean Green Knight! 

You can't tell but this horse has its hair braided.

I was princess for the day.

Our Shirley Temples came in these.

Our meager place setting.

The arena!

Our knight was the only one wearing mail.

Sean and his HALF a chicken.

Celebrity Sightings

When I tell people I live in LA they ask me if I've seen any celebrities.  I have . . . sort of.  Can you really count celebrity sightings when you see them at their place of employment -- the studio lots?

If so then I have seen Rob Lowe, Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter (my favorite story if you want to hear it sometime).  As cool as that is, what's even MORE cool is when you see celebrities out and about around town.  

I've seen four major celebrities during my time at the Children's Museum (Conan O'Brien, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck) but I think I now have officially surpassed that number with my time here in LA.  

My first "out and about" celebrity sighting was technically someone I didn't know.  We stopped at an In-n-Out in Torrance on our way back from the Long Beach Aquarium and Sean pointed out Wee-Man.  I had NO clue who that was but MANY people in the restaurant did.  He took many pictures and was very accommodating.  

My first celebrity of someone I actually knew was Jennifer Morrison.  She's not an A-lister by any means but if you watch Once Upon a Time (which I do) then it was a pretty cool sighting.  We saw her at Disneyland as she was heading to Club 33 (Sean literally ran into her).  FYI, she's pretty short.  I really wanted to ask for a picture but I totally chickened out.  I also felt bad that I only knew her character name and not her real name.  I couldn't really play the "I'm your biggest fan" card. 

The most random celebrity sighting was Jay Leno in one of his fancy cars.  We were driving down the 405 and we spotted this really cool old fashion car.  As we drove by Sean exclaimed, its Jay Leno!  What was funny was Jay was in the passenger seat, but we're pretty sure it was his own car.

The sun wasn't being our friend but you can recognize his distinguishable profile.  PS, check out the back seat passenger . . . what do you think he's doing?

We had friends who invited us to a Clippers game.  We got pretty sweet seats and we look in front of us and guess who we see!  Phil from Modern family.  He was really into the game.  Zendaya was also sitting in the row in front of us but she didn't catch my attention since I didn't know who she was.  I actually went into the bathroom with her and washed my hands next to her.  I looked at her thinking, you're only as famous as your fan base.  I could care less that I was in the bathroom with her but her fans probably would have died to be in my position.

At the end of the game Sean spotted Rick Fox.

My biggest celebrity sighting was when my sister and niece came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  My coworkers told me of a marionette show and I thought it would be perfect for my 4 year old niece.  It was kinda in a ghetto area and the theater was a bit run down but it was a unique experience.  At the end of the show they told us that they had free ice cream if we wanted to head over to the party room.  We were one of the last people to enter and I looked at the table in front of us and I spied her.  I turned to my sister and causally asked, is that Drew Barrymore?  My sister did a quick glance and said, yep.  Of course we sat strategically so we could see her and I snapped a picture of my sister and niece with Drew in the background.  She was super friendly and cute with her family.  They ended up leaving right after us so we saw them get into their car in the parking lot.  They drive a Honda Odyssey if you're wondering.  

I know the pictures not the clearest, but I didn't want to be too invasive.

Who will we see next?  You just never know!  They film a lot of shows in Santa Clarita including my favorite, NCIS.  I am still holding out that one day I will see Mark Harmon.  That would be an amazing day!