The Surf Experience

I had the best time this summer at The Surf Experience in Lagos, Portugal. Every morning we get into this big Land Rovers and go to a remote, beautiful beach to play in the waves with our surfboards. The instructors, people and surf was all amazing. I am looking forward to my next trip. 

Weekend at The Fringe

The London Eye

London Bridges

Bits & Pieces of London

My first weekend in London was filled with sunshine, long walks from one neighborhood to another, lots of pubs (& chips). I hope the warm weather continues this week so I can explore more bits and pieces of this amazing city.

Last Weekend in San Francisco

See you later San Francisco. 

Thunder Valley Resort

Thunder Valley Resort  is where I saw lots of amazing modern light fixtures, had a great spa experience and scored the jackpot for the first time. The winnings from the penny slots were not anything to retire on (even for a few days) but still a lot of fun to hear the sounds of clunk, clunk, clunk. 

San Francisco Bay Bridge

Fall Napa Trip

I woke up this morning, thinking of all the things I am thankful for. Top on my list is living in an area that has so many natural places to explore, like Napa. A short scenic car drive brings the opportunity to explore bountiful vineyards, good wine and great food. What more can one ask for?

A Beautiful Story ♥

Top 5 Signs from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

On Saturday around 200,000 people rallied in Washington D.C. at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I wish I could have seen it first hand but I did get to enjoy reading some the signs from the event.  Here are my top 5 favorite out of the 100 found on here.

San Francisco Ferry Building

Campanile at U.C Berkeley

The Campanile at U.C Berkeley campus looked magical tonight under the full moon after a savory meal at Bongo Burgers.

Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship Landed on Embarcadero

The Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship is temporarily visiting the Embarcadero between it's stellar trips. The 40-foot rocket ship, according to its official site, is critical kitsch somewhere between the Moons of Mango and Mongo Nouveau. The local artists Sean Orlando, Nathaniel Taylor, and David Shulma wanted to in a small way encourage people to to inspire people to create, dream and invent… to help generate a little spark of the imagination and to grease the wheels of ingenuity. 

White Lotus Yoga Retreat

I spent Labor Day weekend at the White Lotus Foundation in the Santa Barbara hills. The four day retreat was filled with a lot of yoga taught by Ganga of Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice and eating amazing vegetarian food made by Beatrix from The Art of Taste : A Gourmet Guide to Vegetarian Cooking. Aside from doing yoga, and eating delicious fresh food, we spent a lot of time exploring the 40 acres of nature and finding spots to relax. 

Namaste White Lotus

I woke up early this morning with a lot of excitement to make it to this beautiful pond at the White Lotus Foundation. I am attending a four day yoga retreat at White Lotus. I signed up when I learned that a friend from work did a two week program there and really enjoyed it. The next four days will be filled with praticing yoga, meditation, hiking, eating healthy and sleeping in a yurt for the first time.

Cucumber martini

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This is one of my favorite summer drinks now! I tried this cucumber martini at Union Restaurant and Lounge in Aria Hotel, Las Vegas. It was very refreshing. It also helped tame my hunger since it came with half a salad inside. 

Local Mission Eatery

Chilled Corn Soup + Crab (mmm..amazing. must try)

Farm & Market Salad (good. fresh ingredients)

Roasted Goat Pibil (didn't love it. very fatty)

Thanks to another Blackboard Eats (BBE) deal, I got to try Local Mission Eatery last weekend. The deal BBE offered was great - a free bottle of wine with dinner! I expected the restaurant to give us their cheapest bottle of wine but the wine choices were very good. The fact that they offered the best wine as the "freebie" also highlighted their superb service.

In regards to the food, I appreciated the locally grown fresh ingredients but have to say that I wasn't in love with most of what we tried. That is except for the chilled corn soup. This tasted like delicious corn flakes soaked in chilled cream to me. I would go back for a bowl of chilled, creamy cornflakes and another good bottle of wine off course.

San Francisco Summer Walks

Summers are for relaxing, exploring, lots of eating, and wishing the San Francisco fog away. One of my favorite summer time activities is going on walks through the city.  A walk, like this one through Napier Lane,  is one way to explore San Francisco. It's also a great way to ignore the summer blues, which is often a symptom of staycations. Looking at Google Insights for Search  staycation searches rise during the summer.  If you are planning to stay in San Francisco a lot this summer, try exploring the the city through the many free walking tours. Happy walking SF!

SPQR

The last couple months I have been tackling my must try San Francisco restaurant list. Starting with Range, then Gitane and I finally went to SPQR. The fresh dishes at this little Italian restaurant was mouthwatering. If you can't tell from the photos, I promise you it is very delicious. However, the portions are a bit small for the price. Thanks to the Black Bird Eat deal the dining experience was not as pricey as it could have been. I am going to wait for another deal to try it again.