Want to go on a hike with us?

We headed to Torrey Pines yesterday (are you detecting a pattern here?) and we decided on the way there that we were going to try to park close to the reserve side of the park so that we could do a hilly walk rather than a beach walk. The weather was nice, but not the pure summer weather that we have been having. Some clouds here and there, warm, but breezy. We couldn't find parking so we had to park kind of far away. It was okay though.

We started by the train tracks.... The fields have been filled with yellow flowers lately. It's like everything bloomed at once.

Then we walked along the beach down to the entrance to Torrey Pines State Park... It was so windy people were flying kites! So colorful! And this one that looks like a seagull! How funny! It's really a kite I promise! Hard to tell from the picture, but it really was. I don't really like the seagulls at all, and there are a lot of them on the beach. I'm never really tempted to take pictures of them, but I thought that this was just so funny!

We then trudged up the hill and found this little path that cuts back west to the water. Not a strenuous hike at all, this was pretty flat once we were on the trail.

We passed a dad with two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy asked the dad, "Dad, if you were a bee, what kind of bee would you want to be? A carpenter bee, honey bee, or a worker bee?" and the dad responded, "A honey bee, for sure!" And the kid said, "I'd want to be a carpenter bee..." and continued to discuss this with his dad, which I thought was pretty cute.

Then we got to where we could see the water ahead of us again:

and it got windy and cold!! But so pretty! That's La Jolla in the distance...

Here are the waves below where are when we walk along the beach:

After that path we decided to head back to the main road and continue all the way to the top of the hill. There is a Torrey Pines Lodge up there! We never knew about that. We made it to the top, turned around and started back down to the beach. On the way we saw a hang glider:

Then we got a better view of him as we turned the corner:

We walked back along the beach and under the train tracks back to our car. It was a really nice break in the middle of the day and a memorable part of the weekend. Hope you had a great one too!

Hearst Castle

I try to rotate the pictures on my desktop every couple days or so, but I usually keep pretty recent photos on there, a lot of them are some of the ones I've put up here. However, I recently put some pictures up from our trip last summer to Hearst Castle. It was really gorgeous and I thought I'd share it with you as well. Here is a link to the castle's website. It's not very convenient to get to, there aren't a lot of places to stay close by. We were staying in Morro Bay, which was nice, but definitely a sleepy town. We took the experience tour, which is the basic tour you should takle if it's your first visit to the castle, but a friend told me that they had been to the evening tour, which sounds like it would be really cool. They have actors dress up in period costumes and wander around the castle, so you can see it in what it must have looked like "back in the day". San Luis was great too. We ate twice (on our way up and our way back) at this little organic cafe in town. Big Sky Cafe- it was really yummy and felt good to be enjoying the local, organic agriculture. Friends have also said that you can go to farmers markets there on Thursdays and it's supposedly a cool event, local bands, great food stalls, people just getting together and lining the town streets. We had a super time there, and I think we'd go back in a heartbeat. The only annoyance is the drive through LA. The traffic is totally unpredictable. The trip was totally worth that little hiccup though. So as I turn my attention back to work and power through the last few hours today, I will be reminiscing about our little trip this summer. Please share a great trip memory if you are thinking about something in the comments section! Have a great Thursday afternoon

New new!

Did you see the new D. Reeves albums?? Pink, and white, and pink, oh my! Ummm, when you thought that you never could want anything other than clear... they certainly threw that theory out the window! I am drooling over here. Trying to decide what sizes.... I think the mini albums are so cute, but I struggle with getting everything I want in that little space. I have a hard time doing a 12x12 1-page layout! Any ideas to help? Crop, crop, crop, I guess. Don't even know when these are going to be available, they have not hit http://www.scrapbook.com/ yet. I have a question into Diane at D. Reeves, so I will let you know if I find out. Ali is doing a super cool 4x6 album with the white. Looks very do-able, so maybe I could try the 4x6. Might have to increase it to a 6x6 but I should probably try to break out of my square little box! Rectangles can be cool...

I had a dentist appointment tonight, and I got 3 sealants. They are much better than cavities, so I can't complain too much. However I am thinking I need to parlay this into the golden spoon treat that we missed on Sunday. We shall see. Hope you had a good Tuesday!! Just think, by this time tomorrow we are 1/2 way to the weekend. (Sorry Mom and Erin, don't mean to be wishing away your spring break!! You have a ton of time to enjoy off!) Love you guys! Talk to you soon!

Lunchtime observations

Warning!! Random post!

Okay, hopefully the posts up to this point have been well-thought out and interesting, which I assume is correct, because you are still reading! ;) This is just a stream-of-consciousness post which is funny to me, but maybe I am in the midst of cubicle-induced boredom!

Lunchtime observations:

• Easter-egg shells in the sink. I am probably the only person in the office who didn't bring hard boiled eggs in my lunch today. Also, I noticed this recipe in my new Ellie Krieger cookbook, so if you are getting sick of those eggs for lunch, here is another, healthy idea! (Don't feel too sorry for me about not having hard boiled eggs, I am not too sad. My favorite egg preparation method is to cream them into butter and sugar and make cookies... hehe)
• Cafe Du Monde coffee cup next to the sink. Reads "Coffee, Chicory, and Beignets." WHAT? Why does someone need torture me with this at work. Everyone knows that there is no shortcut way to beignets! Here is Emeril's approach... Which now I might have to try 'cause now I am craving them. Unfortunately, the only place I know where to get them is at is Downtown Disney, which is not close by. Humph. Dilemma!
• Easter Candy. We finished ours this weekend, so I haven't been able to stop eating the office candy today. Plus we tried to go to golden spoon yesterday and it was closed! Bummer. (can we say justification?!)

Hope you're having a good Monday!

The creations

Rustic white baguette, Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins (with streussel topping), and Christopher's turkey meatloaf. It was a nice relaxing day yesterday. I wanted to kick off the weekend to a healthy start. I bought Ellie Krieger's new cookbook The Food you Crave at Costco on Friday night. I really like her approach to cooking more healthful meals. It's not about taking things out, or excluding things from your diet. It's just thinking through what we eat and trying to add in more nutritious ingredients when you can. For example, my muffins weren't from a recipe in her book, but following hear lead, I only used 1/4 cup of oil for all of them, and then I also used about 1 & 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries in them. It made the content of bread in each lower and fruit higher. I used a lot of oats in each too. I used all-purpose flour, but you could easliy and tastily substitute whole-wheat pastry flour, which is my favorite kind of whole-wheat flour. I would recommend the book, it isn't groudbreaking, but it provides a lot of ideas and techniques that I wouldn't have known without her nudging.

We went for a long walk on the beach today, we walked for about 2 hours. It was almost like a summer scene, there were families and beach parties everywhere. It felt like summer, but I guess there are a lot of people on spring break. It was a beautiful day. Perfect weather for a long walk. We came home and had chicken fajita salad for dinner, which was really yummy. Chris grilled the chicken and I skewered the vegetables for him to do right there on the grill as well. Nice, quick cooking, healthy way of doing it.

As we finish up the last of the laundry and get ready to watch the next installment in John Adams, I am wondering (as always) where did the weekend go?! But even though it's not a 10 item list this weekend, it was packed with events as always. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and hope to talk to you soon!

Off...

• Off to relax
• Off to create (hopefully scrapbook love to share on Monday)
• Off to spend time with Chris
• Off to see the sunshine (I haven't mentioned it lately, but it is really gorgeous here these days)
• Off to spend a weekend on 10 things at least!

Happy, happy Friday and hope you have a wonderful, relaxing, productive, and restful weekend!

Genius- Les Francais...

Started my day with a latte and a chocolate croissant, which I rarely do on a weekday! I try to have something healthy with protein first thing in the morning. But today I was craving a change from starbucks, and this french bistro has great coffees. So I gave in. And I just have to say- halfway through both my coffee and croissant... the french are genius. Maybe not in warfare, but in all things bread... genius.

Hope you are having a fantastic start to your Friday! Happy Easter weekend!