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Thursday, May 30

Sea Otter Classic



There is an annual mountain and road biking race that takes place in Monterey, CA every April. It is a four day event with multiple races and competitions and a festival area with lots of vendors selling and demonstrating their products.

There are multiple races that happen throughout the long weekend that takes place at Laguna Seca, a race course usually used for auto vehicles, and across the mountain trails surrounding the area.

Brett, myself and a couple friends headed down for a full day of spectating and to check out the vendors that are stationed at the festival.

In the morning we found a really great spot to stand along the course and watch the racers compete in the downhill competition. After that was finished, we headed over to the festival to check out all the latest and greatest gear.

There was everything you could think of from socks, to helmets, to bike pieces, protein bars and so much more. We walked out of there with multiple bags completely full of swag and goodies.



X x


Tuesday, May 28

a few from memorial day

Despite the rain yesterday, it was a very lovely and relaxing Memorial Day.

We started by going to a cemetery where Brett's great-grand parents were buried and brought flowers and placed an American flag by their graves. It was raining the whole drive up there, but luckily once we arrived the rain stopped.

The cemetery was having it's own little Memorial Day BBQ and we had some coffee, chips and a hot dog before we made our way out. Rain and clouds didn't stop us from heading over to the beach and taking a walk along the water with Brett's dog Mario close behind.

There is a restaurant we stopped at for a late-lunch-early-dinner-snack and sat outside by a fire pit to consume what can only be described as the best lobster roll in the country. (well, it was voted 5th best in the country, but still!)

To walk off our delicious and rich lobster roll, we walked through the main street and looked at the lovely antiques, jewelry, and art shops. As well as bought some bread home from the bakery. We eventually made our way back home and just spent the evening relaxing.

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Wednesday, May 22

shredding the gnar

Since I was busy packing, moving and then unpacking through the entire month of December, I didn't get a chance to hit the snow at all in 2012. Once January / February came around there were a few big storms that brought a lot of snow and made for some really excellent snowboarding conditions.

I went up three times this year in total, all day trips which worked out really well. We timed all our trips perfectly so that as soon as the storm has dumped all the snow, Saturday morning at 5am we were in the car and headed north.

I'd say by my third time there, I had made some significant improvement with my boarding skills. Hopefully next winter I will have many more opportunities to improve and work on my skills!




X x

Sunday, May 19

Brooklyn Brew Shop Beer Making Kit

For Christmas I gave Brett a beer making kit, not knowing what kind of work was ahead of us.

One Saturday, inspiration stuck and we decided today was the day to begin the beer brewing process. There were a few items that we needed to purchase before we could begin any brewing. After spending most of the day of running from Target to BevMo, to grocery stores, we were ready. Of course by this time it's 9 o'clock and we have a several hours of brewing ahead of us.

Here is a quick rundown of the steps it took to brew 1 gallon of beer:

The first and most important step that needs to be done is sanitizing everything. Otherwise bacteria can grow and kill the yeast and the beer will not be made. We definitely made sure to keep everything sanitized and re-sanitized as often as possible.


The first step of making beer is to boil the grains and make sure to keep them boiling for a entire hour, stirring every so often. After the sixty minutes is up it's time to "mash it out." First, take the mash that you just boiled and put it into a strainer and sit it on top of a new pot. You are then going to pour boiling hot water through the mash several times until you have gone through 4 liters of water.

Once that is finished, you are going to boil the liquid again for another hour, making sure that it is constantly boiling. Every 15 minutes you must stir in a small amount of the hopps. {they looks like rabbit pellets!} 



Once the hour has passed, it's time for an ice bath. Quickly take the boiling pot full of liquid and surround it with ice cold water. You will see we filled up the sink with ice and cold water. You want to get the temperature way down until it reaches the desired temperature, about 70°F.

Once it is ready, take the liquid and pour it through a strainer into your gallon jug. This will prevent any sediment from getting into the jug.

 


Now, you wait! Put the glass jug into a dark corner where it will not be disturbed for a couple weeks. Once all the bubbling and gasses have been released it is time to bottle. Be sure to check back soon to see how the bottling process is done!


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Thursday, May 16

a tan in february

Let’s rewind to February shall we? I received an email from work saying that they are adding a holiday to our calendar, President’s Day. I quickly told Brett and much to his surprise he was getting the day off as well. We started thinking of fun things we could do for the day, then it hit me. It’s February, it’s cold, windy and rainy and I'm tired of it. {Not that I can really complain about “winter” seeing as I live in California, but still!} Regardless, the weather was in fact getting me down and I wanted sunshine and sand. Where can we go for quick turn around trip where it’s going to be warm and sunny?

Mexico!
Cabo San Lucas to be exact.

It is directly under California and only a 4-hour flight to get down there. We booked our flights and hotel about two weeks before we departed. It was a bit of a mad scramble to find my summer clothes and swimsuits while my head was deep into winter mode with snowboard and winter clothes everywhere. Friday morning finally came and before we knew it, the captain was telling us to fasten our seatbelts for landing. We made it to Cabo! What a drastic change from being up in Tahoe just the weekend before tearing up the mountain on snowboards.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel and spent the afternoon/evening exploring our hotel, the town and speaking with people to find out how to make the most of our trip. My absolute favorite moment of the entire trip was when I went to the dolphin encounter just down from our hotel and had the opportunity to swim with dolphins for an hour! There were only five or six other people in my group and we were the first group of the morning. The two dolphins that spent the hour with us were called Nacho & Aqua, the two “alpha-males” of the group. They were so curious and friendly, constantly bumping into us and looking for affection. It was an experience I will never forget & one that I hope to do again some day.

The rest of the weekend was spent lying on the beach, enjoying the scenery, taking boat rides to check out the arches, lover’s beach and a few drink here and there.





X x

Monday, May 13

Playing Catch Up

Hello my long lost friends!
I know it has been months since I last posted anything. Things just got... a little crazy. Since my last post, I left my previous company for a great new job opportunity and then about six weeks later, found a new apartment and moved! I tried to enjoy and savor the holidays, welcomed a new year, and took a mini vaca to Cabo!
That is the very broad version for you. Instead of me typing out everything that has been going on, I decided to do a photo recap to get you all up to speed!
Enjoy!





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