30 before thirty

I have seen a lot women bloggers who have posted about completing  a "30 before 30" and I really grabbed onto this idea and loved it. It seems much more appealing and easier to accomplish over a "bucket list" especially since I just turned 24.  I thought about this a lot and came up with my own list of 30 things I would like to accomplish before I turn the big 3-0!

So join me, wontcha?  As I will be blogging it all down to share with you. I would also love to hear if you have created something similar for yourself, or if you have already accomplished a list by a certain time. Let me know in the comment section below, and let the adventures begin!

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exploring uncharted territory

I have lived in California my entire life, grew up in the bay area and went to LA for college, but I think you already knew that. From there I have ventured elsewhere, San Diego - Santa Barbara - San Luis Obispo - Napa - Sacramento - Tahoe - Kirkwood... you get the idea. But I have actually never been to Davis! Which, in case you aren't familiar, it is just south of Sacramento.. like 20 minutes south. I guess I have never really had a reason to go, it was always just a little dot on the freeway as I drove past it. Well this weekend Brett and I drove up after work because one of his friends just graduated from UC Davis with his Law degree. We arrived later in the evening and went to dinner and bar hopped a little, celebrating and toasting every step of the way- it was really a great evening. The next morning we woke up and I wanted to explore the area a bit more since it was dark last night. I am pretty much just in love with Davis right now. It is the perfect quaint-but-not-so-quaint town at the same time. Everyone is riding their bikes and walking to the town, there are fabulous little restaurants everywhere all with out door seating available. I thought I was in love then, until I came across the most amazing frozen yogurt place {although really it was a candy shop with frozen yogurt on the side} There were six different kind of frozen yogurt followed by an entire wall dedicated to different kinds of candy. Then they had jars full of  chocolate, peanut butter, caramel sauces, jars of cookies and then tons of fresh fruit to choose from. You can see the pictures below, it was incredible. After that we found our way back to the car to hit the road.

As we are driving back in the direction of home, we decide to swing by Berkley and visit a another friend of Brett's and his girlfriend who live there. Surprise!! I have never been to Berkley before. I am sure most of you where where it is, but it is just north of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco. It was a nice day but there was fog so you couldn't really see much of the city :[ But we got a tour of the campus, it was absolutely amazing and the huge clock tower that is in the middle was a sight to be seen. After walking through it all, we ended up on the main downtown area and had a bite to eat. There were all kind of restaurants and shops of course in true Berkley fashion "organic" "all natural" signs everywhere :] but it was still so much fun.

After leaving Berkley we had to quickly head home to do a quick clothing change and then go to a family friend's house to celebrate their daughter who just graduated from USC. The weekend was pretty non-stop but I really enjoyed getting to see two new places in California as well as celebrate the accomplishments of others!

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RedBull Ride + Style Competition

As a last minute, spur of the moment, 11am on a Saturday,  Brett "kidnapped" me and took me up to SF to watch this RedBull Ride + Style competition. I wasn't really sure what to expect but it was a beautiful day in the city so why not? By the time we got up there, the free style competition was just starting. There was a course set up right in front of the Ferry Building and there was artwork painted on the ramps by local SF artists - very impressive. There were about 30 riders or so who were invited to participate and it was split up into 4 heats. The judges would then pick the top 10 from each heat and let them compete again for the chance to be crowned the winner. As the heats went on, the riders became more impressive. Oh wait, I forgot to mention, this style of riding is called fixed gear, which means you are riding in only one gear and you do not have any brakes. That's right, no brakes my friends, so your feet must keep pedaling if your back tire is spinning and your feet are clipped in for "safety" {at least that's what I'm told.}

Anyway, it was extremely impressive the tricks that these guys could perform while riding fixed, one of the riders {turned out to be the winner!} even managed to do a back flip over the big ramp. Pretty impressive if you ask me. We stayed for the entire competition and were in awe of these guys. They were just all lucky that the weather was so warm and beautiful to allow this event to take place, because San Francisco weather has a mind of its own, that is for certain. I actually took about 80 pictures that day, some not so impressive and others were pretty amazing. I am sharing with you some of my favorites from the afternoon.

{note: these pictures were all taken by me and are not to be used elsewhere without any written permission, thanks!}

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