my quarter century birthday

I decided to make the absolute most of my birthday as it fell on a Friday. My one day turned into a 4 day long weekend as I signed up to do different activities I had not done before. I reached for the land, air and sea, all in one weekend.

Let's rewind to Thursday, the start of it all...

Thursday, my birthday eve, I celebrated it with my family. A nice dinner followed by what can only be described as the most amazing cake to ever grace my presence. This is saying a lot, because I am not exactly a "cake person." I generally would prefer something along the lines of ice cream, cookies, or sweets for dessert. However, I saw this post on Pinterest a few months ago; Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake. Yes, you read that right.. cookie dough inside a cake. Never in my wildest dreams could I have guessed that I would be getting that cake for my birthday. {and I certainty was not going to attempt to make it!} This cake was hands down, the most delicious cake I have ever had, with little bits of cookie dough, running through the middle.

Friday, was a typical day of work for me. Although I did get a free birthday drink from Starbucks! A great way to start any day, if you ask me. After I was done for the day, I raced home because Brett had a couple presents left for me that I was ready to open. Yay for presents! Tissues paper and wrapping paper covered the floor but it was time to leave! We quickly fixed ourselves up a bit and went to grab a bite to eat before tearing up the track on Go-karts! I have been twice before and it is a really fun experience to just let loose and race your friends. My parents even came and my dad was brave enough to get on the track with us. It was a great Friday night.

Saturday morning, we drove down to Monterey, as we booked a 4 hour rental for Stand Up Paddle-boards. {or SUP} We figured 4 hours would be a sufficient amount of time as neither of us had done this before. We were expecting a little more trial and error, that's for sure. We got the hang of it in about 15 minutes and off we went. We had such a good time paddling through the "slough" as the tide was helping to carry us. We thought we had plenty of time to get back to the dock to return the boards, with 2 1/2 hours to fight the tide and return. Little did we know just how difficult it was going to be to paddle against the tide. It was really hard going and for a good portion of the time, as hard as I paddled, I just stayed in place. We eventually made it back to our dock and returned the boards. As soon as I got in the car, I immediately fell asleep {sorry, Brett!} I was so exhausted.

Sunday morning involved sleeping in, past 10, I might add! Which is something I haven't done for a very long time. We had a lazy morning as we were gearing up for a big activity, a flight tour and lesson. We arrived to the airport early and filled out some paperwork and waited in the lounge for the pilot and plane. I was expecting an air tour around the bay area and a short in flight lesson, that's what it seemed like would happen on their website. As soon as we got in the plane and went down the check list, the pilot showed me the controls for the plane and off we went! I was flying a plane the entire time we were up in the air. Of course he helped assist in take off and landing and through a patch of turbulence we had. Otherwise he was explaining the gauges and talking about the area we were flying over. The 45 minutes went by so fast and before I knew it, the wheels hit the runway and it was all over! I loved every minute being up in the air and is something I would definitely do again. After we left we went home to make dinner together and fell asleep really early after such an amazingly long weekend.

My 24th year was a pretty big one looking back on it. It took me to far away lands, local new discoveries, new job, new apartment just to name a few. Really looking forward to see what my 25th year will bring me.

Cheers!

X x

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

my new toy

A few weeks ago my little pocket Canon camera decided to die on me. I bought it from Best Buy though and purchased the Geek Squad protection plan so I took it in to be repaired. They called me to tell me it was "unrepairable" and were going to credit me to buy another one. So down to Best Buy I went and picked out my new camera! It was definitely worth the protection plan for me and all my electronics as I don't always have the best luck with them.  :]

I am so excited to get out there and take some great pictures! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and let this be another work week that flies by.

X x

a few from labor day weekend

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend! As you know, I had my first camping experience this weekend to celebrate the holiday and it really was a lot of fun. It was different than what I was expecting but for the most part we were completely prepared and weren't going "ohhh, I wish I had brought that" which is very good.

On Saturday, our first day, we spent almost the entire day just out on the lake. We had a little bit of trouble as the plastic oars from my parents old little raft had all cracked and failed on us while out in the water. There was a general store with a restaurant on site so luckily they had one oar to purchase. We used that and it was a bit better but still it was a little difficult to get around on the small raft. Brett gave it his all fishing off the boat and caught three fish! They weren't that big but we still brought them back to BBQ and eat with our dinner.

Sunday we drove out to Columbia where they have kept the town and have shops and business's open as if it were 1850. These towns were developed when the rush for gold started and everyone came out west to strike it rich! I had been there once on a school trip and I have wanted to go back and see it again for awhile. There is a stagecoach tour that you can take, visit any of the old general stores, ice cream parlor, blacksmith, bar's and saloons and of course panning for gold. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in California and interested.

X x

paros: the windy island

First stop on our agenda was to get from the Athens airport, to the port where a ferry would take us to Paros, our first island, and part of the Cyclades Islands. Honestly, we really weren't sure what to expect, we knew it was going to be a quiet island with sandy beaches, we read there was rocks that turned into mud that people would put on themselves and let dry because it was supposed to make your skin soft and have "healing powers." Other than that we had no idea what we were in for.

We arrived in a flurry of people and vespa's, atv's, cars, taxis and were shuffled around until we found a taxi and asked to be taken to our hotel. It was about 5 or 6pm Greek time. (+10 hours to pacific time)  Our hotel was beautiful and situated a little further back from the port town, but up a little hill with a nice view and a little 5 minute walk down a path to the beach. It was charming and beautiful and exactly what we needed after a long journey there.
 

After getting to know the area the next day we decided it was best to rent an ATV for the day {i'm not so fond of the motorized two wheels} this way we could explore the island and do exactly what we wanted and at our own pace. One of our first stops of course was to see what the beach with the mud was all about. It turns out it's actually the rock that turns into a clay when you mix it with the ocean water and put on yourself. It was a lot of fun putting the clay on and letting it dry and then jumping into the ocean and having it wash off. I am pretty positive that I go to Target and buy a clay mask for myself that seemed identical to the clay found on the rocks. 

We spent some time going through the town, looking in all the little shops and stocked up on some things for the rest of our time - a couple towels, snorkels, paddle boards, etc. The town was great, it had a lot of restaurants right there on the water and Brett tried an authentic Greek dish - Moussaka. It was very interesting and you'll have to ask him about it since I did not have any!

Anyway, we got up one morning and went up to this other little port town on the northern coast called Naousa. It was a real fishing port with all the fisherman getting their catch out and hanging it out. That day we went, their "fish of the day" was...  octopus! Then there was this little castle ruins out to the side of the port, so of course that needed to be explored. I had never seen a castle like that before right on the water where all the waves were breaking right there. It's amazing to think that it is still standing all these years later with all the water thrashing against it everyday. Then we drove around a little more to explore other beaches before heading to our hotel to return the ATV. 

Paros was the perfect island to get us started for our trip and I am so glad we ended up there first. It was pretty small and a little quiet and the staff at our hotel were friendly. But like I said before, every island is completely different and nothing could have prepared us for what was next... Mykonos. 

X x

every now and then..

... you need a little reminder in the morning to get through the day :]

I hope everyone has a great Friday & weekend.

X x