Camping at Silver Strand

This weekend we went camping at Silver Strand. It's a little strip of land that connects the island of Coronado with Imperial Beach. We went with the neighbors, as usual! It was such a great time. We got down there on Friday and spent the evening out by the fire. Saturday we rode our bikes to Coronado, past the Hotel Del Coronado, up to the Coronado Brewing Company. CBC is one of our favorite places to eat in the San Diego area, and their beer is great. I'm a big fan of Neptune's Nectar, and Dan likes Mermaid Red.

Valentine's Day at Olvera Street

For Valentine's Day, we took the train downtown with the neighbors. We went to Olvera Street for lunch, and to do a little shopping. It was such a good time.

The indigenous people of the Tongva nation, the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin had long been established near the river when King Carlos the III of Spain ordered the settlement of the territory by Felipe de Neve thus sending 11 families (44 people) on the long journey from Mexico to Alta California to start the pueblo de La Reina De Los Angeles in 1781.

Olvera Street is located on the general site of the birthplace of the city of Los Angeles (Mexico), near the Plaza, and the Plaza Church. Originally called Vine Street, in 1877 it was renamed after Agustin Olvera, the first judge of the county of Los Angeles (then USA).

This cross is across the plaza, at the beginning of Olvera Street. It reads "The town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels," now known as Los Angeles (the angels).

Surf City Half Marathon

We spent this morning in Huntington Beach, Surf City USA : ). I did the 1/2 marathon and Dan rode his bike on the beach. Actually, it's my dad's bike that he bought while he was here at the Mission Tiki FM. I finished the race and raised $500 for the Free Wheelchair Mission in the process. Last year, it was cold and rainy. This year, the weather was gorgeous. It was a perfect day to be at the beach. Unfortunately, I think I will lose a toenail again (not my big toe this time, the second toe, and maybe the small 5-toe too - as that toe turned into a big blister about 2x the size of the regular toe). Regardless, it was a beautiful day in sunny California!

We're Going to Alaska

Today we booked our trip to Alaska! We're going in May with my Mom & Pop and Dan's parents. We are both so excited to go back to Seattle for a couple of days, we love it there and haven't been in a couple of years now. Neither of us has been to Alaska, so we're looking forward to seeing it with our families, and being able to check another state off the list!

Another Weekend in Vegas

We spent this weekend in Las Vegas with our neighbors Andrew and Ciara (you remember, the ones we went to Vegas with last time, before their wedding in Scotland). We didn't win this time either. Vegas was actually pretty quiet, not crowded at all, which was nice.

Wine in the Woods Weekend

This weekend was the first (of what will be many) "Wine in the Woods Weekend." We went to Silverwood Lake with the neighbors for a camp out and wine tasting. It was so much fun, we had a whole cul-de-sac of campsites for our group. We went out on Jesse and Jeanine's boat, did a little hiking, the guys went fishing while the girls did wine tasting, and we all finished up the night singing around the campfire. Awesome weekend!

These are some of the wines we tasted, everyone brought a bottle to share.

Here's our camper, our little home away from home.

Here's Pat and Jesse playing bass and guitar for our camfire sing-a-long.

One of the best things about camping...smores!

Deneen being the fashionista camper in her Prada hat.

Lisa enjoying her wine in the woods.

Looking good Laceys!

Here's part of the group, from left, Pat, Kevin, Denise, Dan, Cathi, Lisa, Dave, Hardy, and Maria Elisa. Cody is one of Dave and Lisa's dogs.

Jesse driving us around in the boat.

Silverwood Lake, with snow on the mountains in the background! Only in Southern California can you be out boating, looking at the snow, all just about an hour and a half from the beach!

Dan all bundled up on the boat. It was freezing by the marina, but once we were out on the lake, it was really nice.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve day working on our new kitchen floor, which is looking great! We rang in the new year with the neighbors, as we did last year. Our hosts, Mike and Deneen have the best parties. The food is always amazing, and last night was no exception. Deneen made pasta, MADE the pasta, rolled it out herself. It was unbelievably good. I'm sure it's been mentioned on our blog at least once, but we love our neighborhood, and the people in it. We know we're lucky not only to know our neighbors, but to have found such good friends in them.
This is how we get around the neighborhood, especially when we have a lot to carry. We got the wagon idea from Jared last new year's eve. Since then, we picked up our own. It comes in surprisingly handy on nights like these.
Our toasting champagne (actually it's sparkling wine, since it's from California - Champagne isn't really Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region of France) was from Wilson Creek Vineyards in Temecula. So good. We love our almond champagnes, this one, and a slightly sweeter version from Rapazzini Winery in Gilroy.