A Weekend in San Diego
This past weekend, we got the chance to head down to San Diego! I'm currently still here until the end of the week working on the next volume of the Nations journal but I thought it would be great if A could come down with me for the beginning or tail end. He was only here for a day and a half, but we squeezed in as much as we could. Here are some iPhone photos from our time together. He loved it and we loved being away from Seattle. I adore hanging out with this guy; he makes my heart flutter. Life with your best friend is pretty swell, guys! Cannot thank our friend Brianna for hosting us enough!
SATURDAY //
A really wanted me to take a photo of this sweet car and I just liked the surfboard mailbox.
Saturday morning brunch
We headed into San Diego after a tasty brunch with B at Le Papagayo
Currently Aaron's reading this book and I'm reading a classic, The Grapes of Wrath.
We walked around at Balboa Park and laid in the grassy shade. Ah, it was nice.
Of course, we had to grab some ice cream! Hammond's was recommended to us; of course we had to get the infamous ice cream flights. We tried Vietnamese Coffee, Banana Cream Pie, Thai Iced Tea, Lychee Cream and Mango Sorbet.
That night, we met up with Joel's family and Brianna at Stone Brewing. Super rad place and the food was so good! We tried this awesome beer that was in a wine bottle (see photo below). It was a great night and we had some good chats with them. I was happy Aaron finally got to meet 'em!
another car A wanted me to take a pic of...
SUNDAY //
We headed to Steady State for some coffee in Carlsbad before meeting up with B for church at North Coast. Coffee was on point. Good rec!
For lunch, we headed to the Taco Stand... because duh.
We had some time to kill so we attempted to drive to La Jolla so I could show Aaron but traffic was pretty bad; we managed to get there but then had to leave right away.
Saxon, Joe and his parents happened to be in town the same weekend so we met up with them at Bottlecraft in Little Italy. Lots of beers and talks about beers later, A had to leave to make his flight! We had such a great time though and am thankful we were able to see some friends.
I have a feeling all of our future travel blog posts will be lots of food photos. Sorry, not sorry. Already missing you, babe!
Day Trip to Vancouver
Aaron and I planned to go to Vancouver earlier this Fall, when we were planning out the remainder of our weekends. I had just started a seasonal job at Paper Source and wanted to get as many hours as I could. He asked if he could have December 12th. The weekend crept up on us, but we were very much looking forward to a day outside of Seattle despite 100% chance of rain. We left early and met with friends for breakfast in Bellingham, which helped break the drive up. Eighty minutes later (and some at the border), we were in Vancity.
Our first stop was Bloedel Floral Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, which makes up most of the photos above. Aaron mentioned that he wanted to find one, and I unintentionally found it via Pinterest, ha! It was the perfect rainy day activity. Tickets were $6.50 each, but we both agreed it was well worth the money. It really felt like we were in another world (similar to what I would imagine Jurassic World would be like) with all the sounds and birds flying around. We spent a good hour there, admiring all the different types of birds and at God's creativity. I'm surprised I'd never heard of this place before, and would definitely come back.
Aaron and I planned to go to Vancouver earlier this Fall, when we were planning out the remainder of our weekends. I had just started a seasonal job at Paper Source and wanted to get as many hours as I could. He asked if he could have December 12th. The weekend crept up on us, but we were very much looking forward to a day outside of Seattle despite 100% chance of rain. We left early and met with friends for breakfast in Bellingham, which helped break the drive up. Eighty minutes later (and some at the border), we were in Vancity.
Our first stop was Bloedel Floral Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, which makes up most of the photos above. Aaron mentioned that he wanted to find one, and I unintentionally found it via Pinterest, ha! It was the perfect rainy day activity. Tickets were $6.50 each, but we both agreed it was well worth the money. It really felt like we were in another world (similar to what I would imagine Jurassic World would be like) with all the sounds and birds flying around. We spent a good hour there, admiring all the different types of birds and at God's creativity. I'm surprised I'd never heard of this place before, and would definitely come back.
We headed over to Gastown next to grab some coffee at Revolver. We settled with some Heart Coffee and worked on our books for some time. This led to some great conversation, learning more about each other, our different personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses... more on this later.
We had about 45 minutes left on our parking so we stopped in at a few stores, including Old Faithful Shop (I always want all the things here!), One of a Few, Frank & Oak...
One of our friends had told us to stop at B.C. Sushi for all-you-can-eat sushi. We made one last stop there for a late lunch and it was delicious! We didn't end up going with the all-you-can-eat option, however we got so much food for the amount we paid- I did the lunch combo which included a small salad, miso soup, chicken teriyaki, several pieces of sashimi and a California Roll. This was all for a grand total of $10. Hip hip hooray!
All in all, it was a great trip. I look forward to many more mini-adventures in Vancouver, hopefully when it's not so wet!
Eight Hours in Chi-Town
This past August, Aaron and I took a trip out to the Midwest to visit his family. We made a pit-stop in Chicago, eating and drinking our hearts out, and spending some time with Aaron's childhood friend (shoutout to Phil!) who had recently moved out there. I was falling asleep that morning, ironically enough, over coffee and breakfast and it was so kind of Phil to let me nap at his apartment for an hour or so. We sipped coffee at Intelligentsia in Logan Square, ate brunch at Lula Cafe (so darling!), browsed a few shops (it was still pretty early when we were out), taco-ed it up at Big Star (which I would highly recommend) and finished with some ice cream/donuts/more coffee at Stan's Coffee & Coffee before taking the train down to Indiana. It was so enjoyable to finally be on a plane with Aaron, going to a city that was not home to either of us. Our first trip together! Aaron made this gif below so I hope y'all enjoy it. He was pretty excited about it.
