let's go "downtown"....

this weekend proved to be a smack in the face "you're not in california anymore duh" weekend. and it all started with planning a date night. each week we trade off planning a date night that costs under 20 bucks (which sounds easy until you realize you've done coffee the past ten weeks!) and this week was my week, and they usually are wednesday but this week it was pushed to saturday. it's kind of funny since it makes it sound like we have to make time to see each other, but in reality cody gets home from the field after only about three to four hours. soooooo date night is really more about getting out of the house and doing something that we have to pay for since we aren't in the position to be doing that daily even though we have enough time too. it's like retirement but backwards and with way less money.

well, this is actually way more challenging when you're placed in a new area, home field advantage is gone! so i googled. yep i'm such a  romantic obviously that i turned to google and typed "cheap things to do in florida." and apparently it's happy hour, that's the exciting and cheap thing to do in florida according to the internet...aren't you supposed to make my life easier?!?! oh well. so i looked up areas to walk around, because that is one of my favorite things to do, walk around and people watch and explore new places and cultures, so what a easy thing being in a completely new home.

exploring is basically the easiest ever back in the golden state, there's a downtown in every county that is actually way fun and you can see the personality of each city in each one. downtown LA for example is world's different from downtown san diego, which if you ask me i'll choose san diego any day over LA, sorry LA, love you sometimes though. seriously, you can walk around for hours and not be bored by looking at new restaurants and stores and people or quaint little city houses. there's always something new to notice too, like that graffiti of a majestic wolf-unicorn-cheetah or that house with a large gnome collection you looked over while instagramming that modern hipster coffee shop you just gave an outrageous amount of money to for the world's smallest yet most delicious latte. 

so, after much research of places closer than miami (saving that for another time, right cody? please?) i landed on the riverwalk of downtown ft lauderdale. sweet right?! you mean like the riverwalk in san antonio?? loved that place!

and so off we went....

and we were met by a scenic ghost town.

what a sad, sad, sad little attempt for a "downtown"....okay i'm being judgey but i've never seen so many empty store fronts in my life! the directory had spaces for about 30 places but only 4 places were written up on the board....it's almost laughable. but we gave it a shot and kept walking around, at least to find some coffee....

i do hope they improve this place because there are so many rundown and abandoned treasures like this!!! i can already picture myself eating breakfast with a coffee on that patio overlooking the river...

it really was a scenic place, but it felt so empty!

a place with buildings and walls like this, it deserves more places than "the tilted kilt"....seriously.....

after a failed attempt on yelp to find what could have been a fun little coffee stop, we gave up and went to our tried and true, west palm beach.

we've been a few times now and it reminds me of pasadena, so we ate and grabbed coffee and dessert at a newer place.

before i talk about that i want to make a disclosure that i'm a fan of the creative and specialty coffee shops, seriously, i'm a sucker for some good latte art, but two or three hearts in there and i'll be back time and time again. but, sometimes a big glob of foam and alternative 90's music does the soul good.

c-street coffee.

that ugly foam cappuccino was amazing, the flour-less chocolate cake that you spelled "flowerless" and served in a styrofoam container, and the large group of older ladies that looked like they loved their mom jeans for their comfort and not the trendiness of them, side by side with their husbands who enjoyed a good sock and sandal with their tommy bahama shirt made it even better.

 
speaking of people who could care less about their style, can we talk about how this guy right here went from wearing nike drifits and baggy jeans to rolled up slim fits and the best socks ever....

he just wanted you all to know he's come a far way.

so there it is folks, sometimes a adventure fail turns into a great night, laughing about ending up in the wrong side of town and walking into the india festival.

thanks for saving our night west palm! you're a little gem to us now.....


but i still miss CA downtowns......

hello florida!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY.

finally, i'm sitting here with my husband after almost a month in our apartment above a couple from the church's house. boy oh boy, i do not recommend ever being apart for that long unless absolutely necessary.

but first, the drive continued before getting here.

by recommendation of lauren's dad who grew up in florida we stopped in destin to eat and see the gulf of mexico and it's sugar sand beaches. literally, the sand looked and felt like sugar! but it was also super squeaky sand (i hope i'm not the only one who has felt or talked of squeaky sand because apparently to cody there is no such thing....)

also, the gulf is still freezing in winter too, goodness, when am i gonna feel warm again?! (spoiler alert: south florida is quite warm)

as much as i wish i could say we made it from destin to jupiter, we had to stop and turn it into a two day drive. gainsville, florida, home of the gators! nothing to report there, it was eat, sleep, get up and go, the final stretch.

that four hour drive, was the longest drive ever it felt like. but we made it and moved in and it already feels like home.

 
thanks marlins, i do feel very welcomed indeed.

The Roadtrip: Part 4

after much driving, a lot of podcasts and  half an audio book, we made it through texas. (big fat exhal) if i ever see another rocky landscape i might have to be committed for flipping over ten cows.

anyway,

we made to the south. and let me tell you the view instantly changes, hello swampland and interstate 10 being risen up over the water. it is gorgeous actually, if you ever get the chance, drive from louisiana to alabama. i was in constant awe of how the entire freeway was one long bridge. and truth be told, i actually hate bridges, crazy scared by them, my palms get clammy and my heart beats a little faster when i have to drive over them, walking i'm totally fine. but after about 15 minutes (and after facing a massive fear on the glass bridge skywalk) i came to enjoy the views and wonder that we could see this part of america thanks to that highway being over the water.

also, as a fun note, we drove for two straight days in a rainstorm. and all i had brought for clothing was for warming weather, silly rabbit! so, i looked like this:

man, look at that picture quality, at least i didn't say at the beginning of this blog to expect some amazing photography or anything! but you get the point, i'm the blonde california girl who expects everywhere to be 70 and sunny in the winter. i need to get out more.

first stop for our trip in the south, new orleans! i've always wanted to see it, big cities call out my name for a little adventure, but never to live there. driving into new orleans was actually heartbreaking though, there is still so much damage from the hurricane and you see how that plus a lot poverty can affect such a once beautiful place.

it was a week before mardi gras though, and these folk were already gearing up (fun fact: we stopped in alabama to see my dear friend lauren and she informed me that mardi gras actually started in alabama, not new orleans! and it was a family friendly event surprisingly, the more you know.....) so the houses looked a little something like this:

i felt like the houses that weren't all dressed up were a bunch of party poopers or something!

walking around the french quarter it truly is so unique, i wanted to take all the buildings with me and put them in a better neighborhood and then live in them!

we decided to walk down the infamous bourbon st. but we walked a little to far down it and remembered something, this beautiful city is deeply corrupted by sin. my dad and i were invited into a strip club, and the guy really just didn't understand why we were so appalled that we didn't want to come in....after leaving new orleans i kinda thought about how this is how sin is, it seems so beautiful and welcoming on the outside but when you get the heart of it and open your eyes, it's so repulsive. this is new orleans, on the surface, it is lovely old buildings but inside those buildings hide some horrible things, white washed tombs anyone?

turning around and deciding we should stick to the more resturant part of the french quarter we found this little family band. all the kids had to be under 12 years old, and they were unreal! (you can see a video on my instagram)

 they were a little ray of sunshine among the gloomy rain! and they had the widest range of music, going from "when the saints go marching in" to "ring of fire" without missing beat. the girl with the tamborine was probably my favorite to watch though as she closed her eyes and sang and whipped her head around in marvelous fashion.

naturally, being in new orleans we had to try some creole cuisine!

apparently, this is the place for the best and most favorite chicken and sausage gumbo in town, i have to admit it lived up to that!

before heading out to alabama, we were told we had to try the local fair of chicory coffee, after walking around a bit to find a specific place recommended, we ended up going into a "smoke and coffee shop," true blue i guess. i don't know if chicory coffee is for me, but i'm always up for trying new things and local food!

back on the road to spanish fort, alabama, where my friend lauren lives! i finally got to me her sweetest and most entertaining family. they live in the cutest neighborhood where all the streets are based of "gone with the wind," i wish i took a picture of my namesake street! yup, named after a dude, thanks mom!

here's lauren and i in our finest hour:

after leaving her house, we went to a bass pro shop, when in rome my dad always says!! i had never been before, and woah, i was so overwhelmed and all i wanted to do was buy one of those tree chair things and camp. dad had some fun with the fish tank....

next stop, final stop. finally florida is in sight.

the roadtrip: part 3

today. we messed with texas, all of it. (fun fact: it takes 12, T-W-E-L-V-E hours to get through this second biggest state....hah hah texas alaska is bigger than you!)

side note on this sign....texans do not drive friendly....i almost got ran off the road at one point by a trucker! benefit of the doubt, maybe he wasn't from texas but he for sure didn't read their welcome sign!

there is a saying about the midwest, "if you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes." well, yesterday texas looked like the above photo and today it rained from 11am until we got to louisianna at 9pm. 

honestly, i don't have much to say about our drive through the lone star state today, because all i can really say is it was a whole lot greener and prettier than new mexico and arizona....

OH!

i saw my first long horn today, in it's natural habitat. there you go that's how orange county girl i am, i've only seen one in the zoo. yep, the zoo, pathetic. but such is southern california. i wish i got a picture but alas he was so far away and i was just in straight awe (at this point i think the roadkill was interesting to me...so much flat land....so so many rocks)

so we blow through most of texas and stop in houston for dinner (and you probably could guess, more coffee) naturally, going through texas all i wanted was some bbq.

and that's just what we got! we found a hole in the wall, smaller than our 390 sqft apartment bbq place. gatlin's bbq. with mary, possibly the friendlist person in the whole state. it was unlike california bbq spicey, yes, yum, get in my belly, please and thank you.

nest, coffee. found a place down the same road called boomtown coffee, it had a giant picachu stuft animal and smelled like cigarettes....and it was so good, after only having hotel, diner, or starbucks coffee i was so happy for a place like this. also, the girl at the counter greeted me with a "howdy" and the girl at the espresso machine was like "howdy? seriously" and laughed. 

so, end of the story is, texas is huge and i'm glad be be through it and more than half way to florida, which means more than half way to finally seeing cody again after three long weeks.

the roadtrip: part 2

I think one of the most demoralizing things is driving for hours and hours and still being in the same state, that’s what Arizona felt like (guess I shouldn’t complain until texas).

We started the day with a little walk around our resort and breakfast at this really yummy place called “the good egg” (if you ever find yourself in Tucson now you know where to grab breakfast!) and this is how much coffee I had…

We we’re off to new mexico and then into the beginning part of texas. The view for the whole drive is one big same thing for about ever. Seriously, I couldn’t tell the difference between the states. And whoever lives out there in the middle of nowhere, you’re weird, I’m sorry.

But you know what they do have out in the middle of no where?

THE THING???

What in the halibut is the thing you ask?

It’s this guy.

You’re welcome for that beautiful sight.

Fun stop. Road trip must. Weird little quirky museum with even weirder artifacts (that i'm convinced we're found out in the middle of this crazy desert and thrown in this place). But that’s what you do while seeing rock after rock, you stop and look at places called “the thing.” And you pay a dollar to do so while your car gets filled up since you learned from the other day not to risk your gas supply.

Lunch in new mexico ended talking to this guy.

He bikes across the country to raise money and awareness and why you should adopt pets and avoid puppy mills. AMEN. Shelter dogs are the best. This is his dog amy and she has gone with him across country like this four times, this was his 12^th time. I didn’t get his name though….obviously the dog was more important.

So far, I think im going to like the nomad life, meeting people like amy’s owner make it fun and interesting. Everyone has a story and everyone is going somewhere, that’s why the airport is the best for people watching, I like to make up little stories in my head for them, I’ve found myself doing that for the people we pass on the road, but I’m sure their real story is so much more interesting.

Wish I had more to write, but I think you’d throw the rocks at me if I kept telling you about each on and how they look like dogs or giraffe horns…

the roadtrip: part 1

You know the saying “it lives up to it’s name”? this totally applies to the grand canyon and I don’t even care how cliché that is!!! We went to the west side where the new skywalk is. disclaimer: I am absolutely and completely terrified of going over bridges, if we drive over one in a car I duck my head between my knees, hold my breath and plead, not pray. But, I figured, maybe I’ll be fine on the 4000ft above the ground glass bridge since we would be walking. We took the bus up to eagle point and immediately were impressed by the horseshoe overhang ahead of us. We looked around first and went to the edges to get used to the height before taking on the skywalk. (mom, you may want to skip over these pictures due to dad being ever so close to the edge)

Apparently, no one has ever fallen into the canyon on this side……suuuuurrreeeee. We proved that to be true at least! Walking up to the bridge we had to put on some socks, there it goes, my stomach fell to my feet and I (the girl who really doesn’t sweat much) began sweating through my jacket. Deep breath, I stepped out.

In one of my classes at master’s we watched a documentary about this group of guys who went through various parts of the canyon showing how it was proof of the flood. After watching that movie, all I wanted to do was see it for myself. Laying my eyes to the floor below through the glass, there was no denying this. You should totally watch it sometime, it’s nerdy and awesome and will make you want to tell everyone who is at the canyon with you how God made this happen, all of this.

There were three stops for our little canyon tour. The first was a sort of cheesy western town where I got thrown in jail and had to sing to get out. 

The second stop was the skywalk, which you can read about already up there. If you feel like this paragraph is too short for your reading desires…go up.

The third was a kind of hiking spot. While everyone had on hiking shoes, my trusty birks did the job. Granny sandals for the win!

We got to have lunch here and I hope you enjoy the name as much as I did….don’t worry it seemed clean and we ate chicken….

“great food, no atmosphere!” –classic dad jokes

so, I forgot to mention how the gas light came on during our drive off the freeway to the hour to hour and a half drive to the canyon without any gas stations for the next maybe 75 miles. Life’s short, take risks!....right?

well we got to the freeway and our gas meter said we had about 60 miles till empty, done, easy, there was a big town coming up around then. Until, 10 miles down the road it went to 29…then ----, flatline. Looking at our phones the next gas station was 30 miles away….insert the scared emoji face here.

We we’re pushing it, not legitimately but basically, every time we were going downhill the car was in neutral, we basically pulled into a gas station right as it was sputtering out. I hate that feeling, when it feels like the car is just giving up on you….i ran out of gas once in my life and haven’t since then. I ran out of gas in the middle of a major road in our town and the cops had to come push it to the side and clock a lane till AAA came….so embarrassing.

From golden valley it was the long haul to Tucson, Arizona. We got to drive past the super bowl, exciting stuff you know. We hauled past it as the game was ending and traffic was about to be worse than LA at rush hour.

We made it to our hotel (which was another resort, you rock hotwire and mom who was behind the hotwire booking) at 11 pm and were in bed by 12…only to have to wake up and leave again around 8 am….thank you Lord for coffee and lots of it.

goodbye california!

it hasn't quite hit me yet that i have officially said goodbye to my beloved home state, but when your sitting in a resort surrounded by the most beautiful dessert and mountains, it's easy to be distracted.

while feeling so very peaceful and serene in our weird hippy tuscon compound....i mean resort and spa...you'd never guess i was basically on the verge of tears and punching you in the face if you were ever to say to me, "you have so much to do!" just three days ago...

well, i did it, with the help of my best friend sums and my parents we fit all the necessities of life into our nissan altima (nix the table and chair...who cares we can eat on the floor, picnic everyday all day!) kitchen needs were easy and so were other random household things...but my clothes....sadly there are still a closet full left behind to be shipped to me at a later date (i'll be back for you!!!!) along with two very large bags of shoes to keep them company. sigh, thanks sums for holding up three dresses and forcing me to rid of one and same with shoes....you'd be surprised how many pairs of brown shoes a girl could have.

enough about my shrunken closet, look at this car!!!

first stop was viva las vegas!!! okay, okay...lake las vegas. actually, a resort in lake las vegas.

and if that wasn't enough, here is the view from our room

I got to see my dad while in lake las vegas, he happened to be in town from hawaii (rough life dad!) and so we all had dinner together.

My stepdad wanted to be up and out by 8 am and well, anyone who knows me knows 8 am is not my finest hour of the day and so by the discretion of my mom he brought up coffee right when I had to get up (what. a. saint.) after a walk around the resort property and a golf course tour and quick lesson we were off to the grand canyon.