Sharing the SLO life

So..... I'm about 2 weeks behind on posting.  Again.  Dang it!  I was doing so good for a while!  Oh well.

So 2 weeks ago, I returned from my vacation and got to have a little stay-cation when some of my favorite people came to visit me!!!  Chelsea, Caroline, and Emily came to California!

They enjoyed a day in San Fran and I drove up to meet them after work last Friday night.

I was still recovering from the black plague that I was stricken with following the cruise and I didn't have much of a voice (think pre-puberty 12 year old boy).  So when we did a little late night walk to Ghirardelli Square, I just got tea instead of ice cream (and got criticized by the Phines).

Side bar:  many photos stolen from Caroline and Chelsea.

We woke up to an absolutely beautiful morning filled with sunshine and Golden Gate Bridges.

Fail....... trying to hold up the bridge.  Not raise the roof.

Then we began our drive down to SLO.  Stopped for lunch in Monterey, of course.

And then took the always-beautiful drive down highway 1.  I have made this drive about half a dozen times now, and each time it still takes my breath away.  It is such an absolutely amazingly beautiful sight that I really  can't describe it to you even through pictures.

Right before Emily left those sunglasses on top of that rock....

We even made it to San Simeon to see the elephant seals (the dark blobs in the picture below) before it was too dark.

The next day we were blessed with another beautiful day, so we rose bright and early to go on a ride.

I love our Cal Poly broodmares.... I think they are so pretty :)

Then we cleaned up and headed down to Avila Beach for some sunset-watchin' and classy wine drinkin' (red solo cup.... I lift you up.....).

Saw some random guys  jump off the pier.

For a different account (and slightly different photos) of this trip, check out here and here.  Now is a great time to give a shout-out to the brand-new Caroline and Chelsea blog, aka 2 Phines.  They post some pretty good stuff (and tell you how to make yummy edibles).

I am so, so, so incredibly lucky to have these girls in my life (you too Hales!  You were greatly missed.).  They have been by my side since elementary school.  Well, OK, maybe they weren't totally on my side all the time in elementary school, but in middle school we got our mess together.

The last time I saw them was in August for only a short 2 hours at a dinner while I was in town, before they left town (to come out west, ironically).  It is amazingly wonderful that after so much time apart, we still have the same kind of friendship.  We've changed, and life has changed, but the way we work together hasn't changed at all.  And I love that. I haven't lived within 1,000 miles of them in almost 5 years, and we still laugh at the same stupid things, feel perfectly at home with one another, and at the end of the day we are still perfectly content to call it a night at 8:30 pm and watch Friends re-runs on TV.  I know that they still have my back and still love me the same way that they did when we were in 11th grade, even if we do live 3,000 some miles apart.  And that, my friends, is freakin' awesome.

love,

ap

Food for thought (I should probably stop calling it this, since I'm not giving y'all much food for thought anymore.... I think I'll change the name of this section to "Mostly stupid YouTube videos that are good for a laugh with an occasional deep-meaning video most likely related to agriculture")

Music is powerful

God bless the 90's...and jellies.... 

Simulated labor....for men.  HA.

Vacation: Part 2

As you may recall, I went down to Florida to take a cruise with my family and to spend some time with Landon.

After we got back from the cruise, I got to hang out with Landon for 3 days before I headed back home to the west coast.

We got back on Thursday and then decided that we wanted some more adventure.  Enter "operation Busch Gardens Tampa."  Upon realizing that NC State was playing Duke that Saturday, we decided that there would be no rest for the weary and hit the theme park on Friday instead.

I would highly recommend this park!  It was a park and a zoo in one and was so cool!  Since it was the off season, there were no lines and we were able to get on the front row of every coaster.  I took pictures of our seats until I got yelled at and my camera got confiscated.

We got to ride some pretty sweet coasters, but sadly Landon's favorite, the Sheikra, was closed for the season.

As we meandered through the park, we got to see all kinds of critters.  It was perfect, because we did not think about the combination of post-cruise-vertigo and roller coasters..... Lets just say we took it easy and paced ourselves.  But we were still excited.

There were the not-so-cool critters....

The nostalgic critters.....

The hilarious critters....

The rarely sighted and little studied critters.....

The majestic critters...

And the large critters....

But my personal favorites of the day were the kangaroos.  If I had to pick an animal to be, I'd totally be a kangaroo.  Check out how crazy these things are (sarcasm)!

But these super pretty birds were baller too (as evidenced by my ridiculously excited face).

And Landon almost got attacked by an emu during a staring contest (check out the dude behind him waiting for the bird attack).  I guess he has a love-hate bird relationship?

Other than enjoying a few wonderful date nights at our favorite Lakeland spots, watching the basketball game together (WOLFPACK IN THE HOUSE!), and going to church, we decided to go do a little zombie killing with Landon's new Sig Sauer (and a rental Smith and Weston 9mm):

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation, and I was super bummed to come back to reality.  I think that drive to the Tampa airport was the hardest one yet.  

But fortunately, I was coming back to a brief 4 days alone before Chelsea, Caroline, and Emily came to visit me, so I had something to look forward to!  More on that adventure shortly :)

ttfn

ap

Food for thought:

What does love look like to you?

Now that I am writing another paper on my thesis work, I am reminded of this feeling.

I am keeping these things for my children one day

Vacation: Part 1

So I went on vacation 2 weeks ago.  A blissful, wonderful vacation filled with beaches, warm weather, family, and relaxation.  I didn't look at a computer or answer a phone for 9 whole days and it was bliss.  I forgot how much I hate technology.  Its honestly taking everything in me to blog right now (and Caroline, the blog master, is sitting next to me on the couch and is forcing me to do it so I don't forget all of the wonderful details).  You should feel special.

I flew down to Tampa, grabbed my man, and we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale where we met up with my family (!!!!!!!) and took a cruise.

Our ship was fabulous (and is the second biggest cruise ship in the world, just FYI).

We had a great time (all 22 of us!).  Ryan and Ben rocked out the Flow-Rider all week.

Kori and Spike even had a little Jack and Rose moment.

We even got all fancy and dressed up for formal night.

 Our first port was Belize City, Belize.  The city was super pretty, but we immediately were whisked away on an excursion to our own private island.

Safety first though, on the boat ride over.....

Until we realized that you could take beer on the boat.  Then there was a mad dash to get enough for everyone before we departed.

Our island was 1.3 acres.  Isn't it beautiful!?  It looks like something out of a post card!

We went snorkeling, hung out on the beach, and then ate a fabulous lunch of lobster and chicken that the locals grilled for us (complete with an unlimited supply of rum punch!).

On the way back, we hit a brief patch of rain, and all the ladies hit the deck.  Literally.

The next day, we ported in Cozumel, Mexico.  After a bit of shopping, we hit up Carlos N Charlies.  Let's just say that this place was CRAZY and leave it at that.

Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful time.  I'm so glad I got to spend time with my family and Landon at the same time.  It was so relaxing and the scenery was beautiful.

I'm so blessed with such a wonderful family!  This past week at work was terrible trying to catch up, but so worth it :)

-ap

Throwback Thursday

Cent, five cent, ten cent, dolla!

Ahoy mateys!  Today's throwback comes from 2008, when Lisa, Larisa, Kate, and myself went on a little cruise around the Caribbean for spring break.  This is in honor of the cruise that I am taking on SATURDAY (!!!!!!!) with my whole family AND my boyfriend!  What?? Who does that??? Who sees both their family and their boyfriend at the same time???  Craziness.

Here are the lovely ladies and our mariachi band in Cozumel, Mexico :)  Larisa and Lisa and I lived together for 4 years (with various awesome....and not so awesome....) roomies in between.  I do miss those girls!

Have a great week y'all!  And in honor the cruise, please re-visit this 2009 classic:

Happy sailing, you lilly-livered-land-lovers!

AP