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SF East Bay Hot Spots July 3, 2011

Filed under: Food — Kelocity @ 2:26 pm
Tags: Family, Food, mac & cheese, San Francisco, Shopping, Travel

Yesterday morning, I woke up bright and early at 7am. I could see the sun and hear the birds chirping outside. I love being in the bay area. After some breakfast, we headed to our first stop of the day: Sports Basement.

I love this store. It seems that every time we are here, we stop and buy some new shoes. And this weekend was no exception. They just have the best selection and prices, you can’t beat it. I really loved my Brooks Ariels, but they changed the model this year and they didn’t feel right. They also jacked the price up to $115 and since I’m not really running munch anymore, I just couldn’t justify it.

But I did find the Asics GT-2130s on sale for $65! I used to run in these before switching to Brooks a few years back. They felt great too. Irving ended up with the same pair (in mens of course).

Happy with our new purchases, we jumped over to a local farmers market. It was small, but very impressive. A little bit of everything and all the produce looked really good. My goal for the day? Find a fresh tomato. There’s nothing like a fresh one, remember? When I found one, I ate it like an apple. Hit the spot.

We came back to Irving’s mom’s house and had a nice lunch and took a nap! Irving slept for two hours! I read New Moon for a while and then fell asleep myself.

Bad news: I started to get a headache and I was so frustrated. I hadn’t eaten sugar in almost a week, hardly any sodium…PLUS I’d been drinking more water than I ever have in my life….why did I have a headache? After a cup of tea and a nap, I realized it must have been caffeine withdrawal today.

Anyways, the tea cured it and when everyone woke up, we got out of the heat by heading to a mall. I scored a summer dress at Old Navy!

Then we drove over the hill to Berkeley for dinner. Our destination was Pyramid Brewery (one of our favorites!)

Irving and his mom ordered the Apricot Ale. I’ve had it before and it’s pretty incredible, but I didn’t want to drink for fear of the revenge of the headache. I stuck to water.

The menu is amazing. We think it’s some of the best American food menus out there. I ended up with a turkey club sandwich on a cibatta roll with avocado.

And I subbed my french fries for a baked mac & cheese!! It came with bacon inside of it and I sprinkled hot sauce on the top!

I ate a few bites before getting full, and I brought the rest home. I can’t wait to dig into it!!!

This morning, Irving and his mom went to watch the Wimbledon finals in theaters! They’re broadcasting it in 3D! It sounded really fun, but they had to wake up at 4:45am to make it in time!

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The Eastern Sierras Tour! February 13, 2011

Filed under: Food,Friends,Shopping,Skiing — Kelocity @ 7:47 pm
Tags: California, Food, Friends, Shopping, Skiing, Sledding

Yesterday afternoon, after blogging, I went for a walk around Mammoth Village. There isn’t too much there, but it’s really cute. I love ski villages.

Then I took the bus up to the base lodge to see Irving for the last few runs of the day. What a PERFECT day for skiing. I was a little jealous when I heard the mountain wasn’t crowded too.

Irving is easy to spot with his big yellow jacket. here he comes!

Hi!

The mountain closes at 4pm and they had free hot chocolate for everyone at the bottom of the lifts. Even though I didn’t ski, I certainly enjoyed it! Then all 13 of us headed back down to the condo. We promptly put a couple of beers in the snow. YUM!

We went out to dinner in town and came back and went to bed. We were asleep by 8:30pm. HAHA

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This morning, we checked out and found a great slope for sledding!

I was talking to someone and I turned back around, and there was irving at the top of the mountain already sitting on his sled.

It was a wee bit icy for me, so I was the dedicated ‘Kid Stopper’. I was in charge of making sure none of the six kids went over the edge and into the street. Very important task.

We thought this cloud looked like a heart! Perfect for a Valentine’s day weekend!

Awe! Happy Valentine’s Day, Irving!

After we tuckered out the ~~kids~~ adults, we started our trip back towards Los Angeles. The drive was gorgeous.

An hour later, we found ourselves at ‘Erick Schat’s Bakery’ in Bishop.

Apparently it’s this really famous bakery that has a very good reputation. The lines were crazy long and the place was packed!

I was amused by all the rules they had. Everywhere you turned, there was another sign posted with another rule. One of them was ‘no photos inside’, so you’ll just have to trust me that this place is worth stopping at. We tried the cheese rolls. And then I went back in for some coconut gelato.

An hour later, our caravan of cars stopped at Manzanar. This was a War Relocation camp during World War II.

After Pearl Harbor, the government felt that Japanese Americans were a threat to our country and rounded them up and put them in these concentration camps around the county. Most of them were American citizens, but they didn’t care. It boiled down to racism. A very somber place in our history.

They have reconstructed some of the barracks so visitors can get a glimpse of what life was like inside the camp.

A lot of it is overgrown and torn down, but 10,000 people used to live in here.

They have an auto route where you can drive the perimeter of the camp. At the back is a cemetary where a few people are still buried.

I have been to Dachau in Germany, and later this year, we will be visiting Auschwitz in Poland. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, imprisonment of innocent humans based on prejudice is just wrong. We felt very grateful to have seen Manzanar and hear some of the stories of the people.

Then we drove another couple of hours and came across the Airplane Graveyard in the Mojave Desert. Apparently it’s a place where planes go to die. Decommissioned aircrafts are brought here where they taken apart and recycled.

Two hours after that, we stopped to do a little shopping. I am going to a fancy event tomorrow night for Valentine’s Day (you’ll just have to wait and see where!) and I desperately needed a new dress. Irving graciously agreed to come along. We found a Dillards off the highway and I spent an hour trying on about 25 dresses. I finally found a great one. Besides prom and bridesmaid dresses, it’s the most expensive dress I’ve ever bought. But it looked great, and I really felt good in it, so I splurged. I’m so grown up!

And because Irving was so patient, I agreed to go to Souplantation with him. I normally don’t like that place. It’s been about five years since I had been there. But it wasn’t that bad. I just made sure not to gorge myself and not fill up on carbs. I think it worked out pretty well.

And now, we have just 30 minutes left until we get home. What a great way to break up a 5 hour drive. Stopping every couple of hours worked out really well.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

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A Mammoth Sized Getaway February 12, 2011

Filed under: Food,Friends,Shopping,Skiing — Kelocity @ 3:01 pm
Tags: Food, Friends, mountain, RoadTrip, Shopping, Skiing

This weekend, a bunch of our friends rented two condos for the weekend in Mammoth and invited us to come hang out and ski! We’d be crazy to say no to such a great opportunity. We love to get up to the mountains at least once in the winter to get a dose of skiing in. This was the perfect reason to go!

We left after work on Friday and started the 5.5 hour drive up. Since we didn’t know what the roads would be like, we took Irving’s Jeep which gets about 16 miles to the gallon! By the time we got there, he was well below ‘E’ and I was starting to panic. He’s such a guy: “We’ve got at least another hour on this tank. Even though it’s on E… it’s not really on E.” OHMYGOSH!!! My dad always told me to never go below a quarter tank, especially in the winter, in case something happened and I had to keep the car going to stay warm. I half wanted us to break down in the middle of nowhere so I could say ‘I told you so’, but alas, we made it up there safe. Lucky break.

The condo we’re staying in is so cute!

What perfect books for a weekend in the mountains!

Look at this cute little squirrel!

My favorite part is the rocking cordless phone, circa 1991!

Zach Morris? Are you there?

Within our great group of friends, there are six kids who were there to ski this weekend. This morning, when I woke up, I could hear the pitter patter of little feet descending down the staircase. It was so nice. They say the cutest things too. One of them kept telling Irving how excited he was to ski because ‘Skiing was his favorite’! Awe! Living in southern California, it’s exciting to see so much snow! And PS. seeing little kids in snowpants and ski boots is the cutest thing in the whole world.

All the kids and most of the adults got their tickets to head up the mountain, but I decided not to go this time. Every time I ski, my body aches, my muscles hurt and I want to quit after two runs. But everyone else was super excited!

When we got to the lifts, my phone told me it was 13 degrees outside. ahhh!

Good thing I came prepared with my Merrel snowmobile boots. These things are the BEST!

A gorgeous day for some skiing, I’m sure they all had a great time!

I said farewell to the group and went on my way to explore the village.

Mammoth is so cute. It has all the amenities of a huge ski resort, but the charm of a small town.

The first thing I did (after filling the Jeep up with gas — PS. $3.99 a gallon up here!) was head to the Snowcreek Fitness Club. This place is kind of a big deal. It’s where almost all of America’s Olympic runners live and train for their events. The altitude is so high here that if they can run here, they can run anywhere.

I just finished reading Meb Keflezighi’s book and he kept mentioning this place. After a little research, I found out that a lot of my running idols also train there. There’s an elite group of runners who belong to the Mammoth Lakes Track Club. A few members include Deena Kastor, Jennifer Rhines and Sara Hall. When I was driving along the road, I kept picturing these super fast marathoners running here. It is gorgeous!

They let me inside and I got to see some of the equipment they use. I was keeping my eye open, but I didn’t recognize anyone. I was thinking about getting a massage there too, I mean if a masseuse is good enough for an Olympian, why not me, right? But I decided against it. It was fun enough just to see it.

My original plan was to run the 5 miles to the club and back to our condo, but the air is so thin, I could barely walk up a flight of stairs! It’s hard to catch your breath at 9,000 feet. So instead, I spent my afternoon SHOPPING! But before you get all excited, remember that this a town of 3,000 people. The nearest Macy’s is three hours away.

I did find a few outlet stores and got three new sweaters for $20. SCORE!

Then I took my singles party to a café in town. Soup was sounding good at the time.

I got the Italian Wedding Soup in a bread bowl, but I have to say, it was mediocre. The soup was a bit off, and the bread wasn’t cooked all the way, it was still a little doughy?! EW! The waitress agreed and didn’t end up charging me for it, but my appetite was ruined. Oh well. With the altitude, I haven’t been very hungry up here anyways.

Everyone should be making their way back here soon, might go read a book and enjoy the peaceful mountain air.