29th Night

I have spent many a day in Napa/Sonoma this year and boy has it been awesome! My lovely friend Amanda traditionally celebrates the 12th night - a Swedish Holiday akin to Christmas. She grabbed a bunch of us and we decided to head up to Napa, albeit later than the 12th night, so she so lovingly called in the 29th night! It was a beautiful day filled with lots of laughter, great wines and yummy food! 

We wine tasted at JCB and Raymond, at lunch at Archetype, and did more wine tasting at Nickel & Nickel. 

If you are looking for some yummy wines, I definitely recommend checking out these spots! Everything was great and the company was even better! 

Las Vegas After Christmas 2015

I accidentally this update, oops! I visited Las Vegas a couple of days after Christmas last year to hang with my family. It was a great visit: I had a facial got my hair cut, ate great good, drank delicious wine, planned a run in with Rachel, spent lots of quality time with my family, had a girls night out with the gorgeous Chippendales (Thunder was way better...!) and was once again sad to leave. 

If only this dude was into me, I think we could make each other very happy....

Grand Canyon 2016

Along the same lines as my post about Seattle, I went to the Grand Canyon for the long weekend in February, to expand the United States travels. Can you believe that I have lived on the WBest Coast my entire life and have never visited Seattle or the Grand Canyon?! Yeah, me either. So, in my effort to visit new places closer to home a friend of mine (also a Grand Canyon Virgin) and I decided to take on the Canyon, and we are both sure glad we did.
As I have mentioned before, I have family that lives in Vegas, so Caitlin and I decided to make Vegas our home base. We flew in on Thursday mid day, picked up our rental car, worked for the rest of the day on Thursday and had dinner with my family. Friday, we woke up, worked for most of the morning and then hit the road. On our way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped and took a tour of the Hoover Dam. The weather was beautiful! 
We made it to the Grand Canyon after dark, dropped off our stuff in our lodge - The Bright Angel Lodge and walked around a bit. It was cold, like, snow was still on the ground. We had eaten a late lunch so we weren't too hungry for dinner so we resorted to wine and cheese that we picked up on our way out of Vegas. 
We woke up early to grab breakfast in our hotel restaurant and get to hiking. We decided that we were going to do the Rim Trail which is pretty basic with a bunch of look outs. We were looking for something semi-easy with great vantage points along the way. We walked along and stopped at almost every overlook. We hiked for maybe about 2 miles then turned around and headed back to the area of the trail where the lodges are and we stopped for a snack and drink at El Tovar. We went back to our lodge for a short nap. 
After our nap we hiked the opposite direction to catch the sunset over the Canyon. We packed our bags with cups and a bottle of wine and set on our way. The sunset was freezing cold, mind blowing and we were a little tipsy. After the sunset, we went back to our lodge for dinner then back to our room for some serious Sisterwives binging. (I am serious you guys, once you start, you can't stop)
On Sunday, we woke up before the sunrise, drove over to the bus station, hopped on a bus to
Yavapai Point to watch the sunrise. Wow. Just wow. Like the sunset, our phones and my fancy schmancy camera did not do it justice. We hung out there for a bit, walked around and hopped back on the bus to head back to El Tovar for breakfast, to pack up our bags and head back to Vegas - today is Valentine's Day.

While we were at the Grand Canyon, my friend Amit had sent me a text asking me about a lounge at the Cosmo that went to when I was there after Christmas was a ton of fun. We realized that we were going to overlap by a day and made plans for the three of us to go to dinner on Valentine's Day. Caitlin and I made it back to Vegas mid afternoon, showered and changed and headed to the strip for our triple VDay date (with, I will say, the worst uber driver on the planet; not an important story).

We had sushi at Shibuya at the MGM Grand and then went over to the Bellagio for a snack and cocktail at Yellowtail. After dinner, we went back to my family's house and drank some wine around the fire pit and played cards. 

On Monday, Caitlin and I treated ourselves to spa treatments: facials, massages and pedicures. It was much needed! 
Loved the Grand Canyon and I would definitely go back and hike down to the bottom...well, let's be honest, ride a mule down :-)

Seattle Weekend 2016

After all of my travels from last summer (#afroeuroland), I decided that there is still so much of the United States that I haven't seen and I decided that I wanted to explore my own country in 2016. Little did I know that I would make a last minute trip to Europe in the fall...but that is neither here nor there.
First up on the list was to hit up Seattle with my sweet from from college, Melissa. Melissa and her husband live in the suburbs-ish of Seattle. Before the trip, we both did a bunch of research (asking friends and pinteresting) and we found a bunch of 'must-dos.' I will say that we lived it up in Seattle for the long weekend in January and it was definitely a trip to remember. 
We stayed with my family friends in their condo only, like, 3 blocks from Pike Place. We had a gorgeous view of the entire city, as you can see - so we decided against a Space Needle Tour. I flew in, Melissa picked me up, we headed to the condo, drank wine, settled down and went to sleep. 
On Saturday, we walked around Pike Place, took a ride on Seattle's Great Wheel and decided to take an underground tour that I would absolutely recommend. The tour focused on how the city was formed, prohibition and what culture is still around from its history today. It was super neat. After the tour, we hit up Beechers for lots of cheeses deliciousness then dinner and drinks with my family friend.
On Sunday, we dressed up for the Seahawks Game - I know, I apologized to my 49er fans, don't worry, checked out a Lululemon Factory Sale (like, serious sale - pants were $29 marked down from $150 - I spent too much). Here is where the story gets good....
After the Lulu sale, we were dropped off in Ballard to walk around, hit up a couple of bars and make our way to the Ballard Locks. We stop into a bar, have a snack and a beer and there was a group of sort of rowdy people that we were mocking a bit. One of the dudes comes up to us and starts flirting and he tells us that he is the proud owner of a famous sandwich shop, Paseos, in Seattle - which, funny enough, happened to be on our list of places to visit on this trip. We told him Paseo was on our travel itinerary and he offered to take us there and buy us sandwiches. (Don't worry, I know what you are thinking stranger danger. He was harmless) They were amazing. We ordered: #2 Caribbean Roast, #5 Chicken Breast, and #5 Sautéed Prawns and it sure did not disappoint. If you find yourself in Seattle, I definitely suggest visiting this place. Anyway, we told the dude that we were headed to the Ballard Locks so he decided to tag along. We checked it out, ate our sandwiches and went to another bar for another drink. At this bar, our new friend had decided that he wanted to take us on a helicopter, so he proceeds to call around to a bunch of companies to no avail (darn it) then suggests that we go to dinner. We all hop into an Uber and he takes us to one of the finest steak houses in Seattle, The Metropolitan Grill where he orders us steak and lobster dinners along side cocktails and wine. Melissa and I had to call it a night - we dined and dashed...well, dashed on the dude, because he definitely paid the full bill...don't you worry, the lobster was not on the house!
The entire day, Melissa and I were cracking up at how random the entire situation was because none of it made sense. We could not figure out if the dude was for real of not, which sort of added to the way the rest of the day went. He definitely wanted to come up to the condo and we had to be very stern with him and tell him that that was definitely not an option. Ha! So random! 
On Monday, we checked out Gasworks Park then headed on to Snoqualmie Falls for a bite to eat, a drink and a little walk. 

Overall it was an awesome weekend! Seattle is beautiful and I can't wait to visit again!  

The time I donated my Wedding Dress

I have typed and retyped this post. Not liking how it sounds and not liking how vulnerable it makes me seem.
I donated my wedding dress on Monday night to a great cause: Angel Gown Project. I specified my search, looking for a donation center where I could drop it off myself and did not have to mail it. I also felt funny selling it or donating it to another bride. Maybe I was being silly, but I felt that I wouldn't want to wear a used wedding dress from a woman who was divorced. Not that we divorced ladies have the plague or anything, but more that I would be worried about the bad juju. (ha!)
When I was doing my research and reading about the different organizations I could donate my dress to nothing really stood out to me and when I stumbled upon Angle Gown Project I knew that this was exactly where I wanted my dress to go. I wanted my dress to mean something to someone, to make a different for a person, for a family, for a loved one. This organization takes used wedding dresses, and other formal dresses, and repurposes them into bereavement dresses for babies who pass-on before they leave the hospital. 
I donated my dress with a heavy and loving heart, knowing that it is going to a good cause. I dropped the dress off near my old apartment with a woman who is a law student at UC Berkeley. I *sort of* wanted to tell the Universe to just leave me alone for a bit, but that just seemed par for the course in this entire experience. I am not going to lie, I cried when I got home. I cried, not because I was sad or because I was angry. I cried because something that brought me so much joy and happiness and that was so beautiful is going to be repurposed for a great cause and provide closure for a mourning family. Also, because I believe that it provided closure for me.

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I wrote the above post right after I donated my dress, so almost a year ago. Needless to say, I was in a very different place in my 'grieving' process. The reason I hadn't posted it was because I was waiting on the organization to send me a picture of what they made my dress into, and because, as I mentioned above, it makes me feel vulnerable to share this. This was on the list of "last few things to take care of" for my closure, for my peace of mind.

On Friday, I was scrolling through facebook and decided, on a whim, to change the display from 'most popular' to 'most recent.' I did this and began scrolling and 24 minutes prior to my changing the display and scrolling through posts, the Angel Gown Project had posted the below picture and said that one of the gowns was made out of my wedding dress. I wasn't tagged in the post, and I honestly believe that I wouldn't have seen this had I not randomly changed my display. I squealed a little bit. I have been waiting for this picture to appear. 

My dress made the sweet little dress that is second from the right, and I am sure many more. It is with a heavy and loving heart that I share this with you all. 

Part of me wanted to re-write this entire post. And then I thought about it some more and decided that this was important to for me remember how I felt after donating and realize how far I have come in just a year. I had an epiphany last week, that I am still working out, and once I can articulate it, I will share it :-) 

Castro Theater Updates

The Castro Theater provides entertainment, beauty, art and culture. It is hard to believe that I spent 5 years in college, basically up the road, and my first visit to the Theater was so many years later. I have seen mostly drag queens reenact cult-followed films and have recently dabbled in sing-a-longs. I love to get a good group of friends together and check out what the Theater has to offer on one of these special occasion nights.

Since October, I have seen Addams Family Values in drag and Spice Rack (AKA: Spice World) and sang along with Ariel in the Little Mermaid and got to hang with the Pink Ladies in Grease. We stay for the show, and usually after the show we head over to the dance club that is across Market street and dance the night away with all of the pretty boys while pretending they are our boyfriends, because they are beautiful, even if they have their own boyfriends. 

We just have a blast!