Travel

Life Travel

CLASSPASS

October 3, 2016

Working out is a chore to me. I’m guilty of starting the week off strong and finding every excuse not to go to the gym because I get bored easily. I’d love a personal trainer but it’s just not in the budget. To help me stay on track I prefer to go to classes.

When I heard about CLASSPASS, some good (here & here) and some bad (here & here), I was intrigued but not sold. I was hesitant until I saw a last chance offer for a deal for a $19 trial on their base plan, which is 5 classes/month (normally $65/month), I knew I had to try it.

What I loved about the offering was I could take classes anywhere in the Bay Area. I work in the Tri-Valley area and we live in the South Bay so I can plan my classes with my commute. The best part is the variety because I’ve pretty much tried it all including Reformer Pilates and a trampoline/TRX workout.

An added bonus is you can use it in over 30 locations across the globe. I highly recommend it. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s my referral link: http://class.ps/eoWQu. You’ll get $30 off your first month.

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Family Life Travel

Cliff House, Lands End & the Sutro Baths

June 3, 2016

After celebrating with my family in Lake Tahoe, on my actual birthday (April 27th), my husband took me to the City. I’d never been to Lands End and the Sutro Baths so I decided to have dinner at the Cliff House – the restaurant near the Sutro Baths overlooking the ocean. We both worked most of the day so we headed into the City by late afternoon. We had some time before our reservation so we made our way to the area so I could see Lands End and the Sutro Baths. I’d been to Ocean Beach before, I’ve just never explored Lands End or seen the Sutro Baths so we made sure to explore some when we first arrived. We parked near Ocean Beach, I love everything about the ocean so I had to get a picture in front of the water even though it was mad windy. Then we started to be tourists and site see.

This has been on my list since discovering it via Pinterest prior to moving to the Bay. It was a cool place to see. Major history here.

After being in awe of the beauty and being wind swept by the major wind we headed into the Cliff House for a drink before dinner. Had to get an obligatory restaurant photo.

I’m one of those people who takes pictures of the food so here are my must have pics of my drink and meal. It was tasty. I would say you mostly come for the view but the food was good so bonus for us. It’s on the pricey side so unless you are a baller, I would say come here for a special occasion.

and the sunset…so beautiful

Following dinner I didn’t want to just go home so we stopped for dessert at Sixth Course in the Mission. I have a huge sweet tooth so I was super stoked by the cool offerings they had. The portions are small but it was a good experience and the treats were yummy. I wouldn’t recommend this place all the time but I would say try it once. They change their items all the time but I tried a mini ice cream with Cap n Crunch (I love cereal on desserts haha) and an alcohol infused dessert. I enjoyed both.

I had an excellent time spending my birthday with my husband. I can always count on him to help me experience new things. There is still so much of the Bay Area, California and the World left for us to explore and I’m so happy I get to do it with him. I’m excited for what 33 will bring.

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Family Life Travel

Keep Tahoe Blue

June 2, 2016

This post is way past due but I didn’t want to miss sharing the beauty that is Lake Tahoe. We’ve been in a drought for far too long and I lived in SoCal for 10+ years so I hardly ever visited the snow. Since this year there was much more rain and snow I planned a trip to the snow for my birthday before it went away. I hate to make things super complicated so we booked our timeshare and it was just my mom, sister, nephew and husband. We didn’t have anything planned. I wanted to ride the Gondola up to Heavenly and ride a sled but those were a bust – both were closed BUT I enjoyed spending quality time with my loved ones and that is what counts.

Our timeshare was on the Nevada side up on the hill so we got lucky with a great view of the lake. It really made up for the fact that the Gondola was closed.

…and I got to see Matix experience snow for the first time. He didn’t love it but it was super cute.

We had fun conversations over drinks and I got to see the lake up close. Overall as low key as it was, we had a great time just being in Tahoe together.

It was a success. Tahoe is such a beautiful place. I’m glad we were able to make this trip happen. I’m with everyone else we need to Keep Tahoe Blue. It’s too pretty to mess that up…

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Travel

Disneyland Forever

April 21, 2016

I am a huge Disney fan. I don’t care what people say, Disneyland is my happy place. I can go all the time, even if it just means being in the park and not riding many rides, I’m good with it. As a SoCal resident I was blessed to have an annual pass for several years and now that I live in the Bay Area, I have to do the grown up thing and let my annual pass go. That said, part of the reason I went down to San Diego this past weekend was to use my pass one last time before it expires later this month.

As I mentioned in my last post I love food so we got lucky that we visited during the Disneyland California Adventure Food & Wine Festival. All month long they are celebrating “California’s cuisine, wine, craft beers and spirits with culinary demonstrations, tastings and cooking sessions with superstar chefs—from April 1 through May 1, 2016!”

Of course I couldn’t resist so I wanted to try everything. We were even luckier that since we’re annual passholders we got the extra perk of the:

Passholder Tasting Passport
For just $39, the Tasting Passport lets you savor your choice of 6 food items from the Festival Marketplace, where you’ll discover a mouthwatering variety of California-inspired creations. The pass comes on an Annual Passholder lanyard and is valid from the date of purchase through May 1, 2016, so you can use it any time you visit the festival.

With that option, we were able to try one item from each station and I got a glass of wine to go with it. Since we both got the pass, we shared bites of everything. I wasn’t able to get photos of everything since I took mostly Snapchat videos that can’t be posted (need to change the format but I don’t know how yet) on here so here are a few photos of the Food & Wine portion of the day:

The options were good. On the fancy side and they were sample size so they were small but I ended up really full. I’ve always felt the Disneyland resort was lacking in food, especially since I’ve heard how gourmet they get in Florida so I was pleasantly surprised with the option they had available.

There were 6 booths we tried. At LAstyle we tried the Chilled Ahi Poke and Pork Belly Bao Taco. At Gold Rush we tried the Triple Cheese Mac with Smoked Chicken and Artichoke Chips with Spicy Aioli. At Wine Country we both got the Zinfandel-Braised Wagyu Beef. At The Farm I got the Grilled Tenderloin Slider and JL got the Golden Thai Vegetable Curry. At the Viva Fresca booth I for the Fried Shrimp Soft Taco. At By the Bay I got the White Cheddar Ale & Bacon Soup in a Boudin Sourdough Mini-boule and JL got the Chilled Shrimp & Snow Crab Cocktail. We pretty much tasted everything that sounded good and we had fun stuffing our faces but we couldn’t go to Disneyland without riding rides. Here are our official ride photos:

We ended the day at Disneyland. As we walked in, Mickey and Minnie were in the front of the park so we stopped to catch a photo.

I also caught a selfie with the castle. It looks so beautiful at night with all the lights. I’ve been having a ton of fun with the Boomerang app so I can’t share all those photos or my Snapchat videos of the fireworks, etc. here but as you can imagine we had a fun time as usual.

I’m sad that my annual pass will expire but thankful for the years I was lucky enough to have the pass and glad to have a best friend that is ALWAYS down to go to Disneyland with me. I’m a kid at heart so I know this isn’t the last time I’ll be visiting the park but I’m still feeling nostalgic and sad that this was my official last “annual passholder” trip.

If you can get to the park before May 1, I highly recommend trying out some of the Food & Wine Festival options.

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