Halloween Weekend!

Soooo I landed in San Diego yesterday around 3:15. You're probably wondering how I have time to blog right now, seeing as how I probably should be spending all my time seeing friends, hanging out with Matt, and doing San Diego-y things. Well....let's start from the beginning.

My friend David dropped me off at the airport yesterday around 12:30, where I soon found out that my flight was delayed 20 minutes. It would seem that 20 minutes isn't that big of a deal...but yesterday, it was a HUGE deal. Matt was supposed to pick me up at 2:45 and we were going to rush to his 3:00 class. However, the delay from my flight meant that I wouldn't arrive in San Diego until closer to 3:05 or 3:10. Of course, when I find out about my flight, Matt is working...and he didn't get off until after my flight took off at 1:50. So after contemplating in my head for 10 minutes whether or not it was okay to call him at work, I finally dialed Old Navy on my phone and asked for Matt. We discussed what we should do and I told him I would call around and see if anyone could pick me up. I called my friend, Jessica, who happened to be free and she told me she would pick me up :) This was an excellent plan, because when she picked me up, Jessica and I decided to go to our favorite wine bar in San Diego, called Wetstone (where they have a killer white sangria). It was only a few minutes from the airport, but when we got there, we realized that it was closed. I googled it and found out that happy hour wasn't until 5...so we sat in her car for a couple minutes looking up other places to go (thank God for smartphones...). She found a place called Cafe Chloe...where happy hour started at 4, so we decided to give it a shot. Cafe Chloe is ADORABLE...it's on 9th and G St. (I think) and it is a wine bar/tea room/cute restaurant. It turned out to be this really chic, cute French cafe with outdoor seating, so we took the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather. When we got there, the restaurant was essentially empty, but as happy hour continued, other patrons came in. Since I'm not a huge wine person, I told Jess to order her wine and let me try it. She ordered a white wine, which I soon followed suit in doing as well. Since we were both hungry, we decided on the pommes frites (better known to the regular world as french fries) and the macaroni and pancetta gratin. The food was really cute...the fries came in a cone basket with 3 dipping sauces (some type of ketchup, a watercress sauce and a mayo sauce (which of course I wasn't much of a fan of) and the macaroni was delicious. I can't remember which of the white wines we got but that was also bearable for me. I'd definitely go for Wetstone's Sangria, but the wine was still yummy. I'm actually kind of glad my flight got delayed because I got to have this cute date with Miss Jessica. Plus, if you're a wino (which I'm not) you would love this cute little cafe/wine bar....Jessica did!

Big Glass of Wine!

AWESOME FOOD!

Matt ended up calling me around 4:30 and told me that he was done with class, so he came to Cafe Chloe and picked me up. We had originally planned for me to do homework while he went to class and then we were going to go to the Yardhouse (remember...largest draft selection in the world? We went in Los Angeles with my friend Andrew). I said good bye to Jess (after making her promise to come out with us on Saturday night) and Matt and I drove over to the Yardhouse. We found parking a few blocks away at a meter (where we only had to pay for an hour). The Yardhouse wasn't super packed when we got there and we found a seat at the bar easily. I think we ended up missing the first pitch, but we only missed a few minutes (you know how Matt gets about the Giants). Since Matt hadn't eaten, we ordered a BBQ chicken pizza (during happy hour, pizza and appetizers are half offf....great deal!!) and we each got a beer. He tried the Ballast Point Porter and I got a beer blend called the Rose Gaarden (which was a blend of two beers, the Hoegaarden White and Lindeman's Framboise). To tell you the truth, I kind of wish I had stuck with the Black Velvet (Pear Cider and Guinness) blend I got last time, because the Rose Gaarden was a little sweet for my taste. It almost kind of resembled strawberry soda. The bartender poured a little more of the Hoegaarden White into my beer, so it was less sweet and it ended up being a lot better. If you ever get it, I would recommend asking for a little more Hoegaarden...because it is delicious, but runs a little sweet. Well, if any of you saw that Giants game yesterday (which I'm sure you did), it was magnificent....completely non-torturous. Actually, in my opinion, it was actually quite the torture for the Rangers....whose bullpen apparently has never heard of the strike zone (what an 8th inning for the Giants). We had called my friend Laszlo to come meet us, and of course, he showed up 2 hours later, during the 8th inning. By that point, Matt had already ordered another beer and we had ordered some chinese garlic noodles (these are amazing...I need to figure out how to make them. Also, their BBQ chicken pizza was delicious too). Las showed up with his little bro, Anthony, and Whitney. They ordered a round of beers and cheered on the Giants with us.

When the game ended, we left to hunt down some costume shops. We found a small one in the heart of the Gaslamp and tried on some funny masks and costumes. But to tell you the truth, as much as I love halloween, I really just don't like Halloween stores. They are terrifying...the scary little monsters that pop out at you, the creepy sounds, the eery fog machines. It's ironic how much I dislike those stores...because I ended up going to 3 of them today. But anyways, after our costume shopping, Anthony wanted to get some food...so we ended up at Hooters (which was the first time ever for Matt, Whitney, and me). I learned that Hooters was named family restaurant of the year (I think in 2003) which is a laughing matter in my opinion. But I have to admit, they have AWESOME chicken wings. And there was also live music that night, a guy on his guitar...playing his own songs as well as some from John Mayer, Brett Dennan, and Jack Johnson. It was a really lively atmosphere, especially since people were lined up outside to go to the Haunted Hotel next door. We found out that on Mondays and Tuesdays, you can do all-you-can-eat chicken wings for 13 bucks. We may just have to try it some time. Anyways, Anthony ran to the bathroom, which is when Laszlo decided to tell the waitress that it was Anthony's birthday. When he got back, the waitress walked up with an entourage of girls clad in orange shorts and Hooters shirts and put a Hooters bow tie around Anthony's neck. They then proceeded to sing (at the top of their lungs) happy birthday to him. Of course, it only hits Anthony after the bow tie is around his neck that they are singing to him (since it obviously wasn't his birthday). After the birthday song, we decided to call it a night. But considering the fact that I landed at 3:15, and it was already 10:30 at that point, I realized how eventful my day was. It just makes me appreciate San Diego so much more...especially my wonderful boyfriend, my awesome friends, and all the fun places we were able to explore! I think this was a very successful first night back in San Diego.

O...and don't think I forgot. Here I am blogging about my entire night...and the reason for this is because Matt had to work today....from 10:15-3:00. Unfortunately, our pumpkin patch adventure was postponed, but I managed to get a little shopping done while he is working. I got a black bow for my hair and a very cute ring and have already been to 3 Halloween stores searching for a blue bow tie for Matt. I'm still not telling you what we are going to be, but I'm pretty sure you have already guessed Matt's costume. But I think I should get to studying for my California Family Law exam on Tuesday...which I should have been doing this whole time. However, I thought I would blog about my great night, so maybe it's a win-win because I still have an hour and a half til Matt is done.

I'm currently sitting in Borders sipping on a Seattle's Best Pumpkin Creme latte....it's yummy. In honor of my pumpkin project, I'm going to rate my favorite pumpkin lattes for you.

1. Starbucks (of course!!!!!)
2. Seattle's Best
3. Peet's Coffee

When I try more, I will re-rate my lists for you :) Anyways, have a great halloween weekend everyone!!

Road Trip Part III: Los Angeles again

I don't know if I mentioned this, but the whole reason Amber and I drove down to so cal was because she had a recruitment workshop at UC Irvine. So I convinced her to drive down a day early so we could stop for famous burritos, pick up Matt, and hang out with Andrew. She agreed :) Anyways, where were we...so on Saturday, Amber drove down to Irvine for her workshop and Matt and I hung out with Andrew. We went to my dad's restaurant in the morning and feasted on dim sum for free (the perks of being my dad's daughter). I wish I had taken pictures, but we completely forgot to bring cameras. Here's a picture of dim sum (from Google) in case you have no idea what I'm talking about.

via http://library.thinkquest.org

Well since we had a few hours to kill until Amber came back, Andrew took us shopping in downtown Pasadena. There's a really big outdoor mall called Paseo Colorado, which had some very fun shops. Of course, Matt insisted we go into Brookstone, and Andrew agreed....so they could sit in the massage chairs for 10 minutes haha. Anyone who knows Matt knows that this is typical behavior for him. He would probably live at Brookstone if they let him. However, the coolest store we went to was the Pasadena Antique Mall....it really was its own little mini mall. I've never been a huge antique shopper, but I think it's mainly because I wouldn't really know the value of anything antique-y. However, this antique store definitely was pricey, because they probably found these antique items for cheap and then yanked up the price. I didn't buy anything, but it was really fun to wander around. They had aisles and aisles filled with books (and a whole architecture section that Matt looked through for about 15 minutes), along with old records and vintage clothing and shoes. They had a lot of collectible items based off of old cartoons, tv shows, movie stars, etc. I found piles of old Time Magazines, a whole section dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, and even a clearance room. It was such a blast from the past. I also found some metal signs...the kind that was popular back in the 30s or 40s advertising Coca Cola or root beer for 5 cents. I love these signs!

via http://hudsongoodsblog.com

The LOTR CDs

I definitely recommend antique shopping if you've never done it before. Even if you're just window shopping, it's a great way to kill some time. Matt actually found something awesome...he ended up buying the Lord of the Rings trilogy in books-on-CDs for around $13. It was quite the steal!! We must have spent a good 30-40 minutes just wandering through the shop. Afterwards, Matt and I convinced Andrew to come grab a beer with us at the Yard House. Originally, Andrew said he would just hang out while we grabbed drinks, but how can you turn down "the world's largest selection of draft beers?" Since we had already had brunch/lunch, we each grabbed a beer. Matt talked to the bartender to get some advice on the beer selection and decided to go with an IPA (India Pale Ale). I'm no beer expertise, so you'll have to ask Matt to explain that to you. I decided to try something new and ordered a beer blend called the Black Velvet, which was a mixture of Guinness Stout and Wyder's Pear Cider....maybe the best decision I've ever made. I wasn't a huge Guinness fan before (it nearly gave Matt (and Amber) a heart attach when he found out I didn't like it), but now I've jumped on board the Guinness Train. If you ever get to go to the Yard House, get a beer blend if you don't like beer. Even if you do like beer (like me), you should still get a blend...because where else would they serve you a beer blend? We spent a little time watching the Saturday college football games and finally decided to let Andrew go home and study (because that's what med students do...if you keep them away from the books for too long, they get anxious haha). 

The Black Velvet

Well, while Andrew was studying...I heard from Amber, who asked us if we would mind staying an extra night. Andrew was supposed to hang out with his girlfriend, Gina, and Matt and I didn't want to crash their date. So we came up with a plan. I called my dad and asked him if we could borrow his car while he was working and he said yes! So Matt and I decided we would have Andrew drop us off at my dad's restaurant (which was like 10 minutes from Andrew's). We bade Andrew farewell and took off to the Citadel Outlets where we walked around and shopped some more. Matt was trying to decide whether or not he should buy a pair of swim trunks. The ones he wanted were a bright neon blue, and I picked up another pair, which was a royal blue, and told him that I liked the royal blue pair more. But Matt decided to get his neon pair. The underlying reason I'm telling you this story is because even though Matt won't admit it, he refused to buy the pair I picked out because they were Dodger blue. And we all know how Matt feels about the Dodgers. We also went into the Old Navy outlet store, but nothing really caught our eye. For an outlet store, it wasn't really selling any outlet-y stuff for cheap. We didn't end up shopping very long because we were both starving. Andrew had recommended a famous french dip restaurant in Los Angeles, so we headed to Philippe's. I'm not sure if you guys have ever heard of this place, but they claim to have invented the French Dip (and I must admit, they did a darn good job). If you've ever been there, you'll notice that it's not exactly the nicest area at night, but if you've got a big strong man (like Matt), it's worth the trip. I'm sure when Philippe's opened in 1927, their sandwiches were not $5.75 a pop, but in my opinion, 5.75 is worth it for the yumminess of these sandwiches. We both ordered the Beef French Dip (with Swiss cheese) and we tacked on two lemonades and a potato salad. If I was yelping this place, I would give it a four. I was a little disappointed because Philippe's sandwiches come pre-dipped. There is no actual dipping process for the customer, which in my opinion is the best part. But what I really enjoyed was the experience. Their dinner menu was very simple and the whole place seems to have changed very little since 1927. It was sort of like a cafeteria, but not the school kind. In my mind, I could almost see the factory workers coming in during their lunch break and plopping down at the rows of tables with their trays of food. It's a very unique experience, and another blast from the past (seems to be the theme of the day). When you check out their website, make sure you click on the history tab :)

via http://la.foodblogging.com

After our delicious (but simple) dinner, we headed to Diddy Riese in Westwood Village by UCLA. Diddy Riese is maybe one of my favorite places in the entire world (well it would at least make my Top 10 list). Diddy Riese is an ice cream shop, or maybe it's a cookie store...actually it's just the ultimate ice cream sandwich shop. This place is famous amongst UCLA Bruins and is well worth the drive. I'm actually glad we stayed in Los Angeles an extra night, because it gave us the chance to go to Diddy Riese. It was Matt's first time!!!!!! We parked in the Village and walked over to Diddy Riese. Did you know that in Westwood, you can cross a street diagonally (like on Rodeo Dr.)...it saves you a little time and walking. Well, of course we waited in line (for about 10 minutes), but it was well worth the wait. Matt and I each ordered an ice cream sandwich for $1.25 (I know, the price is part of the magic of DR) and also each ordered a dozen cookies (for $3.00)! I was going to get a sandwich for Amber, but I had a gut feeling it would melt before I got it to her. I ordered butter pecan ice cream with cinnamon sugar cookies, while Matt ordered chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with chocolate chip cookies. In my opinion, I think that sandwich changed his life, but you'll have to ask him about that yourself. Diddy Riese has also been around for a while, since 1983, and I'm sure that it was well worth the wait back then too. Though this night was very spontaneously planned, it was exactly what I needed: a cute date night with my favorite guy, so thanks for making us stay the extra night Amber :) I love cute date nights with my cute boyfriend :)

life-changing moment.

Only in Los Angeles :)

PS. look at the cute dog we saw while we were waiting in line!!