Newsies!

It was a super rough week and I was feeling like I was never going to make it through.  Just stress upon stress upon stress. Ugh.  I was up late grading papers on Thursday night and getting stuff ready for work for the next few weeks when, all of a sudden, I got a text from Scott, asking if I was still awake.  When I responded that I was, he called me and asked me if I wanted to go see Newsies on Saturday night at the Pantages.  We had talked about it before and both wanted to see it; plus, after the week I was having, I needed something fun to look forward to!  His family had already bought tickets, but Scott thought he would be participating in a play that weekend, so he didn't plan on going.  However, he ended up doing a different play instead, so he was suddenly available!  We weren't able to get tickets to sit near his family, but we were able to get tickets elsewhere in the theater.  I had stuff going on during the day and he had play rehearsal until 5 pm, so we weren't able to join his family for dinner, beforehand, like we had hoped.  Instead, we decided to grab something to eat on the way out there.  As we drove, we really didn't see anything we really wanted to eat that would've been convenient, so once we got to LA, we searched the GPS for Panera and found one 5.5 miles away.  In reality, it was WAY more than 5.5 miles and, after going on several different freeways, we found ourselves in Glendale.  It was kind of downtown, so we had to park on the street (fortunately we found a spot) and search for the restaurant.  At this point, we were really starting to cut it close on time, so we were rushing down the street trying to find it.  When we finally got there, the man in front of us took approximately 45 years to complete his order and Scott and I were dying laughing just because of the predicament we were in! We ordered quickly and then waited a bit for our food.  They handed us our bags and we rushed to the car at lightning speed!  We ate our food on the way there and made it to the parking lot with about 15 minutes to spare.  His mom, uncle, and one of his cousins were in the lobby and so we were able to see them for a minute before the show.  Once we got to our seats, we were able to take a breath and, of course, a selfie because a night like this definitely needs to be documented!

Scott's not a huge fan of pictures, but he knows I am, so he's always a really good sport about it, which I greatly appreciate!

Once the show started, we quickly realized that all of the crazy rushing around to get there was well-worth it!  It was amazing from the first moment.  The sets were awesome and really kind of unconventional, yet perfect for the show.  The acting, music, and choreography were excellent, and we had a great time!

After the show, we all met up in the lobby and took a picture together.

Scott's mom rode home with Scott and me and we all had fun talking over some McDonald's shakes and cookies.  Thank goodness for drive-thrus that are open late!  It was a great night with great people and great entertainment! And, as always, I'm already looking forward to our next adventure!

San Diego Weekend Adventure!

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in San Diego with my sister, Diane.  Her company owns lots of hotels and one of the employee perks is getting a certain amount of R&R days to spend at one of their properties, in which everything is comped.  After work on Friday, I headed down to San Diego so that I could be there in time to pick Diane up from the airport.  However, I ran into terrible traffic and it took a little more than three hours to get there.  Fortunately, Diane's flight was late, so the timing actually worked out perfectly!

After I picked her up at the airport, we headed to the hotel in downtown San Diego.  Here are a couple of pictures of our beautiful hotel!

We had both had long, frustrating weeks at work and were both ready for a weekend to just take it easy and that's exactly what we did!  Here's the first sister-selfie of the weekend!

First, we ordered room service for dinner and then headed out for a walk through the Gaslamp Quarter. I had never really spent much time there, so it was fun to walk around there.  It was a Friday night, so there was definitely lots going on and lots of interesting people hanging around.  We walked for a long time and it was nice to be out in the fresh air, just chatting and catching up.

There also happened to be a San Diego Padres game going on, which may explain some of the extra traffic!  Petco Park, where the Padres play, is right in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter and it was fun to see and hear the excitement from the game!

After walking for quite a while, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.  However, around 11 pm, construction began on the street below us.  We were 14 stories up, but we could hear all of the construction as if it were occurring on our balcony.  My favorite part was around 3 o'clock in the morning when they began jack-hammering the concrete for about an hour solid.  Not cool, San Diego.  Not cool!  Oh well!  I guess it all just adds to the adventure!  In the morning, I snapped this picture of what they had been working on all night.  I'm pretty sure all of the missing concrete was removed during the aforementioned jack-hammer hour.

Anyways, we woke up at our leisure and ordered room service for breakfast.  It was pretty cool to have breakfast delivered to our room with a vase of fresh roses on the cart.

After breakfast, we went up to the rooftop pool and hung out up there for a while before returning to our room for a room service lunch.  We decided to be super lazy on the trip and opted to have all of our meals done through room service.  After lunch, we checked out of the hotel and went out for another walk.  This time we stayed mostly along the water and saw some of the famous ships, like the Star of India, and then we walked to Seaport Village.  When we were done, we went back to the hotel to get my car and then drove out to Coronado Island.  This is my favorite beach and Diane had never been there before, so I got to introduce her to the golden, glittery sand.  And, of course, we took another sister-selfie since there was no one to take a picture for us.

 Next, it was off to La Jolla Cove!  This was the first time either of us had ever remembered going there.  It was awesome!  The water was so blue and beautiful and there were sea lions everywhere!  They didn't even care that there were a ton of people all around.  There were several that were even laying on the sand right next to group of people.  We were cautious, but we definitely got a closer look at them than we ever had before.

It was just an overall gorgeous beach!

After we spent some time at the coves, we headed home. It was sad that the weekend had gone by so quickly, but overall, it really was just a perfect weekend! Perfect weather, beautiful beaches, and plenty of sister time!

Take a Hike!

One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up around 5 am and had this crazy desire to go on a hike.  For a minute or two, I considered driving out to Palm Springs to hike Tahquitz Falls like I did during Spring Break last year and then I decided that I didn't want to drive that far and that this was the perfect day to try out Etiwanda Falls!  I had heard about it, but had never been.  So, I googled directions and then went for it!  I was not the easiest hike I've ever done; in fact, it was kind of challenging for me!  It included lots of steep, uphill climbs and it was pretty warm and very sunny that day.  I guess I have a challenge to beat!  This was my first time up to the falls, but it definitely won't be my last!  Once I got to the top, the vie was worth it and I felt pretty good about making it to the top!