take to the highway.

august was a travelin' month for me (which has got me thinking why am i not ALWAYS traveling? what with my marital and financial status, there is no excuse). so sit back and relax, this is gonna be a long one.

once upon a time my mom discovered that alligant air flies out of provo. cheap cheap cheap $50 flights to oakland is what possessed me to visit san francisco twice in one month. luckily they were completely different trips; one with ma and pa, one with friends, one staying in sf, one driving 2 hours down the coast. but both were great!

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trip number one consisted of a visit to the oakland temple, a stay in the san francisco marriott, the ferry building farmer's market and  a LOT of good food with my mom and dad. they visited probably 15 years ago and have wanted to take me ever since. we found the cheap flights and decided to make it a combined birthday celebration for my mom and me.

^^^ loved this series of buildings. sf has great architecture! i also really liked coit tower and of course, the story behind it.

^^^ fisherman's wharf.

^^^ we had to hit up ghirardelli square. it was so packed with tourists we had to fight to get a seat. in fact, everywhere we went this weekend was packed with tourists. but the crowd didn't take away from the deliciousness of this shake. 

^^^ my mom with cousin it at the palace of fine arts.

^^^ me in china town! i wasn't too psyched about seeing this. i've been to other china towns and they're fun but maybe not take-2-hours-outta-my-trip fun. this china town though, was worth it. lots of fun shops and eateries. it reminded me of little italy in new york, but china in san francisco.

^^^ sunday we drove across the golden gate bridge, out of the fog (thankfully), and over to muir woods. if i ever decide to move to northern california, you'll find me working as a ranger in that park. so pretty! and that smell is one i would wear as perfume.

^^^ these toes finally felt sand after the windy road to stinson beach. the beach was lovely, the drive however, made me mad barfy sick.

^^^ we put the finishing touch on our trip at fenton's. my dad served his mission in the bay area and remembered fenton's as the after-temple pit stop for members and missionaries alike. i was also surprised to find out that it was featured in one of my favorite pixar movies, up!

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the second time around was a road trip! we flew into oakland (yet again) and picked up our convertible. holla! this was like the single girl's trip of your dreams. driving down the coast in a convertible, staying at a beach house, and again, of course, good food.

^^^ site seeing on fisherman's wharf. it wasn't nearly as crowded as last time and was warmer ... maybe only because this time i had a jacket. we wandered around the pier and ate dinner at a creperie with latino workers and reggaeton music. fun!

^^^ here's me in the windy city, wait, no. but it looks like it right! haha. we took a boat ride from pier 39, under the golden gate bridge, and around alcatraz. it was QUITE choppy and a little chilly, but good times were had all around (until the last little bit when my sea sickness hit).

^^^ my feet at the palace of fine arts.

^^^ just BEAUTIFUL at sunset.

^^^ one fun night. we drove maybe an hour and a half to get to our beach house in watsonville. when we arrived we were starved, so we got some jack in the box then went on an adventure to find the beach. we could hear and smell it, but it was so dark we couldn't see it. when we finally did see it, it was so so lovely. the waves catching the moonlight is a sight i'll never forget. we were all so elated (and maybe a little hyper-tired) that we stripped and ran out into the ocean; one of those "and in that moment i swear we were infinite" moments in life. 

^^^ our house was right on the beach. so every morning i would go out and pick up sand dollars and snap pictures of the fishermen. that morning ocean mist could cure cancer i think.

^^^ santa cruz pier. what a fun place! we rode a couple rides then swam for a bit. LOVED it!

^^^ ready for the log flume. amelia's face ... kills me.

^^^ davenport beach. i feel like this came right outta from here to eternity. like a secret hidden gem.

^^^ we ended our second day strolling around the natural bridges beach at sunset. you can see the fishermen in the background of this. there were couples and tandem bikes. it was such a quaint lil place.

^^^ and here's the car and my feisty attitude that accompanied.

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^^^ i was home for a quick juice cleanse and a swim in emily's dad's pool, then it was off again to st george.

^^^ shoulda been a model.

and now, before i even realized, it's september! and the state fair is starting tomorrow! and all the public pools are closed! and the first byu home game is saturday! and and and. i can't say i'm TOO sad this summer sped right by. it means that my paige is close to coming home (86 days). plus, i always love me a little fall.

hope you had a good summer. here's to a marvelous fall.

i'm a rawist.

well, i was for one day this week. you long-time readers know that i've been wanting to say this for a while. although, i originally pictured myself being raw for a longer period of time ... here's how it happened:

one day i found the most lovely picture of a juice bottle on the internets:

it's astounding what good design can make me do. i was slightly intrigued so i read up on what bri had to say. after all that i was moderately intrigued and went to the blueprint cleanse site. they fed me words like toxins and before the holidays and tastes good and feel good. by this point i was sold. on my way to the virtual checkout i suddenly noticed the price. what theeeeee?! it was like $100+/day for three days even with the design love fest discount. for a minute i thought i could justify it, but then i couldn't. depending on how you look at it, fortunately or unfortunately, i didn't stop there. SURELY there are copy cat recipes online, surely. and there were. here's how it works: you have 6 juices a day for 3 days, you have to ease in and out by eating just fruits and vegetables, you drink equal parts water and the juices in order, you can have herbal tea but that's it! no diet coke!! the juices are as follows:

1. green juice

romaine, celery, cucumber, kale, parsley, granny smith apple, spinach, lemon juice.

2. pineapple mint juice

pineapple, granny smith apple, mint, lime juice.

3. spicy lemon juice

lemon, water, cayenne pepper, agave.

4. cab juice

carrot, fuji apple, beet, celery, ginger, lemon juice.

5. parsnip pear juice

parsnip, pear, celery, parsley, carrot, lemon juice.

6. cashew nut milk

raw cashews, water, cinnamon, vanilla, agave.

i read the recipes, made the commitment to myself, bought the produce at the new trader joe's!, called my grandma to use her juicer and i was in business. i did all the juicing monday night and came home with 18 quart bottles of juice! tuesday morning i started out drinking the green juice while i was getting ready. it was ... not that good. i had to kind of choke it down. i actually used this technique where i tried to forget how bad it tasted so i would drink more. i drank most of that one, not all. i brought juices 2-4 with me to work and was pleasantly surprised how good the second drink was. how could it not be with just pineapple and apple though? it was actually a little too sweet for my liking and made me a little ill that early in the morning. by lunch i was feeling hungry and was anxious to drink the spicy lemon juice. it might've been better with less cayenne. maybe i'm a wuss but it was hella spicy and was burninnngggg. i probably drank 1/4 of that one. so then i was starving for the afternoon. by 2pm i started the beet juice. it wasn't THAT bad but it wasn't anything i would drink voluntarily (i was FORCED! haha). it just wouldn't be my choice to accompany breakfast, or something. i used my previously stated technique and drank about half of it. after work i had some errands to run so i didn't drink another juice for several hours. here's where the discouragement set in. i was reeaaallyy hungry, exhausted, had a headache (a "symptom of the detox" as blueprint claims), i wasn't looking forward to the next juice and had basically decided at that point that i couldn't do it two more days. when i finally got home it was about 7pm and i opened the parsnip pear juice. upon opening the jar i thought GROSS! all the orange foam had hardened and was like this brownish-orange devil on my shoulder telling me to give up then. to my delight the juice was tastier than it looked. i think it was all the pear. so i drank that up and felt pretty satiated. hooray! but here's where i had thrown in the towel and was happy that i just had one more juice to drink. the last juice (juice?) is the best. in fact, i may make this again and use it as milk (i don't normally drink milk). it was yummy and i felt just right at that point, nice and full. maybe it is something with the protein following the acidic veges, but i went to the bathroom and lets just say i felt uber-cleansed afterwards. really i felt great! i don't know if i was misdirecting my happiness because i wasn't stressing about doing it the next two days, or if it really makes you feel so so great, but the next morning i felt the same way. so much so that i almost considered doing it again and lasting the whole 3 days, but i didn't. i ate some raisins (and a diet coke) this morning and i was done. 

all in all i think i would definitely do it again. now that i know that i can last one day i might try the whole three after the holidays. hey and BONUS! i lost 3 pounds in the process (i'm still deciding if this was really a good thing). but it wasn't that bad (NOW i say this, don't ask me mid-spicy lemon juice) and i felt nice and cleansed and healthy, like a conqueror of my body. take that diet coke! i don't need you!!!

would you/have you ever done a cleanse before? i might try this one soon.

happy holiday eating!