Let There Be Wine!

The wineries up in Solvang, CA are pretty awesome.  When we first went visit them back in August, we knew we wanted to come back some day.  And that we did!  This past weekend, we took Brett's parents up to Central California for some wine tasting fun.  It was a beautiful weekend full of good wine and even better weather.  We hit up four different wineries and came home with some delicious bottles.  Success!

Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard

Beckman Vineyards

Sunstone Winery

Bridlewood Winery

We may love beer a whole lot...

but we have so much fun with wine too!

Cheers!*

Scenes from the Weekend

Brett's parents came to visit!

 We headed up to Solvang in Central California for some wine tasting

Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard
(aka the Davy Crockett winery - they were excited)

Beckman Vineyards - one of our faves!

Sunstone Winery

Bridlewood Winery - so pretty!

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. for dinner - one of our fave breweries!

On our way home from Solvang on Sunday,
we stopped at some really cool beaches along the way!

These beaches had big starfish everywhere - so cool!

We had a great weekend showing Brett's parents around some cool spots in California.  They'll be here until Saturday, so we've got plenty of time to show them lots more!  Hope you all had a great weekend as well!*

November...

Happy November 1st!

I really can't believe it's November.  And that we've already been living in California for 5 full months.  What!  Weirdly though, it seems like we've lived here way longer than that already.  I feel like I haven't been home to Pittsburgh in years or something.  So strange.

Anywhooo,  November is starting off pretty great because Brett's parents are coming to visit!  They land this afternoon and are staying until next weekend.  We're looking forward to showing them around!  We've got a fun little weekend planned up in Solvang to kick things off.  Wine tasting, here we come!

Happy weekend!*

Oh and side note, these are my "Fall-ish" nails I've got going on this week. =)

Happy Halloween!

{via}

Happy Halloween!*

Even though we didn't carve pumpkins this year and we probably won't get any trick or treaters in our apartment complex, I am still excited that it's Halloween!  I got sad this morning when I realized that I didn't bring my "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" dvd to California with me.  I watch it every single year on Halloween!  But lucky for me, there's this thing called the internet and I found it online to watch!  Crisis averted.  And Brett was probably so excited to get out of watching it this year, ha! ;)  Now if only we had some of his pumpkin homebrew to go with it... next year!

A Sunset Run Along the Beach

Last night, Brett and I changed up our running routine.  Instead of running around our neighborhood like we normally do, we head down to the San Clemente beach trail for a beautiful sunset run!

Running 6.5 miles is easy when you've got views like these to distract you.  We need to make a point to run these beach trails more often!  Especially because more often than not, we will probably end up at Pizza Port for dinner and beers afterwards.  And that is a-okay with me! ;)

Scenes from the Weekend

Kicking off the weekend with pumpkin spice pancakes

Saturday afternoon spent roaming around (crazy & entertaining) Venice Beach

October = empty beaches (and lots of sail boats!)

Did you know Venice Beach has their own "canals" too?

I wouldn't mind relaxing in that hammock for a while =)

Found a cool record store in Long Beach

(and bought two new albums: Gov't Mule & Robert Randolph!)

Checked out the Long Beach location of Beachwood BBQ for dinner & beers

(and ran into a Zombie Fest right outside - creepy!)

Went for a nice Sunday morning run around the neighborhood

Followed by some beer tastings at the Bruery

And ended the weekend on a sweet note (with Halloween sprinkles & everything!)

We had a fun weekend exploring!
Happy Monday!*

Sunset Bike Rides & Date Night

Last night, we went for a bike ride along the back bay.  We started biking this route last week and plan on making it a weekly tradition!  It's the perfect amount of miles (around 30) to get in after work right before the sun sets beyond the horizon.  And not a bad view either. ;)

After our bike ride, we headed down to Laguna Beach for date night!  We had dinner at House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer which we personally renamed "House of Small Fish and Expensive Beer", but it was still delicious!  So after said small dinner (and not successfully refueling our calories needed), we stopped at Taco Loco down the street for "second dinner", because duh.  And then we topped off the night with a couple Belgium beers at Brussels Bistro.  Fun night out with my guy!*

Reason #322 Why My Mom is the Best

Her goodie boxes!

Living across the country from your whole family is hard.  But my mom really knows how to make us feel loved even from 2,500 miles away.  Look at all these goodies she sent us for Halloween!  Homemade cookies and chocolates, festive decor (since she knows we didn't bring any with us), cutesy owls, and a sweet little card.  Thanks mom!  You are the best!*

Scenes from the Weekend

 

Mountain getaway to Big Bear Lake!

Our sweet little cabin in the mountains

The cute and cozy inside

A fun hike along the Castle Rock trail

Which led to these amazing views of Big Bear Lake

You don't even want to know the rocks I had to climb to get this view!

Finally!  Somewhere in California with pretty Fall leaves on the trees =)

The "Village" looking all pretty (minus the construction cones...)

Relaxing by the wood burning fire in our little cabin

And now I really want a fireplace of our own...

I couldn't get enough of it!

Sunday morning spent reading by the lake while Brett mountain biked

Such a perfect view to end a great weekend getaway

And then we said goodbye to Big Bear Lake and drove down the mountain.  But we didn't venture home without a stop first at Hangar 24 Brewery and a local pizza spot to fill ourselves with goodness.  It was so nice to be able to experience a little bit of "Fall" action this weekend.  We welcomed the chilly air and changing colors of the leaves with open arms!  It made us really miss being back home on the East Coast, but at least we got a teeny tiny taste of Fall while up in Big Bear.  Better than nothing!

(And then we got back down from the mountains and it was 90 degrees.... waahhh!)

Oh well, on with the week!

(Here's to hoping for slightly cooler temperatures... a girl can dream, right?)