Latest California Adventure

 I recently went to the wonderful state of California to attend training for work.  How awesome is that?  It was pretty darn awesome.  I didn't get to do a whole lot, I was there for work you know, but I did get to squeeze in a few things that I'm going to share with you.

OMG. First visit to In-N-Out. It was freaking awesome. I am pretty sure I won't ever be able to visit the state of CA without having some of this goodness.

I also made a quick drive down the Pacific Coast Highway.  I'm so glad I did this.  I was a little scared of driving it by myself, but it wasn't bad at all.  And it was beautiful.  Seriously, you can't see this and not be in awe of how amazing it is.    

 I only snagged a few pictures because I had a wave of anxiety standing on the side of a cliff by myself.  Yes, I am completely neurotic at times.

 Of course I needed a self-portrait so you knew I was really there and not just stealing these pictures from the internet.

I also went to Cafe Rio after hearing all kinds of great things about it.  It sucked.  That's all I have to say about that.

 This was as brave as I could get to getting close to a Rodeo Drive street sign.  It was already painfully obvious that I wasn't from around those parts, so I didn't feel the need to draw any more attention to myself.

 I also had my first Sprinkles experience.  I'm not going to lie, I KNEW I was going to be disappointed.  All of the hype could only mean that my expectations were going to be ridiculous. 

While my expectations were absolutely ridiculous, Sprinkles lived up to it.  Best cupcakes I've EVER had!  I had to get a four pack -  red velvet, salted caramel, black and white, and dark chocolate banana.  I ate all of them and they were all fabulous.  Let's just say I'm glad there isn't a Sprinkles near by because I would eat my weight in cupcakes on a regular basis.

Overall, I had a wonderful trip.  I got in some awesome training that I'm hoping will really help me professionally and I got to have froyo in Malibu.  Cali FTMFW!

More olives...

No book post today.  After almost four months of reading non-stop I don't think I read more than 10 pages last week.  Life gets a little crazy sometimes.  So instead I'm going to share a story. 

It may not come as a surprise to anyone that I love olives.  Give me a dirty martini with extra olives and you have a happy Lauren.  Well, John and I went to Napa for our honeymoon which was completely amazing.  I can't wait to go back.  Little did I know, not only were there many, many grapes in Napa there is also an abundance of olives.  Heck yes.  On the way to a winery, John and I stopped at Oakville Grocery, awesome place for snacks and the perfect picnic between wine tasting.  Much to my surprise we found this little gem.

Yeah, I doubt you can tell what it is. 

There happened to be an olive bush/tree whatever it is right in front of our parking spot. 

John proceeds to say "I dare you to eat one of those olives."

Of course I responded with "You clearly don't know your wife very well if you think you must dare me to eat an olive."

So John hops out of the car, procures two olives and as you can see I was pretty pumped. 

The following pictures pretty much speak for themselves...

That was the nastiest not-olive I have ever tasted.  No freaking lie.  I am pretty sure I accused John of trying to poison me on our honeymoon.... I think from now on I'll stick to the olives in my martinis and bloody marys.

Happy Monday!!

A little bit of Munich

Remember when I started telling you about my epic trip to Europe? Well, here is another installment.


After Amsterdam we hopped on over to Munich. Have you ever been there? Because it rocks. Germany was my favorite stop during this trip. It was clean and beautiful and lots of yummy food, what more can you ask for?

Our first picture in Germany.  Also some of the final moments in which I still had our camera...

Our trip was basically centered around Oktoberfest (yes, I know that makes us sound like we just went for the booze, which is only a partial truth).  Let me tell you, Oktoberfest beat any other festival that I have ever been to before.  It was amazing.  The food, the beer, the people, the crazy rides were over the top and amazing!! 

Cheers. Or prost as they say in Munich.

Let me just say that the food in Germany was the best!  I loved all of it!  Even the funky looking sausages.

I can't even begin to tell you how glorious these pretzels were and with a little bit of cheese spread it was a taste of heaven, I assure you!

This was the best cheese tray I  have ever had.  Ever.  I could live off of these things for the rest of my life, seriously.

Underneath the meat there were tasty little radishes.  We are convinced that eating lots and lots of radishes is what allows the Germans to consume such large quantities of their tasty beer and still be able to function.

This my friends is spatzle aka German mac and cheese.  I couldn't get enough of this stuff!!  John had to try to convince me to order something else when we were eating because I would have eaten this for breakfast, lunch and dinner the whole time we were in Germany, no lie.

These little gems are potato dumplings.  They were absolutely delish!  I was worried John was going to try to take the gravy with us he loved it so much.

I decided whilst walking back to the hotel for one of our midday naps that I was in dire need of an authentic dirndl.  A dirndl, for those of you that might not know, is a type of traditional dress worn in parts of Germany.  Many refer to them as "beer girl" outfits, but they are way better than that.  John didn't have the patience to get an entire outfit, so he settled for a shirt.

Yes, my husband has his pants rolled up.  He didn't get liederhosen and was convinced that this would make him "more authentic."

I love how bored our waitress looks here.  She spoke no English (at least that's what she led us to believe) and our group knew very little German, so the conversation revolved mainly around holding up numbers with our hands and saying bier, bitte.

I can proudly say that wearing a dirndl and consuming a hefty amount of radishes allowed me to partake in several more liters than I had been able to in nights before.  Which then led to hiccups and I think you know how the rest of my evening went.

The rides were crazy.  I feel like it's pretty safe to say that they probably wouldn't be allowed at a fair or festival in the states, just my observation.

The Hollenblitz was my favorite ride.  It was an Indiana Jones Temple of Doom theme and for some reason, I loved it!

 

Of course John's favorite "ride" was the carousel/bar. 



Basically, we had an absolutely amazing time.  I can definitely say that I will be back one day! 

 

Hope you enjoyed, even if it is a few months late! I have a little more of Germany to share, but I'll save that for another post :)