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elanamatic: The Recap
Hello friends and neighbours.
I have been back from vacation for a week and am finally starting to get caught up on work/life once again. We had a lovely time on vacation, even though I had the flu while in L.A. but more details on that in the recap below:
Week 1: Rancho La Puerta
So lovely! We had our own little cabin with a fireplace. My nose was running the entire week, but that didn't stop me from going on a hike every morning, followed by a hearty breakfast, stretch class and then level 2 yoga. Then we had lunch and I spent most of my afternoon reading and snoozing beneath the covers.
It wasn't as warm out as we had hoped for but being Canadian made us hearty and still pleased not to need boots or parkas. The one exception being when we went on the Organic Garden Breakfast Hike and got soaked. The dude and I were the only ones without umbrellas. We were covered in mud and rain and shivering, but dang that was a tasty organic breakfast.
Actually all the food was delicious and my insides have never been so squeaky clean. Unfortunately, the diet of mostly veg, had most of the ranch residents a root-tooting most of the time. We kept joking that we hoped that wasn't what they intended when they talked about "Bringing the Ranch home." Either way, it was a very rewarding week for mind, body and soul. I felt pretty amazing and healthy and rested. I am glad my in-laws invited us to sample life at the ranch.
The weather warmed up by the end of the week and so on Friday we skipped any and all potential afternoon activities, and lounged reading by the pool. Ah siesta!
Oh and I must mention that the grounds were lovely and we saw little bunnies come out to munch every evening! Cute little boonies! (Also cute were all the yoga instructors!)
Week 2: L.A. and Santa Barbara
Got to spend some quality time with my sister-in-law, her husband and 1.5 year old Benny. He is one smart cookie and a total chatterbox. Very cute, very fun. We visited our usual L.A. haunts including Jerry's deli (they live around the corner) where one half a sandwich can actually form 3 or more normal sandwiches. I heart the free dill pickles.
We also went to Kitson, and shopped along Robertson, grabbing lunch at The Newsroom. When I say shopped, I mean browsed as the prices were a little out of my budget. I was really on the hunt for celebrities on the patio at The Ivy but I think it was a little too early in the day for Paris, Lindsay and the hangover crew.
The dude and I took off for two days, one night of alone time in Santa Barbara. It was beautiful there but unfortunately, that was when my fever peaked and so I was tucked into bed at 7:00 p.m., so much for our romantic night alone. Still, we did manage to see some dolphis swimming nearby and grabbed some dinner at the local seafood shanty (I was so ill at this point my plate went back to the kitchen still loaded with Tilapia.) The next day, after my fever broke, we drove along the scenic route 154 (think Sideways) to Solvang (The Danish capital of America) where we bought sandwiches and fresh Kettle corn from the farmer's market for our road trip home. The countryside was beautiful! We will definitely have to go back when I am feeling healthier and am able to imbibe some tasty local wines.
Now we are back to life, back to reality. And onto our kitchen reno plan, stay tuned..
