Palm Springs Getaway

June has been the month of travels over here and it has been so much fun! This month I'm off to Palm Springs for a pre-anniversary celebration with my sweet. We're coming up on our first wedding anniversary next week and I'm so excited to spend a weekend away, just the two of us poolside in the desert unwinding and indulging in some serious much needed time at the spa. We have plans to check out one of the Jose Garces restaurants and snoop around the Movie Colony.

West Elm

Pass the mojitos please!

Desert collage available at Etsy

 What do you like to do in the desert? Any favorite places to eat or stay? What do you have planned for the weekend?

Hungry in Washington?

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that one of my favorite parts of traveling is snacking along the way.  Our first day in Washington proved to have some pretty tasty eats in store for us. We went wine tasting with my parents at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery and grabbed lunch at Purple Cafe (and had some awesome crab cakes). The winery grounds were absolutely gorgeous- full of beautiful flowers and ducks. We toured the winery and then were treated to some tasty wine. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Yums!

After our early afternoon drinking stopped at one of the most impressive grocery stores I've ever been into, Central Market. It's not everyday I go into a grocery store with tanks of live spot prawns and oysters at the ready for shucking.

I was majorly in the mood for seafood and took full advantage of this at every opportunity I could. We had plans to make a dinner with my family and prepared oysters with a mignotte, roasted bone marrow, pan seared scallops, sauteed prawns, a salad, and some roasted veggies. It was a pretty yummy meal and not too shabby for a night in.

bone butter

We ended the night in the backyard with my parents' neighbors and their kids roasting GIANT marshmallows.

A good first day in the Evergreen State. Stay tuned for our Pike's Place picks!

Snapshot of Seattle

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Judging by facebook updates and instagram pics, it looks like we missed a bright and sunshiney LA weekend. We opted for a cloudy, but lovely Washington weekend instead.
We had such a great time in Seattle. It feels great to be home and due to the intense sleepy factor, this post is going to be short. Highlights to follow soon!

What did you do this weekend?

Sleepless in Seattle

Keeping with the theme of travel that I've been writing about all week, husband bundts and I are off to Seattle for a long Father's Day weekend to visit my parents who recently moved to the Northwest. R and I took our first trip to Seattle in 2009 and we totally fell in love with this city. I'm excited to visit again and spend some time with the parentals. I can't wait for my reunion with Beecher's mac & cheese and to get my hands on some really great oysters.

You know I'll have plenty to share when I'm back next week and to stay up to date on all our food finds and sightseeing, follow me on Instagram and Twitter. 

Solvang Gets Taken By Storm!

We landed in Solvang for the night after our dinner in Santa Barbara at Opal. I hadn't been to Solvang since I was probably 10. We stayed at the Hadsten House which was really cute and the perfect place to crash, indulge in some Fashion Police, and get a hot meal for breakfast in the morning. As soon as I realized we were staying in Solvang, I was on a mission- Aebelskivers! I remembered having these on my previous trip and apparently they left quite an impression on me as I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to partake in the Danish treat from Solvang Restaurant. We also had to get our chocolate fix from Ingeborg's- what's a girls weekend without a little chocolate?! We also particularly enjoyed the Mole Hole which had a rather interesting assortment of merchandise- ranging from Voluspa candles to tacky rhinestone jean jackets and teeny clay mouse art.

That wrapped up our Solvang adventure. Stay tuned for the next stop!

Opal Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Our first stop on my surprise trip with my girlfriends was to Opal Restaurant in Santa Barbara. We got to State Street with a little extra time, so we made use of the extra hour to do a little shopping and hit up Anthropologie- always a happy moment for yours truly!

I still didn't know what they had in store for me, but walking into Opal started things off on the right foot. They have a selection of creative cocktails and I went for a lychee martini with red Thai chili, S had a blackberry jalapeno martini, and E went for a blood orange margarita. All the drinks were good, but my lychee martini definitely packed a punch with the red chili. For eats, we indulged in a salami pizza and a few crab cakes to share. I had pesto sauteed scallop salad with pinenuts and Parmigiano Reggiano, S had a vegetable napolean with gorgonzola potato cake and wild mushrooms, and E went for lemon grass crusted salmon with Thai curry sauce, and we shared a berry creme brulee for dessert. Such a delicious dinner and not a bad respite from the traffic on the 101!

After dinner we were off to our destination for the night- more on that later!

Girls Gone {Only a Little} Wild

Helloooo! How was your weekend? I had such a great time this weekend and I have to share!

For my birthday, two of my very favorite ladies told me they would be taking me away for a girls trip- and this weekend was the big getaway! I had no idea where we were headed and was given very few clues in advance. All I really knew was that the weather would be similar and this was only given to me to help with packing. We ended up in Santa Barbara as our first stop for dinner and then onward to Solvang to stay the night. The next day we headed to Los Olivos for a day of wine tasting and a very delicious lunch. This week I'll be sharing pictures from our trip. I had the very best time just being with my friends, laughing A LOT, unwinding which was much needed, and of course indulging in some good wine and dine!

Photo via Refinery 29

Girls weekends are really wonderful little treats! Do you have any favorite weekend getaways that you like to take with your girls?