Wow. I am exhausted. Over 40 hours of driving. 7 states involved. Two weeks of non-stop adventure and crazy stops. How will I sum this up…lets just go for it and see what happens!
In August of last year, I quit my job as an Executive Assistant/Human Resource Manager. I just needed to move on for many reasons. In doing so, I decided to pack up my car with my necessities and a few things I adore and head to Colorado Springs, to both “unravel”, (as I am lovingly addressing it as) and to reevaluate. My few months in Colorado were just what the doctor ordered. Time with the Fialas (who are more family now than ever) gave me the chance to just be: to enjoy down time and to really seek out what was in my heart and where I should go from here. At one point, I thought maybe Colorado was where I would plant myself. After coming home for Christmas, walking through changes my family was facing, and taking some time to write and pray, I decided to head up to High River, Alberta, just south of Calgary, to visit friends. I fell in love with their hearts, what they have vision for, and am moving there this year. More on that later though…this is strictly road trip highlights! I will get into those details in another post. This is, however, one of the reasons for going back to Colorado. I wanted Fiala time, time with friends, and somehow, my car had to get back to Seattle for this in between season. So, I took my tax return and a bit of savings and decided that I wanted to make it worth the drive!! Colorado Springs to Vegas to Los Angelas to San Diego to Santa Barbara to San Francisco to Seattle. Holy cow…here are some highlights…
COLORADO:
Leaving Colorado was hard…just because I adore the Fialas. They have been nothing but amazing to me our entire relationship. We got a lot of quality time with them though. A few girls nights, family dinners with Dave and the boys as well, and some shopping and coffee in old Colorado. I love my Fialas.
I packed up my little Honda and we were off :)…keeping my “Today is the Day” motto in my head and in my heart!!!
Grant and the Giraffes at the zoo…I love his expression!
I followed this guy around the zoo…I love peacocks!!
My Fiala boys in front of Pike’s peak.
My beautiful Trina…she is incredible!
Chucks.
In the car with Will, Grant, Andrew, and Rocky Mountain the puppy.
Trina, myself, and Big Dave, my awesome “older brother”.
The ladies! Whit, Trina, and I.
We said “see you soon” and hit the road towards Vegas. The Rockies were incredible!!! We went from snow to desert in one day.
Road trip ready!!
The Rockies.
Utah…incredibly beautiful rock formations everywhere!!
We drove through the tip of Arizona for all of 30 minutes in the dark, so there are no photos. We arrived in Vegas in the late evening and everything was so lit up and glittering!!! I love anything glittering 😀
VEGAS:
Both days, we walked parts of the strip and went into a LOT of high end fashion shops. I was in heaven!! (Fashion will be an entirely separate post.) The other part of Vegas I loved was the fancy schmancy hotels. We went into several, with my favorite being the Bellagio!! The lobby is currently reflecting the celebration of the year of the dragon. The Chihuly glass in the lobby was gorgeous! We also walked the old part of the strip and Fremont street, where the retro casinos and hotels are. LOVED it!! We did not do traditional, scandalous Vegas…this was about shopping and sight seeing in the SUNSHINE and being with our friends Kevin and Kate and their baby girl Ellie. I bought a cookbook I will be cooking out of and posting on here at some point. The Urban Outfitters there rocks and the Forever 21 literally gave me a headache it was so huge and loud! I also got to see my dear friend Dustin Lau again! Sang with him in Vegas! My sister was not present for this so there is no photographic evidence 🙂 It was sweet though!
Bellagio.
Bellagio lobby shots.
A few photos from Fremont street. Love the retro look of everything!!
The Paris hotel.
The Sugar Factory on the strip.
That’s a brief version of Vegas, mostly in the day time. I would love to go back and see some shows!!
LOS ANGELAS:
We arrived earlier in the day and met up with our friend Tavis! We love Tavis. He is attending Med school down in L.A. and was an awesome tour guide! We went to The Grove for crepes and shopping, saw Ethan Embry eating an apple!, saw the Hollywood sign, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, went to Santa Monica beach for a ferris wheel ride, and, last but not least, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles! It was a BLAST! We drove around listening to hip hop and California-themed music. Too much fun…we stayed with our beautiful friend Dorothy and enjoyed LA so much!
My dear friend Dorothy!!
The sign 🙂
Sunny Mabrey and her handsome husband Ethan Embry. I LOVE him! We saw them walking their dog in Hollywood and Whit and I freaked out!
Some of my favorites, for obvious reasons!! And I LOVE Marilyn…look at her high heel marks!!!
Faking it.
How I REALLY felt on the Ferris Wheel!! Ha ha…
The Ferris Wheel on Santa Monica pier!! I always THINK the Ferris Wheel is a good idea…until we got stuck at the top and I quickly remembered why they make me jittery…ha ha…
Roscoes’s Chicken and Waffles!!! Epic meal time 🙂 You must go, you must go!! Life changing…ha ha…
We stopped off in Costa Mesa on the way to San Diego, for Vanilla Chai at the Gypsy Den and some shopping at the Lab, at Vince’s suggestion. EPIC. Retail spaces in old airstreams and water features made out of old, painted barrels. The Gypsy Den had various colored glass on high shelves and oriental rugs tacked to the wall…it was very “Bekah”.
I love this photo…a record shop in an old trailer…can you get more AWESOME??!!!
The Gypsy Den.
SAN DIEGO:
My very dear friend Vince Marjes lives in SD. Lucky guy! I loved it there!! It was so hot and wonderful. We got a tour of Nixon, where he works, and I fell in LOVE with the watches. Here’s my fave right now:
More of those to come in my fashion post…for now, check out their site:
We ate at a place called Urban Plates in Del Mar that was, essentially, an upscale, really tasty cafeteria. We also got coffee TWICE at Pannikin and I bought some for my best friends Steph and Ben. The inside was so fun! Very “old school mercantile”.
Awesome Vince and his crazy dog bust…it was just in his car…normal, right??!!! ha ha…love it.
Whit and I in San Diego.
Pannikin.
We headed back up to L.A. and stayed the night at Dorothy’s, woke up bright eyed, saw Tavis for a bit, and headed to Santa Barbara.
SANTA BARBARA:
I loved Santa Barbara. It was adorable!! Their main drag is State street and it is full of many clothing and speciality stores, restaurants and old theaters. It was quaint and sweet!! I enjoyed it so much! We got there in the evening and had Thai food with our friend Paul. It was getting later and, instead of rushing up to San Francisco, we decided to crash at the high class, top dollar…Motel 6. We were pleasantly surprised!!! It was super retro and fun and we had a little too much fun taking pictures in front of the orange curtains and peeking out from the swinging bathroom doors! Ha ha…
Okay…enough of the Motel 6 and us being posers…we woke up and headed to the water, where we enjoyed an awesome breakfast, double tall lattes, and an unbeatable view.
Umbrella on the beach.
This ship was above a drinking fountain and I LOVED it!
Rockstar, oceanside Whitney.
We drove through some gorgeous wine country and beaches on our way up to San Francisco. We stopped off in Pismo beach at Old West Cinnamon Rolls, at my friend Mike Lundeen’s suggestion. AWESOME! They were so yum…
SAN FRANCISCO:
We (Whit and I) have been to San Francisco twice together before and have seen a lot there. I was craving face time with my best friend Steph and her husband Ben. We got to have thai with Ben when we arrived. After dinner, Steph met up with us at Eggette’s in downtown Millbrae. I had never been to an eggette place before. They are a Hong Kong street food and are a fresh waffle dessert. They had chocolate ,coconut, and vanilla, so we got all three and shared them. They were great! They looked like giant packing bubbles! (Please not in the photo below, Ben is merely acting…he really is not a vampire.)
We stayed up and listened to Ben practicing “Liz on Top of the World” for his brother’s wedding…Whit and I both adore this song. I woke up early and Steph and I went for a walk in the sunshine…this is one of my favorite past times with Weff. Walks. We hit up the Millbrae Peet’s, which I also adore, and grabbed fresh bagels from the local bakery and breakfast goodies from Trader Joes. I love making meals in the Patterson kitchen…many good memories in there already! Not to mention, a few years ago, Ben flew me down to spend time and to help peel layers and layers of wallpaper off of those kitchen walls…my blood, sweat, and tears are under that fresh paint!! ha ha…
Miller the moose, looking into the kitchen out of the corner of his eye. He could smell the coffee!
I love people’s fridges…they say so much about who lives there!
Day old make up and fresh bagels and hemp granola.
Whitney and I left the Bay area around 11am and trucked it ALL THE WAY TO SEATTLE, only stopping for gas. We listened to every c.d. in my car and wore both of our I-pods out. We drove through every kind of weather and our rear ends felt bruised. We made it home by 1 a.m. and were insanely beside ourselves tired and went right to bed. What a packed two weeks!!! I loved it and would do it all over again. Maybe not for awhile, but it was FABULOUS! We decided in the Rockies that we needed a song to play every time we entered a new state. We chose this one, mostly because it makes us both laugh, it’s totally 80’s, and was so girly and ridiculous. I heart roadtrips!!! Thanks for reading this CRAZY long post, friends! Hoping you are enjoying your life and that you are finding the fun and good times in whatever you are involved in or putting you hands to. Live your life brilliantly!! Take us out, Stacey Q!!
* A Twinkle of Brilliance * 