A Raetz Invasion



I just got back from a quick little getaway to sunny California! I had Tuesday, Veteran's Day, off of work, so I decided to take Monday off and have a 4 day weekend in California! I flew out Friday night to SF where I was immediately wisked off to SoCal by Kimberly and Lauren. We actually only made it about half way Friday night and spent the night in Pismo Beach before finishing the drive Saturday morning to LA. After picking up Yelan from her house in LA, we headed straight to the beach! After a long drive we were pretty hungry so we found a little place on the Venice Beach walkway and grabbed some food and drink to keep us going. It was amazing already just to sit in the sun!!

Since the sun sets so early these days, we soaked up a few more rays while walking the beach down to Santa Monica before heading back to the house we rented to get ready for a night out! We got all dressed up and headed out to dinner at a little Japanese place Lauren had been to before back when she lived in LA.







After bar hopping to a few places in Santa Monica, we ended up with a serious girls night of cuddling on the bed while watching Pitch Perfect...amazing!

 

Sunday morning we grabbed a quick brunch before heading to the beach to prepare for our surf lesson! It was so much fun! It was just the 4 of us girls and one other girl so we all got plenty of attention from the instructor. We all got up on the board at least a few times, so it felt like a pretty productive lesson!









The lesson was also completely exhausting, so we took a few hours to get cleaned up and relax at the house before getting ready for our next excursion. We decided to walk down to the nearby Abbot Kinney neighborhood for the night. 



Monday morning we checked out of our house had a few more stops in LA, then hit the road back to SF just in time to check out the little brother's new house! They just bought their first house!!!! It's a super cute place in the Dogpatch area of SF. I'm super excited for them and I was so glad we could make a stop over there to check it out for a bit (also to see Jordan and Kristen)!!!

Tuesday was my last day in town, so we spent it wine tasting/shopping in Napa. Perfect end to a little California getaway before heading back to 30 degree weather in Seattle. On the bright side...cold weather means snow...and snow means snowboarding soon..woohoo!







Happy Halloween

Halloween actually fell close enough to a weekend this year to make it doable to have a weekend Halloween party. We still have yet to get any trick or treaters at our house...I guess if we really want that to happen we need to put a sign out in front of our house...and actually be at home. This year we actually dressed up and went to a Halloween party on Saturday night. Of course we had to finish watching the Auburn panic attack of a game before we went out. Luckily it was a win, otherwise it may have put a damper on the evening!

We ended up dressing up as Indians. We actually hand made our costumes and did some fun war paint makeup to complete the look. Ryan even shaved his head into a mohawk for it! I did  a fauxhawk with side braids and a poof in the middle. Unfortunately I didn't really get a good shot of the costumes head to toe. We had fun partying though with some good friends!









Professional Instagrammer

So here's a fun fact for the week: I was contacted by Travelzoo last week who offered to give me a $50 voucher in exchange for the use of this photo! They saw it on my Instagram page and wanted to use it for an upcoming promotion...so keep your eye out for it! I do believe this officially makes me a professional instagrammer...I guess I'll still keep my day job though ;)

Whidbey Weekend



Sunset ferry ride across to the island

So we headed back to my old home island this weekend. The first two years that I lived in the PacNW, I had a house up in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. I haven't really been back there too much since then though. This weekend we had a group of 8 of us looking for a quick weekend getaway to a beach destination, so we ended up on the south end of Whidbey Island. Unfortunately I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but the weekend consisted of a little beaching/boating, a lot of eating, some football watching, and a lot of game playing. It was a lot of fun and a great group of friends that we got to hang out with!











Girls Weekend/Boys Weekend

Ryan and I split ways this weekend for outdoor adventures with friends! I left work a little early on Friday to meet up with some girls, pack up our car with camping gear, and head out east for the weekend! We were heading to The Gorge Amphitheater for the Zac Brown Band concert. I love me some country music, but really, the venue itself is reason enough to do weekend trips there. It is beautiful! We made it to our camp ground Friday night and set up camp a did a little cocktail making/sampling for the rest of the night before cuddling up in the tent for a little sleep.

Saturday we got up decently early since that seems like what happens when you're camping. It's hard to sleep in when the sun comes up and everyone else starts moving. We were a little slow moving and enjoyed some coffee while one of the girls cooked up a delicious breakfast. Since there was still a good amount of time before the show, I had found a nearby hike to go wander around to kill time. Turns out, it was pretty awesome. This area of the state is pretty much desert, which is already a cool change from the old growth trees and mountains to the west. Then this desert hike was randomly scattered with beautiful lakes and waterfalls. It was really cool to see dry brown landscape everywhere then one streak of green foliage coming down the cliff where a waterfall was. It was a good hike and a really pretty way to kill some time in the middle of no where!

We spent the rest of the afternoon tailgating at our campsite before heading over for the show. This venue is really amazing! It's a natural amphitheater looking over the Columbia River. We snagged ourselves a spot on the lawn, grabbed a few drinks, and settled in for an amazing sunset over the river before the show. The show was also amazing and we were slapping knees and screaming all night long! After the show we headed back to the campground for a night cap and called it a night.

So what did Ryan and Ben do all weekend while I was off with the ladies?! They wandered through the wilderness for 30 miles with a couple of other guys. Super manly stuff.