LA for the First Time

After living in Orange County for 3 months, I finally made a trip to LA last weekend. I've seen the LA skyline hundreds of times on TV or in movies, but after seeing it for the first time in person, I felt different. I feel like now I am officially a Southern California resident. I went to LA for a rooftop pool party that didn't work out as planned, but I did get to explore a little and even forever become part of the famous city. Yes, as I was crossing the street (at Fig & 7th) the Google street view car drove by. I expect to be semi-famous in 6 months. Another highlight of the trip was eating the best grilled cheese I ever had from The Melt aka the famous food truck turned restaurant. I know there are hundred of amazing restaurants to choose from in LA, but I was really craving a grilled cheese and was not disappointed by my decision. There is so much to do in LA so we will definitely be making many more trips back. 

Finally seeing LA

There she is

Entering the city

Amazing!

Fig & 7th

The Melt

Google car

First thoughts on LA: I am not much of a city girl so my opinion is biased towards living in the OC (suburbs). Where I live here is safe and clean which is really important to me. Like most big cities, there is going to be poverty and parts are going to be dirty, so I wasn't surprised with LA. It is not my favorite city but definitely not the worst I've ever been to. I love Chicago and Dallas because although being big cities, they are still clean and friendly. The closest city to my home town in PA is Philadelphia, so I am used to cities being over crowded, dirty, and some parts sketchy. Although I love Philly, I could never live there nor could I ever live in LA. I think I will stick to the beautiful Orange County and visit LA on the weekends for good food and tourist stops. Next on my bucket list is to make a trip to the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory. This upcoming weekend I will be returning to good old Philadelphia for one of my best friend's weddings. I can't wait to be home and see my friends and family and celebrate the special day! Have a great week everyone! 

XoXo,
Valerie 

Memorial Day Weekend- THANKFUL

I hope everyone is recovering nicely from their long Memorial Day weekend. I think it is important to first thank all the brave men and women, past and present, who protect the freedoms that we take for granted everyday. THANK YOU! 

I sometimes forget just how truly blessed I am which is one reason why I love writing this blog. I frequently go back and read old posts to remind myself of all the amazing things I've had the opportunity to do. Recently I've been really amazed with where my life is and the journey that I took to get here. About a year ago I read the book "The Magic" by Rhonda Byrne who also wrote "The Secret" and "The Power". She recommends that you write down a list of 10 things a day for a month that you are currently thankful for in your life. At the end of the month I had over 300 things written down on my list. I didn't realize until I was staring down at this paper just how much I have to be thankful for, the things I had always taken for granted. Everything from my health, my parents health, having a job that I love, having a boyfriend who loves me, my freedom, being able to afford the things I need, the list goes on and on. Whenever I have a bad day I always look at my list so I can remind myself of how truly blessed I am. I stopped writing the list after the 30 days, but I now see that I could add so many more things that I am appreciate of in my life today. This weekend especially reminded me of that. All over my social media accounts people were taking vacations and spending the long weekend making trips to the beach. This alone makes me smile with gratitude. Realizing what most people consider a vacation, I call my normal, everyday life. I sometimes still can't believe that this is actually my real life. 

Still so surreal 

I think my boyfriend and I both just needed a weekend to catch up on sleep and relax. There was talks about making a trip up to San Francisco, but I wasn't prepared to make the 6+ hour drive on such little sleep. We spent the weekend mostly catching up on our shows on DVR, going to a few restaurants, and of course going to the beach. A pretty low key weekend for us. 

Perfect beach day 

When you pay at little extra, you get the beach all to yourself 

Found a small waterfall on the beach

As close as we will ever get to drinking on a California beach 

Walking path from the beach back to our car

Now that we've had a relaxing weekend, I'm sure we will be back to finding new adventures and exploring new parts of Southern California this upcoming weekend. 

XoXo,

Valerie 

PS- I'm also thankful for all of you, my blog family :)

Aquarium of the Pacific

Happy Monday all! I can't believe I have been living here in California for almost two months already. I absolutely love it and am really starting to get comfortable here. Unfortunately the weather this last weekend wasn't great. It rained on Friday night which never happens in Southern California and then on Saturday and Sunday it was chilly/windy (65 degrees is considered cold here). We wanted to do something inside, so we decided to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. Again the traffic getting there was a nightmare. It took about 35 minutes just to make a right turn into the parking garage ($8 with aquarium ticket). I guess a lot of other people had the same idea about staying inside. I recommend going early in the morning to avoid the crowds. 

City of Long Beach

View from the parking garage 

Bridge that looks like a roller coaster 

Entrance 

After we finally parked we had to wait another 20 minutes in line to purchase tickets. I could have bought them online but I wanted to see the different packages they offered at the box office. We decided to purchase the behind the scenes tour package ($18/per ticket) along with the aquarium tickets which ended up costing around $95. Considering the price of some other aquariums I've been to in the past, I think this was on the expensive end. We started off the trip with the behinds the scene tour which I highly recommend you doing. There was only one other couple on the tour with us so it was very private. The tour lasted about an hour and included a guide of the vet, large tank with divers who were feeding the fish, kitchen, and quarantine. If you read my blog regularly you know I love water and fish. This tour was both educational and fun and absolutely awesome for me! We even got to feed the fish some seaweed in the large tank and watch the stingrays eat lunch. After the tour was over we went around to the different exhibits both inside and outside. I think that it would have made more sense if we had done that first and then did the behind the scenes tour last. The aquarium over all was over crowded with screaming children and pushy adults. If I hadn't just done that private tour I think I would have pushed a child in the shark tank. We only walked around for about an hour until we couldn't handle it anymore. The day was fun only because of the private tour we did, but I don't think I will go back again. Too expensive and too over crowded.

The lobby with a blue whale replica 

Behind the scenes dive center

Divers going into the tank to feed

Large tank with sharks, turtles, eels, stingrays, fish

Feeding the stingrays

Diver

Fish in quarantine 

I could stay here all day

Baby bamboo sharks 

Shark eggs

More divers 

Bright fish

Fish food, sorry goldfish 

More fish food

Baby seahorses 

VIP only 

Sharks and Dory

Huge grouper 

Bottom of a stingray

Sea turtle

More divers 

More sharks 

Jelly fish 

Please touch starfish etc

Sunbathing seals 

Please touch sharks 

Black tip shark

Please touch stingrays 

Spending the day at the aquarium made us hungry for some delicious fish, sorry Nemo and Dory. We decided on Rock'n Fish right on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach on the ocean. We had oysters to start as an appetizer and they were really fresh and had no grit. My boyfriend ordered the jambalaya and I ordered the macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi with fries and spicy mac n cheese. Both of our meals were really delicious and we got to enjoy the sunsetting while eating. Together with two beers our meals was around $85 including tip. Parking on the street was difficult to find so we parked in the garage across the street ($2/hour). Overall we had a great day together exploring new places and a new town. 

Entrance 

The view of the ocean

Oysters 

My mahi mahi with pineapple salsa

Jambalaya 

Sunset 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great start to the new week.

XoXo,

Valerie