seriously?!

we got back from mexico on a tuesday; and hit the ground running and working!
by the end of that following satruday (4 days later) we both had clocked over 40 hours (each) at work!
nuts...we are crazy busy nuts.
lately my choice word has been, "crazytown"
in reference to the neighborhood i work in everyday.
in reference to my next 3 weeks at work.
in reference to the 2 store managers in training at my store, coupled with 2 new baristas in training and i have 3 weeks to prepare to give my store to a new store manager; and in 3 weeks i need to be ready to take over a new store!
crazytown...thats my life. my work life.

my other life...
the one when i typically wear black work out crops, tank tops and running shoes.

that part of my life is good.

DB and I had a very fantastic time in SB over the weekend with great friends.
It was just splendid to get out of town, laugh a lot and lounge alot.
Audrey (@ thedailydunlop)will be posting pictures, so I won't put my SB photos here.

we walked to starbucks every morning to pick up our beverages...
which was quite amazing; due to the lack of schedule and the lovely weather!

now that we are back in town for the most part,
DB has resumed his sunday evening tradition of cooking; and i seriously love it!!
a couple of weeks ago, i was working on sunday;
and when i got home; the table looked like this....

he wrote me a card, made me a beverage and had an appetizer waiting for me....
melt my heart...
DB when you write me a letter, i will fall in love with you (again!)

im looking forward to another vacation;
when i can sit on the beach and sleep in:)

san jose del cabo, mexico. june 2012 (pt.2)

mexico continued....

we did a lot of relaxing on our trip, with time either at the pool or on the beach:)

some of our favorite memories were:
the art walk
every thursday evening downtown the art district in san jose opens up all their galleries and many locals make an evening out of it.

its the time to meet the artists, buy local art and enjoy being outside/downtown

this particular thursday was accompanied by music night, which meant all the streets were blocked off and there were bands playing all over downtown, in the streets, in the plaza square, in front of restaurants.




casa dahlia
we met the artist of this gallery on thursday night, and then she (atrist) and her husband (chef) invited us back for their friday night dinner and a movie event.
typically you need a reservation, but as we were travling during the off season, they weren't booked for that friday.

this date night was by far one of our favorites.

in the back of the art gallery is a patio cafe with a wood brick oven; his artist/chef couple host dinner and a movie on friday night, only 18 reservations per friday.

they showed the gold rush by charlie chaplin; and started us off with a fresh green and vegetable salad. followed by a slice of pizza every 15 minutes; each pizza was different, and equally as AMAZING!! we left that night so full yet we had such a great time!


we wished we had stayed there for 2 fridays so we could go back and enjoy an evening like that again:)
scrabble: on the nights we stayed into cook and relax, we played a few rounds of scrabble.

our beach
almost every afternoon we found ourselves back at our beach; it was a quiet little beach, away from other tourists, spotted with a few locals.

everyday they would ask dave to go fishing, he declined.
one of the locals spotted this fish, and swam out with a hook in his hand, and caught it...with just a hook!!!!

discovering little towns
we enjoyed the slow-life-pace of all the places we visited!

many quaint towns with places to sit, walk around and enjoy






food
we like to stay in places where there is good food, obviously.
but in addition, we like to cook in on vacation and hang out at "home"
(thats rare whether its here or there!)
road side tacos



note: since we traveled during the off season, most commonly we were the only ones in the restaurant...and we didn't mind one bit.
tequilla. we started off our week at this fancy pants place, which was amazing!

cafe sante fe came highly recommended in totos santos
(a local book store owner said it might possibly be the best italian food in baja)



mamas royal cafe in cabo san lucas
(we went twice!! i am a lover of breakfast burritos, and they make a really good one!)


mi cocnia at hotel nathalia.
a couple weekends ago at the bed and breakfast in monterey we met a woman from houston who hooked us with with a reservation at mi conino in san jose. she knew the owner and highly recommended the place!
it was amazing. our entre was a chicken ensemble with balsamic dark chocolate glaze!


for dessert they brought us a lava cake with basil ice cream (delish!)

habeneros was where we closed out our vacation with the largest piece of mud pie ever!


till next time....

san jose del cabo, mexico. june 2012 (pt.1)

we're back. from vacation. freaking a-mazing mexico!
our first (for vacation) international trip traveled together.
and it was a success.
DB is the complete planner. he reads tour books, makes agendas, does research; and i just to go along for the ride; and its pretty fantastic!
we rented the best condo set up ever (if you need the contact info, email me)
we had equal parts of adventure and time of relaxing.

when we arrived the G20 was just finishing up their week long convention.
obama was staying right across the street from our place; of course we didn't see any delegates; as the federal police were EVERYWHERE keeping an eye on things; pointing machine guns at every car/person that passed by the street. their presence was thick; we felt safe for sure; and there weren't any G20 related riots/protests/safety issues.
we did see air force one when we landed:)

as san jose is located at the very end of baja, on the west side; we took day trips; up to the east cape (beyond cabo san lucus) and up north to the west cape (cabo pulmo) and then inland to todos santos and santiago.

many of times our favored paved roads turned to dirt roads; and in some situations turned to sandy roads (both of which we took with caution)

one our way to a water fall in santiago
(thank you tour guide book, for specific kilometer points of direction..."at km 0.62 take the fork in the road, at km 1.77 veer right past the cactus and then take the sandy road to the right, follow the signs if they are still there..."

when the road turned to this...

we decided to turn back and not get stuck out in the middle of no where
there was a beautiful view of santiago on our way back down the mountain

from the search of the waterfall in santiago, we went to cabo pulmo in search of a snorkeling adventure.
as with all our warm weathered trips we went snorkeling; except for this time; it was FREEZING! this particular location, in the sea of cortez, it was fresh water coldness. it was a little windy so the visibility was low, and i thought our tour guide was going to capsize our boat into the rocks (he didn't) it was an adventure for sure.



we also went kayaking out to the Arch; where the pacific ocean meets the sea of cortez...that too was nuts! in mexico, on the streets and in the water; there are very few traffic laws enforced and followed. while kayaking there were boats zipping around the marina, jet skiers cutting in and out; in addition to larger than normal waves. we were such troopers and took our kayak out to the point, saw the arch and successfully made it back without falling out of our boat.
(sadly, not photos of this adventure, as it would have been WAY too RISKY to take my camera out while navigating the waves...trust me)
here is a view of the arch from afar
(it is hidden at the end of the rocks; but yes, we kayaked all the way out there!)