marriage

Memorial Day Weekend

June 1, 2017 filed under: food, holidays, love, marriage

Hey, hey! How was everyone’s Memorial Day Weekend? My recap comes a bit late, but we had a nice, relaxing weekend and the weather was beautiful (which means, not too hot!).

On Saturday was J and my 11th anniversary (*gasp*, I know! I can’t believe we’ve been married for that long!). It was a mostly normal Saturday for us, I ran the usual errands during the day, but we went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in town, Tapa the World, a Spanish tapas bar. I ordered Sangria and we had a bunch of different tapas.

fresh bread with dipping sauce

patatas bravas, steamed mussles, mushrooms in garlic sauce

filet mignon bites, cheese

On Sunday morning, I went for my long run. I thought I was going to be extra smart and run to the Farmers Market and pick up some fresh pretzel croissants for breakfast (they are delicious!).

I didn’t factor in that running the whole way back (4 miles) with something in my hand was not going to be so much fun. I figured that the croissants were going to be ‘light’, but then I also ended up buying a small loaf of bread (which looked so good), so running back felt like running with (awkwardly-shaped) weights in my hands, and don’t forget the hand-sweating. At least I had something in each hand? Don’t know, don’t repeat that at home, kids.

Note to self: nice plan, stupid execution. I am not going to do this again. I had to cut my run a bit short (9.5 miles had to do) to get the goodies home, but the croissants were definitely a nice reward after all. I made fresh coffee and watched baseball when I got home. I also started a new book in the afternoon and took a nap (because I could!).

Monday was super-lazy, too, and I didn’t do much at all. Ok, I cleaned up a bit, did some laundry, watched more baseball and finished my book in the afternoon. We also had a German-style BBQ for dinner…. grilled pork belly, boiled potatoes with herbed yogurt dip, caprese salad and fresh bread. Yum!

Other good things:
a new book ♥ phone call with my family ♥ meal planning ♥ hanging out in the backyard ♥ juice with sparkling water ♥ ice-cream ♥

How was your long weekend? Did you do something fun?

That time when we went to Vegas…

October 2, 2014 filed under: love, marriage, nostalgia, travel

J and I hadn’t really taken a real vacation in quite some time when we decided to take a little trip for our anniversary (which was in May). I was more than thrilled. Originally I had been secretly hoping to plan a getaway to Hawaii (which is still on my list of places to go to for the belated honeymoon that we never had), but for various reasons that wasn’t in the cards this summer. Instead, we decided to go to Las Vegas for a little belated anniversary get-away at the beginning of July.

Now, you need to know that I am not the biggest fan of Las Vegas. It’s always crammed with people, loud and to some extent obnoxious, but I also have a bit of nostalgia for this place since we kinda eloped and got married in this crazy town. And, if you plan it right (long weekend stay max + tickets to some awesome shows + excellent restaurant choices + pool time), it can actually be quite fun!

And we, and when I say we I mean I, actually had good reason to go to Las Vegas and I hereby would like to publicly proclaim that I have the best husband ever for agreeing to this trip… because the reason I wanted to go: NKOTB were having their 30th anniversary celebration with 4 days of concerts and parties in Vegas! Woot!

I know, did I just say best husband ever? I sure did, because I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that your husband or significant other wouldn’t have readily agreed to go with you to Vegas to see NKOTB for your anniversary, am I right?
Yeah, I didn’t think so! But my love for NKOTB far exceeds the time I’ve been with J, so he really had no choice in the matter. In fact, he’s been to a couple of shows with me before and actually quite enjoyed the performances. So, there.

And also, I even got my dad, a nonbeliever ha!, to admit that after 26 years of fandom one fact is true: once a blockhead, always a blockhead. That’s just the way it is! :)

Anyway, our weekend in Vegas was, much more than just the concert (which, of course, was absolutely fabulous, by the way!).

We arrived Thursday evening and caught a ride with a supernice taxi driver who made a quick stop with us at a local supermarket to stock up on snacks and beverages (because everybody knows that prices on the Vegas strip are insane!) and then he dropped us off at our hotel. J had picked out the “Mandalay Bay” for our stay, partial strip view included.

I have to say, the hotel is really nice; the only downside is that it is at the very beginning of the strip and everything is super-far away. If you leave the hotel, you’d better take all your crap for the day with you, because you won’t be coming back until the night is over, that’s for sure.

We slept in Friday morning, then had brunch at the House of Blues and then got ready to explore the strip.

We ended up having drinks at the Cabo Wabo Cantina and just people-watched for a while. Isn’t that part of the whole fun of being in Vegas?

We then walked all the way back to the beginning of the Strip to take the obligatory picture at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign (a first for me!).

We had dinner at the Ri Ra Irish Pub back at our hotel that night and enjoyed a solid two-man band that was playing Irish music (and covers!) the whole night. Amazing!

Saturday, we spent some time just hanging out at the hotel and going to the pool :) I had read about the cool wave pool and lazy river at the Mandalay Bay pool area and was so excited to just relax for a bit. It was quite busy though (duh!) and I didn’t have a tube to float down the lazy river and ‘semi-swam-floated’ instead. (Note to self for our next visit: purchase your own inflatable tube in advance and bring it with you. They will charge you an arm and a leg if you want to buy (not borrow, buy!) one from the hotel, which I declined.)

Around 4 p.m. we got showered and ready and headed up the strip. First stop: Le Village Buffet at the Paris. I do love this buffet (crepes anyone?), but I always realize: I really can’t eat all the food that they offer. Part of me would rather order one good meal at a nice restaurant, than stuff my face at a buffet to get my money’s worth. Still, we had to eat at a buffet at least once . That’s part of what you do in Vegas.

Second stop: Planet Hollywood to get in line for the concert at the Axis. Wee. Excited was an understatement.

I could write a whole separate post about the concert, to be honest, but in case you’re not that much into boyband – or should I say manband now? – concert reviews (those people apparently exist. Who knew?), I’ll spare you the minutia and just tell you that it was amazing and fun and nostalgic and basically just pure blissful happiness (ast least for me, but I think J had a pretty decent time himself).

Sunday was another highlight of our trip: the FIFA World Cup Finale, which we had to watch because it was Germany vs. Argentina! I got up early enough to secure some caffeine and croissants and then we got comfortable on our king bed, crumbs and coffee spills and all, to witness Germany win the World Cup for the first time again in 24 years. Heck yes!

We had briefly contemplated to watch the game in one of the many bars (and there were quite a few showing it!), but then we didn’t want to be distracted by other people… we wanted to solely focus on the game! We celebrated the win by jumping on the bed and running around the room and screaming and laughing. You know, the usual.

We were basically tipsy drunk on excitement and happiness for the rest of the day (oh, what am I saying “for the rest of the month!), had drinks and Mexican food at Border Grill for an early dinner

before heading to Treasure Island where we had tickets to Circque du Soleil. J had never seen a CdS performance before, so I picked the oldest, most original one, Mystère (because Vegas has not only one, but eight ongoing shows).

The best part of Sunday night was: our weekend was not over. As a matter of prudence, I had booked our trip through Monday evening, so we had an extra full day ahead of us. Good thinking!

I got up early on Monday morning and spent a couple of hours in peace at the pool (with hardly anyone around).

After check out , we went to have brunch at the famous Hash House A Go Go.

The amount of food was insane (I couldn’t even finish half of it), but it tasted fresh and absolutely delicious! Definitely recommend this place for your next trip to Vegas! After coffee and food refueling, J and I felt brave enough to set out for a walk and explore the old part of the Vegas Strip…

… all the way to the Stratosphere tower.

In the scolding heat, mind you. We were sweaty, tired and very thirsty when we arrived and had a taxi take us back to the hotel and a little later to the airport.

Bye Vegas!
96 hours seemed just about the right amount of time to be in you. We had lots of fun, great food and entertainment, but at the end of Monday, we were tired of the buzz and ready to go home.

Still, a trip I will likely not forget anytime soon!

What we’ve learned in 8 years of marriage

May 27, 2014 filed under: marriage

Today is J’s and my anniversary. We’ve been married for 8 years now.

Well, technically, we’ve been married for a little longer than that (our court wedding was on New Year’s Eve), but since there is so much celebration going on for New Year’s Eve anyway, we decided to celebrate our anniversary on the day we had our big wedding in Germany: May 27, 2006.

Here’s what we’ve learned:

Time flies. No, really. Time flies. How has it been 13 years since our paths first crossed on a College Campus in California? It’s seems incredible to me.
Marriage is hard. Let nobody tell you otherwise.
But it can also be the easiest thing in the world!
Have fun! Find something to be happy about every day!
Cocktails > wine.
Always love the one you’re with, no matter how hard and difficult it may seem at times.
You can’t let any outsider judge your relationship. Never ever. Only you know what it really is about. Your marriage doesn’t have to conform to anyone else’s standards or expectations.
It’s ok to disagree sometimes.
Red Sox > Giants.
Planning is good, set-in-stone plans are bad.
Sometimes you have to compromise and just suck it up.
Sharing a meal is one of the best moments of our days.
If you want something, speak up. Nobody can always read the other person’s mind. Not even after 8 years.
It’s really not about the big gestures (although those are nice, too!), it’s about the little things in everyday life that count.
Laugh together. Have your own inside jokes.
Respect your differences. A person can only change so much. Even for love!

I love surprises, don’t you?

May 5, 2014 filed under: family, love, marriage, yes!

Ok, so I might be slightly biased, but I have to say that my Mom and Dad are pretty awesome people and I hate not being able to hang out with them on a regular basis.

This last week, they’ve been on a trip in the Mediterranean to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, and you guys, I am so over the moon excited. My sister and I pulled off a fantastic surprise for them. Originally, the idea had been for them to come visit us here in California and bring my sister and her family, too; have a big family celebration here with us.

Unfortunately, there were few events that prevented that plan from coming to fruition (my Dad was hospitalized earlier this year and is supposed to be having minor surgery this summer, my sister and BIL bought a house, yadda, yadda), but I am really glad my parents decided to still do something special for their anniversary, because holy cow…. 40 years of love and life together is amazing!

My sister and I racked our brains what we could do to surprise them with something special for this special anniversary and for sticking it out with each other for such an impressive amount of time. It’s hard to organize a surprise when you’re 6000 miles away and when they’re away from home.
Luckily, my Dad enjoys planning and talking about trips whenever he can. We obviously knew where they were going, but we also knew where they were going to stay, where they wanted to eat and what they were going to see and explore on their trip.

First, I informed the hotel that they were staying at about my parents’ reason for the trip and asked them to welcome them with a bottle of champagne and a fruit basket upon their arrival. That was a fairly easy thing to arrange and we were pretty sure that it would help make them unsuspecting of anything else to come.

But the bigger surprise was organized for Saturday, which was my parents’ actual anniversary. My Dad had talked about a really good, well-known restaurant, Trespais, that had been shortlisted for their anniversary dinner. I emailed the restaurant and asked if they’d be able to help my sister and me to plan a surprise for our parents. Basically our plan was to try and get them to go to the restaurant, have a fantastic evening with wine and delicious food, and then have the restaurant staff deliver our best wishes for a wonderful anniversary in lieu of the bill.

The restaurant owners were super-nice and cooperative and they were excited and willing to help with the surprise without any hesitation.

I reserved a table (under my parents’ last name) in advance to make sure they had room to accommodate them, but also told them that the plan was to get my Dad to make a reservation himself, so that we could avoid telling them what we were up to and really make this a total surprise. So, before my parents left for their trip, my sister persistently – but as unsuspiciously as possible – tried to get my Dad to reserve a table at the restaurant for their anniversary dinner. He finally did one day before they left.

On Saturday, my sister and I were texting back and forth because we were so nervous and excited to find out how the surprise played out. My sister said that she would stay up until my parents would get in touch with us. And sure enough, at 11 p.m. (German time), my Mom finally texted. They were completely overwhelmed and confused when the restaurant owner presented them the bill…. which was a card that simply read “Happy anniversary from Sandra and Nina”.

Apparently, the restaurant owners and staff had just as much fun with the surprise as we did, because my Mom told us that the owner said that she couldn’t help but have a huge smile on her face every time she passed my parents’ table and that it was hard to not blow the surprise until the very end.

And my parents were truly blown away. They were raving about the excellent food, the outstanding service and the overall ambience of the restaurant – and the fantastic, completely unexpected surprise, of course! – and walked out without paying a dime.

Awesomeness!

I am so, so happy we were able to pull off this surprise for them. It’s usually really hard to organize something and keep it a secret from both our parents. In the past, for one reason or another, one of them always had to be let in on any surprises in advance. This time, we were able to completely keep it a secret and surprise both of them. They were absolutely clueless (although my Dad says that, in retrospect, my sister was really pushy about him making that reservation at the restaurant. Haha!).

Have you successfully surprised someone before? How did you pull it off?

A trip to Tahoe

October 11, 2012 filed under: California, marriage, travel, weekend

As previously mentioned, we took a trip to Lake Tahoe over the weekend. When we reached Echo Summit, the mountain pass at 7,382 ft (2,250 m), we stopped to take in the beautiful view of the Tahoe Basin.
The “Sierra Nevada Southern Route” (aka the “Pioneer Route”) of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States of America, was routed over Echo Summit in 1913 (Wikipedia).

My first reaction was “Why haven’t we been back to Lake Tahoe much, much earlier?”. My honest answer: I have no clue. Lately, when we took weekend trips, we either went down to Southern California or west to the coast. I seriously forgot – you know, not really forgot, but pushed to the back of my mind – how breathtakingly beautiful the Sierras are.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Timber Cove Lodge in South Lake Tahoe, RIGHT on the water. Holy crap, we even had a partial view from our window. Who would complain about that?

We had dinner at a near by Italian restaurant and then took a walk on the shore to enjoy the beautiful sunset.

The next morning, I was up early and went down to the water. It was a beautiful morning…. chilly air, but beautiful sunshine!

This was a view from the beach back to our hotel building. As I said, literally on the beach.

I got some coffee and muffins for breakfast from a nearby coffee shop/supermarket and we spent a few hours just hanging out at the water. It was a perfect day to just relax and take a break from the world.

In the afternoon, we did some window shopping at Heavenly Village. Originally I had hoped to take the gondola up on the mountain to enjoy the view from up there, but we missed the last weekend of summer hours by a week and the gondola won’t reopen until the skiing season starts in November. Bummer!

Later that evening, we had dinner at “Riva Grill“, a restaurant close to the shore. I started the evening with a lemon drop (to celebrate our meet-a-versary and in honor of my lovely collab blog ladies! Hi!)

J had a delicious steak for dinner and I chose the most delicious salad with chilled roastbeef and grilled tomatoes. So good! Not pictured is the very yummy French Onion soup, with which I started my meal. I love French Onion soup and have found a really good recipe online which I’d like to try soon!

We hung out at our cozy hotel room in the evening.

The next morning, I was up early again. There is nothing more beautiful than a lake in the early morning hours. I don’t know if you’re interested in a little geology lesson, but I’ll give it to you anyway. I am a geek when it comes to geologic stuff and I usually read up on the places we go to beforehand. Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake. It is located along the border between California and Nevada at an average surface elevation of 6,225 ft (1,897 m) above sea level, which makes Lake Tahoe the highest lake of its size in the United States.

Lake Tahoe is also the largest alpine lake in North America. It is 1,645 ft (501 m) deep (on average) and the second-deepest lake in the US. The lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the ice ages. The Lake Tahoe Basin was formed by geologic block (normal) faulting about 2 to 3 million years ago. A geologic block fault is a fracture in the Earth’s crust causing blocks of land to move up or down. Uplifted blocks created the Carson Range on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west. Down-dropped blocks created the Lake Tahoe Basin in between. Lake Tahoe is known for the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides for the clarity of its water. (USGS).

No kidding.

We had to check out of our hotel at 11 am and decided to have brunch at Heidi’s. Pancakes and bacon…. I went all out! What a treat!

Before heading back to Sacramento, we decided to drive up to Emerald Bay, take a short hike on the Rainbow trail and catch a glimpse of the spawning Kokanee salmon population in Taylor Creek. The Kokanee Salmon Festival takes place every year in the first week of October to celebrate the dramatic and colorful spawning behaviors of the Kokanee Salmon.

Kokanee salmon were introduced to Lake Tahoe in 1944. Like Sockeye salmon, their ocean-going relatives, these fish return to their stream of origin to mate, spawn, and die. In the case of Lake Tahoe’s landlocked Kokanee, that stream is Taylor Creek. In preparation for their spawning run, Kokanee salmon turn bright red. (USDA Forest Service)

I couldn’t quite imagine what it would look like, but yes, there are hundreds of red salmon in the creek! Amazing!

We headed back down to the Central Valley in the early afternoon.

It was a beautiful and relaxing weekend and I definitely want to go back to Tahoe again soon! Luckily, I had Monday off because of Columbus Day and we were able to get our usual weekends errands done on Monday and just hang out at home for a little more. Did you get a long weekend? What did you do?