San Diego

Andy and I go to San Diego fairly often. At least once a month to visit with family. Last weekend we went to San Diego to see family and friends.



We stopped for lunch at Boudin Bakery. I know it's just a turkey avocado sandwich but seriously it's the best sandwich I've EVER had. The multi-grain bread is out of this world. I need to find bread like that.



The chips paled in comparison.



Andy got chili in a bread bowl and a caesar salad. Boudin is known for their sourdough bread so you know it's super delicious! I stole a bunch. I love carbs. Never gonna give you up...



Then we were off to Qualcomm Stadium to see a San Diego State Football game. The San Diego Chargers play here too.



The stadium is pretty.



I ate these snickerdoodle animal cookies while we waited for the game to start.



And a few hours later, I was hungry again.



Turkey, avocado and honey mustard sub from Submarina. Yum. Not as good as Boudin though.



Andy had some italian meat sub thing. Clever name huh?



There was a firework show after the game. People tossed around balloons while they waited for the show to start. (Why do people go nuts for balloons? I'll never understand.)



The show was pretty awesome!



Fireworks make me happy.

The next day we went to the Stone Brewing Company but that's another story for another time! :)

I have to go pick up my orthotics now. It's been 5-6 weeks! Ouch.

I write, I travel, I eat...I AM ANTHONY BOURDAIN!

So, rewind to July 5th, 2010. That is our anniversary. We are in Kauai, about to do some snorkeling. But first, it is a gift exchange. I gave Amanda a gift card to a local spa. She was pleased. Amanda gave me Anthony Bourdain's newest book, "Medium Raw" AND tickets to see him live September 18th in San Diego. Saturday was the 18th, so we saw Anthony Bourdain!!!

Amanda's edit: I have to thank Mama Pea for this one. I saw her blog about seeing him live and bought the tickets immediately after reading her post.

I love Bourdain. I love No Reservations, and I love his thoughts on how to travel and eat local. I try so hard when traveling to eat like the locals, but he makes it look way easy than it is. I find him hilarious on top of it. I love him on Top Chef. I love Kitchen Confidential. I love that if he read our blog he would think we were morons. I love his hate for vegans, equating them to terrorists organizations (I, of course, don't believe this true... just funny). I love his hate for Rachel Ray, Paula Dean, and Sandra Lee. I want to be Bourdain, minus the drug use. Ok, I have a man crush. Whatever.

So we were in the back, and the pictures didn't come out great, but that's ok.

Highlights:

1. The woman in front of us. So, we are sitting down and she sits down in front of us. Then she basically looks at us and others around us and sounds way too loud "I am surprised so many young people are here. I wouldn't think they could relate!" Amanda and I got the biggest laugh of the evening before the show started. Has this woman seen the show? He talked about The Ramones and the New York Dolls, which the woman was confused about. He talked about many sex acts that you don't bring up in polite company. He talked about eating the "poopchute" of a wild boar. The woman feel asleep about 20 minutes in. I'm not sure if she knew what she was getting into. I think she wanted Paula Dean's deep fried mac and cheese. She sucked, we laughed.

2. He talked about a few chapters of the book. McDonald's being evil and Ronald killing children. How fast food establishments might serve meat treated with ammonia. Sandra Lee molesting him. Funny, even if I knew the story.

3. His thoughts on all sorts of food personalities and shows. He likes Giada, even if she has a giant head. He likes Adam Richman, even if he is probably one more buffalo wing away from a massive coronary. He like Andrew Zimmern, who has had similar substance abuse issues as Tony. He likes Alton Brown, despite his hacky Iron Chef America show. He doesn't like Bobby Flay so much.

4. He took audience questions. I asked him a questions. I asked "So, I love Top Chef, but it appears to me that Padma hates the contestants, hates everything she eats, hates Tom and certainly hates you. Does she?" He replied that he doesn't really know her well enough, but that Gail is lovely. Read: "I can't say, because I like that gig and they pay me well. But yeah, she is a Bitch. Gail, however, is super attractive and if I wasn't married we would have a nice relationship."

5. Bad audience questions. I hope mine wasn't stupid. But compared to the 3 people asking him for jobs, the guy that asked why there was a viewer discretion advised warning before each episode, and the woman asking him if he ever smokes pot, I have a feeling I didn't suck so hard.

6. I love his thoughts on travel. So he shared how to get into other cultures and eat what they eat and live how they live. Makes me instantly want to travel more. So we will.

This is the back of my head, Tony listening intently.

After, we went to a local brewery which we have raved about in the past, Stone, and enjoyed a beer.

I look way too happy. I love you Anthony Bourdain. Thanks for a great evening. If I was a shameless self promoter I would have mentioned by blog to you. I didn't. I don't suck.

14th Anniversary Stone Brewing Company Festival

This is a few weeks in the making and Amanda wanted me to do it. I just started work again, and the beginning of the school year is hectic and weird. But I have a little time now and I don't want to grade essays yet (but if you want to grade them for me, I can pay you in cookies!)

So a few weeks ago Amanda and I went to San Diego with a few friends to attend the 14th Anniversary Stone Brewing Company Festival. This is one of my favorite breweries and is about 5 miles from where I grew up. Every year they hold a little B-Day party where they get breweries from all over the world and sample beers. You basically get 3 hours and 10 pours(I think they are about 3 oz.). The festival was on the campus of Cal State San Marcos, but the brewery is located about 5 miles east of the school in Escondido. So our day of drinking in the sun began at the brewery. We tried to do a tour of the brewery but it was packed, so we just ate at the brewery...and drank. This place has amazing food! And has an really nice patio garden you can sit in.

Amanda started with some Cider. She orders this fairly often. It is pretty good and not too sweet.

We shared some hummus.

On to lunch!

Beer mac n cheese.

BBQ Boar Ribs!

Duck tacos

Ceviche!

We drank a lot too. I had the Stone IPA, which is fantastic. I have no idea what others had. But they were all good.

On to the fest!

Cheers! Taster glasses.

The first beer I went with was the 14th Anniversary Stone Imperial IPA. Damn was it good!

I love IPA's. I love hoppy beer. I don't know too many people that enjoy them as much as I do. This was pretty fantastic.

I really wanted to pull a scene from Sideways and drink from the bucket...but I didn't. This is me and my good friend Brett and his friend Jen. That is a lot of warm, nasty beer.

One of the best parts was the free food. They had this cheese called Mike's Beer Cheese that they gave samples of. We dominated it. Amazing stuff.

And here is Amanda and I with "Mike." I don't know if this is legitmately the guy who makes it, or just a random gentleman, but he was eager to hug.

What you can't see is that I had just has my bandage taken off my arm and my elbow was super sore. I couldn't bend it. The look on my face is pain. I didn't want to look bad in front of "Mike," so I sucked it up.

The rest of the day was basically going tent to tent to get sample of beer. Some were amazing, so were weird. They had this collaboration beer between Victory, Stone, and Dogfish Head. It was horrible. Like drinking sweaty gym socks. You can't win them all. Here are just more pictures. Some favorite breweries and beers we tasted.

Deadliest Catch fans? This is Captain Sig's brew!

I look nuts because I couldn't bend my right arm.

Amanda is cute.

Now to relate a conversation that happen as we were leaving. None of us were drunk. We actually didn't even drink all 10 pours we were allowed. Amanda and Jen sold a few for $5. But some folks drank too much. As we were leaving, a lovely, drunk young lady had the following conversation with me:

Drunky: Hey, do you have a girlfriend?

Me: Umm, I am married.

Drunky: *shoves me away, moves on to someone else*

It is good to know drunk girls will still hit on me.

So, any beer suggestions? I love trying new, interesting beers. If you have never had Stone, try the Stone Pale Ale or Stone IPA. Or Dogfish Head 60 min or 90 min IPA. Stone also makes Arrogant Bastard Ale which is great. What are you drinking?

Note from Amanda: I am way too excited for pumpkin beer!

Don't forget to enter our Maranatha Nut Butter giveaway! Click here to enter

Weekend in San Diego

Hi everyone! Sorry for my lack of posting over the weekend and yesterday. I meant to post yesterday but got a sub job at the last minute. I subbed as an instructional aide for a seventh grader. So much fun! All of the kids are participating in a baby experiment and have flour sacks, eggs, or robotic crying babies with them in class. Hilarious.

Except for when one of the girls piped up with, "Babies are easy, I should have a real one!" Not at 13 please.

Enough about that. We left for San Diego on Friday night. We usually leave really late to avoid traffic. Unfortunately my Irish luck rubbed off on both of us and it rained as soon as we got in the car. The rain was so heavy and thick! Poor Andy could barely see to drive. Not fun.



Saturday morning, I forced Andy to take me out to get some pills. I had the worst congested head feeling and did not sleep well at all on Friday night. Well, we happened to be RIGHT by the Original Pancake House...so...



I ordered bacon & eggs. Split 2 pieces of bacon with Andy because I am a fantasic and selfless wife.



Andy ordered blueberry pancakes. (You can see my side of Potato Pancakes in the distance.) Andy's blueberry pancakes were so light and delicious...I was envious of them the entire time.

After breakfast, we went to the gym with Andy's mom. Her gym was huge! The treadmill there had a setting for a 5k so I tried it out for shiggles. I wasn't feeling my hottest but I managed to finish in 44 minutes. My goal for my first 5k is under 40 minutes. Considering how much I walked, I think this might actually be a possibility!



Dinner was at a diner near San Diego State where we were going to a basketball game. I had to snap a picture of the menu in order of Sophia aka Burp & Slurp.



And let's discuss the size of my turkey bacon avocado sandwich. Really? REALLY? I took out 90% of the turkey and half the avocado and still had too much food. It was delicious!



Andy ordered a reuben, which wasn't nearly as huge!



Then we were off to the basketball game.



The Aztec Warrior walked around and took pictures with fans. His costume was amazing.

All & all it was a fantastic trip. Minus my congestion. Blech.

How was your weekend?

Have you been to San Diego?

San Diegooooooooo Super Chargers!!!!!

Ok that title is totally for my husband. I'm hoping Andy will read it and laugh. We are going to drive down to San Diego tonight to see Andy's parents. I'm excited. It's really nice to get away for a weekend and having family in a beautiful city like San Diego is awesome.

The only kicker is, I have a nasty cold! I have: a headache, a stuffed up nose, a sore throat, a dry cough and painnnnnnnnnnnnn everywhere. I loaded myself up with mucinex, dayquil and vitamin C but it's not really working. Luckily, I didn't get called into work today. I slept in till 8:30am. Felt good!

Despite my cold, I decided I needed to complete Couch to 5k Week 5. I did Day 3 today which had 20 minutes of running nonstop! I did it outside on a slightly hilly area while blasting some awesome music. It felt pretty fantastic for the first ten minutes, then I started struggling with my breathing. I slowed down and ran at a snail's pace for the rest of the time. Then I came home and laid on the floor until my body felt human.

Normally, I would feel dejected for having to slow down. The thing is, a year ago I would not have been able to run for more than two minutes. Now I can run a mile or two without stopping! I need to be proud of myself and not worry about how small my improvements are. Improvement is improvement no matter how you slice it!

I'm starting Week 6 on Sunday and I'm going to dominate it! Hopefully my cold will go away so I can really push through it.

Also? Knee pain- 50% better! I'm thrilled!

I'll be back on Sunday with updates from our mini-vacay to San Diego.

Crazyburger in San Diego

CRAZYBURGER was CRAZY!!! After watching Guy Fieri eat at Crazyburger on the Food Network, Andy decided that we had to try it out.

Crazyburger is located in El Cajon. It looks like a random hole-in-the-wall but I loved it.

I got a bleu cheese burger with avocado, tomato, red onions and lettuce. I’m obsessed with bleu cheese and avocado. Obsessed! There is nothing I love more on a cheeseburger. I wish I didn’t love it so much. Burgers are definitely something Andy and I are going to have to enjoy in moderation. Less is more right?

Andy got the #21 SANTORINI Burger, ½ Beef ½ Lamb with Tsatsiki Sauce. Andy has a weird love for trying different kinds of meat so I would have thought that he would have wanted to try something like kangaroo! (Yes they have kangaroo..WHAT THE HECK??!?!?!?!)
We ate the burgers with some parmesan French fries. They were pretty tasty.

Thankfully we split them!

Another picture of my humongous burger. It was really huge. It was great because it wasn’t at all greasy. I usually feel super full after eating a burger like this but it didn’t bother me.
So if you’re in San Diego and you’re in the mood for a burger; check out Crazyburger!
Crazyburger is located on
4201 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104-1311
Tonight was another dinner at Whole Foods while grocery shopping day. I’m watching Desperate Housewives and trying to figure out how I’m going to finish this last semester of school. I need to start observing our teachers in their classrooms, register for the master’s program and the credential program. It feels like way too much. I never thought I’d be planning a wedding, finishing school, working almost full-time and trying to lose weight all at once. YIKES. (Oh and did I mention that I’m trying to pay off all my debt by the time we get married?)
Things are going to get interesting around here for sure.