All caught up

Alright I am all caught up on my adventures!!! I may be quiet the next two weeks, as I'm on my way to Hawaii for a week!!! Get excited for a big post soon....

Mt.Baldy

Through my multiple hiking trips and just living in California, I have heard about several legendary hikes that anyone who calls themselves a hiker needs to tackle. This weekend, it was time to start with the easiest one...a mere 6 mile hike to 10,000 feet...Mount Baldy

It's called Mount Baldy because there is approximately zero coverage from trees on the top of the mountain. The trail we did was called The Devil's Backbone and it was a grueling uphill battle in 92 degree, no cloud sun.

We did our best to keep spirits up, but it was brutal 

We finally reached the summit at noon, and I pretty much collapsed from joy and exhaustion

After lunch and a quick nap, I felt awesome! Especially looking down at what I had climbed 

 Being 10,000 feet above the world was pretty cool. But it was way too hot up there, so it was time to head back down.

Luckily halfway down, we came across the greatest thing ever....a ski lift we could take the rest of the way 

The total hike was just over 10 miles, and it was easily the hardest I've ever done. But I'm glad I was able to defeat the mountain. I can't wait to take on the next one!

The weekend wasn't over, and despite my burning muscles, the next day my friends talked me into doing an escape room.

Basically the way it works is you get locked in a room (and in our case chained to a wall) and you need to solve puzzles to get out.

We did a puzzle that had a 17% success rate, and not only did we escape...we had the 3rd fastest time!

Guess it helps that we are all scientists!

San Diego Bar Tour

The unfortunate thing about my current friend group is it is made up of interns and people who are rotational programs...and sadly this was their last weekend in California for several of them. But instead of being sad, we decided to celebrate our good times with a trip to the ultimate California party town: San Diego

It was a new record for us, with 15 nestle kids making the trip south! Luckily we booked 3 hotel rooms to spread it out a bit. 

We really didn't do much all weekend other than laze on the beach all day, getting tan and relaxing 

The water was very cold, especially when it hits you mid picture. 

We did a small bit of exploring, mostly little Italy for the food 

The main reason we were there was for Gaslamp district. Our plan was to hot as many bars as possible, without losing anyone along the way

Overall we hit 9 bars in one night. It was a very diverse group, starting in a swanky roof top bar, going to a dive Irish pub, to a tequila bar, to a hip hop club, to a old fashioned 20s bar, to a honky tonk country bar. Through all of this, all 15 of us stuck together

We all had a great time on our last hurrah together for a long time. We woke up the next morning very tired, but the adventuring didn't stop there!

We had to drop some of the LA kids off on our way home, so we took the time to do some touristy things in the art and museum district 

Mostly we just goofed around in the art

And tried to take the coolest pictures 

We also stopped by the Le Brea tar pits to see if we could find some fossils 

We didn't find any, only fake ones

It was sad saying good bye to so many people, but I know we will all find each other again!

Mom visits! Pt 4 San Fransisco

Once we were nice and full of wine (well not me since I was driving) we headed down to the Foggy city.

Of course we had to do the big tourist thing and see the bridge

It was cool seeing it from the across the bay. As you can probably tell, it was very windy up there!

Monday morning we had a little time to explore the city, so we headed to Golden Gate State Park. Luck for us, the rose gardens were in full bloom

Since I'm a big tea drinker, we headed over to the Japanese gardens to grab some Matcha tea and check that out as well

Being that we were in San Fransisco, we also had to go get some delicious sushi

After that we strolled around the botanical gardens a bit. But my allergies quickly got out of control and it was time to head home.

Overall, a really great mini vacation! Hopefully mom had as much fun as me. Sadly, after 4 days it was time to make the 4 hour drive home back to the real world.

Mom visits! Pt 3 More Napa!

I'm Sunday morning of Mom's visit we had to wake before dawn for my bday present to Mom: a hot air balloon ride over Napa during the sunrise!

I had never been in a hot air balloon, so I was pretty excited to try it. Added bonus that it was over such a beautiful scenery.

There were about 10 balloons in the sky, which made for a ton of great pictures

It was a very peaceful and relaxing hour flight. The ballon driver was a really interesting guy with stories of engagements, weddings, rescued balloons, and more.

The most impressive part to me was the landing. They maneuvered these giant balloons perfectly into tiny landing spots

When we landed, it was time to hit the wineries again. Through recommendations we found out about a castle winery. Of course we had to visit that!

It was a legit castle, built by a guy with too much money who had an obsession with European castles and wine. 

The castle had everything, from a moat to a drawbridge to a torture chamber!

And of course, lots of wine

After a quick lunch, we went to our final winery, Rombauer

This winery was up on a hill and was gorgeous. They had pretty good wines as well. One thing I noticed was that Napa really loved their Cabernets. 

After Rombauer, we were pretty done with wineries. So it was time to head south to San Francisco...

Mom visits! Pt 2 Napa Valley

The next day mom and I changed gears from the rugged outdoors to the finery and luxury of Napa Valley. As a wine lover, I have been wanting to take a trip to Valley since I turned 21

We quickly learned that we should have had some sort of plan, as the wineries need reservations and such, but we had pretty good luck winging it.

First up, we went to Charles Krug, the oldest winery on Napa 

The coolest part definitely their giant barrel room

Next up was the famous Beringer

Mom was very obsessed with the house on the property. It was beautiful, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long because we had a reservation at what become my favorite place, Prager Port works

Port has become one of my favorite alcohols, so I was excited for this stop. The place was very different, more rustic and relaxed compared to the rest of Napa. Mr. Prager himself was pouring the port, and was quite the old fashioned hippie. Everything we drank was delicious, especially the White Port which I didnt into even know existed!

Mom was doing her usual of talking to everyone, and through that we met a Scottish couple who happened to work for a winery down the road, BV (can't remember what that stood for) they gave us their card so we decided to try it out

Turns out those cards got us to a free reserve wine tasting in the club members room. Very swanky.

That night we grabbed a nice dinner and went to bed, because I had an early morning surprise for Mom....

Mom visits! Pt. 1 Yosemite

Yes yes I know I haven't updated in a while! Things have been crazy I can't believe it's already July! But since my plane is delayed 5 hours, I thought it would be a good time to update the blog (I hear there have been some complaints)

I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since Mom visited me. Hopefully I remember everything!

It was hard to find things in California that Mom hasn't done yet, but luckily she had yet to visit my new favorite place in California...so it was time for another trip to Yosemite!

It was just as beautiful as I left it. We started out Glacier Point, which had been snowed in the last few times I had gone. 

That's the amazing Half Dome behind us, which I hope to climb one day. I got to scare Mom a lot with my love of sitting and standing on the edge of cliffs while we were there

That waterfall I'm looking out at is the one that my friends climbed a month earlier.

Mom also got to experience the scariest thing I've seen while hiking. We were on a trail when we heard something ahead of us. We looked up and saw an enormous bear heading right toward us! We quickly turned and went the other way, and he lumbered away. I regret not getting a picture but I wasn't about to stick around!

Next we headed down to the valley to see Yosemite falls, this time for me to get a view of the lower part of it 

Mom got some wilderness pictures too!

Overall, another great trip to the best national park in California! I probably won't return this summer because it's too busy, and I will miss it a lot