Snow cupcakes!

It was a cold, rainy weekend in Southern California, so naturally all shut down and nobody wanted to do anything. We channeled that lack of activity into the movies and just relaxing for once, so not much to report. However, I did get some holiday baking in on Sunday!

Hopefully everyone at the office likes them!

And hopefully they enjoy my sign

California Science Museum

It was time for another trip to beautiful Los Angeles this weekend...although it's colder there then it is in New Jersey right now. 

As usual, we start our journey off with food. A random Yelp search led us to the "best burger in LA"

Yes, it was very sketchy. Yes, it was in Compton which is not the best part of Los Angeles for two girls in a blue beetle to be. Yes, the burgers were absolutely delicious and worth it.

After filling up on what had to be over a pound of burger and fries and southern sweet tea, it was time to head over the California Science Center. Though we have been to LA numerous times, we have yet to explore any of its free museums 

There were many cool things to see. Sometimes we were as excited as the little kids, but what do you expect from a scientist and an engineer? 

The highlights included:

A tiny, self efficient house

Since its in LA it's probably $3000 a month to live in this box. 

There were lots of animals 

(I touched these!)

Lots of things to play with...

And the reason we went, the space shuttle Endeavor

It's hard to tell from this picture, but it was huge! It's one of 4 space shuttles on display. My friend Agata has now seen (and touched) 3 of the 4. It was a really cool sight to see.

After a long day of science, we needed to refuel. Luckily we found the greatest donut shop ever 

Don't worry I only ate one. The second is for breakfast tomorrow. 

The drive home was long and stressful. There was this off phenomenon called rain the whole way home

The fog through the mountains was really bad. Not an enjoyable way to end the day but we made it! And just in time too, about half an hour after we passed it there were some mudslides in the middle of the mountain pass. But by then we were safe at home! 

Topanga State Park

I am not going to post about thanksgiving because I'm lazy and most of the people who read this were with me.

Instead I'll get back to my California adventures. This weekends road trip we headed to the warm and sunny coast to Malibu, and Topanga State Park

The goal of the day was to find and hike to the top of Eagle rock 

Luckily it was a mere 2.5 miles hike there. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees and the sky was blue. The top of the rock was very windy but very cool

It was 2000 feet above the valley and there was plenty of cool stuff to look at. I liked all the graffiti on it

We hung out for a while on the rock, taking goofy pictures and getting a little relaxation in.

But we weren't satisfied with just that, so we hiked back the 2.5 miles...and then hiked 3 more miles to an overlook that looked over all of Los Angeles

Luckily it was a beautiful day and we could see all the way to long beach and out to Catalina island. We had someone who had just moved to California, so it was a good way to show him the overview of LA. 

After that was another 3 miles hike back to the car. Our legs were burning by the end. But it was worth it!

After some well deserved dinner, we went to downtown Santa Monica to check out the swanky stores 

And of course hang out the pier 

And rest our tired feet!! 

Back in the Air

Off to Maryland again! At least this time I have some leg room

And don't worry, I'm able to fly post-scuba diving! I had to wait 18 hours and now it's safe :) 

Scuba Diving

So I have been quite the past few weekends, and it's been for a good reason: I've been in training. For the entire month of October I was in class to become a certified scuba diver!

Lots of boring class work and learning things in the pool. But this weekend was the final test: the ocean dives.

So it was back to my favorite place in California, Catalina island! This time to the dive park

We got there mid-afternoon on Friday and the island was as beautiful as usual.the other students and I rented a golf cart and zoomed around the island exploring town and the surrounding area

The sunsets on the island are spectacular 

It was early to bed and early to rise as we had our first dive at 7:30am. I was extremely nervous about all we had to remember and that the water was going to be freezing.

Lucky for me, the water was 75 degrees with 80ft visibility. And once I got underwater, all the fears were gone!

We had to do s lot underwater, from taking our masks off, to navigating with a compass, to "running out of air" and going through emergency drills. It was hard but fun!

And after we were done with the skills, we got to have fun. There were TONsof fish to see

My favorite are the garabaldi, the bright orange state fish of California 

They were everywhere

There were also some wrecks (too deep for me to get a good picture), lobsters, octopi, eels, and even a grave 

We ended up doing 4 dives in 2 days and I was exhausted. It's a lot more work then you think! But it was awesome. I have really good videos of the whole experience but I can't post them here. 

So I'm now officially a certified open water diver up to 60ft. And I'm starting to look at extending that to an advanced diver, but more to come on that later....

Halloween in Portland

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I decided I didn't want to spend it in Bakersfield again. So this year I decided to go up north to the Pacific Northwest for the first time

My mentor from work, Bridgett, and her husband moved up to Portland about 6 months ago. I have wanted to go to Portland forever due to the amount of craft breweries, hip spots, and amazing food.

But first and foremost, it was Halloween and we had to do costumes. This year I was hipster Belle from beauty and the beast

And Bridgett was Ariel and her husband was Aladdin. We went to a concert venue that was turned into a giant Halloween party for the night. There were tons of awesome and crazy costumes. The party was 80s themed so there was lots of great music. Between people watching and dancing, it was a blast.

The next day we woke up to the sound of heavy rain. But that didn't stop us from adventuring. First we went to a local farmers market for some brunch, the most amazing biscuits and gravy I ever had 

Bridgett took me on a tour of the city. It reminded me a lot of both Brooklyn and Boston. 

Bridgett knows how much I love to read so one of the places she took me was Powells City of Books. It was overwhelmingly amazing

Somehow I walked out with only two books.

We went back outside and it was pouring

And flooding

So we retreated into a brewery or two

We went to an awesome authentic German place for dinner. Since it was Halloween and all the streets were quickly becoming rivers, we spent the night watching scary movies and staying warm and dry in her apartment.

The next day we awoke to blue skies!!

We walked along the river and checked out a Sunday art fair going on. Since it was nice enough out, we were able to go to a local mansion that over looks the city

There was so much green! Next stop was the famous St.Johms bridge, a cool gothic style bridge.

Next, since we are food scientists on a constant mission...we got ice cream!

Those waffle cones were the best I d ever had. I had almond brittle with salted ganache, and Bridgett had sweet potato with candied walnuts. We make boring ice cream at work a lot, so it's fun to try weird combinations that can't be done for mainstream markets.

At night once again we ate way too much food, this time some warm and savory Vietnamese food to help us through the chilly night. 

The next day I took a trip down to Salem to tour the fruit processing facility of one of our vendors. Obviously I have no pictures because it's confidential, but I can say it was fascinating and delicious! 

And the. I went back to the beer tasting

So delicious.

The end of my trip was low key, with Bridgett cooking dinner while I played with her pets

Overall, a very fun and delicious trip. Despite the rain and the cold, I had a great time and want to go back to keep exploring the city!