SUP in Santa Barbara

It's been a while since I've seen the Pacific Ocean, so it was time to pile my 3 friends into the little beetle and head to Santa Barbara.

We decided just hanging out on the beach wasn't enough, and we wanted to try something new. So, we decided to do one of the most Californian things we could think of, Stand Up Paddling (SUP)

We took off from the Santa Barbara harbor, which was nice and calm so we could practice standing. It was surprisingly hard to stand. There was a lot of focus involved.

There were plenty of distractions, especially all of the cool boats

Once we got it, it was time to head out into the open ocean. The waves were very choppy and a few of us ended up taking up planned dips in the cold water

But for the most part, it was a really great stress relief and quite the work out! We saw a seal playing in the water, and there were lots of boats going in and out of the harbor on the beautiful sunday afternoon.

We were exhausted by the time we got back. Luckily we realized that sitting and laying down on the board worked just as well.

And, as we were heading in...I saw a very familiar boat at the dock.

That's the Torqua, the yacht who saved my friend Tina back when we were at Catalina! Sadly no one was aboard.

Afterward large amounts of food were consumed, both tacos and ice cream.

My new friend

It was a quiet weekend in Bakersfield, and I didn't do very much other the. Laze around my apartment.

But I wasn't alone, I was hanging with my new friend

Meet my new bunny, Hermes! He is just two months old. 

A friend of a friend is a rabbit breeder and accidentally had some mixed breed babies that aren't desirable for his usual business, so he was giving away the mutts. 

So a quick trip to Petco to get him a home and some food, and Hermes was all mine.

He is a little skittish and scared in his new home. But he does let me hold him and pet him already. 

I'm so excited about finally having a pet to play with. Hopefully when he gets older and better trained I can let him run around a bit more. 

Night at the circus

Once again I'm learning the benefits of the corporate life, as I was lucky enough to get VIP tickets to Barnam and Baileys/Ringling Bros Circus thanks to nestle sponsorship. 

The tickets included all the perks you can imagine. Like hanging out with the ringmaster preshow 

Having fun trying on crazy costumes 

Getting free clown noses 

There were plenty of other perks, mainly hanging out with the performers for the two hours before the actual show. Some fun facts I learned

1. Over 1 million Swarovski crystals are hand sewn onto the costumes of every performer. The average price of a costume is $10,000. The ringmaster has a costume worth more then I make in a year.

2. They all live on a mile long train that includes a school for the performers kids

3. The performers represented over 30 nationalities and even more languages

4. One of the high wire acrobats was a 6th generation circus performer. Another was disowned by his family when he entered circus school 

Everyone was very interesting to talk to. The show itself was spectacular and worth of the "greatest show on earth" title. 

Naturally one of the best parts was the elephants 

And the 16!!! Tigers

Some other acts included the clowns, high wire, bungee trapeze, a mermaid acrobat act, motocross, trampolines and so much more. I had a fantastic time and it was fun to share with my coworkers.

While sometimes I hate the corporate life, perks like free circus VIP tickets make it a little better :) 

Back on the road

Barely home 24 hours and I'm off again. Spending a few days up in the Bay Area with my favorite marketing people....

Boston day 3- Sunday

It was another beautiful day in Boston on Sunday, and once again Kim and I were put and about early to get to SoWa, the south Boston vintage/farmers market with food trucks. It's only on Sunday's, and Kim had never gone.

It was full of awesome food, jewelry, paintings, clothing, you name it.

But the best part was the street of food trucks 

We ended up getting gourmet grilled cheeses called the Green Muenster.

They were very delicious and fueled up through our wandering and shopping.

It was very hot though, I did not miss east coast humidity 

Our next stop was yet another famous Boston brewery, Harpoon brewery. (visiting them is really Kim and Is favorite activity) 

Sadly the tour was sold out for the day, but we still were able to sample

After all our adventuring we were hungry, and I have been craving pizza a lot lately. Luckily Boston delivered on solid pizza 

I'm very sad the weekend was short but glad I got to do so much and see Kim for the first time in 8 months. But now it's back to California and real life! 

Boston day 2 - Saturday

Kim didn't have work on Saturday, but we still woke up early to get our Boston adventures going!

First stop, Sam Adams brewery! And yes mom, we went at 10am and that's early to start drinking, but we were told the tour always gets sold out and we needed to get their early.

The tour was similar to many of the breweries I've been to. Interestingly, this location was solely for research and their commercial beer is actually made in PA now. 

Those are some hops in my hand. Naturally the best part of the tour was the sampling at the end. They had just released octoberfest beer so we had that, their Boston lager, and a new variety that is a limited edition

Overall, a very cool brewery and it was fun seeing a bigger brewery, since most of the tours I've gone on are small craft ones

As you can see, we were both decked out in our Phillies and penn state clothes, since both teams were paying that day. And wouldn't you know it, the Phillies were playing in Boston! So our next stop was Fenway park 

Sadly, the Phillies were massacred 9-2 and played horribly, but we still had fun and Fenway is one of my favorite stadiums 

For someone that gets easily bored by baseball, I sure have been going to a lot of games lately...

After the game we were exhausted, and went to grab dinner at the Boston Market. The best part was dessert, a maple bacon donut 

Then we relived our college days a bit, with a Netflix night in. 

Boston Pt 1 - Friday

While I love California with it's golden beaches and endless hiking trails, occasionally I do need a break from its perfection. Luckily, with all my travel for work I have gotten a lot of frequent flyer miles that I was able to convert into a trip to Boston to visit my best friend from college, Kim.

I took a super fun red eye flight and arrived in the city bright and early on Friday. Kim lives halfway between Harvard and MIT in a very nice area with beautiful old houses that have been converted into apartments. 

Sadly, Kim had to work on Friday, as she just started her year in City Life, where she works in school to help struggling students and do other service activities. She only had a brief break for lunch, but other then that I was on my own.

Luckily I've become a very accomplished adventurer. I started wandering toward downtown Boston when I stumbled upon the famous Freedom trail.

This red brick trail goes from famous landmark to famous landmark, and is super easy to follow. It was a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon and get my FitBit steps in (23,000 that day!!)

It took me to many interesting places like Boston Commons

And Samuel Adams grave 

Paul Revere's grave

A lot of street performers 

The Old North Church

And all the way up to Little Italy, where I got some famous canollis 

I really miss good Italian food in California, so getting a good cannoli was extra special 

Which of course I shared with Kim when she got out of work.

At night we went to get ice cream from a artisan shop because I always like trying flavors we don't make (ovaltine and burnt caramel, awesome combination)

After that we went and hung out at some MIT bars. I expected to hear lots of intelligent conversations going on, but the MIT bars sounded no different then the Penn State bars. All college kids are the same I guess.

Dodgers Game

While the corporate life sometimes gets me down, I also love the benefits of working for a big company, like free sporting events! 

We all had a half day on Tuesday so we could drive down to Los Angeles for a Dodgers-Giants baseball game. 

First stop was Griffith Park for hanging out and exploring the observatory, which I had been to before. Still love the view of a smoggy downtown LA though.

Next, since we are all Ice cream makers, we had to go to a local artesian place to check out what they are doing. I went with a Nutella bar

It was very delicious, though easily more calories then I usually eat in ice cream.

Next up was the historic Dodgers stadium, executive club entrance 

The game was really good, with the two best pitchers in the game right now (according to Chris) facing off. Plus being in a box with a server bringing you anything you want for free helps improve the game a lot.

Overall we had lots of fun, and were glad to escape the office for a day! 

San Diego again!

Now that I have been in California for a while, I have been able to develop my favorite places. And that means I can go revisit my favorite places....like San Diego!

So it was time to pack the car with my new friends and head down south. 

The first night we stayed with friends in Hollywood and went out to a club that was just as over the top as you would imagine a Hollywood club would be. Interesting, but not worth the $18 drinks.

The next day was early rising and heading down to La Jolla for some relaxing beaching

The water was perfect and the sun was just hot enough to be comfortable. The sand here also has that golden look to it thanks to mineral deposits, and San Deigo still has the most beautiful beaches I've seen.

We went walking along the cliffs and were able to make some new friends

It was a perfect beach day, and we all got a little too much sun 

At night we went out to the gas lamp district to the famous San Diego bars. Between the four of us we represent Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State...and some how we all found fellow alumni from our schools. Even in California, I can always find a fellow nittany lion! 

The trip back to reality and Bakersfield was as sad and tiring as it always is. 

Back to Maryland!

Nothing to report this weekend as Saturday was spent catching up on all the errands I have been avoiding for weeks (yay being an adult)

And Sunday was spent flying to Maryland for another plant trial!

Look at the view of the Rockies from 30,000 ft