Wish.

Take me to Paris!

But first, maybe I should learn a bit of French...

...and save up $5000.

This UCLA student was on "Let's Make a Deal" yesterday afternoon and she won a trip to Paris worth $24k!!!  Accommodations are at a luxury hotel, and she got $5000 in spending money.  Lucky!

Viceroy - Palm Springs, CA

 

For the final stop in my streak of vacations, a few girlfriends from class and I went to The Viceroy hotel in Palm Springs to soak up the sun and relax before grad school starts.  I cannot believe we're starting our Masters program this week!

 

The first day was spent getting used to our accommodations--definitely not hard when you have 2 huge beds and a gorgeous room to hang out in!  We ate a late lunch at Citron (the in-hotel restaurant), and then hung out at the pool.  For dinner we ate Italian food at Kalura Trattoria.

 

@ Citron - picture taken by Louisa.

Turkey club croissant.

Late afternoon at the "Family" pool - picture taken by Louisa

Walking to dinner.  Perfect weather at night; however, unbearable during the daytime!

Eggplant ravioli

The next day we rode bikes to the main strip and ate breakfast at Pinocchio.  It had some interesting decor, but apparently it's been around forever so it has lasting power!

Getting ready to bike! - picture taken by Louisa.

We enjoyed some more pool time from 11 a.m. til dinner time - RIDICULOUS! 

To end the night we ate some Mexican food on the main strip, got ice cream at Rite Aid, and talked by the pool for hours!  What a great trip--can't wait to do another one soon!

The rest of Napa!

After visiting Castello di Amorosa, my friend and I went to the V. Sattui winery (owned by the same people who own Castello, apparently), Bouchon bakery, and Domaine Chandon.

Although we didn't drink any champagne at Domaine Chandon, we took lots of pictures!  We actually shared a bottle of their "Etoile" champagne with my friend's cousins the night before Napa, hehe.  It was quite delicious, and I'm not much of a champagne person.

 No, these mushrooms are not edible ;) - @ Domaine Chandon.

V. Sattui Winery - photo taken by me.

The V. Sattui winery was much smaller than Castello, but it had wine that was just as amazing!  In fact, I bought a bottle of their moscato.  We had a really nice picnic on their grounds and ate some really yummy food from their deli.  If you ever go, it's expensive, but it is good!

 Enjoying the food @ V. Sattui.

Enjoying the Moscato @ V. Sattui.

Although I had a really good experience at the Bouchon bakery in Vegas (yummy macarons and foccaccia), I was SO disappointed with the brioche bread pudding at the Bouchon bakery in Napa.  Their baguette was good, but come on, make bread pudding that actually has some bread in it! 

@ Bouchon Bakery.

Bread pudding with 90% raisins/baked grapes.

Despite the Thomas Keller FAIL, I had a really good experience in Napa and cannot WAIT to go back again!  Sadly that probably won't be for a while, but I can hope...

Castello di Amorosa - Napa, CA

Admiring the view while cradling my wine :)  [Picture taken by Marthie]

Napa was much better than I had imagined it would be!

Well, I knew it would be beautiful... but I'm not a big drinker since I'm a lightweight, so I thought I'd be bored out of my mind.  How wrong I was!

View from a tower of the castle.  All pictures were taken by me unless noted otherwise.

Our first stop was Castello di Amorosa, and not only was the castle beautiful, but the surrounding land was so picturesque we could not stop taking photos.  Plus, their wine was AMAZING!

[Picture taken by Marthie]

We took the official tour for $31, and it was so worth it (it included wine tasting).  Our tour guide David was friendly and very knowledgeable, and it was a good learning experience in terms of how wine is made and stored, and the general history of wine in Napa.

We were also able to go down into their caves and taste wine from the barrel.  It was NOT ready for drinking, though, haha.

If you ever decide to take a trip to Napa, add Castello di Amorosa to your itinerary!  It's a bit out of the way, but it is so worth it.

SF

After stopping in Solvang my classmate Marthie and I were verrry excited to be on our way to SF!

First on the agenda was Twin Peaks, a spot high atop a hill with the BEST 360 degree view of SF.  Well, it just so happened that we came to SF on the coldest, foggiest, gloomiest day that they've had all week (as told to us by a waiter).

Here's what we should have seen (via sftravel.com):

....and here's what we did see:

Despite the disappointing view, the crazy wind and fog were entertaining for the 10 minutes we spent up there taking pictures and avoiding being blown away.

Next was Blue in the Castro area.  They're known for amazing mac and cheese, and they did NOT disappoint!  It was probably one of the best mac and cheese dishes I've had, but it was atypical in that it was spicy.  I also had the meatloaf with mushroom and onion gravy.  Definitely not as good as the mac and cheese, but it wasn't bad.

Both foodie pictures are courtesy of my classmate Marthie!

After that, we walked around Castro a bit and saw Harvey Milk station and the infamous penis cookie shop, Hot Cookie.  The people we met were so friendly, I loved it!

Since parking was super expensive, we didn't stay too long and headed over to our last SF stop: Mitchell's Ice Cream!

Despite being run by an Italian person, they have VERY Asian-influenced flavors like jackfruit, ube, lilikoi, and other exotic choices.  Instead of being adventurous, I stuck with my all-time favorite choice: Oreo cookie ice cream.  This one was g-o-o-d!  [BTW, Mitchell's has a free parking lot with around 8 spots for customers!  LOVED it!]

Despite being such a short visit, it was the perfect amount of time to spend in SF since it was freezing and Marthie and I have already been to all of the other touristy places.

Next stop... Napa!

Solvang

This past week I had a little road trip/vacation with a classmate, and it was so fun!

Solvang Restaurant

Our first stop was Solvang so that we could buy some goodies for the person we were staying with up in the Bay Area.  We went to Mortensens Danish Bakery to get some danish butter cookies and a pastry, but we later realized that it's super overpriced there!  Pastries and cookies were at least a dollar more at Mortensens than other bakeries we visited (like Danish Mill Bakery).

Then, we walked around the "main" shopping area on Copenhagen and stopped by Red Viking to eat some aebleskiver.  It was cheaper at Red Viking than at Solvang Restaurant, but I'm sure they're equally as delicious.  I loved the raspberry jam they serve with the aebleskiver so I bought a container to use at home.

Photo of me courtesy of my classmate Marthie!

I was very excited to eat the aebleskivers!

I've been to Solvang before during their "Taste of Solvang" event, and I love it in Solvang!  The people are so sweet, the food is good, and the buildings are so quaint and adorable.  I didn't get to spend as much time in Solvang during this past trip, but I'm sure I'll make another pit stop there the next time I drive up to NorCal.

Next stop... SF!

Done!

Today was my last final for the summer.  I can't believe I'll be taking my first grad. school class in a few weeks!  It's been a fun journey getting here with the rest of my COMD cohort :)

Fall quarter is going to be hell, but at least I'll be able to commiserate with others.  One thing that I know will make school a bit easier is a new laptop.  After the first couple lectures this summer, I knew I needed a laptop so that I could take faster notes during class.  I was able to find a SUPER good deal on Amazon.com for an Apple MacBook (Apple MacBook MC516LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop), though.

I was going to get it through the Apple store originally, but on Amazon I was able to get the student discount automatically, free shipping with an Amazon Prime for students account, and NO TAXES!  So basically I saved like $100.  It's still expensive, but it'll help when I have to take copious amounts of notes in the graduate classes.  And it'll get me through boring breaks between classes :)

Can't wait for my upcoming vacations!  Seriously, people, comment with recommendations for places to eat and go to while I'm in SF, Napa, and Palm Springs!  I will appreciate it so much!

Life update.

I've been doing a LOT of fashion posts, so here's a personal one.

Summer classes have been stressful beyond belief!  As some of you know, I received my Bachelors in psychology in 2008 but have decided to switch to the area of communication disorders (COMD) to become a speech-language pathologist.

I just took my final for a cleft palate/CP/dysarthria class on Monday, but I barely studied for it since I was in Vegas for the 4 days leading up to it.  I drove back home on Monday morning and pretty much slept until I had to drive to class! 

My research class is all I have left, but thankfully I don't NEED to do well in it.  The rest of my grad. school cohort and I are SO over school, it's funny and sad at the same time.  We've only been taking 2 undergraduate classes this summer (albeit hard ones) and we want to die, and next quarter we're going to be taking 3 graduate level classes and 1 undergraduate class at the same time!  I think we're just unmotivated because we're already in grad. school and have been working our asses off getting straight "A"s the past year.  We deserve a break, right?

Some things to look forward to this fall (since school will suck):

• UCLA football - the BF and I always get season tickets, but our tailgating group is slowly dwindling as people move and go to grad. school.
• Cute fall clothes, hehe.  Like new boots!
• My birthday in October.
• Kacey coming back home from Japan for a little while!!  :)
• Going out drinking with classmates?  Yes, please?  We'll need it!

I planned two trips with classmates for the few weeks prior to Fall quarter.  San Francisco + Napa with one classmate, and Palm Springs with a few others.  My friend and I are planning on going to SF for one day and Napa for another.  I can't wait to eat at Blue in SF and visit a few select wineries up in Napa.  I'm SO mad that Ad Hoc will be closed when we're there, though.  Boo.

One of the Viceroy pools.

Any must-eat or must-do things in Palm Springs?  I've NEVER been as an adult so I have no idea where the hot spots are.  We're staying at the Viceroy and cannot wait to relax with drinks by the pool.  It's going to be amazing.