Favorite Places & Things.

I do believe that we take things for granted. Whether the things that we take for granted are tangible or not.... we forget to be grateful, we forget to appreciate, and overall forget to enjoy.

8.) Enjoy my Favorite Places, Things & People.



What would I do without these two people in my life? They help balance all aspects of my life. Not to say that I don't have other close friends in my life, but Jessica & Lourdes mean the world to me. I love them, and know that they love me too.


Our pool at our complex. Something about it was so inviting and comfortable. I loved the pool, hot tub, and fire pit areas. I felt at home here.


Our weekly home-made meals. I think it's important to splurge at least once a week on good food, good wine, and of course good desserts ;) What's life worth without splurging? We work hard to splurge once in a while, right?


I'll miss all of the amazing foliage. Before we left, Joseph was able to pick out all of these succulents and arrange them beautifully. Love it.


The awesome "regulars" at my job. Sheila, if you are still reading my blog, I miss you and am so grateful to have met you. Let me know when you roll through the Chicago-area. The champagne was amazing. Thank you!


Walking around the East Village after a fabulous meal at Cafe Chloe ;)


Going out with friends downtown. I still haven't been anywhere that compares to the nightlife in San Diego. I love and miss it already.


The caviar custard at Cafe Chloe. Uhhh, SO delicious.


Ok, fine. EVERYTHING about Cafe Chloe ;)

Sheila. Thank you for the weekly bouquet of "Just Joey" roses from your garden. They were so beautiful and fragrant. I have yet to find a Just Joey bush, but when I do, I will be sure to buy it and blog about it :)

The Beach.

Living in San Diego, you would think that we'd be going to the beach EVERYDAY. It may have started out that way but it quickly faded (for me anyway...) You get caught up in work and your every day routine that you forget to make time to get out there.

We lived within walking distance to the San Diego Harbor so we never forgot the water was there but you get used to seeing it everyday and forget to really stop and appreciate it.

7.) Go to the beach... one last time.

Del Mar Beach

I personally had never been to this specific beach but my friend Erin from work would always come here and wanted to us to go. It was a beautiful day... so why not?!

I really like the natural beauty of this picture... maybe its the bright color of the moss against the cool slate color of the sand?


Joseph really is a great photographer in my opinion, but I guess my opinion is skewed. I wish he could see how good he is at it.


Snapshot: Friends.


We've grown a lot together...


San Diego and California, in general, has a lot of natural beauty... but I guess every place does.


Joseph, always trying to explore new things!


We walked and walked until the sun was about to set. It was quite beautiful.


As I sit here today, putting together this post, I am reminded of how much I secretly loved San Diego. Yes, I bitched and moaned about how expensive it was and how far away all of our close friends and family were... but I made some life-long friends in San Diego and had my own little version of a "family"... yes you all know who you are :)

Massage.

For my birthday I received a fabulous gift card to the Spa at the luxurious Se Hotel for a massage. I hadn't used it because I was hoping for the perfect day that I could just have a relaxing day, but working in management, that rarely happens.

6.) So I decided to pick a day before our trek across the country!

Se Hotel Spa

The hotel itself is beautiful and it has an awesome restaurant too, Suite & Tender. The spa is on the 3rd floor and I was greeted with a drink before my massage.


I wasn't in the waiting area long, but I wish it was my living room. Plush sofas, relaxing feel, and overall a place to just get away from the noisy city.


I was shown into my "room" or bungalow.


The massage itself was SO intense. I was very sore after he was done. I got a deep tissue and I'm not kidding you, I was on the verge of tears...


But after he was done, my body felt so relieved. And I got to take a steam shower. I don't think that I had ever taken one but it was hot and steamy and just relaxing. Loved it. If you've never been here, try it. Expensive, but worth every penny for the experience.

Seaworld.

Is it strange that I had never been to a Sea World before? Sure my parents took us to Disneyland, Disney World, and Universal Studios but never Sea World. I didn't think it was weird, quite frankly I never felt like I needed to go but....

5.) We added it to our list of things to do!

Sea World.


I found a coupon online that took $25 off the ticket price, score! The day we planned to go was a beautiful day and our friend Shannon decided to ditch work and come too (her family was in town too so they were all excited to go)


First stop, sea-lions! Some were being all crazy and fighting while others were sun bathing and relaxing.


We went under these underwater tunnels to see all of the different kinds of sharks.


Scary!


Later, we found a show to go to. It was called Blue Horizons... "where dolphins fly and birds come come to life.." or something like that ;)

It was actually a really cool show. It was extra cool since I was kind of tipsy. I love that amusement parks serve alcohol, especially if you're taking your kids.... I'd go crazy!


They had people dressed up as different kinds of birds and would do all sorts of tricks with the dolphins.


We saw a lot of sea life. The Shamu Show show was pretty cool too but I didn't get any pictures of it. We also didn't get to sit close because it was packed, which was okay because the front rows all got soaked!

It was really fun :)

Flower Gardens.

Have you ever heard of the Carlsbad Flower Fields? Well apparently Joseph had because we kept checking on the status of the flowers at the flower fields!

4.) Visit the Flower Fields of Carlsbad

Beautiful Renuculus, eh??

I think this was by far my favorite! I don't know why, but I just thought it was beautiful.

Awww, little Josie!

They had the most amazing variety of renuculus flowers.

We had someone try to capture the natural beauty of the gardens. Mission accomplished? Maybe not?!

I just LOVED this picture (taken by Joseph Wanek)!

Not sure how far the gardens stretched, but it had to have been a LONG way.

They had a beautiful selection of orchids....

...and roses, and different hybrids of poinsettias! Even some that the general public hasn't even seen! If you haven't been, I highly recommend it, everything was beautiful. I was looking for the "Just Joey" rosebush that I am familiar with, but they didn't have it :(

If you happen to run across it, I'm sure you won't be disappointed at all. The blooms are a beautiful Orange hue and the scent is intoxicating. Let me know if you find it.

Paragliding.

About (2) years ago, I bought Joseph a Gift Certificate to go paragliding off of the La Jolla Cliffs. A year went by and he never got around to doing it, but having less than a month to get it done, we consistently checked the winds to get drive up and do it.

3.) Go Paragliding


I'm not sure if Joseph was nervous, as he's gone ski diving and hang gliding, among various other dangerous things.


It didn't take long for the instructor to get both of them all strapped in.


Within a matter of seconds, the kite was lifted off the ground.
(I stayed on ground to document, of course)


Off, off, and away!


Their photographer caught some of these awesome pictures.

He had a lot of fun and said it was beautiful up there. Pretty cool way to say goodbye to one of his favorite places in SD.

Runner.

I've never been much of a runner.... more of a jogger?? In other words, I hate to work-out. But after living downtown San Diego and having a city full of restaurants and bars to go to often and all within walking distance... I gained some weight! Not to mention that I worked full-time at a bakery.... SO....

2.) Try to lose weight before leaving SD

After our trip from Hawai'i I ran out to the mall and bought some running shoes, gave up drinking for a couple of weeks, went on a high-protein diet, and starting running. Did I reach my goal? You'll see later ;)

But seriously, don't those running shoes make you want to run to show them off!

Sprinkles.

After deciding to move back to Des Moines (for various reasons), we made a list of things that we had to do, places we had to see, and things we had to eat before leaving the Golden Coast. The several posts will be a compilation of what I remembered to actually document :)

1.) Eat as many cupcakes at Sprinkles, as possible (Joseph's request)



For those of you who haven't heard Sprinkles, they are pretty much the people who started the cupcake craze all over the U.S. They started out in a little boutique in Beverly Hills and have been expanding since getting national attention.


Their design and cupcakes are simple.


Once they became a hit, they started producing their own cupcake mix line. (I haven't tried making them but I'm sure they don't compare to the real thing)


Cute packaging, right?!


Yumm! Joseph is obsessed with red velvet and I with chocolate, but they have so many flavors, all offered at different parts of the day. Have a Sprinkles close to you?? It's worth a visit :-)