things that make me smile

With the appearance of a FedEx tag on my front door, today became my favorite day in September -- Season Ticket Box of Goodies Arrival Day!

Not only did I get another "Luc Robitaille-Authenticated" container of melted ice that the LA Kings won the Stanley Cup on, but I got my discount card and all my tickets, which are awesome!

The Kings went all out on the season ticket books this year! Not only is every player (not just the long-contracted stars) on a ticket (I guess that means no one is getting traded this year :p), but every ticket has a different photo of Stanley Cup Championship happiness on it and the special games have special tickets. 

This is my favorite ticket :) 

(Glad they used a photo of him sticking out his tongue! Haha)   

things that make me smile

This being played at the Hollywood Bowl on Labor Day weekend :)



I also love seeing this every year when the Star Wars theme is played. (But one note to many of the lightsaber-carrying audience members in attendance Friday night: The theme from "Superman" is not a "Star Wars" song ;) 

butterflies and dinosaurs and german fries - oh my!

So this past week a bunch of my friends had birthdays (HBD Niki, Dayna, Jodie, Shane, Barrett, anyone else I forgot), but only one (hi Katharine) decided her friends needed an educational experience as part of her celebration ;) 

So last Sunday, friends of Princess Katharine got up early, cursed slow people in the Starbucks drive-thru in front of them (ok, that was just me) and trekked down to the Natural History Museum to walk first amongst butterflies in the soon-to-close Butterfly Pavilion and then amongst dinosaurs and bunches of stuffed creatures auditioning for Night at the Museum 3. 

A lot of photos were, of course, taken... especially of pretty butterflies:

Then, inside the museum, this question was posed:

Well, this is the belly of a reeeeallllly big dinosaur suspended from the ceiling:

And these are two dinosaurs about to attack each other (well, if they were still alive ...)

Other important questions were also posed in the museum:

 and 

...but the exhibits there were real human skulls and stuffed real animals, which creep me out. So no photos of that. Sorry.

Instead, let's move onto lunch.

We were going to go to uber-hotspot-of-the-moment Eggslut in the Grand Central Market in downtown LA, but the line was half the length of the market (long-ways).

So instead we explored and got a variety of yummy stuff. I ended up at Berlin Currywurst, where I had a delish medium-heat brat, and german (don't dare call them french) fries:












Then we relived the birthday girl's childhood and got ice cream at McConnell's Fine Ice Creams. I, of course, had my fave: mint chocolate chip. It was delish!

wine and cheese and jalepenos - oh my gawd!

In today's series of new-to-me places to hang out with good food and fun people, I present On the Thirty, a wine bar in Sherman Oaks, tucked into that super-busy strip mall between Van Nuys and Kester on Ventura Blvd. (You know, the one with the Lazer Tag place upstairs.) 

The atmosphere was fun and casual, and our waitress (who's name I can't remember) was awesome with wine recommendations, if not so awesome with remembering to bring everything we ordered (Umm... love the bacon-wrapped dates, but where are my truffle fries?!?) 

I was, however, impressed with our "mix & match" cheese & meat plate. You can choose a combo of 3, 5 or 7 meats and cheeses. We ordered two meats and told her what types of cheese we liked, then the "chef de fromage" selected three cheeses to compliment the meats. What you see below was the final result -- with olives, almonds, drizzles of honey and a side of jalepenos! Why have I never thought to have jalepenos with my non-nacho-plated cheese?!? Delish!

The only downside to the experience (other than having to ask where my truffle fries were) was the price tag. Eating lots of "small plates" (vs an entree) adds up quick. (Remember that if you go to Bottega Louie downtown. You've been warned.) 

It's much cheaper to go to Trader Joe's and copy the photo below... which I've done. So I would therefore like to thank On the Thirty for ruining my psuedo healthy summer eating plan. Since visiting this place, I've had wine, cheese, salame, crackers and jalepenos for dinner at home like four times recently. Ugh. Cheese is sooo good, but soooo bad. ;)

m street kitchen is mmmmm!

I ventured over the hill a few weeks ago for an early Sunday dinner in Santa Monica and discovered a delish new (at least to me!) spot on Main Street called M Street Kitchen. 

Located about two blocks up from the beach, it's got a comfy wrap-around patio if you want to sit outside (that's dog-friendly!) and has great happy hour specials from 4-6:30pm each day. We arrived early enough to order their yummy $3 sangria and guacamole as an appetizer before chowing down on this yumminess for dinner and dessert :)

Scottish Salmon with moroccan spices, artichoke hearts, chickpeas, tzatziki and arugula

Brussell sprouts salad with manchego cheese, almonds, berries and mustard vinaigrette

Warm chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream 

Then to work off the chocolate chip cookie, we walked down to the beach to check out the sunset... but being the west side, the cloud cover was already rolling in and kinda ruined the view... oh well. :)

words of wisdom

weekend morning hiking club

This summer, a few friends and I have decided to get back to working out outside, so we started a weekend morning hiking club (#wmhc :p) and have spent the last few Sunday mornings hiking two spots that were new to me, but still close to home.

If you have any recommendations for new trails to try, please leave them in the comments! 

Griffith Park / The Old LA Zoo

What I Like About This Hike: 

- Easy parking up the hill from the Griffith Park Carousel

- Not a lot of people, especially once you get past the Old Zoo/picnic area

- A good workout: We went two miles up to a "landing" area at the top of one of the fire roads which had some tough inclines along the way, reminiscent of the not-evil side of Runyon. So the total hike was four miles-ish (we walked in some big circles at the top and bottom to get to that nice number. LOL ;)

- Great views of both the Burbank/Glendale area as you ascend ...

...and the Silver Lake Reservoir and Downtown LA once you get to the top:

What I Don't Like About This Hike: 

- Not much shade at all once you leave the Old Zoo area.

- The Old Zoo is creepy.

Studio City/Fryman Canyon*

(*unofficial name.. the Betty B. Dearing trail in Wilacre Park is the official name.. I think)

What I Like About This Hike: 

- Easy parking either in the pay lot at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Fryman Road OR free in the neighborhoods around Laurel Terrace Dr. 

- Not a ton of people It's a busy trail, but nothing like Runyon.. and while dogs are allowed, this trail doesn't have the eternal odor of dog poo that Runyon has.

- The incline is right at the beginning, so you get your heart rate up first thing and can then chat, chill and enjoy the views the rest of the way.

- Lots of shade so you don't feel like the sun is trying to personally defeat you like I sometimes do after a few hills at Runyon. And the end of the trail dumps you out on a residential cul-de-sac where you can do your cool down on paved, shady streets while admiring lovely houses and picking up new landscaping ideas ;) 

What I Don't Like About This Hike: 

- It's only 3 miles. I love everything else about this hike, so I wish it was longer... although that is about the same length of the Runyon loop on the stairs side. (I don't think I will be fighting the parking and dog poo at Runyon again anytime soon... can you tell? ;)