travel

San Diego Day 2

by
We took a guided tour through the streets of San Diego on one of those old school busses.

Started off by driving thorough the Gaslamp Quarter, my favorite part of the town.

The view of downtown San Diego from the bridge over to Coronado Island.

One of many museums in Balboa Park.

Back to the Gaslamp District.

Stone Brewing co.

by
I love the Stone Brewing Company and was super excited to visit the brewery in Escondido!
We got there early and had time for a beer out on the patio before the tour of the brewery. 

San Diego

by
We rolled into San Diego this afternoon for a short get-away.

My first time in San Diego and I fell in love with the city right away!

I thought I took a lot more photos, but it seems like I was busy just soaking up the atmosphere.

Solvang Day 2

by
Since we had an early night last night, we got up bright and early for breakfast and a stroll around town.
 
Solvang is a Danish town in Santa Barbara County that was founded 100 years ago.   
I have been to Denmark many times, and to Solvang a couple of times before, but I am yet to figure out what these little houses are. They look like small bird houses, but I’m pretty sure they are not… 

We were only gonna have breakfast, take a stroll around town and then head back home when we walked by the Lucas & Lewellen tasting room and this sign;

I dont think anyone of us was really feeling it, it wasnt even noon yet, but the “buy one case and get an additional case for 1 cent” was really tempting!
But we couldnt buy a two cases of wine without tasting it first!

The wine was not good enough to buy a full case, but the lady pouring our wine told us to go to the Mandolina tasting room down the street.
We liked that wine better, so we bought a couple of cases!

We had to pay a last visit to a bakery while waiting for our wines to get ready.

Solvang

by
We drove up to Solvang to have a relaxing weekend with lots of wine! Our first stop was Gaineys Vineyard, 
 

We were told Gainey was one of the first wineries that open up in the Santa Ynez Valley, we thought it was a little too commercialized for us. The wine was ok, but we were not that impressed and none of us bought any wines.

We had only planned to visit one vineyard and then just hit the tasting rooms in Solvang, but since we were a little disappointed with Gainey, we decided to hit up one more vineyard. The first one we saw was Buttonwood Farm.
Buttonwood had a totally different feel from Gainey, they were super busy but it was a warm, cosy and welcoming atmosphere. 

The Sauvignon Blanc was really good, and I think I will visit this place again!

Once back in Solvang, we visited Carivintas Winery’s tasting room. There were nothing wrong with the wine, but the tasting room itself was a little annoying. I like the idea of allowing the dogs in the tasting room, but I didnt like the art on the walls or the labels, and it seemed like the girl pouring our wines have had one too many, and not in a charming way.

We had some time before dinner and stopped by one last tasting room; Dascomb Cellars. We all loved this place from the moment we walked through the door. Sofas, comfy chairs, fireplace and Trivial Pursuit questions on the tables. I bought a bottle of the 2008 Dascomb Roussanne, and the 2005 Port from East Valley Vineyard was Ah-mazing! I’m usually not a big fan of port wines, but it was served with raspberry chocolate that we let melt in our mouths while sipping on the port. My friend got me a bottle and the raspberry chocolate to go with it, since it is my birthday week. Yay!

There isn’t much to do in Solvang after 10pm, so we headed back to our hotel early.

My Sister is Here!

by
Ever since they booked their tickets, I’ve been super excited for this day! Then a storm rolled in over America and they shut down the airport in Chicago for two days. If it would have been me traveling, either me or my luggage would have been lost somewhere along the way, cos it always happens to me. But their connecting flight was scheduled to get into Chicago two hours after they open up the airport, so they made it through with no problem at all – they were actually a little early touching down in LA! 
AND they bought chocolate!
 

10 days worth of breakfast!

My Sister is Here!

by
Ever since they booked their tickets, I’ve been super excited for this day! Then a storm rolled in over America and they shut down the airport in Chicago for two days. If it would have been me traveling, either me or my luggage would have been lost somewhere along the way, cos it always happens to me. But their connecting flight was scheduled to get into Chicago two hours after they open up the airport, so they made it through with no problem at all – they were actually a little early touching down in LA! 
AND they bought chocolate!
 

10 days worth of breakfast!

11 Things to do in 2011

by

I’ve set up a list of things that I want to have accomplished by the end of 2011;

  1. re-design my website www.popnea.com. Not sure how, just know that I want an update.
  2. read 5 books. I am not a very good reader, and I usually get restless and don’t finnish the book. I think it’s been 5 years since I read a book.
  3. run three 5k’s. I enjoy running, but I’m lazy. This will keep me motivated to get out and run throughout the year. My goal is to run a 5k under 30 minutes, it doesn’t have to be this year though.
  4. visit a city in the US that I have not previously been to. Time to get to know the rest of America!
  5. go to 5 concerts (just go to the local pub or go see some friend of a friends band play does not count). I used to go see a lot of bands, then I moved to the US and I stopped, now I want to get back into it.
  6. camp out. I don’t know why I put this up here. I’m gonna be freaked out by the wilderness.
  7. stay up and watch the sunrise. This is another stupid thing on the list. I have stayed up to see the sunrise before, but I guess it’s gonna be done again.
  8. visit Catalina Island. An island 20 something miles southwest of LA, it’s supposed to be beautiful.
  9. take a beginners class in Spanish. After 5 years in southern California, it’s time to learn the language! Habla?
  10. visit 5 museums I have not been to. There’s a lot of interesting museums out there!
  11. volunteer for a soup kitchen. It’s time to give back!

Day Two at the Summit

by

A new day at the summit, yesterday was a lot about SEO – Search Engine Optimization, in a nutshell how search engines like google and yahoo will find your page. Today was more about web design, and why design matters, as well as marketing.


There were a bunch of sessions throughout the day and they had different candy for each sessions. Hershey Kisses in the yahoo colors was for one of the sessions.

Yahoo! Merchant Summit

by

Came home around 10pm last night, had to get my things together and jump into bed so I could head back to the airport at 7am so I could catch a flight up to San Jose.

Since we are using Yahoo! for our store at work, my boss thought it was a good idea for me to attend the Yahoo! Merchant Summit.
I like to spread my stuff out, and I got a bunch of crap from Yahoo! that I could spread out on my bed!