International Summer

This summer, unbeknownst to me, has turned out to be quite the international affair.

In April, I resigned myself to staying in the boiling Arizona heat all summer. Though, I was planning on driving back to California for a friend's wedding, then I figured I'd keep going up north to my parents' house for a week or so.

Well, in came May and I found myself in Puerto Rico with Paul's family, practicing my Spanish and (re)discovering that I love fruity island cocktails.

Then, two days later, moved! And then, a week later, crashed my car and had to turn the title over to the towing company... Now taking public transit and seeing a therapist for my back post-accident (which was very minor, thank God), I quickly realized I'd need to book a flight to the wedding, and my parents' house, and also... Portland for a long weekend. Talk about being a blur, everything has happened so quickly this summer, I've barely had time to breathe. 

And then, a week after my accident, I got a call from my dad that my 103 year-old aunt in France passed away. My parents and aunt were planning on flying out to France the next day! By the end of the afternoon, I, too, suddenly owned a round-trip ticket to France leaving the following morning. I barely have had time to comprehend what has gone on this summer, but it's been a whirlwind.

We were able to attend the funeral in France and served as the only family present at the service. I got to practice my French a bunch, and picked up reading materials to use with my students in the fall. But more importantly, I got to speak (well, read a Psalm) at the Catholic funeral. It was beautiful and moving, as was the burial that followed. I am glad we all had the opportunity to go and be present. Ever since I was little, my family and I would go visit her every two years or so. That continued on until 2008, and unfortunately that was the last time any of us saw her. We waited four years too long to go back.

Another nice part of the trip was the amount of work some family friends put into the final arrangements. That gave us two days to get out and revisit some of our favorite spots in the South of France. My favorite part, however, was organizing all of our aunt's affairs and seeing everything she did in her lifetime. She had some amazing pictures, documents, travel brochures and trinkets.

I picked out two things I wanted to keep to remember. One is a scarf with her name on the back (standard procedure for the retirement home where she lived, and I fully intend on keeping it on the back!). I didn't realize until I unpacked at home that it was a Hermès. The other is a small, beautifully-decorated champagne box. It is smaller than a champagne bottle, but I think it might have been for corks, wine bottle openers or handkerchiefs? Either way, it is cute and serves as a nice paper/note holder on my desk in the French office. Something I can always look at and remember.

Even at 103, life is short. Cherish the time you have with your family. Even if you live on opposite ends of the globe. They're never less than a day away. And if you can, travel with your family! It's important and is something you'll never forget. 27 years later, I remember nearly every single trip I've ever taken with my family. And it's made me the person I am today; the girl who is living on one continent, and constantly dreaming about the next. I have every member of my family to thank for that, since they've shown me a deep appreciation for travel, family history, languages and the ability to move your family for the promise of a better future.

(P.S., I'm seriously learning German and plan on taking courses at ASU in the fall/spring)

"Nothing comes close to the Golden Coast"

I would quote Katy Perry.

I know I'm crazy slow/behind on this, but I've been majorly busy this past week. School's ending so my tutoring hours are up and the Dbacks are in the middle of a pretty big homestand, which means lots of hours on my part.

And it's hard to believe that April is GONE already! It feels like it was just my birthday yesterday... or three weeks ago. As quickly as that came and went, my sister and her boyfriend paid a visit to Arizona and we hung out for a long weekend. Doing a lot of this:

and also some of this on the side:

I'll spare you the gory details, but know that I am on a bit of a booze detox as we speak ;) Oh, the baseball is still raging though, seeing as how that's my job and all!

It just so worked out that my sister planned her flight home the same day I was considering going home for Easter! We took the same flight home and I had a few days to hang out with old friends and family. You know I spent my first night in the Bay Area attending an Oakland A's baseball game.

Then on Wednesday, I kept in contact with Courtney (Pancakes and Postcards) and we finally met up! It made sense seeing as how she just moved to San Francisco and I've called its suburbs home for the past 25 years.

We met up at La Mar Cebicheria, an interesting Peruvian restaurant on Pier 1.5. Due to a lack of planning on our part -- seriously though, how is anything in a big city closed after 6 p.m. on a weekday?! -- we had to settle for seating at the bar area. What's funny is how much we have in common, from where our families grew up to living abroad, to hating to take pictures of our food and only doing so with an iPhone. It was awesome and reminded me of how much I still miss California.

In case you're wondering, I had the ensalada tiradito, which consisted of the following: thinly sliced Tombo Tuna with mixed greens, green papaya, cilantro, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fried wontons and onions with a sesame passionfruit vinaigrette. Although my liver wasn't adventurous enough to try a the house Pisco sour, Courtney was. I opted for a milder, chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc instead.

On Thursday, my travels took me to the South Bay where I had lunch at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino and then met up with a friend in San Jose. I'll start with Apple: that place is amazing and efficient I'd imagine. The lunch buffet was fresh and varied, but more importantly, delicious. I guess it pays to keep your employees happy and healthy over a long period of time, doesn't it?! ;)

Salad bar and fresh-squeezed fruit and veggie juice, so good!

Oh and now I am the proud new owner of a pretty phone case à la Kate Spade.

Apple is pretty close to where one of my friends lives so we met up and hung out for a few hours in San Jose until my dad could pick me up and take me home after work. We headed straight to Santana Row for -- you guessed it -- cocktails (and lunch for Brian). After a quick stop at a Mexican restaurant, it was off to this cute little wine bar where I found myself ordering champagne cocktails. A great idea if you ask me!!

Then in the tradition of our friendship, we took silly pictures in stores. No this was not alcohol-induced; we'd done this many times during work lunches when I still lived in Stockton. Now you know a little more about how odd I am :)

Killing our last hour of time to end the day, we snuck around on the Winchester Mystery House grounds and took a "free" tour. Brian had never been before, and I think I went back when I was in Girl Scouts. It's pretty freakin' weird/creepy. I mean, the residence of any woman who's possessed enough to believe that continually adding on to her mansion so the haunted ghosts don't kill her but dies anyways sounds like a great museum/tourist attraction, right?! (Read here if I just sparked your curiosity). Plus, it's got a door to nowhere and I think that's neat:

But they really have done a beautiful job of restoring the mansion since the late 1800s.

There, now you're all caught up to my infamous first wine tasting trip to Sonoma :) Easter was spent up in the Sacramento area with family, stuffing our faces and looking for money-stuffed plastic eggs! Until the early evening, when I had to fly back to Arizona.

It was a much-needed break to go home and visit with friends and family! I can't wait until my next trip home... Hopefully there'll be some of that familiar California sun next time. Although, the 80-90 degree weather here in Arizona sure makes up for my week of rain and fog :)

Week 16: Wine Tasting in Sonoma

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 16th post in the series, when I went wine tasting in Sonoma, California, with my family. Here you can find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

While I lived in California for nearly 25 years, I don't think I've ever been wine tasting in Sonoma. I've sampled wines in Lodi, Santa Barbara, Livermore and of course, Napa. But never the neighboring city of Sonoma! Not to mention all the wines I've sipped in Europe ;)

So during my second-to-last day here in California, my family and I did just that!

We kind of stopped at the bottom of the Sonoma County wineries trail and made our way up to the plaza in downtown Sonoma. First up, Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. Two wineries across the street and owned by the same people.

Earlier in the morning, I voiced my opinion to hit up some places with sparkling wine, so we drove a few feet up the road to Gloria Ferrer Winery. Once there, all five of us split five different flutes of sparkling wine, peppered salami and a demi-baguette. Since seating was so limited (or should I say since everyone and their mom decided to go wine tasting today!), we made friends with a couple from Colorado who invited us to sit at their empty table.

It was at this point when I couldn't help but make comparisions to my wine tasting trip to Provence with my dad back in April of 2008 -- when we both lived in France. We visited Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Orange and Avignon, eating our way around the pays. That was one of my favorite birthday presents :) I'll share this year's goodies with you all in an upcoming post.

Back to the Sonoma trip. After sampling sparkling wine -- whose bottles contained 40,000 bubbles! -- we drove across the street and stopped at Cornerstone, an collection of wine tasting, restaurants, boutiques, art collections and gardens. Oh yeah, and a sweet giant chair I wanted to take pictures on immediately.

This was the result of an inside joke between my sister, her boyfriend and myself. Can we say, new Facebook picture?! Way too much fun.

After playing around on the Cornerstone grounds, we left for the plaza to grab some lunch, and of course, more vino. We ate lunch at the Plaza Bistro, my mom and I split moules-frites (mussels and fries) and salmon poached crepes with saffron creme and poached asparagus.

After lunch, the exploring began. And I you should be proud to learn I FINALLY caved and bought pastry bags/tips. Be prepeared for some baking to take place once I'm back in Arizona! ;)

Lastly, I snapped some pictures of the mission in Sonoma (that took me back to elementary school when I had to build a replica of Mission San Luis Obispo in fourth grade), City Hall and some cute little ducks :)

It was so worth it to make the hour drive up to wine country with my family! In my opinion, Sonoma wineries are much more fun than their Napa counterparts. And hardly any of the wineries in Sonoma charge for tasting. Way more my style.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some packing to do. Easter with the family tomorrow and then they ship me back off to the land of 90-degree temperatures. Happy Easter :)

Week 12: Exploring the Phoenix Zoo

You're all so encouraging! Since my last post, I've decided to go ahead and accept my grad school/TA offer! Beginning in August, I'll be back in school again, while still working in baseball :) With that, we'll head into last week's "new thing."

Previously, I had never been to the Phoenix Zoo. Nor had my parents (who were also in town over the weekend). After catching a few Spring Training baseball games, I noticed the backs of the A's tickets offered a discount for zoo admission. With nothing on the agenda for Sunday, we ventured out and explored Phoenix. After my morning shift at work, my dad wanted to try a bar/restaurant that was noted in a local magazine as one of the area's top 50 bars to visit.

This place was a total throwback to decades past. Not only did it feature a boxing ring, military surplus shopping, soda fountain and a vintage Airstream trailer that doubled as a kitchen, but there was also a full menu for brunch, lunch, dinner and an array of "vintage cocktails and beer."

While we waited for our lunch to come hot out of the Airstream, we could choose from a pile of vintage (notice a theme here?) board games to pass away the time. My dad grabbed Scrabble, we chose a shaded table in the sunlight and enjoyed the afternoon.

(I won, in case you were curious)

Scrabble is serious business.

I don't know how many times I need to tell you people how much I adore vintage culture and the 1950s, but this really hit it out of the park. The Duce was probably one of the best finds in Phoenix thus far! And we've been to some really cool places in the past eight months. I bet it's crazy fun in the evenings and for happy hour as well. The best part is this is blocks away from my work ;) Needless to say, I will be back. If you're ever in Phoenix you HAVE to go there!

Pleasantly surprised with our afternoon at The Duce, we set off to use those Zoo discount tickets and spend the three hours until closing looking at all the animals.

I loveeeee animals and enjoy going to zoos and water parks, etc. The Phoenix Zoo is supposedly one of the top five zoos in the country and I would completely agree. I've been to zoos in about half the States and even in Europe. The best part about this one was the monkey exhibit.

You literally are in the monkey habitat and they ran past our feet and jumped from tree-to-tree overhead. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Other things I thought were neat:

• I finally got to see Black Swan

• We were face-to-painted face with some baboons (who, apparently, have rainbow-colored hineys, I missed the opportunity to snap a photo of that one)

• Witnessed a domestic dispute between two rhinos. That was intense.

• Speaking of domestic issues, we got to hear a male and female lion roaring at one another. It's crazy how loud that is! The lioness even rumbled and shook a little every time she yelped.

• I watched a really big kitty bathe itself

• I crossed paths with some peacocks. They were everywhere, I even had to wait in line behind one of them at a soda vending machine.

Is it weird I had the following song stuck in my head the entire time?! (Disclaimer, while I LOVE Katy Perry, I do think this is the weakest song on her Teenage Dream album)

• Met a rude lizard (dragon, whatever)

• And beat a golden eagle in a staring contest. It was like taking candy from a baby.

In all seriousness though, it was a really fun way to end the weekend! I had such a blast. I'm glad I'm challenging myself to try something new each week, or else I might have missed out on a great day! Now I'm off to brainstorm what to do this week...