Into The Great Park

Top: Old Navy

Skirt: Gap

Belt: Local Boutique

Sunglasses (the sun was making my eyes super squinty), 

Necklace and Ring: Forever 21

Sandals: Payless
(Thanks to my brother for taking these outfit pics)

I delved further into mixed prints territory today and wore two different floral prints and I'm thinking it worked. The prints aren't really loud and I did wear a belt to break them up. Also when I wore it in public, I didn't get any weird looks or snickers at least in my general direction. So success?

Earlier today my brother and I made our way up to Irvine to hang out with our cousin that's heading to the east coast for grad school. The plan was to go the Orange County Great Park and go on The Great Park Ballon this giant tethered helium balloon that goes 400 ft above the ground. Unfortunately, we got there too late and sign-up list was already filled. Instead, we walked around the grounds. 

 Next time I'll be on that balloon

It was my first time in the park but it wasn't the first time I was there. The park only covers about 1,500 of the 4,700 acres of the former El Toro Military Base. Growing up in Irvine, I remember going to the commissary with my mom or lola (grandma) or going to the shopping center and asking if I can get a churro, Icee or ice cream. It was also really fun to when air show weekend would come around. So to back on the military base and being re-purposed as something the entire city can enjoy is really good.  

Besides the Great Balloon, there's also a carousel and just recently they opened up an art gallery and artists residence named the Palm Court Artist Complex. I was talking to the gallery worker and she told me that it'll be another 25 years before the park is complete. So one day I can bring my grand kids or grand nieces and nephews to visit. I also found out from my cousin that the race track for the U.S. version of Top Gear is near the park.

Playing around with the fish-eye function on my camera

My brother at the Palm Court

My Blue Heaven by Jorg Durbin

LV Plane Sculpture also by Jorg Durbin

One of the old military buildings

Afterwards, we went to a Thai restaurant where I had duck noodle soup for the first time and it was really good. So savory and spicy and something I want to learn how to make. Then we went to this pastry shop called 85 degrees much like the Paris Baguette I went to in New York, you get a tray and pick the pastries you want. 

 

Yum-o! 

They had some interesting pastries such as one with squid ink, but I went with safe bets such as a flaky cherry danish and a raisin milk butter pastry. I brought them home and I'm guessing that they are all have been eaten up. Will have to make a trip the next time I'm in Irvine.

Thank You for Being a Friend

Velvet Dress: Forever 21

Blazer: Target

Bag: Old Navy

Necklace: Express

Tights: Target

Today I spent very in due girl bonding time with my friend Kathleen. While we may only live 30 minutes from each other, the last time we hung out was at a No Doubt concert in August of '09. So we met up in Downtown Riverside and for the next 4 hours we talked and got up to date on the goings on in our lives over coffee, (hazelnut lattes from The Coffee Bean are very good btw), wandered around downtown and had some yummy cupcakes. I had a great time hanging out with Kathleen and we plan on hanging out again much sooner next time.

First off we went to the Riverside Museum with the intentions of checking out the Star Trek exhibit, until we found out the exhibit is at a different location. Oops! It's open until February 28th, so we still have time to check it out. But we still explored their current exhibits.

We then made our way to the antique market which was a candy land for me. There's four floors full of jewelery, furniture, clothing and cute tchotchkes. We spent a good hour and a half wandering around the different booths.

I ended up picking up two brooches of a banjo and a cat and a little Betsy McCall figure. I picked the one where she's holding the microphone, but I liked them all.

Afterwards we filled our tummies with cupcakes from Casey's Cupcakes. The last time I was in the area the shop wasn't finished, but when we walked in it was all pink and girly. They had a lot of varieties of cupcakes. It took me a few minutes to pick one, but I ended up getting the cupcake of the month, Casey's Confetti Cheer while Kathleen picked the Scrumptious Cinnamon Sugar.  I heard their Razzmatazz Raspberry is good, but of course it was sold out when I was there. All the more reason to go back and try it.
Also random trivia about the shop.
The owner Casey Reinhardt, was in season two of Laguna Beach.

On the agenda for next week, my first visit to the LACMA. :)

You said this city has a beating heart...

Last Friday, my boyfriend and I had a little day trip to San Diego, which ended with us going to see Death Cab for Cutie in Solana Beach.

First we went to Balboa park. We walked around for the most part but also went to the Japanese Friendship Garden, which was small but quaint. I liked the Koi pond there.
I think we're going to have to make another trip in the near future. There's a Richard Avedon exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art that I want to see.

You can check out the rest of the pictures here.

After spending a few hours at Balboa Park, we decided to check out this cupcake shop located in Hillcrest, that I found out about on-line a few days before. Called Babycakes it was this cute little cupcake shop inside of an old house right on 5th. Their cupcakes were muffin sided and very yummy. We chose three of them, the Blood Orange, Peanut Butter and Jelly and Pistachio.

My favorite was the Blood Orange. It was a moist white cake with hints of orange in it. It also had some blueberries on the bottom of the cake, a raspberry/citrus jelly in the middle and topped off with cream cheese frosting. It was so good.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly was my boyfriends favorite. That was a chocolate cake with grape jelly in the center and peanut butter frosting. I think we were both mixed about the Pistachio cupcake, which was had bits of pistachio in a green hued white cake with green butter cream frosting. I think it was the bits of pistachio in the cupcake that threw us off. Overall, I would go back there the next time I was in Hillcrest.

After our snack of delicious cupcakes, we made our way to the Gaslamp District to get some dinner at the Red Pearl Kitchen. We were still a little full from our cupcake excursion, that we just ordered appetizers. So we decided to get the Vegetable Spring Rolls and the Thai Chili-Glazed Calamari. Little did we know that we went during Happy Hour, so they gave us even more food, for free. So we also got two of their Spicy Tuna Tempura Eggplant and Pan-Fried Potstickers. Plus a little bowl of their Wok-Roasted Edamame. We didn't even get to finish the appetizers we ordered. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of it, cause it was all really good.

When we finished all can of our dinner, we finally made the trek up the 5 Freeway, to the Belly Up Tavern in the beach town of Solana Beach. I was really excited that Death Cab was going to play a show there. Not only is the venue really small and intimate, but I'd be able to take pictures there. However, as we pulled up near the venue, we saw signs plastered along the venue wall stating, "No Cameras or Recording Devices During the Concert." I was a little disappointed cause I wanted to take pictures. But I didn't want to risk it, so I left the camera in the car. Good thing I did cause during the show, didn't matter if they had a camera or cell phone, if security caught you taking pictures or filming, it got confiscated right away.

Overall it was a wonderful show. The crowd was good along with the set-list. You can check out the set-list for the show here. My boyfriend was fascinated by the lighting of the show, which I thought was cute. Plus he got me a shirt, which I will post soon.

It was a great day trip and I hope to do it again real soon.