vegas - solvang - newport beach

holy crap, i'm so behind.  i didn't know i hadn't actually wrapped up the spring break '23 recaps.  oops.

but i don't want to just skip it, so we'll just banzai right through this bad boy and whip through the second week of break in one post.  by now i guess it doesn't really matter, but i'm gonna do it anyway.

we stopped one more time for some delicious bagel sandwiches at our new favorite spot on our way out of vegas:

and then we proceeded to spend the next seven-plus hours in the truck as we headed to our next destination - solvang, to fulfill a craving that the bean had been nursing for two whole years.

according to them, this place serves up the best burger they've ever had.  too bad that by the time we got there they'd switched to the dinner menu, which does not include said burger.  and nothing we did or said would convince them to make one for us.  "tell the chef i'll give him $100 if he'll just make the burger for us," the hub said...to no avail.  dang.

despite the disappointment, the bean still stopped to recreate a photo that we've taken in this spot at least 2-3 times.

we'd decided to head on home after the burger, but since we couldn't get it until 11:00 the next day we ended up priceline-ing a room a hotel that was so meh, i didn't even take a single photo while we were there.  and then the next morning, we went back to peasant's feast and made the bean's dream come true.

but - you know how you have something stuck in your head and put it on a huge pedestal in your head and convince yourself that it's the best thing on the face of the planet...and then when you finally get it, it doesn't live up to the hype?  sadly, that was the case for the bean.  they said it was still good, but not as good as they remembered.  i will say, though, that it really was quite delicious...but i didn't have any expectations or a previous experience to compare it to.  in any case, i'd eat it again but i wouldn't make a special trip for it for sure.

we walked around solvang as we always do, and stopped for some aebleskivers before we hit the road and headed home.

i don't think i mentioned it, but our sweet cocoa jumped off the couch one day and didn't stick the landing, letting out the saddest cry as she did it.  when we took her to the vet for some x-rays, they found that she'd completely torn her little ACL.  this happened just before spring break and she had to undergo surgery to fix it, which meant that we had to board her while we were gone because she was going to need more constant attention than what our dogsitter was going to be able to provide.  she's totally fine now, fully healed and running around like always.

all that to say that teddy got to join us on the last part of our spring break adventures, which took us down to newport beach.  the hub had secured this super cute little cottage located just a couple of short blocks from the sand:

and we spent the next couple of days just relaxing, enjoying the cool weather, napping on demand.  pretty much the best medicine for a stressed-out freshman trying to get a little zen before jumping back into the last six weeks of a grueling school year.

we even had an almost-proper easter dinner while we were there, plus sandwiches using the leftovers.

teddy seemed torn between intrigued and freaked out by the sand beneath his paws when we walked him down to the beach.

we were excited to see our little cocoa when the vet opened back up the day after easter.  it really could've gone either way - she could have been pissed off at having been left behind, or super excited to come home and be back to normal.  luckily, she went with the latter.

the last few days of break went by in a flash.  we went out for tea with the old lady:

took the bean's BFF to little tokyo for some shopping and udon:

and they spent four hours of four days at driver's ed, where they both earned their certificate of completion.  after a morning that was a comedy of errors, we took that certificate to the DMV and they both passed that written test and came home with their learner's permit in hand.

although can i tell you that was a solid two months ago and the bean has yet to sit down behind the wheel even once.  kids these days...

easter was, like a month ago

while it was a really quiet holiday for us this year (as it was in 2020), we still managed to squeeze in a little fun on easter.  it also seems like forever ago at this point, which i suppose it kinda was.  but it still deserves a little recap because who knows...one day i'll probably randomly wonder what we did on easter sunday back in 2021 and if i don't blog it, i'll never remember.  heh.  old age, you know.  i AM just mere months away from the big 5-0, after all.

the hub suggested that instead of doing the traditional ham for dinner, we just incorporate ham into breakfast.  this gave me the chance to fire up the built-in griddle in between my burners on my cooktop, yay!

after breakfast, the old lady got to work on a mini-easter egg hunt in the back yard for her sister.  but instead of filling the eggs with candy (which we always have a ton of in the house and didn't need more of), we came up with the idea of creating coupons for activities to do during the next week since it was the bean's spring break.  we brainstormed for ideas to fill the six plastic eggs i'd managed to find at target - where the aisles were almost completely wiped out.  it was nuts.  after i printed out and cut the coupons, she stuffed them in the eggs and headed into the back yard to hide them all.

i don't think the bean was expecting an egg hunt this year, so she seemed pretty pleased when we found her and told her to head out there and find the hidden surprises.  we didn't have an actual easter basket, so a reusable grocery store bag from hawaii's foodland had to fill in.

it didn't take her very long at all to find them, and then she took them to the table to crack 'em open and see what fun stuff she'd won.

there were five activity coupons and one to redeem for a "special surprise."  and to continue the pattern of "totally thrown together last minute" (even though i'd had this box sitting in the closet for over a month, go figure), the prize was handed to her in a plain brown box, the very same one that it had been shipped to us in.  heh.  she didn't seem to mind anyway.  and she loved the fun kawaii-themed potato shaped plush pillow that vibrated for a nice back massage.

teddy was...unimpressed by our shenanigans.

here's a peek at all of the coupons she received during her somewhat impromptu easter egg hunt.  see what i mean?  just a bunch of fun, silly things for us to do with her during spring break.  there were enough activities to last for most of the week, and she seemed pretty delighted with them all.

later on, since we'd already had our easter ham for breakfast, i pulled out stuff to make a pretty untraditional easter dinner - pasta bolognese, something i think i've only ever made like once.  whenever we're going to have spaghetti, i usually turn to an old tried-and-true marinara sauce recipe and add ground beef to it.  this was a little more involved, but it ended up being worth the extra effort.

and that concludes the recap for easter 2021.  i also just realized that we never took a single family photo the whole day.  oops.  maybe next year.

special occasions on lockdown

so besides cocoa, the only other one who's celebrated a birthday while we're quarantined is the hub.  we'd had some really fun plans for a weekend getaway to celebrate, which we were all really bummed to have to cancel.  actually, we've had to give up a couple of other fun outings due to this lockdown - like our tickets to hamilton, which i'd really been excited to finally see, along with a show during the jonas brothers' month-long residency in vegas.  big bummer, but safety first...i guess.

anyway, the hub started his birthday off with enthusiastic greetings from me, the bean and both dogs:

and since he's been the unofficial designated shopper for the household, he got to get out of the house to run a few errands.  exciting stuff.  and since it was a special occasion, i actually did my hair and even put on something besides sweatpants.  heh.

later that evening, we celebrated with takeout dinner from the local country club.

the bean was excited to present him with an electronic birthday card that she created for him, which was really cute.  check it out:

easter was just as low-key, which i'm sure was the case for most of america.  the bean was busy most of the day working on her book report - a presentation she chose to animate in a similar manner to that birthday card she made for her daddy.  except that this one had to last for a minimum of three minutes, which was a lot more laborious than she'd expected.  she'd chosen a wrinkle in time, which she'd finished reading before quarantine began.  i've seen the work in progress and it's really well done - but painstakingly time consuming.  she's been working on it for a good three weeks, and i'll have to share it when she's done as long as she gives me permission to.

we managed to tear her away from drawing long enough to do a sad little easter egg hunt in the back yard...in the rain.

the hub grilled up some steaks and asparagus for dinner, and i got to enjoy a glass of delicious rosé with it.  gotta love wine in a red solo cup, yeah?

happy easter indeed.

a little disney for easter

it will come as no surprise to anyone that the bean and i headed down to disneyland to close out our easter sunday.  i wasn't sure how great of an idea it would turn out to be, because the crowds are so unpredictable at the 'land these days, but we were pretty excited to find a great parking spot and practically no lines to get through security and onto a tram to the main gates.

we decided to go into the disneyland side again, and the mickey's soundsational parade was in full swing by the time we got inside.  as we started heading down main street, i remembered that there was a sneak preview of the upcoming live action "aladdin" movie at the opera house that normally houses the abraham lincoln exhibit.  we decided to go inside and take a peek at the movie props that were on display before heading into the theater to watch the preview.

while i'd been some what skeptical about this movie before, seeing an extended sneak peek got me a lot more excited for its release.  will smith seems to have done a pretty good job of taking the genie character and infusing him with his own brand of comedy and charm, and now i can't wait to see it.

as we exited the building, we spied a fun photo op off to the side next to the prize redemption station for the easter egg hunt.  i saw people standing in line, but it looked like they were all waiting to collect their prizes and so the bean and i scooped up props and snapped a couple of quick pics.

except that as soon as we put them down the people waiting in what we thought was the egg hunt line walked over and picked them up to take pictures of their own. sooooo it seemed that we'd completely obliviously cut right in front of a whole line of people who were waiting patiently for a turn.  damn.  we were so mortified we scampered away with our tails tucked between our legs and got the hell out of there.  a little further down the street, we took this and sent it to the hub:

we had fastpasses for big thunder mountain in about half an hour, and as we were walking at a leisurely pace through frontierland i consulted the disneyland app and found that the wait for pirates of the caribbean was just 5 minutes.  we headed over and sure enough:

we walked right on and were sitting in the back of a boat in even less time than what was quoted.  yay!

big thunder is always a good time.

from there we decided to head over into california adventure and grab fastpasses for the incredicoaster, which had such a short wait that by the time we made our way back there we were all to scan them in and get right on.

the bean adores the giant "jack jack num num cookie" and sweet talked me into buying her one to munch on as we meandered around the pier.  there was zero line for the jumping jellyfish ride, which is one of the things the old lady doesn't really love but we do.  we try to do those types of attractions when she isn't with us, and we were happily sitting down and taking our little bouncy ride in no time. i love the great views of the park we get from the top.

we'd snagged a fastpass for goofy's sky school just across the way, and walked right up to the loading area right after we got off of the jellyfish.

the food & wine festival was winding down to a close, and since we still had a few tickets left on our sip & savor pass we stopped at one of the kiosks.  the bean loves the salt & pepper parmesan wings, and i decided to try the beef tenderloin slider served with chimichurri sauce.  i was pleasantly surprised at how tasty and substantial it ended up being.

the line at award weiners was also practically nonexistent, and so we stopped and picked up another serving of those delicious cookies & cream "get your ears on" funnel cake fries.

the bean still had a gift card burning a hole in her pocket, and a stop at the toy shop on the way to the exit yielded a mystery pouch from disney's new "wishables" plush toy line.  she chose one from the snacks theme and ripped it open to find the popsicle inside.

we'd planned on staying for the fireworks, but decided we were pretty tired and that we'd managed to soak in a good bit of disney magic in the short four hours we were there.  one of these days we'll actually get to see those fireworks, but this was not that day.