Another amazing sunset in SoCal

Aussie Girl Reunion

That's right the last weekend of August I was off to Oakland / Livermore, CA for a girl's weekend with my Aussie Gals; and what a BLAST we had! Miss Kelly Kull and her man, Ross, were the mac-daddy host and hostess and made us all feel at home in there cozy home in Livermore, CA. After we all arrived and claimed our luggage we went off to get our palms red as we traditionally do when we're all together. The reading the chick gave us was well....it pretty much sucked and was fake but we did get a few good laughs out of it. I'll only start to worry if Heather starts dating a Mexican man, and I meet a guy named Benji. We turned in early after a fun evening of catching up, drinking wine, and eating homemade pizza. After a leisurely breakfast on the patio Saturday morning we were off for Livermore wine country. We went to about 4 different wineries and took advantage of the free tastings. Fennestra was by far my favorite and I have to give some

mad props to Ross for being a "Fennestatic" and hooking us up with a bunch of additional wine samples (and being our DD). After an early dinner and more hanging out we went to bed to save up for our big day on the boat. On Sunday we had a scenic drive about an hour North to the Delta. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride b/c I got to see hillside upon hillside full of windmills, which I absolutely love for their abstract beauty and sheer potential. But back to the Delta....., the Delta is a series of rivers that eventually flow into the San Fran bay. About 5 minutes into our boat ride, Heather B spotted a seal hanging out on a buoy.
The seal hamm'd it up for us giving us some cute smirks and even a wave or two. As we continued our ride we eventually found some calm water and then hit the skis and wake boards. Heather B and I cut it up on the slalom and Kelly gave it hell on the wakeboard. Crissy was manning the camera and giving us moral support, way to go Cris!

You really couldn't ask for a better weekend. Perfect weather, awesome girls, wine tasting, being on the water...I definitely did not want to get on my flight and go to work early Monday morning. If Kelly and I are lucky we'll get Heather and Crissy to move out to California and then we can have reunions every couple of months vs. once or twice a year. Alright Crissy and Heather, make it happen :)

OIB 2007

Don't let the first picture deceive you, the Sykes family vacation at Ocean Isle Beach was absolutely beautiful! Maybe it's b/c I was home on the East Coast and realized that it was actually possible to miss heat and humidity, or maybe it was b/c it was my first full week of family vacation since I was 16, whatever the case it was really a fantastic week! We did not waste anytime settling into our normal beach routine....wake up, have a yummy Kashi breakfast with fresh NC peaches, sunscreen-up and then walk down to the beach. Activities included lots of reading (I zipped through 3 books), some walking, swimming, and even some bocce ball. None beach activities included happy hour everynight :), a trip to the Myrtle Beach outlets (I'm soooo glad Amber likes shopping as much as I do), putt-putt golf, and even a luau themed dinner hosted by the Sykes family kids. Who could ask for anything more....except maybe another week. Enjoy the pictures!

We had one storm the entire week....pretty dramatic sky!

The Sykes Girls: Karen, Amber, Jenn, and Rita
(This was luau night, we all had umbrellas in our hair but for some reason Mom's is the only one that is actually visible...oh hush, you don't look THAT silly momma.)

What a toss!

Me and the Folks....ahhhh

Quality "man" time by the grill.

What a cute couple!!!

Ah yes, what evening would be complete without some drunken card playing. Can you tell who's loosing?

Summer Fun!!!!!!!

Thought we'd share some fun photos of our summer thus far....4th of July on Mission Bay, birthday's, baseball games, and hanging out with friends. What more could you ask for. Enjoy the pics!

4th of July Fun!

Just some good lookin' dudes hanging out on the rocks

We're so refined here in the Southern part of California; crocket anyone?

Happy 4th of July Miles...don't look so worried about the table decorations that are suspended from your collar.

Bocce Anyone?

What 4th of July celebration would be complete without some grilling

Miles was very scared during the fireworks. He climbed on top of me and buried his head in John's sweatshirt. Guess there's no hope in him ever being much of a watch dog.

Fly kite fly!!!!

Fun was had by everyone....I mean do you see the ears on Miles, that's not everyday fun, that's 4th of July FUN!!!

Grillin' and chillin'

Kareeeen and Mileserific

Liz, Charlie, and Steph mixin' up some drinks at the Poway Party

Man, Rilely & Miles are soooo glad we grilled ribs!

JT, J, and Step hangin out

JT doggin' the dog....almost as entertaining as the 4th of July fireworks that followed the game

Steph and J....go Padres!

Not only my first Padres game, but my first pro baseball game, I feel so cultured now

Oh Boy, she looks excited!!!!

What's that floating above your head Mags, is that a bird, or a plane....you decided.

Make a wish!!!

Enjoying the trolley ride and the sites of San Diego

Check out the good lookin' cast

John got really good at delegating while "cooking" on crutches

There's something about San Diego that just makes you just want to chill out

San Diego cityscape from the Coronado Bridge

Without Further a do......

Well, with the onset of summer we've been a bit slow with updating the blog. So without further a do, we'll give you an update of Jim & Patti's visit to San Diego back @ the beginning of June. Jim & Patti arrived Friday morning in L.A. and drove down to San Diego for the weekend. We started off the visit with lunch on the beach in Del Mar at the Poseidon restaurant. Patti had her first fish taco, and we all enjoyed watching the surfers as we had an afternoon cocktail. Next we drove down the coast from Del Mar to Torrey Pines, La Jolla, PB, Mission Beach, finally ending at Point Loma with a spectacular view of the San Diego Bay, downtown, and the mountains off in the distance.... too bad we forgot the camera that day!

I guess I should also note that the Tuesday before Jim & Patti arrived John dislocated his ankle rock climbing. Long story short, considering the circumstances it was the best injury he could have gotten....I mean no broken bones so that's a definite bonus. Anyways, with John on crutches and in a cast we had to get creative with our activities.

Now, back to Saturday. We decided to take it easy and take the Trolley tour around San Diego. You can hop on and off as many times as you like and it was really a great way to see most of the city. We got off the trolley in the historic Gaslamp district for lunch at the Rockbottom brewery and visited Coronado Island, Balboa Park and the Old Town district. It was a big day so when we got home we vegged out and John cooked up some yummy shrimp pasta for dinner.

Sunday we we're back out again this time to check out the San Diego zoo. John enjoyed the opportunity to rent a motorized scooter for the day and left Jim, Patti, and I in the dust many of times as he high tailed it up the hills at the zoo. We got to see the Pandas, a cougar who wasn't too shy to spray his cage to make it know that he was not a happy kitty. Let's see.....monkeys, lots of birds, and of course the zebras, giraffes, and elephants. And the plants and landscaping were just as spectacular as the wildlife. JT and I purchased a year long pass to the zoo so we can't wait to go back and do it all over again....scooter free of course.

Sunday we were treated to a top-notch dinner at George's on the Cove a fine dining restaurant in La Jolla and the restaurant where John works. Good thing for us that John is buddies the the sous chef b/c we got hooked up! Free mini-courses that we didn't even order and a sampler platter of homemade sorbet and cheese for desserts. You had to roll us out of there after the end of our 3 hour dinner. What a great way ending to such a fun weekend!

We had a blast and can't wait to get some more visitors out this way (ahem...Larry & Rita).

Growing a Garden

Nothing too exciting, but thought I'd show you guys some pictures from the backyard and our small garden. We're having success with our Roma tomoatoes, basil, and our mini-lime tree. The near perfect weather here in San Diego makes it pretty easy to grow things year round. Bonus!

Holy Roma!

Lime Tree
If only we could grow a Corona tree we'd have the ultimate garden

Cactus Flower

Not to be confused with the old restuarant in Raleigh, this guy's an authentic cactus flower

FAWCMP

Also known as.....The First Annual West Coast Merlefest Party. Yep, just last weekend JT, Miles and I hosted our first house party in celebration of Merlefest. With a crew of us here in San Diego unable to make the long hike back to Wilkesboro it seemed only natural for us to all get together and take part in all those things that we love about Merlefest: eating, drinking, hula hooping, and listen to some good 'ole bluegrass. And so with a pony keg of Sierra Nevada, lots of cream cheese and pic-a-peppa to go around, and some Avett Brothers playing we did just that. We were also lucky enough to get to hang out with fellow NC friend Nicole and her man Mark who were down from San Fran for the weekend. Check out some pics from the festivities.

Kudos to J for maning the grill all night; look at those skills.

Chillin...

Riley & Miles hoping to get their paws on some hotdogs...look at the intensity in their eyes

Margaret making friends with our neighbor's new puppy Great Dane

An Idyll-Wild-Weekend

Ok, so I happened to get a Friday and Saturday off in a row, so Karen and I decided to head up into the mountains and do some camping. Idyllwild, CA is about 2 hours Northeast of San Diego, in the San Bernardino Mountains. The forecast for Saturday and Sunday was slated as high 50's, partly cloudy and only a 20% chance of rain...what we thought would be perfect camping weather. So apparently partly cloudy at 6000 ft. means you're partly in the clouds. This lasted the entire way up the mountain, all day Saturday and Sunday. Also, that 20% chance of rain increases dramatically when you're inside a cloud...and when the temperature drops down close to freezing, the rain turns to sleet and then snow. Oh well, so much for the good weather...anyways...Saturday we drove around and saw some amazing sites, did a little off-roading in my truck and even did some climbing...in the clouds of course. With the continuing rain, we made an executive decision to purchase a tarp and stay the night as planned. I mean....how often do you eat steaks when you go camping??? That's right, we had NY Strips, roasted veggies and sweet potatoes for dinner....ahhh, the good life. With our fire raging, we settled in for the night...only to wake up to snow on the ground in the morning...could this get any more bizarre?? So we decided to pack it up and head into town for breakfast at JoAnne's. A very good decision...2 eggs, sausage, hash browns and biscuits and gravy for only $4.25...you can't beat that?!?! After another short site-seeing drive, we turned around and left the snowy pines for sunny palms...back to San Diego.

Taquitz Peak - much more massive in person

Chillin' at the base of Taquitz Peak...which you can't see because it's in the clouds

Now THAT's a tree

Awwww...