Eclipse Premiere

On Tuesday June 29th, Maren and I went to one of the coolest things ever. So you know how in the old days people would go to the movie theaters and get dinner served to them at their seat and then watch the feature film … okay, my mom just informed me that didn’t actually happen. A part of me doesn’t believe her.

My point is that going to watch a movie used to be so much more of an ordeal. Now you just flash your debit card, grab a seat, and then two hours later you leave with your pockets $10 lighter. BLAH!

I’m not the biggest fan of actually going to the movie theater. Yes, I go to watch the Harry Potter movies, anything with Miley Cyrus in it, or to see Dennis Quaid. Other than that I usually just wait until I cross paths with this or that flick. Superbad, I Love You Man, Bourne Identity VII – I’ll see them sooner or later!

When Twilight came out everyone went GaGa over it. I shrugged my shoulders and didn’t get all hyped about it. Then when I was on my graduation cruise (with the lovely Katie, Kerry, Krizia, and Franimal) they were looping it on one of the channels. I caught bits and pieces of it. A part of me wondered why the movie seemed to be only shot in green, foggy, settings. …Twilight. Oh. Gotcha.

I had about six months between graduation and my job – so I read a bit more than usual (which is barely anything, sadly). I read Twilight and then watched the movie in our family room. I liked it. And for the record, I vote Edward.

Then I read New Moon and watched that movie when it came out in theaters. I thought it was better than the first one – I liked how the love triangle was developing. I’ve always found love triangles fascinating. Super scandalous.

A week before the Eclipse premiere, I got a delightful text from Maren:

She called me and told me about an amazing event hosted by Bahama Grille.

Needless to say, I was stoked!

June 29th rolled around and I drove across town to Salinas (not far if you go the back way through CSUMB/Marina btw). Maren and I found parking on one of the side streets in downtown Salinas, close to Maya Cinemas.

The lines that wrapped around the block were intense! It was barely past 9pm and these folks still had a couple of hours of being outside in the gusty wind. Meanwhile, we walked straight into the theater and got to enjoy yummy food, desserts, and spa treatments haha….

They had an assortment of food from Bahama Grille, including delicious beef skewers, spring rolls, pork sliders, veggie sandwiches, cinnamon sugar pita chips, and shrimp skewers.

  

For dessert, one of three cupcakes were featured by local baker Fluff cupcakes.

Team Bella: Vanilla with vanilla buttercream
Team Edward: Red velvet with cream cheese frosting
Team Jacob: Chocolate with dulce de leche frosting

They also had chocolate covered strawberries. DELICIOUS.

This was such an awesome event – for only $18 you could avoid the line and cold weather, get some food before the show, and cross your fingers to win one of the 50 or so things they raffled off!

Maren and I got tinsel put into our hair. Hair Flare or Hair Bling – which do you prefer?

They were also giving out massages! I almost fell asleep during mine; it felt so nice after a long day at work!

The ladies from g’Syl Hair Salon and Aquablue Skin & Body Spa (229 Main Street, Salinas) put so much effort into organizing this event. One of their fellow salon mates, Frankie, helped emcee the event with Sybil, a radio host from 101.7 The Beach.

Makeup ladies applied sparkles and glitter to everyone who wanted to glisten like a vampire in sunlight. When they opened the doors to the theater, the emcees set up music and continued raffling off items and gave out candy.

Buckshot, how I love thee.

On the subject of weekend nights spent in San Francisco, I would like to recap Saturday, June 19th.

First and foremost, I spent the day with my sister, Dad, Lauretta, and Katie at Great America. We went on Top Gun, Drop Zone, and got a $6 coffee smaller that a tall from Starbucks! It was really nice getting time to hangout with my dad the day before Father's Day. He told me about Monty Python's silly walks and my dad and I started doing these kinds of walks around the amusement park.... Nicole wasn't happy.

After a late picnic lunch in the Great America parking lot, I dropped Nicole off at our mom's and then drove up to Palo Alto.



Kyle, Jeremy, Kim and I carpooled to San Francisco and found parking a few streets from Union Square. We took an elevator up the giant Macy's building to the 6th floor to join Jessica's birthday party at Burger Bar (251 Geary Street, San Francisco).

I ordered Burger Bar's turkey burger - "freshly ground free range Shelton turkey."

FYI: because I like to google things - Shelton's Turkey Ranch started in 1924 with one hen and one tom...

WHO KNEW that male turkey's are called TOMS? I always thought they were called Jan Hagels. Hmm.

Shelton's evolved into a champion breeding facility that received many awards for body conformation and feather color. As an offshoot of the trophy breeding business, the Shelton family began growing holiday turkeys for the folks in the Pomona Valley of Southern California...

Kyle ordered cupcakes for Jessica's 25th birthday! How thoughtful of him, huh? He chose a devil's food cake with oreo chunks folded in, topped with cookies and cream ice cream and a half oreo.

After we ate our burgers and cupcakes we drove down Geary to Buckshot. As soon as we walked in I fell in love with the place. It was still early, so we were basically the first people there. The bartender was chewing on a red vine. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Is that a red vine?
Him: Yup, do you want one?
Me: Yes please!
Him: They are a little old...
Me: Even better! That's how I like em!

(they are better when old - harder and chewier!)

Buckshot (3848 Geary Blvd, San Francisco). Just go to their website. Seriously. Right click that link and open it up in a new tab. Read their intro page and then return to this blog post.

Do do doo..... okay, so now that you've read that, do you see why this place is so amazing?? I will recap in case you did not read it (I am using more polite language) SKEE BALL, SHUFFLEBOARD, POOL TABLE, PHOTO BOOTH, DARTS, PICNIC TABLES, $2 PBR, the list goes on!


What really made the night one to remember was a game introduced to us by Ed a few weekends back in SLO. Don't let the name scare you - it's called Kill Your Friends. For every drink you buy for your friend, you get to tell them how they must "die." Then they act it out. Look below for an example...

Somebody bought Kevin a PBR. They told him to pretend the edge of the picnic table was a plank (like on a pirate ship) and he had to jump off of it. Problem was that the bouncers were NOT playing and did not appreciate somebody standing on the table, jumping off, and lying motionless on the ground.

Er... oh well! Another good one that got us all was when Kyle bought a round. He chose death by the following: I got to shoot at the other guys with the pretend gun attached to the video game BIG BUCK HUNTER, Call of the Wild. They were scattered all over the bar and started dropping like flies. Then I turned the pretend gun on myself. Seconds later we all stood up! Fun FUN Fun FUNnNNNnnNn

I also loved the decor! Reminds me of a bar I'd find in Illinois or a better version of Bull's in SLO. Before we left, when the clock struck midnight, the DJ played a song honoring Jess and we danced around her, bowing.

Happy Birthday Jess!!

The Case of the North Beach Hotdog

I just found pictures stashed away on my phone of a place Megan, Paul, Kali and I stopped at for fourth meal this past Friday night. (ps Kali has a blog and posted a fantastic review of her SF weekend! Check it out here! It's nice and sassy :)




Anywho... I vaguely recall getting food that night. Let's work backwards to figure out what happened!

Here's the picture found on my phone:




Saturday morning Megan told me the dog was covered in perhaps marinara and onions - looks about right. She also said it was called the North Beach Hotdog. Time to Yelp search. The only late night hotdog spot in North Beach with Yelp pictures that match the one I snapped on my phone (below) is The Dogfather (532 Green Street, San Francisco). UrbanDaddy describes it as a "low-key sausage joint—or salsicceria, if you're Italian—meant to satisfy your gourmet, quick-bite fix."





Okay mystery 1 is solved! I must have had the The North Beach "Our mild Italian sausage, with peppers, onions, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese" ($6) - Nice memory Megan! Let's continue backwards... Megan also let me know that before the hotdog stop, we went to a place called Savoy. I've got a couple of pictures on my camera of us in a spot with red lighting... This must have been Savoy Tivoli (1434 Grant Street, San Francisco). On Yelp the settings seem to match up! Wahoo!

Mystery 2 solved! Prior to that our group got some drinks, courtesy of Kali, from the upstairs room at a Thai restaurant named King of Thai Noodle. One Yelper perfectly sums up the perks of this place - "The best happy hour everyday till 12:30AM.. $2 beer $6 cocktail drinks and $5 entree.. Unbeatable.. My favorite place to hang out.. They have free popcorns and peanuts and nice wide screen tv.."  YEAH. AWESOME.

Rewind even further to when we all met up. This part is not hazy! Megan, Kali, Paul, Kelley, her friend who knows Lauren Sweeneeeyyyy, Joe, his roommate, and myself met up at Paul's apartment.

We drank a bit, ate some of Megan's homemade cookies, indulged in some of my cupcakes, the usual. It was so-awe-some seeing everyone and getting the opportunity to go out and get a little irresponsible. Plus, I'm sure that hotdog tasted damn good.

LOVE THEM!

Right on target!

Another great reason to own a bike: emergency mode of transportation when your car decides not to start! Perfect way to get to Target.



Might go whale watching this weekend if the whale action continues in Monterey Bay (there are a bajillion out there lately!) Would they be offended if I snacked on these?

Mills-Monterey! Day 4

Monday morning Kerry and I woke up and grabbed coffee from the Starbucks in Sand City and bagels from the Bagel Bakery next door. We walked over to Savemart and stocked up on fruit. When we got back to my house we pulled out Murray, my tandem bike, and took her for a riiiiide.

We pedaled through Fort Ord Dunes State Park, parked the bike, and read each of the eight educational panels that "inform the public about the natural and cultural history of the park." Hopefully one day I'll get the footage off my iPod of our bike adventure. We then biked through CSUMB and back to my house! It was a great day for a bike ride, nice and sunny but not too hot.

Sadly, the next stop was the airport :( I had to get back to work since it was Monday and all. Kerry's flight was delayed. A part of me wished that the whole airport would have just disappeared so that Kerry could never leave. I love that girl and I miss her so much when she's down in Anaheim....

If you've read these recaps and think - oh snap - that sounds like fun, please give me a call and come visit. I love love LOVE having visitors and Monterey is such a great area. I won't force you to dance in a cage with me and I won't force you to eat lots of sugar treats - but that might just happen!

Mills-Monterey! Day 3

After a loooong night at Mucky Duck we woke up with unpleasant physiological effects, to put it nicely.

We began making cupcakes for the day. We went with a yellow buttermilk cake. Simple and delicious. We paired the cake with two different frostings - raspberry buttercream and hazelnut buttercream, made by combining raspberry puree and Nutella (respectively) to an Italian Meringue buttercream base.

Once the cupcakes were frosted, Kerry got to work decorating them with sprinkles. She is a pro decorator.

We got into the car and headed to Vanessa's grad party in San Jose. She had a lot of family and friends over for a BBQ. She graduated from San Diego State University in June! Congratssss!! Vanessa, if you are reading this, where are the pictures that your mom was snapping?

Kerry and I had to leave to go to my Aunt Cori's house for a birthday BBQ/pool party. My cousin Collin's birthday the previous Monday and my 23rd birthday the previous Wednesday. Mills and I went swimming and then Nicole showed up with a beautiful French braid and she went swimming. Katie was splashing all over the place - oh the joys of being under 10.

Kyle came too! I got to be with some of my favorite people!

We had delicious salmon, tri tip, salad, veggies, etc.

For dessert, Cori had a chocolate/mint chip ice cream cake for Collin and a decadent chocolate cake for me. Don't forget that we also brought a bunch of cupcakes! Needless to say the options seemed endless...

After we ate, we played around on the trampoline. It was Katie's first time playing "crack the egg" and she LOVED it. She kept asking us to crack her. She also gave us nicknames. Slappy (Kerry's nickname the night before) became Kirby. I asked to be Sonic. Kyle was dubbed Ganondorf. And Katie was Zelda (yeah?) - all characters from Super Smash Bros.

On our way out of the Bay Area we went to Psycho Donuts. Kerry and I both OD-ed on sugar the whole weekend, but we were going to at least get donuts for Monday morning because Psycho Donuts are so effin AWESOME.

HOWEVER, they decided to close early! We left a note for them expressing our sadness and then they sent me a tweet on Tuesday apologizing! Can't wait to try out the Stone Cold Psycho Psandwich! Donuts and ice cream. Kind of scary thinking about how much sugar that would be BUT let's get real - it's ICE CREAM AND DONUTS. Can't pass up something like that.

When we got back to my place we crawled into bed and slept like babies. Trampoline workouts and long car drives are truly exhausting!!

Mills-Monterey! Day 2

Deep breaths. I'm scared about how long this post is going to be.

Saturday morning we went to Tommy's. I've blogged about this place before, so I'll just remind you all why I love it so much: everything under $3. Yup.

We are so cool sitting at the bar.

We both ordered the Tommy's special - eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon (or sausage if that's your thing).

After breakfast we drove from Marina to Carmel. The plan was to start as far south as possible and hit up the tourist spots as we headed north. First stop, the Carmel Mission!

The Mission itself isn't that tall looking, but somehow when Kmills stood in front of it and I snapped this picture, it looked so much taller! Optical illusion making is one of Kerry's hidden talents. Inside the choir was practicing. It was nice to see the inside because last time I was here (for Easter mass) we had to stand in the entrance because of how packed it was!

There's something so pretty about the Catholic Missions. Kinda creepy how people are buried right there in the church - reminded us of our trip to Westmister Abbey back in the summer of 2007, where patriots like Oliver Cromwell, scientists like Isaac Newton, poets like Chaucer, etc are buried under your feet!

Throwback pic on right: Okay so this guy's not dead - but it is from our trip to London, and yes, I want everyone to know we met Zac Efron... plus, I didn't take any Westmister Abbey pictures :)

We played around in the strange room, taking fun mirror pictures, then we went outside and painted.

Isn't Kerry's picture coming together beautifully? She's such a talented artist.

There was a small little fair. We rubbed olive oil on our hands to make them smooth....

Then we passed through their gift shop. Kerry begged me to get her BibleOpoly but I refused to spend another dime on buying her versions of Monopoly. I've already given her Birdopoly, Elvis edition Monopoly, The Lord of the Rings edition Monopoly, and Sponge Bob Square Pants edition....





Next stop: Carmel-by-the-sea's Ocean Avenue!

We walked around for a while with one major destination in mind: the Cottage of Sweets! I've blogged about this place a lot too so here's why I love it: SWEETS, sold in a COTTAGE.

Kerry chose white chocolate covered pretzel balls and salted carmel fudge. I went with chocolate covered gummy bears in memory of Natalie, peanut butter chocolate malt balls (my recent favorite), and their peanut butter squares.

We grabbed coffee from a cafe up the street and then walked down to the beautiful beach to enjoy our treats.

  

Continuing on our journey, we drove 17 Mile Drive the back way through Carmel towards Pebble Beach. They still had some of the tents up from the US Open, which was going on the week before.

Look! It's the Lone Cypress ("a salt pruned tree which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area" Wikipedia... and since I know you are curious: "Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds to alter the shape of trees over considerable times throughout the growth cycle of the affected plant... [it] selectively degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant facing the body of saline water. The resultant growth form is an asymmetrical plant form, swept back away from the ocean")

Much to our delight there was a wedding party that arrived via trolley to take pictures. When they abandoned their vehicle to walk down to the Lone Cypress, we hijacked it for our own pictures hah!

The 17 Mile Drive continued on along the coast. We drove through Pacific Grove and then parked on Lighthouse. After a quick stop in the liquor store nearby and then another quick stop at Nob Hill for a light lunch of fruits, we walked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Get ready for a compilation of Kerry Mills at the Aquarium photos:

Kerry with the jellyfish

Kerry with the crazy looking seahorses

Kerry with this cow statue

Kerry getting ZAPped!

The clam shell! Max if you are reading this: this is my first time actually seeing the clam shell at the Aquarium. Up until recently I didn't think it existed, only in your photoshopping abilities.

We left the aquarium and walked up and down Cannery Row. We stopped in the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a second and I saw these chocolate covered potato chips. Weird!!

When we were driving back to my house, I spotted Mrs. Delish's Cupcake Boutique. I was literally like "WTF?? Since WHEN has that been there?" Kerry, I don't know if I said that out loud, but I was definitely thinking it! Since Kerry's visit I've read a review about the place on Special Edible's blog. I really want to go check that place out soon!

P.S. If you are local to Monterey I suggest you start following that blog because the author, Mark Anderson, works for Monterey County Weekly and reviews a lot of awesome local spots!
P.P.S. Also, if you don't yet, pick up a copy of the Weekly or read their stuff online. LOVE the local paper. I hear about neat events and free stuff from it. Oh and they have the Best Of list that I'm trying to tackle.

We decided to get Baan Thai takeout for dinner. We picked the pumpkin curry (no surprise, if you know me) and pad thai. Kerry let me order, so I of course chose extra hot. The combination of EXTREME heat and an ongoing sinus cold made it impossible to taste our high class $2 bottle of wine.

Empty! :)

Victor, Max, Maren, and Tyler came over (except that Tyler now lives here so I can't really phrase it that way anymore haha) and we busted out the deck of cards!

King's cup is always such a fun game to play.... especially when the rule made up is you have to say your appointed nickname before you say ANYTHING. Slippy Slappy Hippy Happy Trippy Trappy. TOUGH STUFF.

Slappy and Hippy make me Happy.

Sarah was there too - her bro showed us his new tattoo. Then Tyler iced her. Despite the fact that she was on her way to bed, she took it like a champ on one knee!

Then we went downtown.... if you take one good look at the picture below you'll realize how much fun we were having at the Mucky Duck.... such a good dance spot ;)

Not pictured: our trip to the Hippodrome "club" that had cages ... annnnddd yes - we did dance in them.