Day 7: Sail Away With Me

Day 7! Wow I can't believe I've spent pretty much seven full days in California. I am truly privileged. I have sincerely enjoyed every second here, and I wish I could stay here even longer. Okay so this post is late just like yesterday's because Margo and I were watching 'Men Tell All', a portion of the bachelorette where the men who were dumped come back and talk about the season. I ended up falling asleep towards the end. Considering I was hardly able to wake myself up enough to go to bed, I don't think I would have been able to blog! Thus, I am sitting here back in the Thousand Oaks apartment, watching some scary movie V for Vendetta that is actually making me sick to my stomach. I might yak. But before that happens, I will recap my day yesterday, Day 7.

Another glorious day in Santa Barbara. After having breakfast it was time to go sailing. I had no idea what I was in for. The only sailing I had ever done was at Sandy Hill camp, but that was no where near as fun as this was. Margo's dad loves sailing so he took us out on the ocean. He even let me sail the boat! It was pretty awesome to learn how to sail! Not that I could do it on my own, you definitely need two people for sailing because there are so many different parts of the boat and "tacking" is not the easiest thing in the world. Yet another recommendation from my blog! Go sailing! It's so much fun. Here are some pictures of me in action, taken by Margo!After sailing we went to the fish market and decided that we were going to have fish tacos for dinner, a California specialty. We got lunch at a place called Little Alex's which was really good too. These are some pictures of interesting structures and buildings that I took pictures of!Santa Barbara suuuuure is beautiful (: !


We came home, showered, changed, and had dinner with Margo's family friends outside on the patio. Last but certainly not least, Margo, Margo's mama, and myself watched Men Tell All! And while I'm upset that Bentley did not come on the show last night, it was still entertaining to see the guys who were asked to leave take shots at each other. I cannot even imagine what it's like when the WOMEN who are asked to leave the bachelor come back and insult each other. That must be a lot of drama. I cannot wait to watch the Bachelor Pad! There was a preview for the show last night and it looks so unbelievably good! Anyway, I must go before this post and tonight's post become too close in time to each other.

Hasta luego!

xx

Day Six: Fashionably Late

For those of you who were wondering where day six is..such as Kristin (: here it is! I've been caught in the middle of an ongoing fight between my computer and the internet connection here. Even though it says the internet "is working fine" it won't load my blog! And after downloading 2,000+ pictures last night from my phone and camera to my computer, I had enough with technology; it was bed time. So I vowed to put plenty of time and work into this post to make up for the unfortunate tardiness of this post. That's why I deemed it "Fashionably Late", see what I did there?

Now to recall all the events of yesterday. Thank goodness I have the pictures because I do not want to skip a beat in such a great day. Okay here we go.

Greeting from Santa Barbara! Welcome to arguably one of the best places on planet Earth. Why you ask? Stay tuned.
Okay so at about 9:15 yesterday morning, we left Thousand Oaks and headed to the magnificent Santa Barbara. And THIS is just a couple photos to show you just how magnificent Santa Barbara is. Margo took us all throughout Santa Barbara on what might be the coolest road. That's where most of the pictures above where taken, on this road that overlooks the city. It's beautiful.

This next picture is of Santa Barbara High School, where my children will be attending school.Then it was time to go back to the house where I met the two sweetest dogs, Cody and Griffy. Sadly I do not have a picture of Griffy to put up, but he is a black lab, if that helps. This picture is of Cody, what a cutie. We hung out at the house for a while, swinging on the swings, having some snacks, and playing some intense ping pong. And afterwards, we went to the Farmer's Market! Now when I say farmer's market, I do not mean the kind that we have in New Jersey. It is not just a stand that has your typical tomatoes, vegetables, other fruits, etc. This specific farmer's market happens to be every Saturday morning and in California there is some kind of farmer's market going on 5 days of the week. It might be the best place I've ever been. It is just a fenced in enclosure and inside there is tent after tent of all farmer picked items such as fruit, nuts, fruit spread, vegetables, nut butters, pies, pastries, fresh squeezed juices, and anything fresh that you can think of. Here's a picture of the outside. I had some interesting, new experiences at the farmer's market. 1) It was the first kind of farmer's market of its kind that I've ever been to 2) there were soooo many things that I would have never tried and/or seen if I hadn't taken this trip to the Santa Barbara farmer's market. Take a look at this: Have you ever seen something so intriguing? It's a yellow watermelon. Single-handedly the coolest fruit I've ever seen. And it was delicious! And this is what it looks like compared to East Coast watermelons.Pretty cool, huh? However, the absolute best part of the trip to the farmer's market was the wheatgrass shots. Yes, wheatgrass shots. The people at this stand squeeze the living daylights out of wheatgrass to extract the juices into one, very concentrated, shot of green liquid. People who are used to wheatgrass shots can take them without the carrot or orange chasers that they also sell. Margo was one of these people, while Michael and I bought orange chasers. It was a life-changing experience, I recommend it to anyone who is even mildly interested. And it's healthy for you! Who knew!So after our lavish trip to the farmer's market, we rode bikes to the beach! Which is amazingly private, calm, and quiet. It is ridiculously different than the Jersey shores at home that are super crowded. I seriously felt like I was on a private beach!
This next picture is of Margo and one of her best friends Caroline who is awesome. Well both of them are awesome. We all pretty much fell asleep on the beach at separate times because it was so relaxing. This is me being artsy at the beach when I get bored.Then we decided it was too "cold", yes, believe it or not, it gets cold in California. Now when I say cold, I mean mid to high 60s, but when you are used to high 80s, it does get chilly at times, especially if you are brave enough to set foot in the freezing water! So we headed back to the house via bikes.
Then we went to dinner at this great Mediterranean restaurant where they have fire pits in the center of the table. It was nice because it kept us warm throughout the dinner and even warmed up the food that was too close to the fire!

Day 5: Mental Health Day

Today was most definitely a mental health day for me, in its own way. I woke up around 6 to eat breakfast and then drive Margo to work. Then I came back to the apartment and got dressed to go to the gym.

This is me at the smaller part of the gym. So exclusive, felt like a VIP. Crazy right?
After spending too much time there, I went to the grocery store and picked up some things. And then I came back to the apartment, showered, and went to the pool for a while. Then I read some of my book, True Colors, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants a summer/anytime of the year reading book. It is proving to be a great read, anything by Kristin Hannah is stellar to be quite honest. After reading I came back to the apartment, yet again, and watched old reruns of the Jersey Shore until I fell asleep for about twenty minutes. Eventually, it was time to meet Margo for the Chili Cook-off.

If you do not know what a chili cook-off is, it is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch of people who have their own specific chili recipes come to Amgen, set up their own booths, and try to solicit tokens from taste testers so that they can win. This years theme was TV, so every booth had to dress up in costumes and decorate their booth to model a television show of their choice. From Jersey Shore to Wayne's World, from Survivor to South Park, from the Addams Family to Sesame Street, there were a ton of different shows being represented. Here is a picture of a guy dressed as Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. He could be seen screaming for people to try his chili, it was entertaining.
Also, here is a picture of Margo with the guy at the South Park booth dressed as Cartman! At least I think that's his name..
These next pictures are ones we took at the end just for fun. The first is of me and Margo and, even though I'm unflatteringly squinting because it was so bright, it still makes the blog. The second one is of the three of us, kindly taken by a security guard.
Lastly, we saw Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was reallllllllllyyy good. Another recommendation from me to you. Go see it. Ryan Gosling is beautiful.
Well, time for bed. Pretty slow day as far as doing things go, once again I apologize. Headed to Santa Barbara tomorrow.

xx

Day 4: Change of Scenery

Today was moving day for me as I packed my bag and left the Palisades ): I will miss Shayna sleeping in my room and getting to spend so much time with my uncle and Stacy.

However, it was not the last time I will be with them, so I am not entirely sad. I am grateful for the time we spent together and the amazing, first-time experiences I have had over the last 4 days. Each of them has been life-changing and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Now on to today's events...

Michael is in Cali! My uncle and I picked him up today as he hopped off the plane at LAX, cardigan-less of course. I am beyond happy that he is here because I have missed him dearly (: I'm so overjoyed that we get to experience California together. He really is my go-to friend. Anyway, after getting something to eat we left my uncle Rob's house and drove to Margo's! This is where the title change of scenery comes in. Here is a picture of Thousand Oaks!It's a cool place to be, but then again, everywhere in California is a cool place to be.

And guess what? I, Rachel Bass, got to drive down the legendary 101 today. You know...that old Phantom Planet song?.. "we've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one, California here we come, right back where we started from...hustlers grab your guns, your shadow weighs a ton, DRIVING DOWN THE 101, California here we come right back where we started from..." What a great song. Yea, so I drove down the 101, not a big deal. People do it every day, but not me! Mucho exciting. Here's a picture documenting the experience.
After moving in, swimming, hot tubbing, etc. we all showered and went to dinner, which was delicious. Then we came back here and hit the hay early for a goodnight's sleep.
OH WAIT! Mike and I pumped our own gas! It was CRAZY! So Jersey of us. Here's a picture of the thrilling time we had pumping gas and not our fists.
Sorry that this post is kind of short and kinda bland but I am very tired and it is almost 11. Also, I still have to put up the post of strictly pictures that I did not have time to post when they happened. Goodnight blog readers!

xx

Day 3: Picturesque

So I named this post Picturesque mainly because it is going to contain many pictures. And what is more appealing to the eye than pictures? The answer to that rhetorical question is nothing. However, I cannot take credit for these pictures because I was the one surfing in all of these. Ergo, my uncle took the pictures and they turned out great!

Oh yea, did I mention I WENT SURFING?! For the first time! It was awesome. Solely awesome. I had the coolest instructors ever and I learned immediately! I guess all those years of snowboarding paid off! Oh wait, I broke my wrist snowboarding...I mean what..that never happened. Anyway, surfing was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be! Sure, there were some wipeouts, some sharks, the usual everyday things the average human encounters...this is me being facetious via blogging.

Apparently there were sharks in the water..this I was not aware of until I had apparently rode a wave right over one. I cannot imagine that the shark enjoys being run over, thus, I'm probably on his hit list next time he sees my vulnerable feet floating in the water..whoops. My instructor, John, said that it was a leopard shark and that they are vegetarians like myself. A vegetarian shark? Not something we have on the east coast. He said that he sees great white sharks all the time when they are riding the waves, they just don't bother the sharks and the sharks don't bother them. See, for me, that logic only works on bees if you don't want them to sting you. I really don't think I would run the risk with sharks seeing as though they can, oh I don't know..eat you. Here's two pictures, so you can understand what a leopard shark looks like. If that doesn't make you a) very afraid b) pee your pants or c) close your eyes then you have a brave soul and I suggest you go surfing in sharky waters because you cannot understand the feeling of knowing there is a shark near you experience it live in person. And if those pictures doesn't freak you out enough, congratulations, you like sharks.

But beside the fact, surfing was an outstanding experience. I loved every second of it and I definitely plan on going again, hopefully where there are not ANY sharks... vegetarian, vegan, human-eating, what have you. Okay, on to the pictures.

These pictures are of myself and my awesome instructors John and this awesome woman whose name I cannot think of right now ): They taught me everything I know about surfing, I owe any future career to them. These next pictures are of me surfing, being a boss hahaha. I love it so much it's a good time. Now this next set is of the kids I met while surfing! One of them is 13 and the other is 10, both awesome and both desperately wanted to be on my blog once I told them about it. Therefore, they tried to catch every wave that I took so they could be in pictures with me. As you can see below, they succeeded. These last two pictures are from the end of surfing and from playing tennis with my uncle! We went to dinner after and got sushi, and that pretty much wraps up another fantastic day in California!
Rachel fatigué. Peut-être je mettrai mon prochain poteau de blog complètement en français..comment captivant!
Aller au lit maintenant.

Au revoir!

xx