Before I go on, here's the gist of the trip in photos:

We arrived early Saturday morning & after a power nap we made our way to Vernal Falls. This is actually the flow coming down from it--don't be fooled, it's huge!

Me, being cool + some snow higher up in the hike & closer to the falls--it looked as if we were in The North (Westeros) ;) -------------------------------------
We prepared our [fancy] meals pretty well for our trip with lots of fruit, nuts and protein + lots & lots of water. After our Vernal Falls hike it was time to celebrate with some dinner! We washed, cut, seasoned and cooked our dinner around the campfire for a good 30 minutes while sipping on some red wine. We had a buttered salmon stuffed with spinach & feta (prepped by Fresh n' Easy), some vegetable medley, asparagus and "country fried potatoes." As usual, I did not take a picture of our meal, but I assure you, it was delicious. Pretty fancy for camping, am I right? Totally doable, too. I recommend for car camping if you willing to do a little work.

We were stuffed, but I guess you can say we were filling up for the next day's hike: Upper Yosemite Falls



it took hours just to have this view; top of waterfall is our destination


switchbacks for days. hike is equivalent to walking up empire state building steps TWICE



I was terrified; he looks delighted

UPPER YOSEMITE FALLS:
This hike was killer. I've never really hiked anything so strenuous before this trip so my legs and feet hated me. Prior to the hike I did not realize it was labeled as "very strenuous" at 7.2 miles/11.6 km round-trip; 6 to 8 hours; 2,700 feet/823 m elevation gain. Egads. Nothing in San Diego is equivalent to that. Not even close. Hiking back home is chump change! Anyhow, we started hiking around 11am/12pm and I even had plenty of other activities in mind for after the hike. I was such a fool. The noobiest noob!

Because of my constant break-taking, photo snapping, snack eating and water drinking, it took us about 6 hours to reach the top of the falls. Still worth it! To be honest, I still think we did pretty well, considering how many dozens of people stopped & turned around half way or even 3/4's the of way. I was so ecstatic reaching the top of Yosemite Falls. The views were breathtaking. Shoot, my heart raced so intensely when looking over ledges, I thought I may die from over-excitement or, you know, fear. Still, I felt incredibly awesome.

Off the beaten path, we decided to take our 5pm "lunch": ham with mozzarella + avocados, lots of trail nut mix, clementines and apples. By the time we headed back down it was nearing 7pm and at that I started to freaked out because... We wouldn't make it in time to buy more wine before the village store closed, which was at 8pm. What could we do? Run down that mf'n mountain, that's what! Clarence handed me his big ol' hiking backpack, I gave him my small day pack, one of my trekking poles, and a bit of my water--then off he went. That maniac made it down in 30 minutes. YES, FOLKS. THE SAME TRAIL THAT TOOK US 7HRS TO DO. After a few minutes, I started feeling lame & foolish so I decided to run down as well, big ol' backpack & all. One hiking stick & my trusty headlamp is all I needed. I got to the valley floor around 7:45pm & felt like my legs would fall off. I also felt like a freakin' champion.

As for the wine we rushed to buy? After cooking our pesto & sausage pasta, we were way too tired to drink even half the bottle. Oh, the things we do... Safe to say, we were so done that night.  We slept like babies and with that, our trip came to a close. Dates in nature, beautiful hiking trials, awesome views, silly fun & very tired feet; mhmm, Yosemite was very good to us.

Better late than never: PORTLAND (Jan. 2013)!

So a few posts back (which was actually 3 months ago), I briefly mentioned that I would be heading on a trip to Portland, Oregon. As a quick summary of this little adventure, I will say that it is very, very different from home here in Southern California. And I do mean that in a semi-bad way, considering its lack of cultural diversity. Yet admittedly, I also believe it has its own hipster aesthetic. Plus, winter may not be the best season to enjoy what the city has to offer. Maybe next time we'll fall in love with the place, given we have more than just 4 days.

Anyway, I wrote this whole post about my time there and the kind of "culture shock" I endured, but that was on my tumblr and I don't want to be repetitive--at least not in writing. I will, though, re-post my photos on here without guilt :)

WARNING: No pictures of food. I am no foodie and I am perfectly okay with that.
And so that's about it for the photos. I have lots of other photos of my friends and I (our group was 10+!) where we're seen being silly and inebriated and dancing... but I'll save those for our Facebook pages (tags I won't approve!). I loveeee those last few photos of Clarence walking away in amongst all the green, but unfortunately photobucket resolution is not very good. Oh well, still nice right?

L.A. for dim sum--my first time ever. Quite a new experience...



 


(the guy placed the eyepatch, a hat and two swords + 3 parrots because i was drawing in a crowd. i think the coat gave him the pirate idea -__-)

santa monica pier :)

Not much to update, but here's a recent photo of yours truly. I hardly wear sneakers these days, but I wanted to go casual cause I'm so tired of wearing heels every time I go out.



I'm using the clutch I made (see previous posts), thrifted denim shirt--I got it for $1 a few months ago and now I see it's at least $25 at the mall, a pair of culottes and H&M sneakers which were on sale for $5 :)
the quality of each item is not so bad, minus the rough edges inside my clutch, so yay for saving money while not skimping out on quality!

those were a few of my faves from my visit last year

older photos that I posted on my tumblr:





me at Ghibli

minis

I went to the Bamboo Lounge in Hillcrest for brunch to celebrate my friend's 23rd birthday. It was only my second time there, the first time being exactly one year ago for the same friend's 22nd! Not much has changed. Same decor, same workers and nice Mediterranean/slash/Mexican kind of vibe (though I think the regular menu is sushi...?). The food was way too much (all breakfast), but I didn't take a photo because I dug in too impatiently.

I tasted the mimosas and champagne. Nummy, but I'm not too accustomed, so the tingliness of the carbonation was a bit of a bother. Must sophisticate my [alcohol] palate!