These past 10 days, I was lucky enough to be able to fly across the country from Florida to California for what I can now say was an amazing trip. Let’s look at my first 5 days in Cali before talking about my experience at the IDEA WORLD Health and Fitness Convention in Anaheim, which is one of the largest health conventions in the country! Because I have way too much to share about both parts 🙂
So first 5 days was spent with a good friend I met via instagram (you’re not following me yet?!) and blogging weird enough, Amy. Despite not ever having met in person until this past week, and despite being almost 10 years apart in age, we have written FOUR healthy recipe ebooks together throughout this past year of knowing each other. Craziness, I know. But you have to admit, it’s a cool story.
Day 1:
Last Friday night when I flew into the LAX airport, we finally met! Her and her husband picked me up, and after going on to a delicious (LATE) dinner, (yes it was 11pm LA time which meant basically 2am for me being on FL time still!), we drove back to her house where I stayed until Wednesday morning.
Day 2:
After talking until 2am on the couch LA time (aka, 5am my FL time), we went to bed, woke up decently early the next morning, grabbed one of my favorite bars on the go (Quest’s Double Chocolate Chunk), and drove to Hollywood where we hiked up the famous Runyon Canyon. Boy was there a ton of people, and boy was I totally loving the hike (in case you didn’t know, FL doesn’t have such things called mountains). After the hike we had a delicious lunch in town at a small, healthy cafe where (after sampling almost every cool thing they offered), ordered a Greek Salad with “Tofu Feta”, and Tuna Tataki. She got a Tempeh Salad Wrap that was AMAZING. Then we headed back home to rest our legs, lay in the sun by the pool for a little and relax, and then we got ready and went out for the night in Santa Monica! Let’s just say it was a very fun night..and I saw Owen Wilson out, even though he sadly wouldn’t take a picture with me. Weirdly enough, I was the only one that cared he was there at the place. Apparently every one in Cali is more than use to seeing famous people out. Being a FL girl was pretty evident this time I guess.
  
Day 3: The next day, we got up, made delicious toast concoctions on Ezekiel Bread like cottage cheese, cinnamon and chia seeds on one slice, and this all natural berry jam with shredded coconut on the other. Then we were off again for another hike, but this time in Malibu– Solstice Canyon!
I wish my iphone photos showed 1/10 of the beauty I saw on that hike. It was amazing; I was definitely in my element. I was sure wishing on these two hikes that Florida had something onhealthy levitra like this that I could do as a fun yet beautiful way to stay fit. Speaking of fit..let’s just say because of not being use to hiking, muscles I didn’t even know existed in my butt and legs were killing me that night we got home and the days to come. Once we got home, we rested for a bit, and then it was off to her parents house who live about 30 minutes away for a delicious cookout! Mmm! Not to mention we got to pick tons of fresh fruit from her trees like figs (I always have to resort to dried figs in FL so this was a treat).
   
 
     
Day 4&5: Monday and Tuesday were a more relaxed day, as both Amy and her husband had to work until 4pm, so I made myself at home, laid by the pool, studied a bit for my upcoming GRE test that I have failed to study for all summer (oops), and then made dinner Monday night and went out for Mexican Tuesday night.
So Tuesday night was your typical delicious Mexican food with chips&salsa and yummy tacos (yes, even “FreshFitNHealthy” doesn’t eat perfect all the time, please remember that!). But on Monday night we decided to make a delicious dinner we had thought up while driving home from our hike the day before. I mean, as fellow foodies, we couldn’t not make a dinner together, even though the places we ate out were incredible too. Recipe will be appearing soon enough 🙂
However the ice cream recipe we made after dinner will not be haha. Let’s just say it was still good enough to scarf down (with my love for ice cream and finally ending our 21 day #FandFSugarDetox just the night before!), yet not exactly the best turn out for a blog recipe. It was Cinnamon Spiced Fig Froyo to be exact in case you were wondering..and of course we added enjoy life chocolate chips to make it taste better (all things are good with chocolate on top). We can’t always win I guess..
Day 6: Wednesday morning was big for me. Yep, this girl got on her FIRST train, all by herself, even having to find a connecting train in downtown LA, and then proceeding to wave down a taxi in order to get to the Anaheim Marriot where I would be spending the rest of my trip with the About Time team, working one of the biggest conventions in the country. What what! And thankfully, I didn’t have to say goodbye to Amy just yet, as she would be joining us Friday night and Saturday after getting done with work..
Welp, there is part ONE of my trip. Sorry to talk your ear off (or write your eyes out depending on how you look at it). But so much happened in my first 5 days I had to share. And I guess as much as I say I hate writing, apparently I slightly enjoy it.
Until tomorrow for PART TWO of my trip to C-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a..
xoxo,
Sarah Grace
Solstice Canyon, Malibu CA