Pan Pacific and Asparagus

When we packed for this trip, we decided to ship out a bunch of boxes to lighten our load on travel day...it worked beautifully, except that our box of all the girls' toys arrived THREE DAYS after we did. We bought a set of foam blocks to try to hold us over, and Lainey's favorite new game became stuff-the-Sarah....(poor Sarah just ignored it and kept playing!)

Thankfully, their toys (and clothes, and my immersion blender that I can't live without!) arrived Monday, and being in the house is no longer torture for us all.

Still, we've spent some time venturing out; the girls and I walked to the Pan Pacific Park yesterday. It took us about 35 minutes to get there, and Lainey rode her new scooter the whole way, just like a big kid. We stopped for a strawberry-banana smoothie on the way...mmm.

On the way home, I bought this asparagus at the farmer's market; I don't think it's actually local, I don't know if it was organic or not, and I'm actually not even that into asparagus...it just looked so delicate and beautiful, I had to try some.

I ended up drizzling it with olive oil, sprinkling with sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and roasting it for about 25 minutes at 400°...it was incredible. It got voted by the adults (sadly, not a hit with the kiddos) as make-again-good.

More food adventures to come...stay tuned! :)

Hello from the West Coast!

I'm typing this on my computer in front of a huge open bay window, with 75° air blowing by. Oh, yah. We're in LA...for a month!!! I am thrilled to have traded this...

for this...!

In order to try to keep in touch a bit, my blog for the next month, though still often food-focused (how could I not focus on food?!), will also be my tool for sharing LA with my friends and family while we're away (I know that most of my readers are you guys, not strangers.. :) ).

Sadly, we woke up our first day here and all four of us had the nasty stomach bug that's going around. It was rough. The #1 thing I was looking forward to about getting here was the FOOD! Lainey put it very well when she whined, "But I don't want to be sick in Californina!" Believe me kid, I know.

We pulled through, though, and ventured out yesterday afternoon to start exploring the city a bit. Mike and I enjoyed a delicious dinner from Vegan Glory, an amazing Thai Vegan restaurant, one block from our house (woohoo!! can you imagine such a place even existing in the Capital Region?!).

I am absolutely loving having so much great food so nearby, and we're only on our first full day of being able to eat! Today we walked to a restaurant for breakfast (as in, about 10 minutes), and we're a 20 minute walk from a huge outdoor daily farmer's market/restaurant area.

So far, I'm totally embracing being a California girl; if only we could transport everyone we love to be here with us, I would consider moving here. :)