Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/customer/www/edithmeyer.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/includes/simple_html_dom.php on line 1364
Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/customer/www/edithmeyer.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/includes/simple_html_dom.php on line 684
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/customer/www/edithmeyer.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/includes/simple_html_dom.php on line 691
Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/customer/www/edithmeyer.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/includes/simple_html_dom.php on line 684
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/customer/www/edithmeyer.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/pinterest-pin-it-button/includes/simple_html_dom.php on line 691
Where to begin?! So first we went to Tahoe, because I haven’t been boarding in a year and the season’s been pretty dull up there but we just got some big storms that helped out:
There weren’t many people at ALL, and the snow was great, and the weather was fantastic. We are apparently going CAT-SKIING next winter; I am hoping to get up to the snow at least one more time this year so I don’t kill myself in Canada. We got back from the mountains to record waves and sunshine in Santa Cruz:
They don’t look like much in this dinky photo but you can see the wharf out there in the background – these were huge. And there were a couple of crazy surfers out there trying to take them on – it was breathtaking to watch.
Then I went to Los Angeles to spend a few days with my mom; we had a super-fun visit. She NEVER STOPS COOKING. I convinced her to let me take them out for breakfast one morning, because I’d read about Lamill Coffee and wanted to go. The article had raved (about this and other “best coffee places in the US”, so I made notes for Chicago, San Francisco, and New York), but the Yelp reviews are fairly negative (small portions, surly hipster staff, high prices), and I was reluctant to take my mom and stepdad into a potentially un-fun situation. I should know better than to trust Yelp. It was fantastic. The wait staff were charming and friendly, the portions really generous, and the prices pretty reasonable. The coffee was unbelievably delicious, and we got there early enough to try their legendary housemade beignet donuts:
(I could have eaten the entire plate but I shared.)
Driving home I hit a freak storm on the Grapevine – it was really scary (but apparently not scary enough for me to stop trying to take pictures of the scariness with my phone):
Cars were skidding out all over the place. Once I got over the pass it warmed up and cleared up, and the rest of the drive was fine. Mom sent me home with 10 pounds of kumquats (from a friend’s neighbor’s tree); I like kumquats a lot but I wasn’t sure I could eat 10 pounds:
So I made marmalade. (Which was an ordeal.) But now I have plenty of kumquat marmalade, and even better, I actually have some weddings this year where I will use it.
This weekend was my ten-year wedding anniversary; we have a couple of big trips coming up, so we stayed close to home over the weekend, although I won’t say we took it easy:
This is the start of a big loop in Garrapata State Park, through redwood canyons and along high ridge peaks. The whole loop is around seven miles, and takes 3-4 hours to complete. It’s insanely steep in sections but the views are lovely, and near the end, just before the descent, is a wooden bench where you can collapse on a rock outcropping overlooking the ocean:
If you look really carefully you can see the barn as a tiny white dot near the road in the upper left. It was a great way to spend the day and certainly relevant to our ten years – whining about how hard things seem and then turning some small corner and realizing how amazing they actually are.
I’ll leave you with yet another cherry blossom cake – this one was gluten-free, and wrapped in white chocolate. You’ve seen the dark chocolate version, but in white chocolate it’s just as pretty:
