home bound

Tonight I sit at work very excited knowing that I am headed home to the bay area tomorrow afternoon! I was last home in February and have seen my dad and sisters since then but I am excited to be going home to see my mom, dad, Corie, the dogs, friends, and just to have the nice feeling I get being at my childhood home!

I will not be home for long as I will be headed to Tahoe to have the honor of being in my friend Ashley's wedding. You may recall a previous post were I shared about my get-away to Palm Springs for Ashley's Bachelorette weekend! I had so much fun with those girls and if the wedding weekend is anything like Palms Springs, it's sure going to be a great weekend and wedding! While in Tahoe I will also get to see my god-parents and stay with them at their beautiful cabin for a few days.

Getting this time off work to relax in beautiful Tahoe and spend time with my family and friends is just what I need about now! Stay tuned for pictures of my trip!

where the wild things are...

During my week of working day shifts I went out to explore the tourist areas of San Diego including the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. The first day trip was to the San Diego Zoo with Pati, Leith and baby Isaiah. The zoo is nestled in Balboa Park, not far from my apartment, and was much larger and hilly than I expected. First stop was to see the elephant exhibit. The elephants are always one of my favorite parts at the zoo. At one point the elephants were all swaying from side to side. Not really sure what that was all about.

The jaguar was right by the elephants and lions, so pretty!

They are spooning!

I doubt you see may polar bears eating carrots in the wild arctic.

The gorilla wondering why all these people are taking pictures of him.

The silliest looking orangeade I've ever seen!

The polite and patient orangutan was holding his hand out for his dinner.

The cutest and littlest monkey of all!

Another one of my favorites the girrafes.

Ready to head home after a great day at the zoo!

Two days later my friend Natalie and I decided to use my 2 free passes to go to the Wild Animal Park, about 30 minutes outside of San Diego. We were so excited when we arrived, mostly because it was sunny (unlike it has been in San Diego). We started our "tour" of the park by taking the tram through the open fields where many of the animals get to roam together as they would in the wild. This first three pictures are from this.

This is one of 8 white rhinos left in the world. : (

So apparently when giraffes take a break to sit down they always have one watch; since due to size they cannot hop right up if a predator was to come on a hunt.

This lion is 2 1/2 yrs old. He will soon move to another zoo to start a family of his own. His paws are absolutely huge! Since he is nocturnal he mostly slept but i got this picture when he lifted his head to switch positions!

More giraffes keeping watch over the park.

The male who has fathered 3 of the most recent elephant babies. He is fresh out of the water, hence the line on his body.

Mom and baby (2 1/2 weeks).

The herd with a few of the babies.

Dinner time for the gorilla.

Natalie and I had a great day at the Wild Animal Park. I would recommend both zoo and park to anyone planning on coming to San Diego or those who live here and haven't been yet!

breakfast of champions

For those of you who live in or plan to visit San Diego, the award  winning Hash House A-go-go is a must stop for breakfast or brunch. Serving "twisted farm food" with an Indiana influence you will be blown away with the attention to detail, flavor, and unique angle on food. They serve lunch and dinner as well, and I'm sure it's just as great as their breakfast, but whenever I go I still get breakfast.... So here I am to give you my 2 sense on Hash House's breakfast, (for whatever that is worth to you)!

Most the visitors I have had in San Diego I have brought them to Hash House and they have all been wowed by the experience and food! Here are some photos from when Kristin and Haley visited in January...

yum buttermilk pancakes! (you can see the excitement on Haley's face!)

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and when Ashley came in June...

with her smoked salmon benedict!

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and when Franchi came this past weekend...

here we are waiting to be seated (an almost certain thing when visiting HH unless you get there when they open!) we were too hungry to take a picture of the food after our wait but here are my 2 favorite dishes  (although I've only tried 3 things on the menu)!

This is my new favorite dish on the breakfast menu, the HH Original Benedict: Fresh Spinach, tomatoes, bacon, eggs, served on a buttermilk biscuit atop griddled mashed potatoes and then covered with a roasted red pepper cream sauce!

My first favorite dish on the menu, before I was ready to branch out to some of their signiture dishes, was the Brown Sugar Banana Flapjack. It's larger than the size of any human head I've seen and provides me with easily 3 meals.

Hash House breakfasts will either leave you with left overs or painfully stuffed (from the pictures above I'm sure you can tell the portions are huge)! Well priced for what you get as well but unfortunately they do charge you to share dishes. 

They also serve complementary organic coffee and ice water while you wait, and who knows who you could meet at this happening place! Also the food tastes that much better after a long wait (probably their intentions...lol!)

On a side note: This will hopefully be my first of more resturant reviews to appear on my blog. I love trying out new resturants and would love to share my thoughts of them with you.