Last week, the boyfriend and I along with another couple decided to make a road trip out of our drive from Orange County to San Francisco on our way home for Christmas.

Within three days and nearly 500 road miles, I got to see much of California in a whole new light since I’ve never driven up the coastline before.  There was so much to see - we snapped nearly 300 photos on our digital camera!

Since our trip was so extensive, I’m going to split up my road trip experience into a couple of posts full of pictures and places to visit.  Here’s a run down of where we stopped along the way, starting with my hometown:

Garden Grove, CA
San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Lake Cachuma
Solvang, CA
Pismo Beach, CA
Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA
Ragged Point, CA
Monterey, CA
Scenic 17-mile Drive
San Francisco, CA

Hopefully you’ll discover something new about my beloved state that you might not have known before, I certainly did!

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While I was out and about shopping a few weeks ago, I noticed that a Lucky Brand store just popped up at Stonestown in San Francisco.  And while I like Lucky jeans as a splurge, I usually walk right past the stores because I just can’t afford anything in there.

But this week must be mine (and your) lucky week!  Now through December 7th, Lucky Brand is offering a whoppin’ 50% off any item with the purchase of a pair of jeans!

With this offer, I can actually shop for myself and then shop for someone on my holiday list.  I know my cousin will love this Disney Oswald Boxing T-Shirt ($45 US) and at 50% off, I’ll love getting it for her 

So what are you waiting for?  Head out to your nearest Lucky Brand store or shop online to take advantage of this holiday offer!

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Okay, this might not be a revelation to some but to me the idea of all this stuff I can do from a mobile phone is AMAZING (as my friend Julie would say).

I’m sitting in the car while the Boyfriend is at the DMV offices right now and just caught up on My Yahoo! RSS reader on my new G1 phone while waiting for him. With just a couple of scrolls I can amuse myself while he waits in that long line (yuck).

Now that I’m done catching up with my favorite blogs, I’m going to continue working on the scarf I’m knitting for a holiday present.

Over the weekend, the Boyfriend and I went to Hollywood with some friends.  Now don’t laugh, I may have grown up in Orange County, but I have no clue when it comes to LA.

I’ve never seen a lot of this glitzy and glamorous city is known for - the Hollywood sign, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, or even what folks might consider is the most famous theater, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

For those of you like me who haven’t yet experienced Hollywood yet, here are a few photos of my day out.

The Kodak Theatre is home to American Idol.  Although I could really care less about this mega-hit of a show, I must say that the star I found right outside of the theater completely had me giddy with awe: Barbara Walters’ star on the Walk of Fame.  Since I was a small child, I aspired to be an amazing journalist like Babs and couldn’t believe that out of the many stars on the strip, I find the one of my true Idol!

The Boyfriend and I love Entourage and we’re pretty amused to see buses all around Hollywood with our favorite boys plastered all over them.  I think Ari Gold is the most annoying man I love to hate.. Go Lloyd!

While walking around in the outdoor shopping center in the Kodak Theatre, there’s a walkway up on the 5th level that’s got a pretty amazing view of the Hollywood sign.  I’m still baffled that I had never seen it before until now.

Right next door to the Kodak Theatre is Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  All I can say is that it’s much smaller in person than I would have expected.  Still, a beautiful looking building with Trekkie fans taking photos of the handprints of the Star Trek stars that were cemented just on its front steps.

After walking the strip for a couple of blocks, we decided to be true tourists and roam around LA looking for celebrity homes.  You can get a Star Map on Hollywood Blvd. for $5 and be on your merry way to Hugh Hefner’s mansion.

On this particular day, we saw at least 3 tour buses making rounds around the mansion grounds and a ton of cars parked on surrounding streets.  We ran into a man that actually worked for Hef himself and he told us that there was a Halloween party taking place as we speak.  Boy what we would have given to be hanging out at one of his parties in the grotto!

Afterward we headed up to the Griffith Observatory to get a full view of Los Angeles below us and watch the sunset.  It was really a gorgeous day to end a day of sight seeing! And if you’ve never to the Observatory, please make a trip up there next time you’re in town.  They have cool exhibits on space that’s totally out of this world!

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Last weekend, we spent a few days with my aunt who lives in Murrieta, CA, about 65 miles away from Orange County.  When she moved there, I thought she was crazy for living in what I considered was out in the middle of nowhere.

What I didn’t realize was that the new communities popping up in the Temecula area were actually creating more awareness for a hidden gem that I never knew existed until now - a quaint little Wine Country.

If you’re from southern California and want to do a quick weekend getaway that doesn’t require flying north to Napa Valley, jump in your car and drive out to Temecula.  There’s plenty to do for the entire weekend - hanging out at the nearby lakes, outlet shopping right off the I15 freeway, and wine tasting, of course!

Last Monday, the Boyfriend and I drove down the main road to Wine Country and decided to stop at my aunt’s favorite tasting stop, the Ponte Family Winery.

The Ponte Family Winery has been growing grapes in Temecula for over 20 years but just opened their winery and began creating their own wines since 2003.  We took a stroll around the grounds; the landscaping is really gorgeous and we think it would be perfect for those who want a local wine country wedding.

After oohing and aahing at how cute everything was, we settled into their Marketplace and Tasting Room to try 6 wines each for $10 per person (or $12 if you’re visiting Fri-Sun).  With 6 pours each, we got to taste virtually every wine we wanted to try, minus ports.  The Boyfriend and I aren’t really into dessert wines.  Afterwards, they even give you souvenir glasses to take home with you (I love free stuff!)

All in all, their wines were lovely although I think their white wines taste yummier than their reds.  We brought home a bottle of Sangiovese for my aunt and her hubby as well as a bottle of Graciela (chardonnay and sauvignon blanc mix).  It has delicious fruity notes of peaches and pears making it the perfect wine for me on that warm autumn day in the valley.

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Since our god daughter Katanah arrived back in May, we always try to make an effort to see my cousin when we’re down in Orange County.

Last night, we decided to spend the evening with her and her girls for dinner and some games and fulfill on our promise that we’d do a sleepover the next time we were in town.

Here are some pictures of Katanah and Paetyn from this morning while we were babysitting.. aren’t our girls adorable?

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Yesterday I was up in Burbank for a morning meeting and decided, since I had already spent an hour driving up there, I might as well stay and explore a little bit.

It turns out that we were very close to Universal Studios and City Walk so The Boyfriend and I decided to check out the shops and have a little snack while we were at it.

Here we are acting like tourists in front of the Universal Studios entrance.. he’s pondering what’s for lunch and me blowing kisses to my paparazzi boyfriend.  Check out the flip flop action with my grown-up ‘fit! Ain’t no way I was walking around after my meeting in heels, yo..  LOL

Then we walked around City Walk and checked out various novelty gift and candy shops in order to work up an appetite for a small afternoon bite.

We decided to skip the quick service restaurants and opted to sit in the outside patio of Wasabi at City Walk so we could people watch.   Two rolls was just enough to satisfy and keep us happy in case we got stuck in LA traffic for a couple of hours.

We shared a Bank Roll with crab, salmon, and cucumber as well as a Gotta Rock-n-Roll with shrimp tempura, avocado, and topped with yummy tempura batter and eel sauce.  Mmmm…  Both rolls were yummy but a bit overpriced.  It’s to be expected though since we were in a high tourist area.

Once we were back in Orange County, we packed up a weekend bag and headed off to my cousins for dinner and a sleepover with our baby girls.  More on that later!  I do want to mention that one of our favorites food stops in the OC is Tastea in Westminster.  If you love boba (tapioca balls), you must try Tastea at least once if you’re in the area.  Our favorite is the Peach Me Freezie, a frozen slushy with yummy chunks of peaches and strawberries.  It’s super refreshing on a hot day.

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Beer, tri-tip, Lay’s potato chips and a mini TV in the trunk of an Altima.  There’s nothing like tailgating with friends to get us hyped up for our first live football game of the season against the Patriots.

We arrived at the parking lot at around 11am to find my friend Will’s co-worker who had been there since 8:55am that morning (can you say hardcore?).  We thought it was going to be a mess trying to find him but he saved us a spot right next to him - awesome!

It was a lot of fun hanging out with the guys and trying to remember who was on my fantasy league this week so I could check stats on the mini screen - see how I’m squinting trying to look like I’m not scanning for scores?  LOL

After a couple of hours of hanging out and making friends with our fellow tailgaters, it was time to pack up and head inside to root for our Niners.  Granted, we’re not a great team but since Matt Cassel is leading the Patriots in Tom Brady’s absense, I figured that we had a chance to cheer for a win!

But alas, we did horribly in the 2nd half and ended up losing to the boys in blue, 30-21.  Oh well, it was still really fun, nonetheless, and we could barely tell since we were inebriated for a good portion of the day.

Now that we’ve got the first game out of the way, I hope that we get to go to more before the season ends in January!

How was your weekend?  I hope it was a good one too

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Last week, I attended the Glam & AT&T Fashion Week party in Manhattan held at the hip and luxurious 60 Thompson Hotel in SoHo. The event hosted Glam’s fashion, beauty and entertainment bloggers in town to cover New York’s Spring ’09 Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week festivities.

There were blue AT&Tijitos, yummy blue cupcakes and lots of delicious food from the hotel’s own Kittichai restaurant. I even sat down with both the tarot card reader and astrologer and got very good news on the financial front from both mystics. Too bad neither saw free handbags in my immediate future - AT&T raffled off a Marc by Marc Jacobs handbag, a Prada make-up bag, a Kenneth Cole handbag, a Burberry Wallet and a $500 gift certificate to Saks Fifth Avenue.

It was a great night celebrating the excitement and frenzy around Fashion Week! And would have been even more fun if I had been able to snag the goody bag they gave away filled with chocolate trufffles, new M&M chocolates, nail polish, samples from Sephora, body butter cream, a $15 itUne gift card and a rosebud gloss.

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Yesterday the Boyfriend and I went to go buy some carne for the grill and then we were off to visit my cousin and her hubby at their house in Huntington Beach to spend the afternoon with them, our new god daughter Katanah and Katanah’s big sister Paetyn.

This is the first time the Boyfriend and I have met Katanah, and needless to say, I think we were both so smitten with her!  She’s so gorgeous already with her big brown eyes and baby curls, I couldn’t wait to give her a million kisses.  But, with us being her god parents, my cousin tried to put to work immediately.  Change dirty diapers?  Uhhhh…

The Boyfriend immediately got himself out of that one for an easier job.  How perfect is it for the Boyfriend to feed her - since it’s now very apparent that both he and the baby love to eat!

Next up it was time to give some love to Katanah’s big sis, Paetyn.  She’s 6-years-old now and is just one of the smartest little girls I know!  The Boyfriend and I got her a painting kit; she spent the afternoon in the backyard while we were grilling learning how to mix colors.  Blue and yellow certainly do make green!

We all had a great time and I can’t wait to visit with them again.  In fact, Paetyn loves the Boyfriend so much, we’re meeting them for brunch again in an hour!

What are you doing this lazy Sunday?  After we grub, I plan on moseying back to the house to get my fill of football until we have to head out to the airport at 3pm.

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