Music Quiz!

Okay, so this is not exactly a travel tip but since I always carry an iPod (or sometimes multiple iPods) with me when I travel I thought this would be a fun quiz to pass along. My sister-in-law Shelby and her friend Lyndsy just completed this quiz and the results were pretty funny so I thought I would play along too! Enjoy! :-)

The Rules:

1. Put your iTunes/ ipod (or any mp3 player) on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

4. Encourage others to play along!

My Results:

1) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Lady Madonna – The Beatles

2) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Always on Time – Ja Rule (Amen!)

3) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

Track 02 (apparently I have no purpose...)

4) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

Hey You – No Doubt

5) WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

What’s Left of Me – Nick Lachey (ummm, not good!)

6) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?

Crazy – Aerosmith

7) WHAT IS 2+2?

Fast Car – Tracy Chapman

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Something – The Beatles

9) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Beyond Belief – Elvis Costello

10) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones (yeah baby!)

11) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

No One Said It Would Be Easy – Sheryl Crow

12) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Punky Reggae Party – Bob Marley & The Wailers

13) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Chances Are – Bob Marley

14) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Not For You – Pearl Jam (hmmmm… not a good omen…)

15) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Badfish – Sublime (seriously?!)

16) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Morphine & Chocolate – 4 Non Blondes (hahaha)

17) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Frail and Bedazzled – Smashing Pumpkins (not true, I promise!!)

18) WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?

Hound Dog – Elvis Presley (LMAO!!!)

19) HOW WILL YOU DIE?

Franklin’s Tower – Grateful Dead

20) WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?

Going Under - Evanescence

21) WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

Mr. Jones – Counting Crows

22) WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

That’s It, That’s All – The Beastie Boys

23) WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?

Madness in the Hood – Spearhead (I’m doomed!)

24) WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?

Sweet Sacrifice – Evanescence

25) DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?

Life, In a Nutshell – Barenaked Ladies

26) IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

Here With Me – Dido

27) WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynrd Skynrd

Cave Creek Delight!

Last weekend I drove from San Diego to Phoenix to visit my oldest and best friend in the whole wide world (yes Colleen, that would be you!). Over the years we have developed a tradition of visiting a nearby town called Cave Creek for some of the best Mexican food (and world-class margaritas) you can imagine. So here is a tribute to the little town of Cave Creek, and our favorite Mexican restaurant -- El Encanto!

About Cave Creek:

Cave Creek is about a 45 minute drive from downtown Phoenix and 30 minutes from Scottsdale. You can head north on the Carefree Highway into the foothills and discover this quaint little sanctuary. The town is reminiscent of an old fashioned "western" town and you shouldn't be surprised to come across a real cowboy at some point during your visit. The town is a great shopping destination (especially for antiques or vintage items!) and is known for its arts & crafts festivals throughout the year. There are also a ton of great restaurants and bars around town, but my heart belongs to El Encanto (see below). One very unique and interesting shop to visit is called The Town Dump -- you really will never know what to expect when you walk around the corner! It is fun to snoop around in, even if you don't end up buying anything...

And drum roll please... now on to El Encanto!

As I mentioned earlier, visiting this restaurant has become a tradition when I come and visit Colleen. Reason #1: Colleen and Darren had their rehearsal dinner there so it has special personal meaning to all of us (I was Colleen's maid of honor). Reason #2: Prickly Pear Margaritas. Reason #3: Queso Guillermo. Need I say more?

El Encanto is, in the style of the town itself, a very quaint and fun restaurant. Inside you will find a great outdoor seating area which overlooks a duck pond (with lots of real ducks!), and an area to buy bread and feed the ducks if you so wish (a great feature for kids). During the summer season, the outdoor patio has misters to keep you cool, but it also has an indoor seating area and a small-ish bar.

So moving on to the margaritas... The Prickly Pear margarita is arguably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted, and happens to be wickedly strong as well! Originated from the cute, bunny-eared Prickly Pear cactus -- the margarita is sugary sweet, blended and the glasses are dipped in sugar instead of salt. For all those people thinking this looks TOO sweet, have faith -- you can easily drink more than one and not feel like you have just eaten a pound of Jolly Ranchers. Just make sure you have a designated driver if you decide to have more than one and a half!

And now reason #3 -- the Queso Guillermo. Per the menu... "Hot bubbling cheeses blended with yellow chiles, onions and tomatoes. Served sizzling at your table, with pico de gallo, limes and fresh corn tortillas." Really -- need I say more?!?

YUM!!!

El Encanto 6248 E. Cave Creek Rd Cave Creek, AZ 85331
Phone:	(480) 488-1752

Wine Tasting in Temecula

Champagne, Burgundy, Napa, and... Temecula? For those of you who are not from Southern California, it may surprise you to know that just about an hour north of San Diego (or an hour southeast of Orange County and and hour southwest of Palm Desert) is a delightful wine producing micro-climate in the Temecula Valley. The first wineries began commercial production in the late '60's and early '70's so the region is still very young compared to the more established areas mentioned earlier. Over the past 40+ years over 25 wineries have started production in the area and makes for fun day trip to spend with friends or out of town guests. I unfortunately did not have my fancy camera with me so I apologize for the lack of photos -- what I do have to share are courtesy of my handy-dandy iPhone... :-)

A couple of weeks ago, on a rare rainy Saturday in San Diego, I headed up for a day trip with my friends Robin and Carly. We made our first stop at the Hart Winery which was a first for all of us. It is a quaint little wine farm with a simple tasting bar inside what I would call a barn. The couple running the wine tasting were very nice and informative when talking about the selection. On the weekends, you can taste 6 wines for $10 and you get to keep the wine glass - not a bad deal! They had a few white wines but mostly reds in their collection. I had trouble selecting only 6 to test but I wanted to go beyond just you usual Cab and Merlot so I branched out and tested their Sangiovese, Meritage and Mourvedre. These three were my favorite of the bunch but didn't strike my fancy enough to buy any bottles at this point.

Our next stop is a fantastic place called Ponte Winery. Since Robin is a wine club member here, we were treated to unlimited tastings which was great! Saturday and Sunday wine tastings are usually $12 for 6 tasters and you get to keep your souvenir wine glass. The Ponte Experience was absolutely first class in my humble opinion. The winery is in a beautiful spacious building with a nice rustic decor. Inside is a large marketplace with fun modern decor pieces for sale in amongst their signature sauces, condiments, wines, etc. We tasted some wonderful wines including their Sangiovese, Nebbiola, Beverino, Barbera, Zinfindel, and Super T. Each wine was delicious in its own way but the most unique was the Beverino. It is a slightly sweet red wine that can be served room temperature or chilled. Ponte will serve it to you both ways at the same time so you can taste the difference. Chilled it tastes almost like a rose or red champagne which is beautifully refreshing! At room temperature it is a nice, smooth, fruity red. Although I really enjoyed the tasting, I ended up taking a bottle of the Nebbiolo home with me. It was my absolute favorite for the day! In addition to the wine, I walked out of there with a set of three amazing zebra striped metallic serving platters in addition to their signature Scallion Oil and a Gorgonzola Marinade. Yum! :-)

In addition to the fabulous wine tasting experience, they have a great restaurant out back. We had hoped to eat lunch there but unfortunately the restaurant was closed due to flooding from the heavy rains that we had recently. At this point we were starving so headed just up the road to the Wilson Creek Winery for lunch.

Wilson Creek is probably one of the largest (if not the largest) wineries in Temecula. They have a very large property with lots of outdoor seating and a huge wine tasting area indoors. A second building (entrance shown in the photo above) is the restaurant and banquet facilities. We headed straight for the Creekside Grill and enjoyed a wonderful (and warm!) lunch of baked brie to start, followed by butternut squash soup and a greek-calamari salad for me. The food was very good so I would definitely recommend a stopover here for a snack or bite to eat if you have time.

Wilson Creek is also known for its Almond Champagne so you must give it a taste when you visit. It is a nice twist on champagne and has a nice sweet taste, but I can only drink one glass and then it becomes too sweet for my taste buds!

These three stops concluded our tour for the day, but on a previous trip I had visited Thornton Winery and Stuart Cellars. I enjoyed both of those wineries (from what I remember) so I would definitely make a second stop at each of those on my next trip.

Happy Wine Tasting everyone!

Best San Diego Sushi: Station Sushi in Solana Beach!

So I might be slightly biased here since I eat here literally once a week... but Station Sushi is my absolute favorite sushi restaurant in San Diego. It is actually my second favorite sushi restaurant in general (my favorite is Michi Sushi in Campbell, CA) but that will have to be a different post...

Anyway, getting back to Station... I was actually introduced to this place before I moved to San Diego by my awesome brother and sister-in-law and it was love at first bite! The place is what I would call "dive sushi" because it is a small place and reminds me somewhat of a beach shack-type place (it has recently been renovated and lost a little of that "charm" as I would call it, but the food is still exactly the same). Between the three of us we ordered edamame, miso, multiple rolls, sake and beer and the total cost was around $100 at the end of the night. Seriously! And we couldn't finish all the food because the rolls are HUGE! Needless to say, when I moved to San Diego 2 years ago this place became a staple in my diet and I have dragged everybody I know to this place. Oh, and a great thing to note about this sushi joint -- it NEVER has that "fishy" smell when you walk in, and I have NEVER had a bad meal there. The fish is always SO FRESH I honestly wonder how they manage to do it and other places don't...

The restaurant is always packed (even on a Tuesday night, although during the week you usually will not have to wait for a table), but on weekends be prepared to wait for up to an hour for a table if you have a party of more than 2 or 3. Don't worry though -- they do have a patio where you can sidle up to the counter on the sidewalk and have a drink while you wait (as long as you are not drinking outside the restaurant on the sidewalk of course)! Once you get seated, here is my suggestion of a few things to try (my faves of course!):

1) The Monkey Stick. This is a signature roll for Station. It is basically crab, tuna and avocado wrapped in seaweed and deep fried with a yummy sauce drizzled over (don't ask me what is in it because I have no idea -- it just tastes FANTASTIC!). Below is a really bad photo taken from my iPhone so I apologize.

2) Fried Gyoza. Maybe I just love fried stuff, but this is a great appetizer -- fried pork dumplings with a soy-vinegar sauce is a perfect start to your meal.

3) The Matrix Roll. This is a relatively new addition and is designed for people who like to eat REALLY HOT stuff (if you don't like hot stuff, stay tuned for my recommendation to tone this down - you won't regret it...). So the roll is spicy tuna and asparagus inside out with tuna on top plus another yummy sauce and habanero masago. The heat sneaks up on you and starts to build so the first piece will be hot, the second will reach fire-engine levels as it sinks in. I love the freshness of the tuna/spicy tuna combo so in order for me to manage a full roll on my own (like when I get take-out), I ask for them to make the roll without the habanero masago and it is like a whole different piece of heaven.

4) The Luv'n Tuna. Now this is a perfect compliment to something spicy. This roll combines spicy tuna on the inside with albacore on the outside and a garlic/scallion type sauce. The result is a very light, refreshing roll that appeals to just about anyone.

Other items on the menu that make the "honor roll" are the Cajun Tuna Roll (this was replaced by the Matrix roll when it was added to the menu), the Shrimp Tempura Roll, and the Protein Roll. I also like to get the sashimi platter every once in a while because the fish is SO FRESH it just melts in your mouth (I know I said that earlier but I really wasn't kidding). Oh, and to finish it off, I always get some strawberry mochi for dessert. It is just the cherry (or strawberry) on top of a wonderful meal!

Location:

125 N. Hwy 101 (just north of Lomas Santa Fe Road a couple doors down from Pizza Port)

Solana Beach, CA

Tel: 858.481.9800

Hours: Monday - Sunday Lunch 11:30 - 2pm and Dinner 5 - 10pm

A second location opened up about a year and a half ago in La Jolla, but I haven't been there yet because I am loyal to the Solana Beach location... Go figure! :-)

Desert Rat for 36 hours

I apologize for the lack of posts lately but I have been kinda busy interviewing like crazy for that new "dream job". I wish there were some way for me to just travel, take photos and write my blog all day but unfortunately for now I need to get back to work! But until then, I might as well have fun and enjoy my freedom! :-)

So this weekend I was treated to a uniquely San Diego experience thanks to my friends Robin and Stephan: a trip to the desert! Now many of you might be asking why "the desert", or what is there that might be fun to visit or do, but I promise after reading this post you are either going to want to go immediately to see the show or just shake your head and say "this is definitely not for me"!

Thanks to my crazy interview schedule and multiple day trips up to the Bay Area this week, I was only able to meet up with Robin and crew on Saturday morning. I crawled out of bed in the morning, grabbed a Venti coffee from Starbucks and a Lemon Loaf and headed southeast. The drive from Del Mar is about 2 1/2 hours to get to their campsite which is located in the middle of the Glamis Sand Dunes (also known as Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area) in the Imperial Valley. The area of dunes where you can "play" is approximately 45 miles long by 6 mile wide and hosts up to 1.4 million people per year! Wow!

(Dune buggy wheelies were a common occurrence)

The closest town to where we camped is a place called Brawley about 20 miles away so you are literally in the middle of nowhere... When I turned onto Gecko Road to get to the campsite I was amazed -- there is a paved road straight into the desert and people (thousands of people!) have parked RVs all along this road and made campsites with RVs, Motor homes and of course their desert toys (Quad bikes, Dune Buggy's, 4X4's, etc). Since this is actually an official "recreation area", permits are required to enter the site and camp overnight. You need a permit for every "primary" vehicle (i.e. your car or motor home) but not for "toys" that you bring in on trailers. Permits have various costs but can essentially be bought when you enter for $40 for a week or $120 for the season (costs are lower if you purchase ahead of time).

The "MOHO" and the broken down buggy :-(

When I arrived the crew was getting ready for their first ride of the day so I go there just in time! We hopped into two Jeep's, had a few folks follow us in their dune buggy's, and headed into the dunes for the ride of my life. I swear this was better than a roller coaster ride! :-) Now kids, please don't try this at home... but I was with a group of folks who have been coming out to the desert for YEARS -- I mean, the average number of years these guys and gals have been coming out here is more than 20 so they know what they are doing! We flew (literally) across the dunes to a place called "The Hill" and went and parked down at the bottom with the rest of the crew that Robin and Stephan usually hang out with when they go out there.

"The Hill"

Robin and Carly -- Chicks Rule! :-)

Carly and Me digging this really hot Camaro! And no, I did NOT drive it but I wish!

The Hill is a place where people congregate, check out each other's toys, drink beer and socialize. Oh, and they show off in their fancy souped up cars/buggy's/etc! What an interesting place to see and observe. And I swear I have never see so many Confederate flags in any one place in my ENTIRE life! I think it is really just a macho, cool thing to do but that is just my opinion after being there for a couple of days...

The Dukes of Hazzard General Lee was a common theme but my favorite was the buggy at the top! I ALMOST got a ride in it... maybe next time!

Anyway, I digress... Being here at the dunes for the weekend was an experience to remember for sure. The people were very interesting to watch and are definitely adventure-loving, thrill-seeking, adrenaline-junkies! And of course, I was very impressed with all the fancy toys all over and definitely wanted to go for a ride in a few of these phenomenal cars (but to be honest, I was a little scared so I didn't go through with it, but there is something to look forward to next time!). I don't think I could do this every weekend like so many of the people do, but it was definitely a FUN experience for the weekend and I hope to go back again sometime and maybe get up the courage to ride in a dune buggy and possibly even drive some sort of vehicle in the sand (or maybe I will just stick to being a passenger for the time being!).

So a big THANK YOU to Robin and Stephan for hosting this weekend and introducing me to this different world. It was a great experience and I hope to come out and visit again soon! For all you readers who would like to experience this place -- be careful, don't drive with people you don't know and trust, and HAVE FUN!