San Diego trip part 1: hanging out in SoCal

The main event for our trip down to La Jolla was our friend's beautiful wedding - but we also spent plenty of time hanging out around the area and in Santa Monica.

We flew down with our friends Nicole and Eric (who we also traveled with in Switzerland - post about that soon!) and our first stop was to In-N-Out.

We then made our way to the beach and relaxed at La Jolla Shores and enjoyed the lovely sun!

Later that night we went out to get fish tacos and to a local brewery.

Saturday morning before the wedding Nicole and I did yoga overlooking Pacific Beach - it was so fun and such a hard class!  We were both sore for days!

Our yogi Steve even had his pet pig come along!

Saturday evening was the beautiful wedding (more on that later!) so Sunday we hung out in Santa Monica and did some shopping!

A great weekend getaway!

Back from San Diego

Hello friends!  A couple of weekends ago Nick and I went down to San Diego/La Jolla for an absolutely beautiful wedding!  I'll have to share more in a later post but wanted to do a quick preview of the weekend:

hanging out at the wedding

Morning yoga on the beach, namaste!

cake cutting

lovely friends

the beautiful couple

fun in the sun with Nicole - La Jolla Shores beach

Catching up

I've been blogging in the past so I figured I would do a quick post on what's been going on in the present!  Most of these pictures are from Instagram - I'm Carol701

Our weather lately has been pretty amazing (minus the rain this weekend) so Nick and I have been trying to get out as much as possible!

blue skies in Seattle

Hanging out on Puget Sound

Since this weekend was rainy we went to see Jurassic Park 3D at the IMAX with my brother - it was so much scarier than I remember, but still just as good as it was in 1993!

even scarier than I remember...

We've also been trying to get to the driving range 1-2 times per week

I do love my pink golf glove

I really don't like hitting with a driver - 8 iron is my fave

Cherry blossoms have been out and about too, love those trees!

I do love these trees

April in the Pacific Northwest means tulips and daffodils everywhere - I've been buying lots of them to bring spring inside

Nick's spring quarter classes started up again last Tuesday (he's taking night classes to get his Masters in computer science and engineering) - and this was a picture taken from the quad.

Our beautiful quad at the University of Washington - I think that's why I like cherry blossoms so much

I've still been loving my Saturday spin classes at FlyWheel and got this especailly pretty mocha at the coffee shop my friends and I go to after class...

For dinner tonight I found a really great recipe I had to share - Citrus Mahi Mahi with a yummy avocado salsa and I did an easy roasted asparagus on the side.  I used wild Atlantic Mahi Mahi (approved by the Seafood Watch program) but I think any white fish would be good, maybe I'll try it with salmon too! Every year I say I am going to eat more fish and maybe this will be the year!

Trying to eat more fish

Well that's it for me!  Hope the start of the week has been a great one!

Europe 2012 day 4 Part 2: Swiss Alps hiking

After spending the morning (Sept. 7, 2012) at the Top Of Europe (previous blog post), we headed back down via the train to the small town of Kleine Scheidegg.

An afternoon of hiking in the Swiss Alps

We found a restaurant for lunch and enjoyed the beautiful views from the deck.

Not a bad view

Beer + beautiful views

Right above the restaurant there was also a little lookout area...

This was the first time we really got a great view of the three famous peaks of this area - the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (from left to right).

Panorama of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau - click to enlarge

After lunch we hit the trail from the restaurant at Kleine Scheidegg to Männlichen (point A to B on the map).

Larger map of the Berner Oberland

Zoomed in - our day

It was a highly recommended hike and lots of pictures were taken...

Panorama of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau - click to enlarge

Pointing out the famous North Face of the Eiger - people actually climb up that

We met lots of nice people on this trail (I love talking to fellow travelers, hearing their stories and politely asking them to take a picture of Nick and me) - the fresh air always seems to bring the best out in people!

A couple of hours (and many pictures later) we reached Männlichen, and it gave us beautiful views of the three peaks and down into the Lauterbrunnen Valley and where we were heading next - Wengen.

enjoying the view from the lookout

panorama of the lookout - click to enlarge

Looking down onto Wengen

From there we bought gondola tickets ad made a STEEP decent down to the town of Wengen, another cute little Swiss resort town.

A very, very steep gondola ride down, my stomach turned a little

What the gondolas look like from outside

We loved staying in Lauterbrunnen but Wengen would be another option for our next trip back, whenever that may be :)

In all the towns in the area (Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Kleine Scheidegg, etc...) were decorations for a HUGE marathon going on the next day - the Jungfrau Marathon.  I don't know much about marathons, but this is (apparently) one of the most famous in the world.  3,500 runners from all around the world participate and there is a huge wait list of people wanting to be a part of it.

The streets of Wengen decorated for the marathoners - it's a hard
marathon (big elevation gains) but they get great views!

After wandering around Wengen and grabbing a snack we bought tickets for a train back down to Lauterbrunnen (point D).

Train back down to Lauterbrunnen

Once we got back down to our hotel we sat on the balcony, had dinner and even watched a BASE jumped land really close to us!  There was a pretty view of the valley, Staubbach Falls and enjoyed a nice sunset too.  We just spent the evening talking, enjoying each-others company and getting excited for the next day!

View from the balcony

A BASE jumper that landed really close to our balcony, I took a video after this picture

Next stop: another day in the Swiss Alps and a meetup with our friend Nicole and Eric from Seattle!