Wine Country With Love

Back home again! Danny and I just made the 5 day drive home from Florida and are super excited to be home. Since we are both wine lovers (of course coming from where we do) we decided to go wine tasting for our home coming event. A nice (hopefully sunny) relaxing day at beautiful wineries with great people and tasty drinks.

Oh how we are spoiled here in Sonoma county. Before I left I never realized what great things we have at our disposal, most people (including myself) take advantage of. We have the great, cheap wines with gorgeous countrysides, beautiful unique beaches, great culture, and amazing food.

Its so good to be home :)

HopJacks Inspirational Food

Best Pizza and Beer Around

So I just thought I would share with everyone, if you ever in Pensacola, Fl I suggest checking out Hopjacks. Its a wonderful Pizza Kitchen and bar that has amazing food, great beer selection and a wonderful atmosphere. (Special shout outs to the owner who was surprisingly humble and very nice).

Their fries there are absolutely amazing, and come with this tasty home made aioli. I can easily say they are the best fries I have ever eaten. Also their Pizza is absolutely wonderful, not to mention they have about 30 beers on tap, soon to be expanding.

Truthfully Im not much of a beer drinker, don't really like the taste but one of the bartenders had me try this raspberry one that was delicious.

I highly suggest this place, so if your in the area please check it out!

http://www.hopjacks.com/

Florida Fun

So I took a 5 day drive to Florida (to visit Danny in A school) in our 97 Jetta that's about to give out on us. To make things more interesting I brought along two of my sisters and one of their friends, not to mention my year old lab puppy and all our things. Since I was the only one who could drive (due to the car being a stick) our trip got a little interesting at times.

We ended up driving late into the nights and getting nutty as people due on little sleep and energy drinks and long hours of straight highways of nothingness. By the time we got to florida, where I had rented a two bedroom apartment, we were all at each others throats, but it seemed reaching our destination was just the remedy we needed.

During my time here I happened to make lots of new friends, one being our Taxi driver, our bartender and many of Danny's school buddies. Since Danny spent much of his time on base not being able to leave after hours, I ended up spending a lot of my time playing on the Internet and found a neat website where I ended up making my own shirts. http://tizi.spreadshirt.com/

The weather in Pensacola seemed to be a lot colder than I imagined (even though it was winter time). Turns out I had a cliched view of the weather in florida, since it barely reached 70 for more than a day. I should have known, being from Cali people have many stereotypes and views of our state that are half truths and part myths.

Even though the weather was iffy, I did get to explore some of the beautiful beaches Pensacola had to offer, and even more so some of the neat bars, nightclubs, and attractions around. Overall my experience has been very different from my expectations, but never the less interesting and fun.

Pensacola Pelican Drop

New Years in a New Place

Ah today is a new day! Its new years day and I was lucky enough to spend it with my hubby, two of my sisters and a few new friends. Since the boys had to be back on base by 12, our night was cut a little short of course, but I wasn't about to complain. I am just so happy that I got to spend it with him... the one I love.

Since we didn't have all night we decided not to do anything crazy or wild way out of town. A few days ago we heard about this thing going on in town called the Pelican drop. We checked it out online and seemed pretty chill... it was a street festival with a count down at midnight with a pelican drop. So we went!

It was right in the heart of downtown and they blocked off three of the main streets, which lead to many restaurants and local bars. There were plenty of street vendors and many many people crowded around the small stages for contests, karaoke, magic shows and more.

This is the place where I first tasted alligator... alligator on a stick. It was actually more tasty than I had thought it would be. So most of the night we wandered the streets in and out of bars and checking out the vendors on the sidewalks, until time came to take them home.

Pensacola Pelican Drop

What did you do for new years?? where did you spend it??

Charlie's Angels In Pensacola

YOU JUMP, I JUMP

Upon taking a self guided tour of the Pensacola NAS in the middle of the winter my two sisters, crystal and I came upon this gorgeous little beach. Since Danny was still in class we decided to stay here and explore a little bit. Since we are all a bit dorky and like to have fun we started taking random pictures along the beach to pass the time. Looking over these pictures today this quote came to mind.

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Even though we are sisters, we are also great friends and this quote explains us totally. I cant help laughing at the pictures as I look through them, for one because they are cheesy, but also because they come with fond memories of time spent, happy time spent with loved ones.

Den Mother for Alpha Barracks

Living Next To Base Means Always Having Company

Lately I have been feeling like a den mother to many of the sailors at Alpha barracks here on base. This is because I am the only wife out of Danny friends, and/or the only one living 2 miles from base. I picked the apartment because of its location, size and flexibility, but never would have thought how much traffic would be in and out.

Actually its kind of neat, on most days we have about two or three sailors over for dinner, movies or just hanging out once they hit liberty. On the weekends though we have been having about 5 or so of danny's friends post up on the couches and air mattress.

Dont get me wrong Im not complaining or anything, actually they are quite entertaining to say the least, and our Dog loves the company too! Its just an interesting feeling cooking for so many people and being the driver, since were the only ones with a car here and so on. Good thing Im a people person I guess. Seems like the life of a Navy wife, hosting for all the Sailors.

We even had christmas with a few of danny's friends who were stuck in florida for the holidays. My sisters and crystal went to walmart and filled up stockings for each of them with candy and little trinkets for them, it was a nice feeling.

The Windy City

Love at first Sight

Ok, so maybe its not first sight as in the first time I ever saw Danny, even though I did have a huge crush on him then, but its our big reunion after boot camp! The best part was that he didn't barely recognize me, since I had gotten my hair done and lost about 12lbs while he was away. Ill tell ya the best motivator to go to the gym is knowing your husband is working his ass of 7 days a week in boot camp and he will be coming home soon! Haha got me to the gym 5-6 days a week while he was gone (lets just hope that keeps up).

So this is my first trip so far away from home since, well since I ever. Before this trip the furthest I had been away from home was Hawaii back in 8th grade. Its the middle of the winter and Im from California, heading to Chicago scared about the snow and freezing temperatures. I ended up buying a whole new wardrobe and two Pea-coats (got them both for 70% off at Old navy) just for the occasion.

When it came time to see him, I was so close to crying I was so happy! Ugh... two whole months of no contact was rough I tell ya, but oh so worth the wait to get to see him again. We ended up staying in Chicago over the weekend and visiting the sears tower and eating Chicago style pizza and doing all the fun touristy stuff (as much as you can in two days) before he was whisked away again, flown off to florida. Talk about a change in climate ;-) Overall the trip was great though, it was so nice to see him, and neat to explore new places.

Halloween Tradition

End of An Era

So for about 4 or 5 years now I have had a halloween party out at my parents house in the country. It was the perfect venue, secluded with enough room for many people, also no neighbors for days. This year is bitter-sweet. For one Danny wont be here, and its one of his favorite holidays, and for two its the last year we are going to have a party out at my parents. Hence they are moving and we are forced to find another location next year or something else to occupy our time on halloween.

With that being said I am still pretty excited, I love planning the party, shopping for ideas and decorating the house. Its so thrilling and fun to come up with cheap, fun decoration ideas to make the house look spooky. On the other hand its not gonna be the same without Danny here.