Travelling Lore

Aside from eating (a lot), being tourists, and hiking around San Diego we also visited a brewery and a couple of wineries.  After our hike at Mission Trails Regional Park we went to Stone Brewing Company's World Bistro and Gardens for lunch.  Little did we know how epic this place would be. Stone Brewing Co.'s World Bistro and Gardens location near Point Loma is the biggest beer garden I've been to hands down.  The restaurant and gardens encompass 23,500 square feet of real estate and incorporate an "industrial meets organic" feel by featuring metal, concrete, wood, water features, and plant life.  This particular location is where Stone Brewing experiments with new brews.  As a result this beer garden offers some exclusive brews that aren't offered at any of their other breweries.  I was very impressed by their variety of beers. Oddly enough I really liked their Baird/Ishii/Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA (10.1% ABV) despite disliking (and thus avo

I know I still owe a "San Diego Part 2" detailing my brewery and winery adventures in SoCal.  But sometimes Virginia wine has to come first!  A friend alerted me to this great Amazon Local deal where you can buy a Virginia Wine Pass for Two to over 80 wineries in Virginia for $29, a $60.99 value.   Virginia Wine Pass is a program that wineries elect to participate in to provide special discounts to those who are in the program.  It can vary from two free tastings or two for one wine tastings to a certain percentage off of bottle purchases or buy one get one bottle deals.  You can find a list of the participating wineries here . Tastings in Virginia wineries can be anywhere from $6-$12 depending on location and popularity, so the Virginia Wine Pass pays for itself after just a couple of winery visits.  And considering just how many wineries there are in Virginia, this could save you a fair chunk of change.  Not to mention Greenhill Winery and Vineyards , where I work

Last weekend we decided more or less at the last minute to make a spontaneous trip to San Diego.  I'd never been to the west coast, we were tired of the cold, we had a long weekend, and most importantly we had some friends we'd been meaning to visit.  So we said goodbye to winter in Virginia and hello to the sweet, sunny 70's in southern California! We used Booking.com to find a hotel to stay in for our first two nights in San Diego before staying with our friend in Irvine.  I love historic hotels and when we saw the Horton Grand Hotel listed with its gorgeous courtyard and right in the Gaslamp Quarter we decided to treat ourselves.  They also conveniently have the Palace Bar in the hotel, which boasts 500 whiskeys and scotches. Our first day in San Diego was a long one as we had a 3:30 AM EST wake up, a 5:00 AM EST flight, and didn't go to sleep until about 1:30 AM EST the next day.  However, this meant we had a full day on California time to explore

I always love seeing fashion collages on the fashion blogs that I read.  It's such a great way to "advertise" to your readers some great retail deals, share your style, not to mention that I find them aesthetically pleasing.  I thought I'd try my hand at one and so I present you with a fashion collage just in time for Valentine's Day!  Whether or not you believe in celebrating Valentine's Day, it doesn't mean you can't flaunt some feminine style.  The best part?  Everything that you see here is under $50 per item! pink sleeveless dress | rose string lights | jack of all trades lip balm | warm vannilla sugar candle flower motif necklace | peplum jacket | heart pouch | essie "leading lady" nail polish   deborah lippmann nail & lip duet | mini knot ring |  gold clutch | flower hair clip  | heart sock set heart belt | clinique eye shadow quad | t-strap flats | kate spade heart earrings | tapered bangle kate spade

Hello, 2015!  I can't believe how quickly time flew by since my last blog post.  One minute I'm visiting wineries and the next we're unexpectedly buying a condo!  We've spent the last two months packing, moving, unpacking, painting, and more painting.  Shout out to my boyfriend's brother and his girlfriend for visiting us over New Year's; it helped get our butts into action to make our new place ready for our first house guests. We were busy non-stop up until Christmas and are very happy that all but one room have been painted.  Needless to say I had no time to do my poor nails (they're in recovery) or go to the gym (made my first trip back in today!).  But come Christmas and New Year's Eve I finally had some time to sit down and do some nail art. I also finally had time to visit another winery.  I took the weekend off from Greenhill and we took my boyfriend's brother and his girlfriend out to their first Virginia Winery.  We found oursel