Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda...But Didn't.

Well, as my 33rd year winds down, I must admit that I didn't complete my list of things I wanted to do. I did a lot but not nearly all of it. Here are the things that never made it to fruition: (along with my excuses!)

1. Go to a comedy club on Sunset Blvd. 

I really wanted to but the hangup was always that I didn't want to have to make the torturous drive home to Temecula from LA after being at a Comedy Club late at night. Anyone who's made this drive before, understands. So why not get a hotel? Well, because LA hotels aren't cheap. Not the ones I'd wanna stay in anyways. I did go see David Spade in Las Vegas so maybe that counts in a way?

2. Spend an entire day at the beach, just soaking up the sunshine

Seriously disappointed that I never did this. When I put it on my list, I pictured a relaxing day of soaking up the sunshine, reading books and listening to the waves crash against the shore. I have no valid excuse and I'm rolling this one over to my 34 list.

3. Take a hot air balloon ride

I had no clue how expensive it was to take a hot air balloon ride. Serious cash. It'd be like $400 for me and Henry. We'll still do it. Hopefully at the Balloon and Wine Festival in May so this too will be another rollover to 34.

4. Get a new tattoo (a specific stars one I saw on Pinterest)

Ugh. I came so close. The plan was to get it on vacation and then I realized I didn't want to spend my vacation week unable to wear shoes. But, I have spoken with my friend Jen who has a friend in Rotary that does tattoos and I'll be getting it sooner or later, I'll just be 34 when it happens.

5. Get a passport (pure laziness is the solitary reason I have yet to get one)

Yet another expensive deal. $200 for a freaking passport? That's insanity! Think I'll wait until I have specific plans to leave the country before I spring for this.

6. Learn how to do something, anything with my hair

I sorta tried but it never went beyond a braid or a bun. Lost cause?

7. Watch a live surf competition

I planned multiple weekends to see surfing competitions. Once other plans happened. Once I wanted to sleep in instead. And once it rained. I did watch some surfers during our vacation so maybe that'll have to do.

8. Stay in a Bed and Breakfast

I didn't stay at a Bed and Breakfast per say but I did stay at a wonderful Inn where I ate breakfast in bed! Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel, CA. Look it up, go stay there, you won't be sorry!!

9. Take a surfing lesson

Chicken and cheap. Those are my pitiful excuses.

10. Take a train ride

Why is Amtrack so expensive? I had no idea.

11. Do a mud run or a color run

Okay, so the one I had planned to sign up for, there was a schedule conflict with but I have registered and paid for a color run in June in SanDiego. Another rollover to 34.

12. Camp in a platform tent at El Capitan Canyon

Really thought I'd do this but then there were so many negative reviews online that started pouring in over the last year and I made the decision that I'd pass on this one.

13. Have a backyard movie night under the stars

I pictured this happening for my birthday but in reality it won't. Hook up the projector and watch Breakfast Club or Gone with the Wind while wrapped up in a blanket with a bowl of popcorn on my lap. But Henry won't even be home for my birthday and the neighbor's dogs would bark like crazy. Maybe I'll reconsider if they ever (hopefully) move or learn to care for their multiple, unruly canines. Stupid dogs. 

14. Shark Cage Dive (technically I've done this already but it's complete and utter awesomeness warrants the fact that it made my list)

I mean, did I think I was going to win the lottery? Did I not tally up how much it would cost for all this? There is a shark dive in the fall in San Francisco that costs $800 and you get to watch great white sharks eat baby seals. My little sister Katie and I would LOVE to do this but neither of us have $800 in spare change lying around. Maybe one day.

15. Unplug for a weekend (no phones, tv or computers)

I never fully did this but I did watch waaayyyy less tv and read waaayyyy more books this past year so I consider it done in that aspect.

16. Learn to play blackjack well enough to play in Vegas

Went to Vegas a few times but never even tried to play. Laziness wins.

17. Ride the teacups at Disneyland (done this at disneyworld but not yet Disneyland)

Never got to go. Another roll over to 34.

There were things that I did that I also never blogged about such as getting waxed or writing more letters. Those things are just hard to blog about. Overall, 33 was a good year and I'm looking forward to  34 and a whole new (hopefully less expensive) list is in the works!

Drive the PCH

Henry and I spent an entire week driving the Pacific Coast Hwy. Words can hardly express the beauty that lies along the California coastline. See for yourself. Don't worry, I only put a few of my favorite pics on here, I won't bore you with all of our 700 picturesque shots of heavenly shoreline.

Bixby Bridge

See me hiding in the redwood trees?

Bubble Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo

Puzzles

One of the things on my list was to work an entire jigsaw puzzle. I had one but had never worked it so I opened it up and gave it a go. And then I remembered that puzzles suck. Or actually, I suck at puzzles perhaps. Either way, this (picture below) is as far as I got in an hour before I decided to quit. And this was with help from Henry. The box says it's a puzzle for ages 8 and up. Maybe next time I try this I'll rustle up an 8 year old to help me. Maybe then I can finish it.

Bake a pretty cake...

For Valentines day I baked my husband a cake and decorated it all fancy. Even tried my hand at a little fondant decor. I'd seen an adorable cake on Pinterest that I just had to try and replicate and it was on my list of things to do so I thought, what the heck? Looks easy enough. Um, yeah. Looks can be decieving. How embarrassing that this is the best I could do? Hmmm...lets just say professional cake decorator is not likely to be in my future!

A little Fanfiction

Months ago I mentioned in one of my posts that I'd recently discovered something called Fanfiction, a website where you can read (or write) continuations and variations of all your favorite books. For example, if you fell in love with a series of books and were consumed with sadness when it ended, you could go onto the fanfiction website and continue reading the series there. Or if you hated the ending of a book, fanfiction is a place you could find alternate endings to the book. Now everything on fanfiction is completely amateur so if you're super picky about things like spelling or grammar, it probably isn't for you. I started out just reading various stories and after a few months, began writing my own. You can do a fanfiction work on just about anything but mine is about Hunger Games. It's not a continuation of the original works but rather a twist on a rewrite of the original where parts of the real books are blended in with parts of my imagination. My first book is complete and the sequel to that is nearly finished. It's become one of my favorite things to do in my spare time and eventually, when all is finished, I may venture on to writing my own original book. Maybe. Anyway, I promised long ago that if I did end up writing anything on fanfiction that I would link it here on this blog, so here you go!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8384639/1/The-Safety-of-Love

And before you go read it, there are a few minor rules:
-If you read it, please do NOT tell me about it. I don't like knowing who's reading my writing and I don't like knowing what my friends and family think of it. Seriously.

-You'll have to forgive my spelling and grammar. Neither are a strong suit of mine. I am fully aware my work is riddled with errors. Eventually, I'll probably go back through and fix everything, but not right now.

Spend the night in a state I've never visited...

On a last minute whim, I accompanied my friend Jen, her husband Matt and her Uncle Rob on a weekend getaway to Grand Canyon National Park. I have forever wanted to see the Grand Canyon and somehow never had gotten around to it so I was super excited when it worked out for me to go with them. I mean, everyone should experience the Grand Canyon at least once, right?  

Well, let me just say right off the top, it is certainly a sight worth seeing! Breathtaking, gorgeous, surreal, fill in whatever adjective you want and the word still won't quite capture the grandure of this place. And pictures don't do it justice either. Not even close. We started in the North Rim and up there it's not nearly as touristy as the South Rim. When we arrived it was snowing which made my heart soar as I've been oh so homesick for cold weather. The snow was flocking all the trees and meadows and it looked like something right out of a Christmas card. Because it was snowy, the clouds were hanging heavy over the north rim, at times, completely obscuring any view of the canyons. At sunset though, rays of sun would occasionally cut through the cloud cover and illuminate the canyon walls.

 The next morning, Jen and I dropped Matt and Rob off at the trailhead on the North Rim before sunrise and they set out to hike the daunting 27 miles to the South Rim while we went back to our cabin, packed everything up in the truck and then started our own journey, a 5 hour drive, to the South Rim. Along the way, the views were amazing and we saw things I'd never expected. First was a Cliff Dwelling where a woman's car broke down in like 1929 or something and she liked the area so much that she bought some land and lived out the rest of her life in the cliffs. Meaning everything she used, her home, her furniture, her bathroom, etc. we're all part of the rocks and landscapes of the cliffs. No one lives there now and it's open to the public to wander through it so that's just what we did. And it was incredible. The next thing we saw that was unexpected was a place for dinosaur tracks. Now, we tend to think it wasn't as authentic as the lady doing our tour said but, either way, it was neat and totally out of the ordinary. Apparently, the land where all these tracks and bones of the dinosaurs are, is on Indian reservation land and therefore paleontologists can't come and excavate the remains. 

Once we arrived at our lodge in the South Rim, we opened a bottle or two of wine and sat out on the back porch of our room and enjoyed the warmer weather. As we sat and chatted over our wine, we began to see deer. Not way of in the woods like one would expect but rather right by our room! And not just one or two or even three deer, but eleven! We got up and followed them as they grazed their way across the property, not being the least bit skid dish of all the humans passing by them. In fact, half the people walking passed them, didn't even see them! That's how we'll they blended into the landscape and trees. 

Later, as we waited at the trailhead to meet Matt and Rob, it got dark and then a lot colder so I went back to the room (alone) to grab jackets and a headlamp. As I made my way back to our room, it was pitch black dark as there aren't any street lights. I wasn't scared though, the room was close and it was only a short walk. And then I heard a rustling sound in the bushes next to me. I paused and right then, a car drove nearby, shining only for a second it's headlights on the bushes by me. And that would be when I saw it. The ginormous elk eating in the bushes not 12 inches from where I was standing. Think of it as what looks similar to a buck but is the size of a Clydesdale horse. About that time, two peopl with headlamps walked up and illuminated the whole area to show not just the one elk but multiple elk. All massive and huge. I hate so much that I was alone and sadly, without a camera because I've never seen anything like this and probably won't ever again. Later, back at the trailhead where it was also pitch black dark, the night sky was clear and so star covered you could have easily mistaken it for a planetarium. The milky way was more visible than I've ever seen it before and just in general it was stunning how many stars covered the sky. I wish I could have gotten a picture of this too! 

As Jen and I waited for the guys I decided that next year she and I should make the hike with them. It may have been the wine talking but even now, I think it would be a cool thing to say you've done. To hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim in one day? Yep, we're gonna train and do that with them next October. It'll be hard but so worth it. And I really think we can do it if we train for it. (I won't mention how winded we both were just hiking from the parking lot to the visitors center. We blame that on altitude.) Anyway, I had on my list that I wanted to spend the night in a state I'd never visited before and this trip allows me to cross that off my list. I, for the first time ever, spent two wonderful nights in the state of Arizona!

North Rim at Sunset, amidst heavy clouds.

Cliff Dwelling

Dino Tracks or maybe not...

Watchtower at the South Rim

South Rim, Colorado River

You'd never know it, but that's the Grand Canyon behind us. 

At the Cliff Dwelling. I was gonna climb in but was a few inches too short to hoist myself up.

Grape Stomp

Ever see that famous episode of I Love Lucy where she stomps grapes? As a kid I always thought that would be so much fun to do but being from the South I never thought they really did that anywhere. Maybe like Italy or something and maybe a long time ago, sure, but never once did I think they did that sort of thing where anyone could just go and do it. Then we moved to Temecula, CA (known for it's wineries) last year and I found out they did it all the time. Well, during the harvest season anyway. So earlier this year when I was making my list of things I wanted to do, I had to put grape stomping on it. I mean, who knows when I'll ever live somewhere with wineries again? September is harvest season around here and all the wineries are having their annual grape stomp festivals. This afternoon, Henry and I went to Mount Palomar Winery and gave grape stomping a go! I was a stomper, Henry was the mucker.

So what did I think about it? Well, it was fun. And sticky. And messy. And I'm not very good at it. But it definitely was fun and totally unlike anything I've ever done before. I don't think I ever realized how much juice a bunch of grapes can make. Can't say I was a fan of how head to toe sticky I was afterwards. Being sticky is one of my least favorite things. Always has been. Even now as I type, although I've already showered, I still feel sticky. I may have to shower again. When I was little my siblings used to taunt me when I complained about being sticky. They used to say "Sticky follows Beth, sticky follows Beth" and laugh at me. And I think they may be right.