Cheese: the glue of friendship

It may be many years of friendship (Brooke: 21 years, Lindsey 8 years, Nicole: 4 years) that have bonded me to my best friends. It may be our shared memories, like high school shenanigans and malicious mischief with Brooke and Lindsey, or the past summer we spent backpacking Europe. Nicole and I's college memories of freshman dorm debauchery, road trips, and an 18 hour day at Disneyland probably did a pretty good job of solidifying our bestie status.

However, in all those collective years of amity, my college best friend and my high school best friends never really came together. There was only one thing that could bond my lovely ladies together after all this time: ooey gooey melted cheese. 

Post Grad Crisis

"Remember, you should be incredibly proud of yourself and everything you have accomplished in the last four years." 

-Nancy Marlin, Professor of Psychology at SDSU

I have spent the last five months having intermittent panic attacks about my wayward life, and I know many others who seem to be having this same post-grad life crisis. It is petrifying to have completed what we have worked our entire lives for and be haunted by THE question: 

"What am I doing with my life?" 

The only thing more daunting than that question, is the answer:

"I HAVE NO IDEA!"

(just look at the girl below: is she ready for the real world? *forbidding music plays*)

Being infected by an Airborne Toxic Event

To begin, it is important that you fall madly, deeply, forever in love with the incredible band The Airborne Toxic Event immediately. The quickest way to make that happen is to click below and listen to the best song ever (I don't exaggerate): 

Where to Start?

When you don't blog for over two months and are already eons behind on sharing your adventures, it is really difficult to know where to start. I had a New Year's post plan, but well that didn't really pan out. The New Year didn't feel new enough.

So here, instead, is my I'm-back-in-San-Diego-and-I-Have-No-Idea-What-I'm-Doing-With-My-Life post, which is basically as new as it gets for me. I have officially finished my undergraduate career and have a shiny new degree (it's coming in the mail eventually, or so I'm told). I also have all the new freedom to figure out what I'm going to do next, feel free to give me suggestions. It's not that I don't have any ideas, I just have too many and a lot of different directions. I am feeling a bit like Alice, not knowing which sign to follow. 

October is Over?

I'm never going to be done blogging about my Europe trip, we can just all accept that. I do, however, want at least to document a few of my memories from this semester, which has been a blast, if busy as heck, hence the struggle to complete my blogs. Jewel suggested I throw in some of the here & now and just go back and forth, and you know, why not? Screw OCD and chronological order. 

So here's a goodbye to October, which is already ending, though how that has happened I don't know. It's still 85º in San Diego, since we don't actually have seasons, but when we headed to Julian for the day it finally felt a little bit less like summer. 

Peace out Cali

"I took a road to nowhere on my own...because I left everyone I love at home. I don't want to be alone forever, but I can be alone tonight. I don't want to be alone forever, but I love Gypsy life." -Lady Gaga

The past couple weeks have been crazy. I did a hundred things and ran out of time to do a thousand more. There were so many moments and faces that just flew by. From the last day of our San Francisco weekend to my departure on a new adventure, there hasn't been a second wasted (as long as you don't count marathon Doctor Who-ing as time wasting, which I do not). 

When you live somewhere for so long it becomes easy to take for granted how lucky you are; California is a prime example of this. One weekend, we went to San Francisco to celebrate my Mom's Birthday, explore a castle (see here), visit my Aunty, and explore creepy toy artifacts, all whilst enjoying a mild 65 degree climate.

Calistoga under the clouds

Castles are just awesome. That's a fact. Unfortunately, America is not brimming with remnants of medieval knights and courts. We don't let that stop us though, why not just build a modern castle that looks really old? Problem solved.

Dario Sattui had the grand idea to build Castello di Amorosa as an Italian inspired winery. Located in Calistoga, CA the castello (castle) is modeled after a 13th century Tuscan castle and hosts both wine tasting and tours. 

For Mom's birthday weekend we began with a venture to this not-so-ancient relic. While the whole gang enjoyed walking around the structure and grounds, Mom and Dad got to also enjoy some fine wine. 

The cold gray day gave the castle an eerie out of its time feel. You could turn a corner and nearly forget you were in the center of California in the year 2014. 

Castles do pose the problems of tiny windows, but I like to peek anyway. 

There is also one thing every proper castle needs that we can't forget...princesses! 

Especially princesses that know how to wave properly (thank you Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway). 

Keeping with authentic Italian style, the castle features a small chapel off the courtyard. 

There are also lots of excellent hiding spots throughout the castle (hide and seek anyone?). 

The Castello di Amorosa, though likely (in my opinion) the coolest winery in Calistoga, is definitely not the only one. Napa Valley is home to over 300 wineries and you could shuttle around all day week month long tasting wine. However, Dad's not the happiest wine man, and we were on our merry way to San Francisco, leaving time for only one more stop: Beringer Winery. 

Beringer is over one hundred years old, making it one of the largest wineries in the area. It's long history has made it infamous, and well known to many Hollywood stars, including Mr. Rhett Butler himself, Clark Gable (my favorite fun fact of the day). 

As the sun settled low in the sky, the winery portion of Mom's birthday trip came to an end and it was "onward and outward, kiddies" to San Francisco. 

Yours, Kenna 

December Nights

Now it seems a bit cruel to tell ya'll about an event that's already passed, but it was so Christmasy and grand how could I resist? I promise to pop up some other holiday suggestions at the end, just to ensure no one is deprived of any Christmas cheer. 

The first weekend of December, every year, Balboa Park (one of my favorite spots), hosts December Nights. It is the largest community event in San Diego and host around 350,000 people over two nights. Crazy, I know. You might think that with this extreme amount of people the event might feel overwhelming, but it really doesn't. There's a good dose of Christmas cheer in the air, and everyone is generally pretty happy to be there. I went with a whole gaggle of people, and we trekked our way to the park to join in the festivities. 

A day on Apple Hill

As much as I adore the nearly ever present sunshine and warmth in San Diego, it tends to really just put a dapper on the whole atmosphere of the holiday season. Is it really fall, nearly winter, if I can still wear sandals? Not really. With this ever present "#socalproblem", I really appreciate going home to enjoy some actual seasons.

After a properly crisp Thanksgiving, I rounded out the end of fall with a trip with the fam-bam to Apple Hill. Located in Northern California, near Placerville, Apple Hill attracts a wide variety of hungry guests looking for some wholesome fun. Being honest, we all know I was basically just in it for the food. However, I also got a pretty good kick of stomping on some crunchy leaves and enjoying the cool crisp air of fall. 

The whole Apple Hill "process" essentially consists of driving from farm to farm and eating various products, mostly apple flavored (they were really clever with the title). There are various farms (some small some large) each offering there own specialty. 

We started with one of the largest, known as Boa Vista Orchards, which, though they have a whole smorgasbord of items, is not my favorite. It tends to be a little over crowded (I really hate queuing) and more commercial then I enjoy. Nevertheless, here's a little peek at the marketplace. 

The other side of the hill

When asking about the best spots in Los Angeles, one often is pointed toward The Getty Center. Now I have to say, I've yet to take a stroll about this said-to-be epic museum, though it is definitely on my to-see list (which is never ending). However, a few weekends ago, myself and a group of my favorite gals popped over to the other side of the Los Angeles hills to The Getty Villa. 

True to its name, The Getty Villa is the manifestation of J. Paul Getty's vision of creating a Roman Villa to house his dream museum. Constructed during the 1970s, the Villa is a replica of the Villa of Papryri at Herculaneum, Pompeii's less popular sister-city, also destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Unfortunately, Mr.Getty died before getting to see the completion of the site, thought it was luckily still completed, in appropriate Roman architecture and style, with the inheritance left by the visionary.