Questhaven Hike

This weekend, Dalton and I went looking for a new hike in the area. My brother went on a bike ride the other day and ran into some trail in Elfin Forest, and I've heard of some pretty hikes in Questhaven, so we went to go attempt to find them. We ended up at a church (which all my friends used to be scared of) at the end of the road. We saw a gate to a trail, with nowhere to park, so I walked up the the church office and asked them about any trails in the area.  Turns out that that gated place wasn't just a church, but also a nature retreat, and they had A LOT of beautiful trail...really, the prettiest hike I've been on in California. The pictures don't do it justice.

The trail paths were kinda narrow and surrounded by tall trees or bushes, so you felt like you were in the middle of a forest! 

View from one of the peaks on the hill. You can't see it in this picture, but next to those little trees on top of the hills in the distance is the church's cross and it has it's most difficult hike leading up to it. We didn't have time to do that area over there before it got dark, but we'll be back!!

Yoga break in a little meadow on top of a hill.

Pretty bright green grassy trails!

There was this little rocky knoll that usually has a waterfall and creek...but we're a little too early for that, so we'll have to come back to see it again!

We took a detour on our way back to the church on a different trail and it had cute little bridges over the creek

By the invisible waterfall...

This is where the end of our last trail took us. You can see how tall and pretty the brush was. Where the grass gets really green in the picture is the trail path. I still can't get over how colorful it was over there!

Loved it! Can't wait to bring some more friends here!

:)

Easter

On Easter, my brother and I spent the morning with my mom and Kevin for Easter breakfast. Mmmmm :) My mom's the best because she makes sure everything is "Katie proof" if she can manage! GLuten free and dairy free! She even found me some organic turkey bacon! Yummaaay.

 Later, we went over to our Aunt Dale's house for Easter lunch and an egg hunt with the kids. They've recently moved into a huge beautiful house in the "ranches" of Vista. It's so pretty back there!

My Uncle Ed took us around the property showing us all their cool fruit trees in their orchard. This green spiky fruit is called a rambutan. And it HURTS! Haha, I stabbed myself too many times with that thing. I guess, when it's ready to eat, it turns deep pink/red and you can cut it open to a white egg-like shaped fruit that tastes kinda like a grape! Like this:

SO COOL, right?! 

They also had a bunch of cherimoya trees. I've heard of this fruit before, but never seen it. It's suppose to have anti-cancer, anti-malarial, anti-wormy (that's how I like to refer to anti-helminthes) properties.

 The only fruit they had that I actually tried was this sapote. And it was good! I guess it was used to sweeten food instead of cane sugar, before it became popular and accessible. But I'm sure they still use it. It's really sweet and it seems like foreign exotic areas like this usually have their nutrition figured out a little better than us fools up here in the US, haha.

Anyway, I just thought this was really cool! I think the rambutan is a south Asian thing and the sapote and cherimoya is from South America. I can't wait to start growing some exotic trees of my own! Delicious!! :)

After lunch, the kids did their Easter egg hunt...guerrilla style. We did this when I was we were kids too. They find an egg, take out the money, take it to the sidelines and we throw the empty eggs at them to freeze them. Haha, it kinda give the babies a chance to get ahead.

And like usual, the golden egg was lost. Even the golden egg hider couldn't find it, haha. Right as we were about to give up, Mikey found it in a bush no one even thought of looking in for some reason! 

This year, they set up a mini (and super hard) egg hunt for the "big kids" (age 35 and under) and between the 6 of us, we had to find 21 eggs. 2 off which were worth "big" money. Some of them were hard!! I found out at the end, that I looked under a statue and thought I saw nothing under it, and it ended up being the egg with the most money in it! Haha ugh, I've learned my lesson about not being thorough...

Afterwards, the kids went up to play in the pool, and I wish I brought my swimsuit, because I ended up getting just as wet! The kids made me go on the zip over the pool with my clothes on...and I didn't end up falling, but the splashing got me just as much!

I never realized how big their property was at this house, I'd only been inside the main living area before. They have a beautiful house! Definitely worth the move!

Carlsbad State Beach

The week before my Spring Break began was a little slower than usual at school, because we had our last test that Monday and then I just had to get through the week with normal assignments. So, after clinical last Tuesday, I went and stayed with the Millers and Brewers at their campsite at Carlsbad State Beach. Even though this is where I grew up, I still love visiting the campsites every now and then. There's just something about sleeping and waking up in a tent on a cliff by the ocean that makes me a little extra happy :)

It was surprisingly a warm day there, even though it had been cold and cloudy by the cost for the past couple days. We hung out and I watched them play beach games and Eric's dad made carne asada for dinner. MMMMM!!

Oh, and I got my first REAL tandem bike experience with Lindsey! Haha, now I want one! Even though it was a little sketchy...

I love it there. I'm strongly considering using the money to get a campground for a week over summer, even though I'll be in school. I'm definitely down for sleeping in a tent for 5 days and walking up with crazy hair and going to my OB clinical! 

Now I just gotta find some friends to join me! ;)

CINDY!! That means you!! :D

2 Day School-a-thon

I don't know whose idea it was to put me in 9.5 hours of lecture every Monday (8:30-6pm) and then 8.5 hours of clinical the next morning (6:30am-3pm). I am dyingggg over here!

This week I literally did over 36-hours of school, straight! As soon as we got out of lecture, I had to go home and write a journal about my clinical experience so far and create a rough care plan for my patient the next morning. I scrambled to make dinner and leftovers for the next days lunch and got just about 5.5 hours of sleep before my LONG day. Because we're assigned so many group projects this semester, (and of course they're all due around the same time), I had to get started on one of them. Tuesday afternoon was really the only day my partner and I had that was compatible because we aren't in the same clinical, so I worked on that until after 7 and got home by 8pm. 

8:00am Monday morning until 8:00pm Tuesday night. Wednesday is my school hangover day...even though I have NO TIME for that!! I have a night nutrition class on Thursday and an evening Psychiatric clinical rotation on Friday evenings. Unfortunately this make most of my study time on my weekend time :(

But for now, my life is like this:

AND this:

but mostly this:

I can't wait for my preciously sweet 2 weeks break of summer starting May 13th!! D;

Downtown San Diego

Thanks to my friend, Jayce, and his DJ expanding, this semester I've been able to escape away from the tortures of school by going downtown with my friends on random days I have off. If he weren't able to get me to these places for free and carpool with me, I definitely wouldn't be able to afford it. So I'm taking advantage of the opportunity while I can! :)

It's nice having an excuse to see all my friend in between my non-stop studying sessions!

Mardi Gras Tuesday

Gina, Lindsey and me at the Hard Rock 

End of the week trip to Mike's BBQ! 

Iron Mountain

Dalton and I have been on a hiking kick this year. I miss my climbing friends from high school because we went to such cool and beautiful places. Although we may not be climbing, hiking and boulder scrambling is half way there! Unfortunately, I can't remember ALL the places I used to go in high school, but I've been searching.

A couple weekends ago, we decided to try another place in Poway, Iron Mountain.

tree tunnel!

bubble gum rocks!

rocks, rocks everywhere!

I've seen more than my fair share of different kinds of rocks in my climbing days. This place has the most beautiful rocks I've ever seen! Must be the iron in the mountain ;)

view from a boulder half way up

I called this the fist rock, haha

View from the top! Best part (and best motivation) for a hike! The shiny white area in the middle of the roads is where our car is! Helloooo down there!

We did it!!

22nd Birthday

Once again, my family and friends have outdone it for my birthday! Haha, I felt like my birthday was lasting forever!! 3 birthday dinners, and a birthday vacation to Vegas with my friends! That was quite a week! I dunno how we fit it all in!

The weekend before my birthday, my mom and Kevin took Nicky, Dalton and me to this new fresh kitchen in La Costa for lunch (as of now, Dalton and I are addicted) for my first birthday dinner. I LOVE this place! My mom discovered it about a month ago because of their gluten-free menu. It makes me so happy seeing restaurants with fresh food made with good ingredients, no preservatives, no unnecessary grossness added to lower of the quality of food. Good quality food tastes GOOD! Makes sense, huh?!

The next night, my Dad and Melissa took my brother, Dalton and me to Casa de Bandini (which is also another place that has a huge gluten-free menu). Before this place was here, it was called the Yellow Coyote Tortilla Factory, which was delicious, quality Mexican food...doesn't seem like much has change! And I like it! :)

Knowing my parents, they just HAD to do something clever for my birthday present. After seeing this picture on Instagram of me stealing some toilet paper from the community pool to fill the roll in the apartment:

They decided to make a box of tissues with the money for my birthday folded inside the tissues! Haha definitely was not expecting that!

 When I woke up on the morning of my birthday, I found my car nicely decorated by McKenzie and her mom. Haha they did a good job. And they were lucky that was I was early that morning! It took me way longer than expected to unravel my car. Although, if I were late for lecture, I probably would have just driven down the street...decorations and all

Lucky for me, my birthday fell on the day that I have my nursing lectures from 9am-6pm. I HATE MONDAYS! It is soooo hard to sit in the same classroom all day long listening to endless lectures. Some of my friends from my cohort were sweet enough to bring me flowers and gluten free cookies to help get me through the 9 hours of pain. Love my cohort! Hate nursing school ;)

After a LONG day at school, the Kuhns took me and some friends out to Benihana for dinner! We had the kookiest chef, haha I had no idea what he was doing the whole time. But, we like it crazy anyway ;)

 

By the way, I've been waiting for this day for YEARS! Marty McFly chose my 22nd birthday to go back to the future. Haha, too bad I didn't run into him ;)

At the end of the week, I had my first rotation at my psych clinical in San Diego. Although we were excited to get our orientation to the hospital (even though that never happened) I was anxious to get out of there because all my other friends were headed up to Vegas for my birthday bash! Clinical was suppose to go until 9pm, but thankfully we got out closer to 5pm and Dalton and I were able to get up there earlier than we thought!

After a LONG week of school, we were Vegas bound!! 

Gotta love Sprout's when it comes to road trip food. Gluten-free sandwich from the Sprout's deli and organic lollipops :)

This time we stayed at the Luxor. It's always the best price to stay on the strip and near all the action. 

Seeing how I don't go to Vegas clubs or bars, the main attraction is the people watching. Definitely plenty of interesting (and stupid) people to watch here. My first find: this man DEAD asleep on a bench.

The next day, we wandered the strip and went to the mall in Caesar's palace. We decided to go to dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Restaurant. While we were waiting for a table, Dalton walked me across the casino to show me where the bathroom was. When I came out of the bathroom, I find this face holding up a $650 voucher! He spun the slots 3 times and got this! LUCKY BOY!! Haha and of course, later that  night, he won over $100 more :) 

My nacho queens :)

22 birthday balloon hat

After a great weekend, and a long drive home back to homework and studying, we made some chicken and rice soup before a trip to the sauna to kick back into study mode. I've had a semi-addiction with cooking soup recently. It's so much better taking the time to make it yourself! Less salt and nonsense...more delicious and flavor ;)