The Weekend in Review

I've been out and about lately so I haven't been around the computer to update this blog thing I've got going here. Time to catch up:

Friday

My first day of my internship started this Friday. An internship is required for my Transformative Action class so I decided to find one that involved sustainable gardening since it has been something I have been interested in for a while. The internship is at a community demonstration garden called Terra Gnomea, three houses away from the beach. It is a hidden little gem in Santa Cruz that makes a great difference in the community.

A hen from the garden's chicken coup. They ate flowers from my hand!

"Terra Kitty", the garden's cute cat!

The garden has a green house, a chicken coop, a bee hive, a barn, and multiple garden beds! Everything is built from recycled materials and they compost everything! During my internship, we plan to build a "gray water" pond which is a way to filter and recycle water for use in the garden. We will be learning about seasonal plants and vegetables, how certain plants balance others' chemicals out, the importance of local plants and more! I am so excited to be learning about something new! The internship will be from 1-5 PM every Friday, but the first half hour will consist of a meal made with food from the garden!

We had rosemary potatoes; a salad with apples, blueberries, red bell pepper, and red onions; and a Moroccan chickpea dish with tomatoes, onions, and spices! It was all so delicious and vegan!

Saturday

My saturday consisted of running errands while Kevin tagged along. I bought a Groupon for American Apparel that would expire soon and I needed to redeem it, so I did. From the store, I purchased some amazing "winter leggings" that I highly recommend for the colder months. They are so thick and comfortable and would be perfect with boots and a dress or even as sweat pants! 

Kevin and I stopped for  lunch at my favorite Santa Cruz cafe, Café Delmarette. All of their ingredients are organic and locally grown so their business is great for the environment and the community. They make the absolute best scones in existence and I am in love with every sandwich they make. On Saturday I went there specifically for a certain grilled eggplant sandwich but it turns out that eggplant is out of season so I settled for a grilled chicken sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes, onions, mozzarella, and garlic aioli. Delicious!

Saturday Night

Kevin and I have felt like we have been spending too much money lately so we decided to find a cheap way to do dinner. So we decided to have a picnic! We made ourselves some sandwiches, packed some apples, apple sauce, and peanuts then walked a mile and a half to the beach to dine!

Sunday

Today I went to the Santa Cruz Chocolate Festival! I went with Laurel, Bryan, Marc, Ashley, and Sean! It was so crowded that it isn't surprising that we ran into all of our bosses and many friends at the event. What is surprising though is that 10 chocolate tastings was too many! I paid for the 10 ticket thinking I would still want more, but by 3 tastes I was on chocolate overload! I collected the rest of my "tastings" to take home for my housemates to devour. It was a little difficult to take pictures there since it was packed and my hands were full of chocolate.

Pizza and pasta night!

Tonight after our zip-lining adventure Kevin and I went to Kianti's pizza and pasta restaurant for dinner. We love Kianti's and highly recommend it any time you might be in Santa Cruz!

AMAZING cheesy garlic bread!

Kevin's grilled chicken and bacon pizza.

Kianti's Gormet Pasta: Sun-dried tomatos, bacon, artichoke hearts, and creamy pesto!

Ice Cream Date!

Saturday night became an ice cream night at Mission Hill Creamery! All the ice cream is hand-made from local organic products which makes me feel less guilty about eating it. All the flavors I sampled were absolutely delicious!

After tasting 6 flavors I decided on salted caramel and Kevin chose peanut butter-chocolate. But next time I hope to get their grapefruit sorbet!

Zip Lining in the Red Woods!

Today, Kevin and I used our Groupons for Mount Hermon Canopy Tours in the redwoods of Santa Cruz! I was afraid, at first, but it ended up being a wonderful daytime adventure! We were up 150 in the trees on little platforms with no railings, so terrifying!

Photo Scavenger Hunt Date!

When Saturday's zip-lining plan fell through my boyfriend, Kevin, and I decided to go on a little adventure around our city, Santa Cruz!

We began our adventure at Taqueria Vallarta for some delicious tacos.

While we were there, we made a Scavenger Hunt list of things we wanted to take pictures with.

So our pictures with the items on the list didn't turn out well but we took plenty of other photos.

We saw many victorian style houses that were so cute!

This sculpture is a Vietnam memorial called "Collateral Damage".

Kevin did a research report on it last year and the story behind it is pretty intense!

We found these stairs and they were just asking to be climbed!

At the top we found the Santa Cruz Mission!

It was really interesting because I'm taking an archaeology class this quarter and the mission is an archaeological site. 

An avocado tree that is 98 years old! Mmm avo!

This day was so fantastic! It really was an adventure! I loved how much fun could be had by exploring the town on foot. You have one expectation then find so many other exciting things! I think more scavenger hunt dates are in our future but next time we'll take better pictures :)