Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. —Lin Yutang 

This week at work, I put off a lot of paperwork with the assumption that I would have the weekend to take care of most things. We had a three day weekend, so I knew I could dedicate one of the days to getting most of my work done. Turns out, one of our friends from college was coming up this weekend to surprise Jen for her birthday. I was forced to put the work away for the majority of my weekend. And, to be honest, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had since I moved up here.

Much of our lives are spent doing things we don’t want to do and things we don’t necessarily need to do. This weekend, we eliminated that. We did what we wanted to do. Leaving us with a few hours that we could dedicate to the things that actually need to get done before tomorrow. Win/win.

Friday:

I woke up early and went on a hike with two of my co-workers, Tessa and Tiffany. We hiked one of the trails in Almaden Quicksilver County Park. The park is HUGE – it is crisscrossed by trails and has over 30 miles for hiking alone.

The majority of the park is undeveloped  and covered with trees and grasses – SO much green! It borders two long reservoirs – one of which we saw on our hike to the cemetery.

Yes, that’s right. We accidentally took the trail that took us to the Hidalgo Cemetery – or I guess what was left of it? I tried to come home and research it a bit more but there’s very little information on the cemetery. Some sites say that, under the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, the Hidalgo Cemetery was cleared after the Great Depression and the interred were moved to Oak Hill Cemetery.

We thought we were taking one of the loop trails but made a wrong turn. Regardless, it was still a gorgeous hike. Very isolated and removed from the city and the noise. I loved it.

After our hike, we made our way over to Bill’s Cafe in Willow Glen. I ordered an omelette and a pancake. And we all ordered a mimosa. Bill’s never fails.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the apartment and, though I was supposed to get some work done, it ended up not happening. Oops.

Later that evening, after we picked up Ashley from the airport, we went to San Pedro Square Market for some drinks, dinner, and dessert! It was so great to see Ashley after SO long.

The three of us (Jen, Ashley, and myself) call ourselves “The Guitar Band” because, back in 2009, we went to Vegas together and bought these guitar-shaped specialty cups (that hold 100 oz. of mixed drinks and/or Fat Tuesday drinks). As we walked down the strip with our fancy guitars, people were definitely eyeing our fancy drinks and we were stopped at least 85 times because people wanted to know where to get them. Since then, the item has become a hot commodity. But we were cool back in the day. We knew the ins and outs and ups and downs. Or so we thought. 100 oz. of liquid can definitely cloud your judgement.

Saturday:

We woke up and went to Noah’s, Philz, and Starbucks. I know – weird. But Jen wanted to take Ashley to try Philz but I have a hard time venturing from Starbucks, especially when I’m really tired. Nothing sounded good to me other than a Venti iced coffee from Starbs. Luckily they were all in the same shopping center.

(And this is why I say my name is SARAH at Starbucks)

Later in the day, after we ran a few minor errands, we went to Wunderlich County Park for a hike. Most of the trail was covered, which was really nice. It wasn’t a scorching hot day or anything, but I always appreciate hiking in the shade. 🙂

We took one of the loop trails, but at one point along the loop, it spit us out into these BEAUTIFUL green meadows. It was like we were in The Sound of Music.

At the very end of the hike, we saw this alien creature. I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like a blown-up, ginormous ant. We all agreed that, had we seen this at the beginning of our hike, we probably would have taken a different trail!

After our hike, we went to Alice’s (the restaurant we went to a few weeks ago). This time around, though, we were not as pressed for time, so we were able to relax and enjoy the back patio thoroughly.

I ordered the house white wine, but wasn’t a big fan of it, so I ordered a mimosa to make me feel better. Much better.

We snacked on some fries while we waited for our food.

That lasted about 10 seconds. And, by the end, Jen had garlic all over her face and hair. (In case you were wondering where I get my manners from).

After our late lunch, we took Skyline back home, but stopped at Savannah-Chanelle winery along the way to do a quick tasting. A few of the wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains have this “passport” you can purchase which gives you access to free tastings at all participating wineries. It was a Passport Day so the winery was a little more crowded than we thought it would be. But there was still plenty of seating and our tasting was free since I purchased a Groupon a few weeks ago! 🙂

 

Jen and I are going to buy passports since they don’t actually expire for two years after we purchase them. AND it’ll give us a chance to visit wineries we haven’t been to and find hiking trails near them.

Direct quote from Jen when we walked into the tasting room and saw this:

“When we have kids, it’s not going to slow us down. We’re just going to drop them off here.”

Perfect.

After the winery, we thought it would be a fun idea to barbecue for dinner since we weren’t really that hungry. BBQed veggies + cheese + wine sounded like a perfect dinner after the day we had! We decided to head to Sprouts to pick up a few things that we needed. Ashley made an amazing caprese salad and Juan BBQed everything up for us. And me? I poured the wine.

When it got dark, we took everything back into Juan and Jen’s apartment and played a round of Cards Against Humanity. I never win at the game (even though I always think my card choices are so clever), but it was a ton of fun. After, we drove over to Pinkberry for a sweet treat to end the night.

Sunday:

Today was our last day with Ashley, so we wanted to cram as many events as we could fit into the morning/early afternoon before we had to say goodbye! We woke up semi-early and decided to go to Bill’s (again). I know that there’s at least 100 brunch places around us that I haven’t tried yet, but Bill’s is just so darn good. It’s hard to suggest anything different when people come to visit.

I did my mimosa + omelette + pancake trio again. You’d think I’d get bored of it, but I’m a creature of habit.

After brunch, we drove to Downtown Campbell to show Ashley the farmer’s market and the downtown area in general. She wanted to stop by The Olive Bar to pick up some olive oil I bought Jen for her birthday. We used it on the caprese salad and it ended up being a hit, so she wanted to take some back to SD with her.

Ashley also wanted to get Philz one last time before she left NorCal (who wouldn’t?!), so we made a pit-stop at Philz before heading up to Picchetti. We spent about an hour there doing a quick tasting before we had to head back down and take her to the airport.

It was so great having Ashley here this weekend. Such a fun surprise. It’s not like this weekend was any different than most weekends – most of the activities we did this weekend are things I do on the regular. But, it was just an overall great experience because of the company we were with.

Lucky for me, I get to see Ashley again in June when I run the San Diego Half! Hopefully we continue to see each other more often. It had been over two years since I had seen her last!

After we dropped her off, we drove around to find any place open to eat since it was Easter Sunday and most places were closed. Yiassoo – you never fail to feed us.

With my heart happy, my tummy full, and my liver destroyed, my weekend has come to an end. But I am so happy I left things “undone” to be able to soak up my time with everyone this weekend.

Two mini goals for the week:

1. Dinner will be made at home Monday-Friday. We ate out WAY too much this weekend. Time to bring back the kitchen.
2. Gym and/or run outside every day.

Now, I must get to the essential work that needs to be done before tomorrow morning! Happy Easter!

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Let’s Chat! 🙂

• What did you do this weekend?
  
• What is one mini goal for you this week?