Not Another LA Blonde

Tag: weekend getaway

Temecula Wineries – Day Trip

It’s TRAVEL TUESDAY!! Today I want to share a day trip we took in July 2019 for my 27th birthday. We had already done a day trip to San Diego for hubby’s birthday. We decided that we wanted to do something a little different, so we picked Temecula for the day to hit three wineries.

Stop #1 – Europa Village

This was our first stop of the day; it wasn’t too crowded when we got there, but it definitely was by the time we left. We choose to do the Prelude Passport Tasting option. This $25 per person and includes 6 tastes of any C’est la Vie or Vienza wines from their regular menu. This was pretty cool because we had our own personal sommelier who helped us pick the wines based off of our preferences. There are three different wineries on the Europa Village property! There is a restaurant and hotel on the property. I also just learned that they offer olive oil tastings! OMG I wish I had known this because I so would have enjoyed this!

Stop #2 – Wilson Creek

This place was probably my favorite, but it was the most crowded! We wanted to eat when we got here, so we had to wait and find a table on the lawn area. We ate a quick lunch and had a wine slushie! (You can not bring your own food or drink)

There is a restaurant, but you have to make reservations, so I recommend planning ahead if you want to eat there! After lunch, we went into the tasting room; it was soo crowded inside, it was very difficult to find a spot at the bar. Our tasting was $25 per person and included 6 tastings, a logo wine glass, and a $5 coupon toward wine bottle purchase of $30 or more. I tasted the almond sparkling, watermelon, white cab, peach bellini, and rose. I wish that we could have spent more time here because it was just so beautiful, but like I said, it was really crowded. *There website has all of their up to date offerings and you can find all the info here*

We got to bring the glass home with us

Stop #3 – Ponte Winery

This was our third and final stop of the day. Ponte Winery also has a restaurant, but we did not eat here. We only did the wine tasting since it was getting close to their closing time. Wine tastings are $25 per person and include 6 tastings.

Here is the menu that we got to choose from, it may be different now

There is also a hotel on the property and I think that this would have been such a cool place to stay the night! *They are open for wine tastings outside, but you do have to make a reservation ahead of time. All of their info on COVID protocol can be found on their website. The restaurant and tasting is currently open for reservations, but they are not doing any winery tours!

I can’t wait to be able to do these types of day trips again once things go back to normal and I feel comfortable being around so many people. All three of these places are open and have a COVID protocol in place. I recommend checking out each of their websites before planning to visit so that you can make sure you’ve made the proper reservations and have everything you need.

As always, if you have any questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to get the best answer for you! If you have any recommendations on other wineries to go to while in Temecula, drop them in the comment section.

XOXO

March 9, 2021
Wedding Wednesday – My Bachelorette Party

I know that I’ve been married for 7 months now and that my bachelorette party was 8 months ago, but I want to finish filling you in on all things wedding related and everything that went into planning for the big day.

So to re-start this series, let’s begin with my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!

Please excuse the blurry Insta pic!

I feel like I just have to begin with a little background story…there were supposed to be 10 of us, but about a week before, two of my bridesmaids dropped out. We had booked 3 rooms, but since there were only 8 of us now, I decided to cancel one room as it didn’t really make sense financially.

Before I get too far into this story, I just want to make sure y’all know that I’m not in any way putting down any of my bridal party and I’m sure that every bride goes through some sort of drama of their own. While I had a good time on my bachelorette party, I could have had a better time and things could have worked out a lot differently.

So we get there Friday morning and of course we can’t check-in because it’s like 8am and early check-in starts at 10am. My MOH had everything planned to the absolute T and was having a hard time with the “plan” being thrown off. That kick started the negative attitude of the weekend and it carried on throughout the next two days.

Needless to say, it all ended up in a disaster of girls getting mad at each other and the rest of the weekend not quite going as planned. No one could communicate like adults and I couldn’t understand why it was all happening and girls couldn’t just enjoy MY weekend. I still managed to have a great time thanks to my new cousins and bff, but my MOH and I ended the weekend in a huge fight that had to be resolved before the wedding.

MAY 11-13, 2018: Las Vegas, NV

STAY

COSMOPOLITAN HOTEL – I’ve actually never stayed here before, but the hotel was soo nice. I normally stay at the MGM (which is also nice), so this was a nice little change. My bff works for Marriott, so she was able to get us an employee discount on the rooms!

EAT

EGGSLUT – Located in the Cosmopolitan. This was our first stop Friday morning for breakfast. I got the slut (cage-free coddled egg on top of house-made potato puree, cooked in a glass jar topped with gray salt and chives, served with slices of baguette. Let me tell you, this was DELICIOUS!!

SECRET PIZZA – ok, so there is a hidden secret place in the Cosmopolitan. I honestly can’t tell you exactly where it is except that you have to go down a hallway to get there. It is pretty much open all day/night. They close at 4-5am and open again at 11am.

TACO BELL CANTINA – We hit the TBell Cantina after the club on Friday night (I guess you could say Saturday morning). There was a little bit of a wait, but it was so worth it, it hit the spot after drinking all night. By the time we got here, there were only 6 of us, so we ordered our food and got it to go and ended up eating on the floor of the conference room level of the hotel. Definitely a must hit spot in Vegas!

SCARPETTA – This is where we ate Saturday night after the pool party. I’m going to be honest and say that it was totally not worth it. The portions were small and it just wasn’t a very enjoyable experience. Although, in all fairness, it could have just been because the weekend was so bizarre and by this point everything was super awkward between everyone.

Clubs

TAO NIGHTCLUB – So being a group of all girls, we knew it wouldn’t be hard to get into a club. Robert’s cousin was able to get us all in to Tao. We still had to pay, but we got to sit at a table and had drink wristbands. We got to stay at the table as long as the club didn’t sell it (since we technically didn’t pay for table service). Our table was located right next to the dance floor which was great! We even ended up dancing on the platforms before deciding to call it a night around 2am.

TAO BEACH – Saturday during the day, we went to a pool party, this particular one is one of the best in Vegas. We used the same promoter with the same rules to get into the pool party. We only had to move couches once, but then luckily we stayed in the same place the rest of the afternoon. It was so much fun (although I don’t think my whole bridal party had fun as a couple of them left pretty early).

My super cute one-piece suit

All in all, it wasn’t a totally terrible weekend. I mean it definitely could have been WAY better, and I would love to go back and change it if I could, but what’s done is done and unfortunately I’ll never get that experience back again. I have good and bad memories from my bachelorette weekend.

January 23, 2019
Happy Birthday to ME!!
Alright y’all I went to bed last night thinking that I would talk about the newest BARKBOX I received over the weekend, but when I woke up this morning I decided to talk about myself a little bit on the blog today...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Katie

Well here we are, another year, another birthday. Yesterday I turned 25. I’m half way to 50. I’m a quarter of a century old. I don’t know how many other ways to say it…I’m getting old.

Last year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my 24^th year of life. Here’s the list I prepared a year ago from my “Nobody Likes You When You’re 23” post:

Things to do before I turn 25:
1. Get engaged (I know this one isn’t up to me, but I can hope right?)
2. Buy a new car – I have wanted a new one for a while as my current car is 10 years old
3. Save enough money to move out of my parents’ house – this one is a little unrealistic at my current pay scale but I’ll still put aside money
4. Travel to at least 5 places big or small – I can’t currently take time off with my new job because of a probationary period
1. Follow through on plans I make with friends (It’s always the same…”omg, let’s hang out” and then it never happens)
Here’s the FINAL verdict on my 24th year of life:

Get engaged: Ok, so for those of you who may not know, or just started following me…as of November 2016, I AM ENGAGED. After 5 years of dating and talking about marriage together, the big day finally happened! The proposal was absolutely amazing and everything I could have wanted! You can read all about my AMAZING proposal here.

Buy a new car: As of June 2017, I became a new car owner! This is something that I have been saving for with my own money for about 6 years now. I was previously driving a 2005 Ford Focus (which I loved, btw, but it was time for an upgrade) I had been looking at more luxury brand vehicles and decided (after much research) that I was between the Mercedes C300 and the Audi A4. I actually know a few people who drive Mercedes, but I wasn’t really impressed after sitting inside of it. The fiancé and I went to the Audi dealership and looked at the A4, but he was a little too tall and didn’t fit comfortably inside it. We then went and looked at the new 4-door A5. They are brand new to the US this year as they’ve only ever had the 2-doors here. Since I loved the idea of having something that no one else did, I was very intrigued by this particular model. I think it was fate because the fiancé did in fact fit into the A5 and we happened to get a once in a life time deal on the car. It was too good of a deal to pass up so a few days later (I had to wait for them to get the white exterior with black leather in) we went and picked up my NEW 2018 Audi A5!!! I absolutely love my car and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Move out of the house: HAHAHAHA ok I’m done laughing now, I did NOT move out of my house this past year. In fact after getting engaged, I realized it was for the best if I stayed home and saved money for the next year and then move out as it gets closer to the wedding. While the fiancé still lives at home as well, we can both save as much as we can plus we’re not in any hurry to pay rent every month so why waste money right now when we can both stay home for about 10 more months? This is also hugely in part with the cost of living in wonderful Southern California (where 1 bedroom rent can be almost 2 grand a month and tear down houses in bad areas are selling for $800k).

Travel: I did in fact make it to 5 different places even though some were on the smaller side.
1. Boise, Idaho – September 2016 – My brother goes to school in Idaho, so my mom and I went for parents weekend and I got to check out all the cool scenery Boise has to offer. Boise was really cool because there were a lot of up and coming spots near Downtown. It was also really cool to watch football being played on the blue field.
2. Palm Springs, California – September 2016 – The fiancé (he was still my BF at this point) and I went to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway. We just went for the night, but it was still nice to get out of our small town, plus we got a great deal at the JW Marriott. The weather was still hot and there are a ton of great places to eat.
3. Seattle, Washington – November 2016 – This was right after we got engaged. I have friends from college that live in the Seattle area, so Robert and I decided it would be cool to go and visit. We stayed with one of my friends and got to go to the Space Needle and have lunch at the top. We went to Pike Place Market, the gum wall and even went to a University of Washington football game (I enjoy a good PAC 12 game!). While we just went for the weekend, we had tons of fun and got to catch up with some of my friends.
4. Manhattan, New York – January 2017 – This was my weekend getaway to The City with one of my BFFs that I wrote about back in January; you can check it out here. I absolutely LOVE New York and if I could go once or twice a year, I would be a happy camper. I’ve been 3 times in the last 2 years (once in September and twice in the winter).
5. Avalon, Catalina Island, California – June 2017 – This is a small island about an hour away from the Port of LA (where the cruise ships leave out of). My family owns property over on the island so we try and go over at least once during the summer. This was just a little one night trip for my mom and I while my dad and brothers stayed longer. I’ve been going over since I was about 6 weeks old, so there’s nothing super new or exciting now. On this trip though I saw Bobby the Deckhand from Below Deck Mediterranean. He was very friendly and chitchatted with us for a few minutes.
Follow through on plans I make: Hmmm…this one is a little hit or miss. While I did follow through on a lot of my plans I made with people, I just can’t bring myself to go out every single weekend and some of my friends want to do exactly that! I like to go out, but after a long day at work, sometimes it’s nice to curl up with my fur baby and fiancé and watch our shows. So maybe this is one that I can continue to work on some more.

All in all, I think that I met my goals that I made for myself last year on my birthday. I’m proud of the accomplishments that I have made (p.s. I’ve officially been at my job for a full year) and the things that I have done this past year. I know that 25 will bring a lot of change to my life, but it’s all good and exciting change. This will be a whirlwind year with planning the wedding, booking a honeymoon, and finding a place for us to live. I look forward to this coming year and know that I will continue to be blessed in every aspect of my life.

I’m grateful for the opportunities that have not only been given to me, but for the ones that I have worked hard for. I honestly couldn’t be where I am today without the support of my parents and my loving fiancé who continues to amaze me every day.

So CHEERS to 25, let’s make it the best year yet!

XOXO
July 17, 2017