Local Goodness

Epicerie Cafe and Grocery is located off Hancock and across the street from Fonda San Miguel.  It's setup creates an inviting ambiance with both relaxing indoor and outdoor seating.  You can pick from a variety of fresh dishes, an assortment of cheeses from the  cheese bar and delicious bakery treats.

If you're feeling up for a sweet treat, I recommend the sea salt carmel cookie (this might not be the exact name--just ask for the most popular!).  It won't disappoint!

A good Cup o' Jo!

South Austin has numerous fun eateries, coffee shops and stores.  I needed to find a great place for a long day of studying that wouldn't allow me to get too distracted, offered great coffee and a comfortable environment for 6+ hours of studying. Once Over Coffee off South 1st has amazing coffee....definition of amazing coffee: when you can drink it black!  So, so good!  A  cozy environment with good background music.  Plus, there's a cute patio off the back surrounded by big trees with lots of greenery strung with lights for the evening crowd.  Once Over Coffee perks: bring your own food (several good to-go eateries close by) as long as you buy a drink, $0.25 discount if you want to use your own mug, %10 discount for cash purchases.

Austin Terrier...a new breed of dog?

I recently moved back to Austin and am thrilled this delicious eatery is within walking distance from where I live.  I can tell I will be back.   There are so many different menu options that look amazing...even for a vegetarian.  The staff is incredibly nice and all go out of their way to strike up a conversation.  The truffle fries in the trio are amazing and the Zilker pizza had so much flav!  Best of all the patio is pet friendly!  Gizmo is going to be stoked :) It was voted recently by the Austin Chronicle as 'Austin's best kept secret!' Their story of the how the name came to be is quite funny and hilarious that numerous people wonder if there is a new breed of terrier in Austin.

Cape May, NJ

Long, long ago a woman by the name of May would climb up the steep ladder into the lighthouse every night and direct the local boats into the harbor. During the winter months it is said that she often wore a long cape to keep her warm at night while she watched for the incoming ships and so the name of this harbor side town came to be --Cape May.  Haha. Not really.
Definitely not Jersey Shore.  Cape May is a quaint and picturesque town along the coast line of New Jersey about 2 hours south of Philadelphia. The coastal sunsets are breathtaking with old victorian style homes, hydrangeas and butterflies surrounding the nearby streets.
A local favorite....
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 10am the hippie bread goddess of Cape May opens her street side stand on Ocean Drive offering amazing wood fired bread, muffins and some local produce.  I am not a huge fan of bread but this stuff is amazing! There was a long line and the muffins were completely gone by 10:10am.  I was responsible for bringing the bread back to the house since my bike had a bungie cord.  Thank heavens I made it back and did not get attacked by the massive seagulls that are exceptionally well fed here.  Pretty sure I would have never heard the end of that one considering we arrived on Tuesday and all we've heard about everyday is this amazing local bread from the hippie down the street.  Here's a picture of the bread in tow...

La Jolla, CA Kayak Tour of the 7 caves and some fun facts:

La Jolla, CA Kayak Tour of the 7 caves  and some fun facts:

The kayaking tour took us through the Ecological Reserve and provided a lot of fun interesting facts about the area.  While we didn’t get to paddle through the 7 sandstone caves because of the strong swells, we got to cruise alongside them and see the sea lions.  They were quite funny with their barking as they played king of the mountain.  One even ‘bitch’ slapped another and then tossed her bum smack dab on top of the others head!  She then proceeded to get situated while keeping half her body on top of the other sea lion…How Rude.  These creatures carry quite the horrendous smell especially the males.  The males have a hard knot on their skull for fighting since they will battle it out for the land of women….more or less male sea lions are pimps.  Another interesting fact is the sea lions has whiskers which act as feelers much like our fingers.  When you see them balance a ball it never touches their nose.  It is actually held up by their whiskers.

The Liberal Waters:

The garibaldi fish is the California State Saltwater fish.  It looks like a large, glowing orange goldfish.  It is a hermaphrodite.  The fish starts out as a female, takes up shop in a portion of the ocean where it is uninhabited by males and proceeds to eat up the green string looking seaweed which gives it the energy to morph into a male.  This fish can change sex twice in it’s lifetime.  As our guide stated, “This quite fitting since California has a high rate of sex change procedures every year.“

There’s a Leopard in the Water:

The Leopard shark inhabits La Jolla’s Ecological Reserve.  This shark has a small mouth and provides people the opportunity to swim with the sharks without having to get in a cage or worry about being taken down by Jaws.  As our tour guide stated, “You need to worry more about the cougars on the beach attacking you than the leopard sharks!“

Cave drinking:

It’s thought that back in the 1920s during Prohibition all the alcohol that was smuggled in through Mexico came through one of the caves along the La Jolla Ecological Reserve.  Someone should turn this cave into a bar! 

There’s an underwater band:

The guitarfish is a bottom feeder.  It has the head of a skate and the tail of a shark. 

Rose Canyon Fault:

Along the coastline line lies $5-10mm homes with no home owner’s insurance because of the fault line.  Due to the continual weathering of the shoreline these homes backyards shrink year after year and eventually are deemed condemned.  Two options exist.  Tear it down before it falls into the reserve or leave it to pollute the ocean.  If the owner leaves it they will be heavily find and required to pay clean up fees as parts of the home fall into the waters of the reserve.  This is one of California’s highest fines.

The commentary was great from our guide, David, at Bike and Kayak Inc. in La Jolla.  It was extremely disappointing and pricey to paddle out to the caves only to be told we would not be venturing into any of the caves.  We didn’t realize this could even be a possibility since we had paid for the 7 caves tour.  Oh and there was a group with another company going in the caves.

South Carlsbad State Park

An interesting place to camp….it’s nestled on the cliff tops over looking the beach yet they offer both inland and beach camp sites.  The beach campsites are beautiful views with a rather deceiving name because the site equates to looking through a fence 50 yards down at the beach. Overall these campgrounds were good and conveniently located near the beach, close by shops and about 25 minutes from San Diego.

Pannikin Coffee and Bakery

A fantastic café! Pannikin Coffee and Bakery is home to the old Santa Fe Railroad Station.  There’s always a line out the door at this place but not to worry it doesn’t take long.  The waitresses approach you while you’re waiting in line and take your order before you reach the checkout station.  We went here for breakfast Saturday morning and had to return Sunday to try the carrot cake.   We tried the juevos rancheros, the greek eggs, pecan bar and carrot cake. The greek eggs were steam scrambled eggs with basil, feta and tomato….yummy! All the egg dishes were steam scrambled which I was not familiar with but thoroughly enjoyed.  The steam made them very light and fluffy.  The coffee was incredible and so was the Blue Lady black tea.  Highly recommend this place if you’re ever in the Leucadia/Encinitas area.