More Celeb Sightings and The Family Visit

Hi Friends!

I guess I should start off with my recent celebrity sightings....last Sunday afternoon I watched Daniel Baldwin play softball at Malibu Bluffs park. My friends Jen and Kerri are on a city league softball team and Daniel (or DB as his teammates called him) happens to be their pitcher. I had gone with Jen to look for couches the day before. When she mentioned she had a game the next day and that Daniel would be there, I thought I would pop by. It was really cool seeing a celeb do something "normal" without photographers around. The mother of his unborn child (the former chef at the Malibu rehab facility he was recently staying in) was also there, lounging on the grass beside the field. In between innings he would go lay next to her, putting his head on her stomach. It was really sweet. Today, Tammy and I went to the Malibu Arts Festival, which is a huge craft show with photographers, artists, sculptors, food vendors, etc. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without, however I did see Drew Lachey (Nick's brother), his wife and child walking by. Drew and Leah were both in sunglasses and are a lot shorter in person.

Now onto the family visit. My entire family (mom, dad, granny, and Andee) minus Toby arrived in Los Angeles on a Thursday morning and headed straight to Venice beach and Hollywood boulevard while I was at work. Around 4pm, they made their way to campus and got to see my office, get a few Pepperdine t-shirts and hats, and got a glimpse of the breath-taking view of the Pacific.

After I got off work, we headed to Duke's barefoot bar and chowed down on grilled chicken sandwiches, fish and chips, and some fruity drink concoctions. We were able to snab a table outside that looked right onto the ocean. They were really tired, so after dinner mom, dad, and granmy headed back to the hotel and Andee stayed with me. I took Andee to Ralph's hoping to see a celeb but unfortunately we didn't there. We then headed to the Malibu Country Mart and got some iced tea at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (they are everywhere here) and I showed her the unique shops and where Nobu was (a hot spot for Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox and other local celebs who like expensive sushi). While walking back towards my car we saw Paul Rudd playing with his son in the little playground found smack-dab in the middle of the Country Mart. All of the playground pictures you see in US Weekly or OK magazine are taken here.

Friday was Disneyland....it was so much fun, however I must say that I like Disney World better because you feel like you are at a resort in Florida more so than you do here in Cali. We rode almost all the kiddie rides (my back can't handle much more) and then Andee and Dad rode Space Mountain. My favorite rides were Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean and meeting Mickey Mouse (45 minutes in line for that one). We had started our day at Disney around 11:30am and by about 6:00pm we were spent. We stopped at a Red Robin (a West Coast restaurant that has a diner feel) on the way home and called it a night.

Saturday we hit the wineries....that was a really unique experience. We drove up PCH and the 101 to the Santa Barbara wine country....more specifically to a city called Los Olivos (where Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch is). Our first winery was the Firestone winery owned by Andrew Firestone's family (yes the tire company and of the show the Bachelor). The winery had little stations set up in a large room, each showcasing five to six different wines (whites and reds) for you to taste. You pay $5-$7 dollars per winery (this includes a keepsake glass and the tastings). They give you a list of what you are trying and a little description of each. Firestone also owns Curtis winery so we paid $10 which included the glass and wine at both places. Firestone also had samples of their jalapeño mustard and merlot chocolate dip to try with pretzels which was a real treat.

After about two full glasses worth of tastings, we drove down to the Curtis winery where I tasted (hands down) the best wine ever made. I am a really big sweet wine (or fruit forward) fan....anything labeled a Reisling or dessert wine, I know I will like. This wine was called a 2005 Late Harvest Viognier and was mouth watering delicious....super sweet. At $35 a bottle for about three glasses worth, I passed but will definitely buy a bottle at some point in my life. We stopped at two more wineries after that and also spent two hours at a local casino playing slot machines...no big winnings here but it was fun. After the casino we were starving and hit up an In and Out Burger in Ventura. Everyone loved it just as much as I do. It's definitely worth the hype in my opinion.

Sunday we headed to Beverly Hills to check out Kitson (a very trendy expensive shop of t-shirts, jeans, and trinket type things). After about 30 minutes in Kitson, Andee picked up a cute makeup bag and we headed to Sprinkles cupcakes. Dad, granny and I tried milk chocolate, Andee got a red velvet one and mom had a carrot cake. No one was disappointed. We also go two extra to share (vanilla and chocolate coconut). My favorites to this day are peanut butter chip and vanilla. Those of you in the Dallas area- check out your local Sprinkles (they are selling a limited edition cherry flavor until August 5th) and the Houston area will be getting a franchise soon according to their website. The picture below is a picture I took in front of Kitson and it says "Kitson Welcomes the Beckhams to Los Angeles".

After Sprinkles, we headed to the Grove/Farmer's Market for some pizza and shopping. We also took in a movie (License to Wed) at the Grove theater. I thought the movie was OK-but not as funny as I thought it would be. One nice thing about the theater, were the all you could drink self-serving soda fountain machines (I have given up sodas since then, going on 10 days and doing excellent). Andee and I had Subway for dinner back in Malibu and then stopped at the local frozen yogurt store called Malibu Yogurt (Malibu Yo). One would think Malibu Yo was this amazing place but in actuality its just the only ice cream/yogurt shop within a 30 mile radius. I wasn't impressed at all with the chocolate flavor I had the first time, but this time with Andee I got a coffee flavor that was pretty good and I am a fan again.

Monday was beach day and of course it was cloudy. We laid on a couple of towels on the shores of Zuma and watched surfers, junior life guards in training and a large number of people that didn't have to work that day frolic in the ocean and sand. After changing, the family headed back to the airport for the 3-hour flight back home. I spent the rest of that day doing laundry, napping, and at the chiropractor because one of the rides at Disneyland ended up being a little more jarring than I had thought. It was really hard to see them all leave but we got a lot done in a short amount of time and everyone had a blast.

I can't believe I have been here for almost three months....the summer has gone by so fast and I am really enjoying being out here. On a side note, I saw the movie Hairspray last week (Pepperdine hosted it again) and it was wonderful-you must go see it. We had a choice of either seeing Harry Potter or Hairspray and of course I chose the musical.

Also, the Beckhams have now moved into their Beverly Hills pad and are the new "IT" couple...hopefully they will make their way to the 'Bu so I can blog about it! ;) I really want to go to an LA Galaxy game (the team David plays for) and also check out a Dodger's game at some point.

Thanks for reading....and I hope to hear from you all soon!

xoxo
Ro

$10 Beach parking and fireworks to come

I think every week that passes I start to enjoy California more and more...the people, the area in general...I have made three new friends (also Pepperdine employees) closer to my age and it has really made a difference. However, there is one thing that I will never ever like-the lack of parking and the fees to pay in very small paved lots for anything you want to do on the weekends. During the week this is not so much of a problem, but the weekends bring flocks of people from everywhere wanting to stake claim on some hot sand and soak their feet in the ice cold Pacific.

For example, this past weekend, my friend Jessica and I were going to go to the Adamson House which is an old tile factory here in Malibu whose inside is absolutely breathtaking. Below is a picture of a hallway in the house-the floor looks like it has a Persian rug laying on it, however those are indeed tiles. The tour itself is only $5, so we thought this would be a great cheap adventure for Saturday. Wrong.



Friday night we had gone to see Ratatouille at the Malibu Theatre (Pepperdine hosted another free movie and of course I was there-next week is the Transformers and I might just go to that too since it is free and Josh Duhamel is in it). The movie was fantastic! I highly recommend it. Prior to the movie we went to an Italian food place called Spruzzo's that was good and reasonably priced. The cornbread/focaccia bread they give you beforehand was really yummy-I had at least two pieces.



The movie started at 9:45 and we didn't get home until midnight, so Jessica and I decided that our original plan of making the first tour at 10am wasn't going to happen and we moved our plans to 2pm (when the last tour left). I left campus around 1:20 and drove down to see if I could find the Adamson house-that was a success, but I worried because it looked like there were a lot of cars parked near the area. I swung back to pick up Jessica and we pull into the Adamson House parking lot. The guy tell us that the $7 pay lot was full (where beach people park too) and that we were out of luck. We drove up and down PCH for about 15 minutes and determined that we would just have to plan this for another day and go on the first tour, hoping to beat some of the crazy beach traffic next time. I was really really sad.

To boost our spirits, we decided to go to Malibu Lagoon nearby where we paid $10, yes $10 to park our car in their tiny lot. When we drove up, the guard was playing her guitar so I just drove on by and snabbed an empty spot. We noticed that other cars had a yellow ticket in their windshield and figured we needed to go ahead and pay. After we each reluctantly handed over our $5 we were going to spend at the Adamson House, we hiked past the swampy lagoon to the beach. It's a pretty, small beach but there were about 250 people spread all over. Lots of small kiddos and two completely naked (children) splashing in the water....The cool thing about the beach was some of it led you in front of the houses located in the coveted Malibu Colony where numerous celebrities live. Jessica and I scooted under the wire gate that had a sign stating something along the lines of "private beach unless you are below the high tide area" (the wet sand).

I was a little intimidated, but Jessica had done this before so I followed her lead. There were quite a few people laying out on their decks, letting their big dogs run free on the beach catching disgusting tennis balls. I could not tell if any of the beach residents were celebrities or if they were just tourists who had either friends in high places or shelled out the 5-10 grand to rent a house for a week. Yes up to $10,000 for renting a house on the Pacific coastline for one week. I wanted to hang out on the beach more, but Jessica was ready to go back, so I dropped her off and picked up my friend Haley who also enjoys relaxing on the beach. Good thing our parking pass was for all day or I would have been really bummed. What really irked me was that after 3 or 4pm they stopped charging people-had we only known. We got some sun and people watched for a couple of hours.


We have the 4th off and I am probably going to a BBQ and will watch the fireworks from Alumni Park on the Pepperdine campus....the park is on top of a hill, overlooking the coastline where they shoot fireworks off a barge in the middle of the ocean-I can't wait!

Another thing I can't wait for is having my family come visit. They get here in 11 days and yes I am counting. My sister wants to go to H&M and Kitson in Beverly Hills and my mom wants to go see Laguna Beach...I know we are all going to have a great time, not to mention going to Disneyland!

BJ's Brewhouse is a chain restaurant that my mom loves to go to partly because she receives gift certificates from there and partly because the food and beer is good! Well several of my friends here are just obsessed with BJ's and I think it is so funny. They obviously have not experienced the food in Texas, that is for sure. I went to BJ's two weekends ago with my friends Lisa and Kerri and for dessert we ordered a pizookie which I had never heard of before. A Pizookie is a pizza cookie baked in this little dish topped with vanilla ice cream. It's OK....but I still prefer Great American Cookie and Blue Bell over it any day. We are also going to BJ's for Haley's birthday on Tuesday night. Last time I was there I had one of their famous pizzas but I am going to try really hard to branch out and try something new there.

Last week I went to the first chiropractor listed in my Healthcare provider packet. I really lucked out because Dr. Michelle Caravello is amazing. She is so nice, down to earth and really cares about me and the health of my sad back. It also helps that she lived in Austin for 8 years and has a soft spot in her heart for Texas. I can't wait to go "back" tomorrow night for another adjustment. My workstation recently got lifted to an appropriate height and this coming week my keyboard tray should be installed.....and at that time-everything will be kosher.

I hope all my friends and family in Texas are surviving the rain!