Dirty Parts Festival

It's been all over blogs everywhere, the news is out. 

The time has come. It's festival season! 

It's concert season. 

It's summer baby!

Last Saturday was the Dirty Parts Festival put on by San Diego radio station FM 94.9, and it. was. EPIC!! 

 I can't exactly pull off the pintrest worthy, fringe-having, tanned skin baring type festival outfits that I love seeing on other blogs....so.....

X-Men is always a good alternative right? yup. Totally the same thing.

God, I'm so good at dressing appropriately it's not even funny. (or true. le sigh.)

But for reals though, who cares. This day was about the music! And beer. And sunshine. Damn, I love festival season!!

I didn't get pictures of every band that played as I was busy singing, dancing and just generally having the best time ever, but I got some pretty good iPhone shots.

Check out St. Motel!! You can tell they have a blast performing, and the drummer rocked some pretty sweet shorts straight from the 80's.....and we were not upset about it. 

It was hot as hell, but the crowd didn't even care. The festival took place at the Lakeside Rodeo grounds, so you could either sit in the stands or join us wild folk in the arena between the two stages. 

This next one was In the Valley Below and although I'd heard a couple songs of theirs before, I never really fell in love with them until now. 

Their voices are simply haunting, and the way they move...just mesmerzing. If you've never heard of them, check out their song Peaches, you won't regret it.

And the band I'd been waiting for....Big Data!!! They rocked the house like nobodies business. Not to mention they are stylish as fuck.

If for some reason you don't know them yet, please, please, please do yourself a favor and listen to their song Dangerous. And if you have a weird sense of humor like me, go ahead and watch the music video. I think it's hilarious. I hope we can still be friends.

It was pretty much a perfect day with some of my favorite people. 

Oh, and the cherry on top? Turns out the singer/producer of Big Data is a super nice guy! 

Aghhhhhh!!!!! So freakin stoked to meet this guy!!!

Kongos rocking out.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. 

If this festival happens again next year, you can bet your sweet bum I'll be there.

If you live in the San Diego area, FM 94/9 puts on all kinds of awesome events like this for really low prices. (check out Indie Jam!) In, fact my ticket to the Dirty Parts Festival only cost me $9.49! Check out their link here: FM 94/9 .

Are you attending any festivals this summer?? 

I'd love to hear about it in the comments below and if you have a blog, leave me a link!

Memorial Day in Laguna Hills

The story of my memorial day weekend starts with beer, as all weekends should. 

A pre-race ritual beer in the lovely California town of Laguna Hills. 

Not my race, obviously. But this one here, the crazy one who runs for fun.

I was quite pleased with my rather cheeky glass.

And impressed by Gloria's preparation skills. I think I missed out on that gene as well as the want-to-run gene.

The weekend progressed to the part where I wake up ungodly early on a Sunday to cheer on this crazy chick.

Can you guess which part I liked better? The beer drinking or the early weekend wakeup time?

That's a rhetorical question, btw. Also check out my sweet gray hairs coming in. Hell yeah 26! We're aging nicely (insert sarcasm).

All joking aside, I was super stoked to send her off and watch all these people giddy up and take on the challenge of a 5K, 10K or a half marathon.

I had a much more achievable goal of walking two miles to meet Gloria at the finish line, and I was very impressed! I may not like running myself, but I do tip my hat to those that do. Especially when it's for a good cause like this one.

I saw quite a few interesting things while awaiting Gloria's triumphant return.

A man run a half marathon completely barefoot.

Lots of tutus...on both men and women.

Children who could run circles around me....for days.

And then.......I spotted her coming in for the finish!!

I wish I had some super awesome action shots for you, but she was faster than my camera :(

My little runner!!

And now, a word from the lady herself!!

It was not an easy race. The majority of the course is pure hills!! I don't recall the course having that many hills last year and I was not ready! My calves were on fire by the end of the race, and some how I ended up running 14 miles instead of 13.1. So either I maneuvered a lot through people, the course is not properly measured or I got lost... I'm gonna go with I got lost. Regardless, I still managed to crush multiple PRs :)


We found this adorable little french cafe after the race where we got our post-race face stuffing and it was AH!-mazing!

It really was a truly amazing little cafe. They were a little slow, due to being short handed but it was well worth it.

come closerrrrr...

CLOSER!!!!

mmm perfect. Don't forget to wipe your whipped cream mustache off.

now let's jump into some savory smoked salmon crepes.....*drool*

How about some good ol' butter soaked french toast?

I don't know about you but I get a little excited about food.

What a fantastic weekend. I always love a good little weekend trip, don't you? 

You can check out the details of the yearly Laguna Hills Memorial Day race here.

And you can find this delightful little french gem of a cafe here.

Where do you like to get away to on your weekends??