This weekend - there was not a pumpkin-spice-anything in sight.

That’s totally fine with me. I plan to wear white all year round, anyways.

Nate and I spent the long weekend down in Santa Monica visiting my folks. We ate our weight in summer fruit and spent plenty of time outside. We rode bikes and went to the beach and built bonfires and took naps by the pool. And Nate checked off more things helping my dad around the house…he’s such a good guy :).

My company had Friday off, so mom and I started out the day with a great workout, and some routine doctors appointments. My mom and I then went for lunch at Huckleberry - a Santa Monica staple. The food was actually super disappointing this time around, and we even had to send back our kale salad because it was too salty! #tragic After a long afternoon of shopping, on Friday night I met up with my good friends from Hungry & Fit <— they have a super fun blog, by the way. We grabbed sushi at Hide on Sawtelle avenue (AKA “Little Osaka”) before I picked Nate up from LAX airport. The traffic was crazy at the airport! Saturday morning we went on a long bike ride down to the beach and through Santa Monica canyon. I think this picture is hilarious - Nate in the background doesn’t look so pleased… We stopped for fish tacos for lunch on the way, and reallllllly good sweet potato fries. After visiting the grandparents, we went to dinner in Malibu at the Reel Inn. It’s a fantastic, super casual fish place right off the Pacific Coast Highway with great views of the beach. This place has been around since I was a toddler - a real local’s spot. We all had the halibut.

And then it was time for my mom’s play! Which was actually the reason why we came down this weekend! We actually had a blast seeing my mom up there on stage. Normally it kind of freaks me out to see my mom acting because she’s that good, but her character was fun and I enjoyed seeing her up there.

Sunday morning we attended the memorial of my great aunt, and it was a nice way to pay our respects to her life and reconnect with lots of family around the memorial. Later in the day, Nate and I grabbed lunch at Lemonade - another LA staple lunch spot. I grabbed a trio of salads - a smokey butternut squash dish, a kale salad, and a curried chicken salad. And of course a lemonade! We shared the guava limeade.

And ice cream afterwards at Sweet Rose Creamery! It’s become one of our go-to spots whenever we visit my folks, but a little disappointing this time around. I had their vegan Horchata ice cream with cacao nibs. It was OK - I think it was actually rice milk based, and not coconut milk based, and it just wasn’t as creamy as other vegan ice creams I’ve had.

The afternoon was spent napping by the pool and then time for dinner and then a bonfire! Monday was an epic beach day after a pretty sweaty and slightly miserable run. I blame the wine by the bonfire. Anyways, my family has the best beach day traditions. We have the same pink and blue striped umbrella so our friends can always spot us. We spent the day in the sand, watching the crazy currents and waves. We rounded out Monday evening with another lovely meal, all kind of sun-baked and enjoying the late summer glow. While prepping the corn, I discovered this pretty big sized worm working his way through it! Corn was saved for the dinner.

And we rounded out the weekend with some dairy-free froyo. Wish I guess is just sorbet!

I’m off to Seattle for the week for work - looking forward to spending time in the city! Will be fun to change things up a bit and spend time in Seattle, instead of flying over to Spokane or driving to Olympia. You can expect a lot of Seattle eats, of course.