Valentine's Weekend: Part I

I know it's going to take me a few posts to capture all the deliciousness of this past Valentine's Day weekend, which is all right, because this week I'm planning to eat leftovers from the freezer anyway.

Friday
In the morning I woke up early for a 4 mile run and a bowl of strawberry banana oatmeal with agave.
I took a midterm.
I drove to Santa Barbara. I actually felt the impossibility of removing the smile from my face. The feeling of driving to a gorgeous place to be with friends and Boyfriend after a difficult week of tests is like leaving on a much-anticipated vacation.

I went to Vons (Safeway in other parts of the country) and constructed my own sandwich for lunch, then met my friends at the beach.

Avocado, olives, lettuce, pepper, pepperoncinis, tomato, and onion on whole wheat bread.

Everyone loves sandwiches!

With my lovely ex-roommate Christina. 

And Zoe!

Once Boyfriend came home from work, we went out for dinner at The Natural Cafe. I love this restaurant because there's so much vegan goodness to choose from. By this point, my test scores had been posted and I found out I passed everything. This became a celebration dinner!

This dress is from Anthropologie. Boyfriend bought it for me, and I felt pretty all day. It's funny how an article of clothing can do that sometimes. 

Mine: Tostada Salad

His: Turkey Burger

After dinner we packed up and around 9 pm we left (8 of us) to make the drive up the coast to Carmel for the weekend. I promptly fell asleep. 

Saturday

After spending Friday night (or whatever you call it when you get in at 1 am) at a friend's house, Saturday morning saw us at Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, after a consultation with Yelp, we ended up at Vive La Crepe! Yelp has 36 reviews for them...and an average of 5 stars! The group had some great crepes, both sweet and savory, but they unfortunately didn't have any vegan options, except a prepackaged energy bar that I wasn't really feeling. 

After walking the wharf and finding a surprising lack of oatmeal or other vegan options, I decided to obtain some fruit. I walked into a lovely little candy store with a wide variety of candied apples and asked if I could just buy an apple. He asked me if I wanted it on a stick. I said, "Not really." He said he'd never just sold somebody an apple before. I'm happy to be the first. 

The apple cinnamon. They even make the cream themselves.

On the left in the shadows is Boyfriend's savory buckwheat crepe with carmelized onions. 

Coffee with soymilk and an apple for me. I also had a banana. Sometimes that's just exactly what you want. 

Then it was time to head out for some adventures.

Coming up in Part II: waterfalls, tapas and our downtown rental