hurricane, utah: the mini guide

I have been dying to go to Utah for a few years now and I finally was able too! Thank you lockdown since I can travel to places in the USA that I’ve been wanting to go without sacrificing my paycheck. I could of course take the vacation time but honestly I don’t think it’s worth it right now. I am digressing though, I want to stay at the Amangiri so badly but I am not balling that hard just yet. This trip was super unplanned and it was extremely fun. I don’t recommend doing this trip unplanned though if you have a list of things you want to hash out that are pretty important when it comes to visiting the land of Zion National Park.

Before I go through the week and all the fun stuff that we did I have to say this was the most spur of the moment decision to go to Utah. A few weeks ago my uncle had said he and his family were going at the end of the month. We thought okay cool and that was the end of that. I had been looking for a few days how we could get to the Maldives since it’s one of the few places that remains open to American tourism. RIP all my vacation plans.

Fast forward to Sunday before we leave and my mom is on the phone with my grandma trying to convince her to go on vacation with us to Turkey since it is open for American tourism and we have our visa and our whole itinerary from when we were supposed to go a few months before. My grandma declines and tells my mom well why don’t you crash on your brother’s vacation…. if you know my mom then you know she didn’t need any more convincing.

So we call my uncle and he says he spend the night in Vegas and that we should catch up with him and stay the night. Now we all have work and responsibilities so we couldn’t just get up and leave that same day although I can assure you we totally would have. We cancelled all our things for the week and started to pack!

wearing: Xirena beau button down / xerision bike shorts / adidas / lululemon cap

THE WEEKENDER FILES GUIDE TO HURRICANE

Monday: Wake up at 8 a.m. and the drive there was incredible considering there was absolutely not traffic at all. We made it to Vegas around noon and caught up with the fam. We spent some time at the outlets buying a few last minute things for our trip and then we were on our way to Utah!

We stayed at the Sand Hollow Resort which is in Hurricane, Utah and is only 2 hours away from Vegas. The trip allows you to go through three states in the same day not bad at all! Once we dropped of our things at the resort we took some time to lounge by the pool and then went to pick up some groceries.

We stayed in separate rooms and we booked a double suite…..let me tell you the surprise that we got when we realized it was a huge one bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and washer/dryer. A total game changer when you can bring home clean clothes after a long vacation!

Tuesday: We’re just getting our bearings and getting used to the extreme dry heat of Utah and we spent the morning in the pool and then went just outside the resort in the late afternoon to check out the Beach at Sand Hollow. It’s a manmade lake with reddish orange sand that makes you feel like you’re on another planet.

We had booked dune buggies for 6 p.m. thinking it would be cooler and getting a bit darker around that time. Let me tell you this was not the case, it was still very very hot but it was so much fun! We went up the canyon to the “top of the world” and ended our dune buggie adventure by driving through the water at the beach. The water felt so cold because it is so hot out but really the water is around 85 degrees. We were drenched in water but the heat quickly dried us up.

Wednesday: Like I said our trip was super last minute and we didn’t get a chance to book the shuttle at Zion National Park so we could get up the mountain and go to all of the places where everyone typically takes photographs like the narrows all the way at the top.

We stayed on the Pa’rus Trail since this was our first time and we did have little ones with us. We still were able to wade in the water of the Virgin River and caught a glimpse of deer up close!

wearing: adidas / lululemon cap / xersion bike shorts / longchamp backpack / nike golf shirt

Thursday: Another relaxed day by the pool until about 4 p.m. when we rented some golf carts and drove around the golf course which has absolutely incredible views and is partially built into the canyon. Honestly it was beautiful and looked and felt like I was on the Cars ride at Disneyland.

We had been talking about doing star gazing a few days before but it wasn’t happening anywhere near where we were nor was it the season apparently. We got so incredibly lucky though because the Astronomy Club was doing free stargazing for those staying at the resort! Let me tell you this was so unexpected and it was an amazing experience because we were able to see the planets aligned with the moon! It was beautiful and I wish I had gotten a photo of the other planets and not just the moon.

Photo taken on night mode on the Iphone you can see the scorpio constellation to the right, the moon in the center and saturn and jupiter on the left.

Friday: Last day and we’re on our way out but not before we make another stop in Vegas for food and some more shopping!

THE QUICK GUIDE

+ where we stayed: Sand Hollow Resort – this resort is great for families and if you love golf the course is incredible and has stunning views of Zion in the distance and the red rocks in the other direction.

+ where we ate: the area is not very populated but the city isn’t too far from the resort, we went to Smith’s marketplace (it’s a Kroger brand), Walmart and Target. We didn’t just eat in our apartments though, we did venture out when we were in Zion and we also ate at the Resort’s restaurant The Grille. While you’re in Zion of course some places are closed because of the Coronavirus but Porter’s is super good! On our last day night we went to the Resort’s restaurant and let me tell you definitely share a pizza or two they are enormous and we ordered that and basically one of everything on the menu since we were a large party but it was way toooo much food. So heed my warning just get the pizza it was absolutely incredible! The Grille views are also just as incredible you get sweeping views of Zion National Park in the distance.

+ what we did: Zion National Park – we stayed on the Pa’rus Trail because it is easy and we missed out on the shuttle to get to the top of the park and go through the Narrows. If you’re planning on doing all of that be sure to either get there at park opening or get your tickets the month before.

We rented Dune Buggies at the resort with Mad Moose Rentals and let me tell you it is so much fun and you get all sandy and you can finish off your ride by cooling off at the lake.

Stargazing – we were incredibly lucky to be at the resort at the exact moment where this was going to happen. If you can do it there are other places where you can do this such as at Bryce Canyon.

Golf Cart – we rented a golf cart and took a drive through the canyon and the beautiful golf course. A rental is only $25 and you pretty much can take it out all day but we only took it out for a few hours because the heat is death.

Mental Health during Quarantine

Is it just me or has this quarantine been the most stressful time. After working 8am to 10 ok on miscellaneous items it finally got to me. I finished yesterday early around 8 pm and decided that I was going to take the next day as a break from the hundreds of projects I’ve been having to work on since quarantine has started.

I’m not going to sit here and barrage you with things that you need to buy to make your life more zen. I have been getting so bored with bloggers telling me that I need Ashwaganda or whatever that even is to be more relaxed.

I’m going to give you a breakdown of what my day was like and you might even learn that everything you need to relax is in your quarantine zone a.k.a home!

8:30 Coffee!! I can’t start my day without coffee so this is a must but do whatever you need for a pick me up in the morning! Matcha, lemon water, regular water, literally whatever as long as it works for you!

9:00 Breakfast time! I didn’t do anything crazy no healthy bowls with thousands of ingredients you need to find in the peaks of the Himalayas or whatever just plain old eggs and potatoes!

10:00 Zoom school time! I was the behind the scenes for my mom’s class!

11:00 Going back to my earlier rant about becoming YT famous: my mom is a preschool teacher, and now she has had to start doing classes via Zoom and making videos for the time they are out of class. This is where project no. 1 of the day comes in. I sewed my mom the cutest little owl for her morning song with the kids! I took a break from technology and didn’t get to record it but I will do another post if you guys are interested in learning how to make one! It was so easy and fun!!

1:00 It has been a long day of being inside and it is time for a walk outside!! I hadn’t realized how I took fresh air for granted. Being inside all day for work and then getting home from work it was just my normal. Doesn’t matter if you get a breeze in your house by having the windows open it just is not the same as being outside.

3:00 While my mom is starting dinner and my sister has work to do I work on project no. 2 of the day! (Although let’s be real this took me like three days to finish). I have recently become obsessed with embroidery, my fave is carlyowensembroidery! How cute are those eyes! For my second project of the day I decided to take a crack at embroidery by doing a red lip for my mom’s new chic black facemask! Again I did not record this but if anyone is interested I can do a tutorial on another post or even on YT!

4:00 Linner time! To be honest I don’t remember what we even ate, but with all this extra time on our hands we have been getting creative in the kitchen! Check out Half Baked Harvest’s 20 minute Thai Peanut Chicken Ramen recipe. This recipe was a hit and you should definitely try it out as well!

6:00 I unfortunately couldn’t get away from technology the whole day and did have to log on for class for an hour but it wasn’t terrible. I survived!

7:00 It’s Wednesday and you know what that means? My latest Reese Witherspoon OBSESSION: Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu.

So my day was pretty jam packed but it was filled with things that I like to do! I obviously have a day job and took some time here and there to check emails on my phone to make sure I wasn’t missing anything important but let me tell you taking a break in the middle of the week to give my neck and back a break from the tech hunch!

I felt so much better at the end of the day and the next morning I felt refreshed enough to continue with my non-stop grind!

Has anyone else been taking on several hats during this quarantine? Let me know in the comments below! Until next time!

Weekend in Memory Lane

It’s been a minute since the days where our family would spend every weekend in Los Angeles. We would spend the weekend to visit my aunt at her gallery and eat at the best restaurants LA has to offer.

This weekend we decided to do just that and relive some great memories at some of our favorite places.

If you don’t care to read the full post and just want my recs scroll down to the bottom!

We deviated a little from our usual stays in Beverly Hills to stay closer to my sister who goes to school at Pepperdine in Malibu. The Four Seasons Westlake is a hidden oasis in the middle of the hills near Calabazas and Hidden Hills. They’ve been remodeling so not all the rooms look like they’re out of an elegant 1950’s hotel anymore but we stayed in one of the more “historic” suites. Bright yellow walls with white crown molding and gorgeous oak furniture. The bathroom has a shower and bathtub both marble. For those of you who know me, I am a sucker for marble.

The hotel has a beautiful views of Malibu/Topanga canyons and the facilities are gorgeous. I wish I had time to take some cute pictures in front of their waterfall. Those pictures would have been precious!

For dinner we went to the Palm Restaurant. Getting there was a pretty hilarious ordeal. We were worried about being late for our reservation and were zipping through LA traffic to get there even though it was about 9 pm! Once we drove past it to find parking my grandma stated “Where did you bring me this isn’t the Palm!”

Now I’ve been to this specific Palm location with her sometime over 12 years ago and granted it was slightly different then since Beverly Hills is always changing. But anyway we got there and my grandma just had to ask if this was indeed the Palm where she would spend almost every weekend about 30 years ago. They told her that this particular restaurant had originally been on Sunset but parts of the original building and it’s celebrity drawings were in this new location.

Anyway we were there because my grandma just could not get the thought of their famous Veal Chop out of her mind. And at 16 ounces it’s a huge cut! My grandma can’t eat that much anymore so you better believe that I ate mine and what she left of hers which was quite a lot! Despite her having eaten almost 3/4 of it!

We had tiramisu for dessert and I can tell you that it is incredible! The mascarpone is delicate and the taste isn’t overpoweringly sweet. No good picture of it because we just devoured it!

The next day we had breakfast at another Beverly Hills icon. The Ivy! Both old and new Hollywood stars are known to hang out here and why wouldn’t they when the food is absolutely incredible. Sipping champagne while you wait for your table is simply a luxe extra that makes anyone feel like a celebrity. Don’t even get me started on the scones! Are you a lover of the breadbasket before a meal? Well you will never think of those the same after having these scones, they are to die for! I know I went for breakfast but I always get the spaghetti and meatballs. I am a creature of habit and what can I say I absolutely love theirs.

Sultana scones with raspberry jam and butter.

After breakfast we went down to Rodeo Drive so I could pick up some things from Saint Laurent Rive Droite for our works white elephant. Not going to do any spoilers in case anyone from work reads this but just know that you all will be fighting over these gifts!

Last item on our mini vacation in memory lane was the iconic Beverlywood Bakery. This is your corner Russian/Jewish bakery for all your challah, bear claw, babka and black white cookie needs. I am of course biased but it’s only because I have been coming here for 20 something years now. Wow does that statement make me feel old! Anyway this black and white cookie is to die for and no matter where I go and try new cookes, this will hands down always be my favorite.