andy & shaya

On Saturday Shaya had a trial run of her hair and makeup for the wedding at a salon in Tacoma so we spent most of the day down south. I had to keep myself busy for a few hours but when they finished Shaya was pleased with the results:

Needless to say, we’re both very excited for the big day! For lunch we were in the mood for something unique so I went looking on Yelp and found an interesting place called Quickie Too’s. The reviews were pointing us towards the Crazy Jamaican Vegan Burger so we both decided to try it out, and wow it was delicious! Of course, vegan doesn’t mean fat free :-) But anyway, highly recommended.

Next we made our way to a Northwest landmark that I’ve been meaning to visit for like 10 years- Stadium High School. You might recognize it from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. It is every bit as cool in real life as it was in the movie. And the weather was beautiful so we were treated to some spectacular views!

And here’s a panorama I made on a whim using the AutoStitch iPhone app. Very slick! (click for the full size image)

Just got word Shaya has been offered admission to the Southern California College of Optometry in Orange County, CA. SCCO was her first choice school so she’ll be accepting the offer and starting classes in August!

With the Vafaei’s just having bought a house in Encinitas, CA about 30 minutes north of San Diego, we were due for a visit to check out their new home. Since they needed their RL transported, we offered to drive it down for them with Sasha and Zeeba along for the ride. The drive was long and boring- 14 hours on the first day and another 7 on the second. To pass the time we listened to an audiobook of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown until Shaya was too stressed to handle any more of it. With Yelp as our guide, we had delightfully greasy sandwiches at an empty diner in Roseburg, OR and fresh delicious soft tacos in Santa Monica. And between myself and Zeeba, we had to keep one of the car windows cracked pretty much the entire trip.

Neither of us had any idea what to expect of Encinitas. What we found was a beautiful Southern California town with nice homes, nice people and a spectacular beach. Shaya and I particularly enjoyed the charming downtown area along Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. There were a bunch of cute shops and cozy restaurants, french bakeries and coffee shops. Over the course of the week, we had a delicious dinner at Trattoria I Trulli, great coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and delectable pie at Pannikin Coffee & Tea. Of course with Katia’s fantastic home cooking we only had one chance to dine out!

All in all a pretty idyllic place to live and we can’t wait to return, home!