SUBURBAN DOGS

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Hello Everyone!

Every once in a blue moon, I find myself having a day to relax. Lucky for me, yesterday was one of these wonderful days. In desperate need of a summer tease, I walked to the beach with Lilla and we stopped at our favorite cliff along the way to admire the view we so often take for granted.

Rule #1 of living in Santa Barbara: Always stop to admire a view

Rule #2: NEVER TAKE IT FOR GRANTED.I don’t know why I’m such a sucker for glimmering horizons but they make me feel a certain way that I never feel otherwise. Add in a nice song and I’ll be in a good mood for the rest of the week! Lilla recently showed me the song “Suburban Dogs” by Real Estate and I’ve been hooked ever since. It is the perfect tune for those easy breezy days off when you feel like you have all the time in the world and it is guaranteed to make you want to be outside.

Speaking of being outside, something I’ve been doing a lot of recently is walking. I have never been one to go on walks or runs (in fact I dreaded them) but recently I’ve found that they are one of the easiest ways to enjoy the good old outdoors that we so often deprive ourselves of. Not to mention, its great exercise! If you ever have some extra time in your day, I encourage you to try it.

Comment below and let me know what your favorite relaxing day activity is.

Thanks for reading!

Maddy

THE BIG BLUE

Sophie

Growing up in Santa Barbara, CA has made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Most days, I wake up to sun shining in my window and the faint sounds of the ocean around me. I know this sounds like the cheesiest thing in the world but its no exaggeration. Every day of my life I am grateful for my surroundings and even if I’m having a bad day or someone around me is, I often find myself saying “Hey, at least we live in Santa Barbara” or as my friend JM likes to put it, “We live in a place people vacation in. So suck it.”

kayaking with Princess Lucia

What makes SB so special to me is the ocean. Other than being a fun place to splash around in with your friends, it can also be therapeutic. It allows me to let go of all my worries and just go with the flow. For some it’s too cold, but I’ve become used to it. I’ll never forget the day my friends Reyna, Nina and I decided to go to the beach on a rainy day. I can’t remember why, but we were all having an absolutely terrible day and needed to get away together so we decided to go to a very private beach called Hammonds. When we got there I remember sprinting down the beach to our favorite spot, stripping down, and running for our lives into the freezing cold water. All of our worries instantly ceased and we swam around, diving under the big waves for at least an hour. Once we had gotten enough seaweed in our hair and sand in our bathing suits, we ran out and perched ourselves on top of a small cliff overlooking the beach. What was so special about it was because it was such a cold day, we didn’t see a single other person on the beach and it felt as though it was our own little world. Ever since then, the ocean has been my happy place.

Comment below and let me know what your happy place is.

-Maddy

rainy beach day with Reyna and Nina

FIRE ISLAND

As I was recently cleaning up around my room and relentlessly trying to find god knows what, I accidentally came across an old disposable camera of mine. Having absolutely no recollection of what it could have been from, I excitedly took it to get developed. As I looked through the pictures, I relived summer memories of visiting Fire Island in New York.

While I was in New York over the summer, I visited my cousins in Huntington. One of the days we were there, we took a mini trip to Fire Island to enjoy the nice weather, California style. This required a short drive followed by a ferry ride in which many families pushed and shoved their way on in hopes of not having to wait for the next one. Luckily, we got on and it was smooth sailing from there. Throughout the day I enjoyed a dip in the surprisingly warm ocean, soaked up the sun I had been missing so much, and cooled down with a mega scoop of ice cream from the small town next to the beach.

As I looked around at all the beautiful beach cottages, I daydreamed about living in one some day and being able to wake up to the sounds and sights of the ocean. Big windows flooded with light, soft bushes of grass and sand as a front yard, spacious patios; they were all so dreamy!

Comment and let me know what your favorite beach is.

Below are some pictures taken on my iPhone from the same day.

all photos taken by Maddy Rotman

LITTLE GIRLS, BIG CITY.

Its every girl’s dream to travel to the big apple with their closest girl friends for an ultimate city experience. Somehow, this past summer, this dream of mine came true when my dearest friends and I ventured to New York City for a week of a lifetime.

It all started when my teeny tiny dance team from Santa Barbara went to a three day dance convention/competition called The Pulse in Las Vegas, NV. We got to take classes from some of the world’s most sought out choreographers and perform in a showcase one of the nights. Incredibly, out of all the insanely talented dancers featured in the showcase, my company’s dance was selected along with two other dances from other studios to perform at another Pulse showcase in the one and only NYC (you can imagine the screaming that occurred when we found out).

After a couple months of planning and figuring out every last detail of what the week would entail, we packed our bags, kissed our palm trees goodbye, and headed across the country. As someone who has relatives on the east coast, I had been to New York a fair amount of times beforehand. However, I had never seen it like this. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was much older or that I was with all my best friends (unsupervised most of the time), but something about the trip made me fall in love with the city in a way that I had never previously experienced.

Three things I’ll never forget from the trip:

1) Eating dinner at a very hidden restaurant that overlooked ALL of Time Square.

2) Running across the street in flowy pants, trying not to get run over by relentless cab drivers and falling flat on my face (my pants also decided to fall down).

3) Getting up and trying to recover by running even faster across the remainder of the crosswalk and falling (more like sliding) on the hard black concrete AGAIN. This time I didn’t have to worry about cab drivers running me over because they were all laughing at me so hard, it was basically impossible for them to drive.

There you have it folks, my fabulous and not so fabulous adventure in the concrete jungle!

Thanks for reading,

Maddy

Comment below and let me know what your favorite girls trip would be!

all photos taken by Maddy Rotman

HEAD IN THE CLOUDS

This song has been specifically selected for you to listen to as you read this article. Press play.

Hello!

This post is not in any way related to food. However, I felt inclined to share some photos from a couple foggy weekends ago when I ventured up to the mountains with my two friends Lilla and Kai in pursuit of reaching a vantage point above the clouds.

It started out as a boring day with gloomy, grey skies above us. Because of our unusual amounts of energy we decided to make the treck up Gibraltar road. On the way up I stuck my head out the window as I stared up at the clouds which would soon become blue sky and enjoyed the soft drizzles of rain falling on my face. After about an hour of driving in the thick fog to the highest water tower reachable (shout out to Lilla’s hybrid and her unbelievably cautious driving), we made it. Although there was still a layer of clouds above us, our upward view was mostly blue skies. Meanwhile below us were mounds of cotton candy clouds that trapped all the people in town. Driving down felt like reentering civilization in a sense but it was also nice to come back to the cozy, grey sweater weather that I love so much. The rest of the surprisingly eventful night consisted of sushi, a local concert at Velvet Jones, and eventually, the comfort of my own bed!

Thanks for reading,

Maddy

all photos taken by Maddy Rotman

 

THROWBACK THURSDAY: SUMMER MUNCHING

Hey there foodies!

Summer. Every teenager’s favorite time of the year. With the stress of high school finals and AP tests becoming all to real, I’m starting to drive myself crazy. As I stayed home sick today, I decided to take a peak at some of my summer photos to remind myself that although these next two months will be hectic, the three months that follow them will be the best three of the year.  Today’s post is in honor of throwback thursday and a look back at one of my favorite summer dinners.

June 16th, 2013: After going on a beautiful afternoon hike in the canyons of the Santa Barbara riviera, my friends and I wound up downtown with slim wallets and big appetites. We decided to go to what is now one of our favorite burger joints, Eureka!. At the time, this exciting new restaurant was only a couple weeks old and I’m pretty sure these pictures were from my first time trying it (now, we’re considered locals there). Eureka! is praised for their “gourmet” burgers  composed of incredible home made buns, fresh vegetables, and adventurous aiolis. My personal favorite is the Napa Burger which is topped with an oven roasted Roma tomato marinated in olive oil and vinegar, pesto aioli, havarti cheese, fried pancetta, and arugula. The cinnamon and honey sweet potato fries make an unbelievable side to the Napa, or really any burger for that matter! The combo of unique food and a super cool New York City loft-type interior make Eureka a definite favorite among Santa Barbara locals. Swing by and give it a try!

Bon Appetit,

Maddy

Sophie, Ava, and I on one of our favorite hikes

all photos taken by Maddy Rotman

OUTSIDE LANDS

Helllllooo!

Last August, my friends and I got to go to Outside Lands, a music festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. For starters, this was one of the best weekends of my life. Whether I was in a mosh pit, under a shady tree, or even in a hippy yurt drinking tea while a Brazilian man serenaded me with his guitar and stories of his times as a teenager, (yes that actually happened) I was radiating pure joy. As if the incredible music, gorgeous setting, and high energy of all the concert-goers wasn’t enough, something else that didn’t fail to impress me was the FOOD. The endless rows of food vendors collectively offered every type of food you can imagine! If I’m remembering correctly, I consumed tacos, mac and cheese, and pad thai all in the same day at one point. (Not the healthiest option, but with all the walking and dancing you do throughout the day, its okay to treatcha’self)

Have I mentioned the chocolate forest yet? CHOCOLATE. FOREST. PEOPLE. No, this was not the name of one of the food trucks. There was literally a section of the park’s forest closed off and dedicated to chocolate vendors called “Choco Lands” which was basically a fairytale. I don’t know if I cried more while seeing Paul McCartney perform or after I ate a four pound peanut butter cup. Regardless, its fair to say I really enjoyed the food at Outside Lands.

Thanks for reading!

Maddy

all photos taken by Maddy Rotman