4th of July recap

I feel like I haven’t truly sat down in ages and told you what we’ve been up to. I’d like to think the lack of blogging meant that I’ve been having the best ol’ time, with not much computer time, and that I have.

Pop on my red and white outfit for Canada Day, then a few days later add a bit of blue to the outfit and you have my Independence Day outfit. Celebrating our second Fourth of July here in America was pretty wicked, I have to admit. I ended up doing a 4th of July vlog on my YouTube channel and in case you weren’t aware I upload them every Monday and Wednesday!

Mazda-CX-5For the week I am reviewing the Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV and so we took full advantage of my husband having a four day weekend and using the review-car’s mileage to explore California a bit more, with just the two of us in tow.

So, let’s play catch-up on our weekend together. It’s been a long time since we haven’t had visitors on a holiday/vacation day for my husband, so it was really nice to be able to spend the time with him, solo.

Santa-Cruz-Mazda-CX5On Thursday, the Mazda CX-5 was delivered right before lunch and we immediately hit the road just moments after having the keys handed over to me.

Six-Flags-Vallejo

Six-Flags-USA

Six-Flags-palm-treesI drove us both up north to Vallejo to go to the Six Flags amusement park to ride roller coasters until we got ill. Seriously, I cannot handle it any more. It’s not even the fact we went on spinny rides, because we totally didn’t. I think my stomach simply can’t handle the cork screws in some of the rides. Needless to say, I definitely had to sit down for a good half hour at one point to let things settle. Call me stubborn, but I didn’t let a little nausea stop me from havin’ a good time at the amusement park! I also didn’t realize Six Flags is somewhat of a zoo (literally speaking) because we saw penguins – they are tiny little fella’s, and some stinkin’ cute too man.

As per usual, a good recovery food after a long day at the amusement park, calls for a feed at McDonalds. Hooboy! So tasty.

Vallejo-Six-FlagsFriday morning my husband had a cycling-date set up with a friend of his in Santa Cruz bright and early in the morning.

Alfie-smilingRather than him getting up at 6am to bike down there, I offered him a ride. Alfie came along with us this time, since I wanted to take some photos of the new vehicle I was in for the week, and of course stop at the Mitchell’s Cove Beach, the off leash dog beach again.

Mitchell-Cove-Beach-surfAdmittedly, Alfie is getting pretty comfortable with being on this beach as we’ve got a number of times already (see the YouTube video of us, our first time visiting), so he was prancing and marching about bossing all the humans and dogs around. I’m not sure if people were fed up with him barking, but I certainly wasn’t havin’ him bark the entire time, so I ventured off into a more quiet area of the beach and let him calm his nerves.

Alfie-getting-toes-wetSuch beautiful views! I love this place.

Santa-Clara-UniversitySince my husband was going to be in the Santa Cruz area biking for a good 6+ hours and didn’t require a ride home, I drove back up to Santa Clara area and decided to check out the Santa Clara University campus for the first time. I’ve driven past the school many times, but haven’t stepped foot on their grounds.

Mazda-at-Santa-Clara-Uni

Santa-Clara-Uni-bikesSo what better time to explore, than on a holiday weekend when school is out and there isn’t much foot traffic. You can see more photos of the campus in my last Pomeranian Friday post.

Palm

On 4th of July I then drove us to San Francisco to check out the Madame Tussauds wax museum and then watching the foggy fireworks, we popped into Boudin to warm up our bodies. Because what a chilly day you guys! Smooch-George-Clooney

Mark-Zuckerberg-wax

Looking-at-ObamaI feel like San Francisco in July can be awfully chilly if you’re not dressed for the weather. Think, Newfoundland weather forecast — you can expect any type of weather any time of day, and that’s the same with The City.

ETHave you guys ever been to a wax museum? My husband hadn’t before this trip, and I remember going to the London England one back in 1998, but the only wax figures I remember spotting was the Beatles, I suppose — it’s that long ago. But it was really fantastic checking out this one. I am going to take a while guess and presume that they rotate their wax statues to keep people coming back. Because, when I searched the #MTSFSelfie hashtag on Instagram, the beatles, and other Lady Gaga statues were there too – that I didn’t end up seeing. So I’ll definitely have to go back a second time in a year or two, to see what else they have on display!

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Santa Clara University // POM Friday

Santa-Clara-headerWe never stop exploring. I think that’s what keeps me excited about living here in California. There is just so much to see, and do — and luckily most everything seems to be quite dog friendly.

Santa-Clara-Uni-fountainAlfie is our little buddy (his name is NOT buddy for those leaving comments haha!) and we take him almost every adventure we go on. This time, I explored the Santa Clara University campus on the 4th of July weekend while my husband cycled down in Santa Cruz.

Walkways-in-Santa-Clara-UniConsidering it was a long weekend, add in the fact it’s summer break and you have a secluded almost eerie feeling University campus. I left Alfie off the leash for a bit of it, since it was all walk-ways, no roads, and zero pedestrian traffic. Perfect time to snap some shots!

Santa-Clara-Uni-purple-flow

Alumni-Terrace

Santa-Clara-Uni-Library

School-of-Law-Santa-Clara

PalmI’m not entirely sure what Santa Clara University is known for, but I’m going to guess Law School, and Engineering.

Alfie-and-flowersPretty sure Alfie loves a bit of freedom from time to time, so being off leash he’s a little happy boy! Look at him sitting up on that bench like he owns the place. Ha!

Santa-Clara-Uni-palmtrees

Alfie-smiling

Alfie-running-to-me

Mission-Santa-Clara-doorsIf it wasn’t such a scorcher of a day, I’d spend a little more time here. All we could both bear was about 30 minutes and my face was sweating, and Alfie’s tongue was half way down to the ground. Lil’ fella needed to head home and get some water.

Santa-Clara-Uni-flowers

Santa-Clara-church-uni

Uni-Santa-Clara-churchAlfie just taking in the views! Is it a dogs life, or what.

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I’ll let the rest of the photos do the talking. Hope you enjoyed this week’s Pomeranian Friday. I try to post about Alfie’s adventures once a week. But sometimes we run out of time, or don’t go anywhere in particular. But clearly this day was one to be captured — and I took an abundance of photos. Yay!

Santa-Clara-Uni-sculptures

Uni-of-Santa-Clara

SCU

Mazda-at-Santa-Clara-Uni

Mission-Santa-Clara

Horse-statueI’m going to take a wild guess and assume that the sign “Do not climb. Under video surveillance” was put there for good reason. I can imagine University students being a little tipsy and gettin’ up and giv’ner on the horse. Ya knows now.

Santa-Clara-UniProbably one of my favourite photos of Alfie, of all time.

Bike-racks

Palm-trees-at-SCU

Full-tiltHe loves the “Alfie — COME!” command. Look at that smile as he runs to me full belt.

Fountain-Santa-Clara-UniverBeautiful water feature with those huge palm trees in the back. Perfection man.

Santa-Clara-University

Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053

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Exploring Coffee Shops: Blue Bottle

Not all coffee shops are created equal, naturally so. I had a fine time hanging out with Megan at Blue Bottle at the Mint Plaza in San Francisco when she lived here. The Mint Plaza location is the only Blue Bottle cafe that serves a full food menu. These photos are from back in April but I still wanted to share the post. I’m pretty much obsessed with Blue Bottle Coffee now, so much so, I scoped out another Blue Bottle location closer to me in Palo Alto. The staff were incredibly sweet with us, and told us a couple of their favourite (and popular) drinks to order.

It was completely packed when we went in there and it’s a small coffee shop to begin with, but we had an awesome time chatting about makeup, and life in general. I miss my bud!

Onto the photos :)

Nancy-Megan

Nancy-ordering-at-Bluebottl

Blue-Bottle-3-Africans

Nancy-with-iced-coffee

Ice-at-BlueBottle

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Blue-Bottle-iced

Blue-Bottle

Nancy-Megan-BlueBottle

Blue-Bottle-coffee

Tiny-cafe-at-Blue-Bottle

Blue-Bottle-Mint-Plaza

Blue-Bottle-New-Orleans

Blue Bottle Coffee
Mint Plaza Cafe
66 Mint Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94103

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