8.21.2011

Lost Coast

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You may be familiar with the Lost Coast Brewery? NO? Well, shame on you. It's in Eureka, CA, which if you don't know where that is, is in Humboldt County, yes the one of the legendary weed, and also the home of CSU, Humboldt. Also, another random factoid: do you remember the scene in Return of the Jedi when they are in the forest with the Ewoks? That is Fern Canyon, and it too is in Humboldt County. And it is gorgeous!

The reason I picked this as my beer of choice for Kim's blog hop is that, as you may know, I went home last weekend/week. So my this weeks Look What I Did Last Week (<----- click here for my older beers and posts) has a lot of California in it. So, get your beer in hand and get comfortable!

The big event and reason I went to CA was...this little girl's 1st birthday! How exciting! 
She is my best friend's daughter, aka, my neice. Can't you see the resemblance?


In honor of her birthday, my friend's MIL wanted to throw her a big party. With hundreds of people, and decorations and favors and food and...(you are probably wondering WHY, but this my friend is another story in itself!)

So we made 300 cake pops. No joke. 
You can find the recipe HERE


We had a few casualties. What do you expect? The poor thing was like, "Nobody sees me as an individual! They just want to use me! Don't they see I am more than just a sweet little ball of strawberry? Cake pops have feelings too! There is nothing left for me in this life!" 

Plop.


 Just a very tiny part of our 300 pop assembly line. A.Very.Small.Part. (it took 3-6 of us 12-14 hours to make all 300, roll them, dip them, sprinkle them, wrap them, tie them and label them). 


Then I got up really early  the next morning and snuck out for a (very awesome 6 mile, 60 degree) run before anyone could make me wrap another cake pop (or dip. or sprinkle. or roll. or.....PLOP!) 
But they found me. And made me start helping with the decorations.

See those small balloons? I tied all those balloons. I am not exaggerating. 20 tables, 3 balloons each (the big ones, praise the lord, were self closing) plus extras for the porch and the gift table etc. My fingers were sore for days. I could barely open a beer. Kidding. This was a booze free party - I am not sure why...is there something wrong with an alcohol fueled 1 yr old birthday party?


Then I went home for a couple of days so I could get a vacation from the party! I did not take these while driving. Okay, maybe I did.



I took advantage of my favorite time of year at home and one of my favorite fruits by picking some blackberries (YUMMY! pick one, eat one, pick one, eat two...etc) and making blackberry cobbler! The recipe will be posted later this week.

(ps I can't believe I paid $3 for a tiny tub of these at the farmers market. If only they were ripe every time I went home!)



I went to visit my oldest friend. Not oldest like she's 100 years old, but the one I have known the longest. Remember this post about my first day of school -- she's the one with the Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox. I was so jealous of that box. It was metal and her mom gave her way cooler things in her matching thermos. Way. Cooler. Now she's a mom and will soon be packing a way cool lunch for her little boy.

I cut off her head. Hehe. It's all about the kids.
I ate so many straight-from-the-garden items. I was in heaven! 
Grape Tomatoes -- I eat them like candy!

Crenshaw Melon

Yellow Zucchini

I forgot what this one is called. Weird flower shaped squash.

 I took advantage of the nice cool weather and ran up some hills. 
You can read more about that HERE.

Yes, that is right! And it says 60! Wonderful!



I hung out with my Mom, drinking coffee and waching....

My favorite coffee cup
....blue-jays eat the cat food. I was seriously only about 2 feet from him. Cheeky little...


 I miss home already!

Dog Rock


Don't worry California. I will be back soon! 

 How was your week? What did you get up to? 
Are you enjoying the last of your summers? 

This post is part of these hops:

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9 comments:

  1. Mmmmm....downtown brown...looks like a GREAT week!!!

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  2. Awesome blog! I have never been to Eureka, but have been to Mendocino (legendary weed there too, no? LOL) when we went abalone diving with friends, and have also camped up there as well. I love local brews but not a fan of the darker ones. Sounds like a fun trip! You are a trooper for helping w/the balloons!

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  3. Wow! That was some 1st birthday bash. I think she has a high bar to try to clear after having her own Strawberry Shortcake lunch box AND thermos as a child. That is why this party was so great! And what a good friend you are for helping.

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  4. So that sounds like QUITE a party, to need so many cake pops!

    My mil made cake pops for my baby's birthday party last month... and then drove all of five minutes from her house to mine in the 110 degree heat, and nearly a third of the poor pops melted and slid down their little sticks. It was very sad!

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  5. I love these weekly wrap up photo posts. So much fun! And what a great week.

    I totally want some squash now...

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  6. Holy cannasta, that is quite the birthday party. Ay yi yi. Nice work on the cake pops!!

    I had a great weekend. My aunt & uncle came over on Friday night and we enjoyed wine & hummus+veggies on my balcony and then walked to an awesome restaurant for dinner (I would take you there in Sept if we had more time! It was freaking good). Sat night I went to the National Gymnastics Comp. Our seats were so awesome, we were on tv!! Sunday was a day of errands, finished off with some furniture assembly, which you know all about!

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  7. Awesome blog you have here... and your job sounds incredible :) How amazing that you get to travel and help people :)

    Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'm your newest follower

    ~Tammy
    www.bayparkdream.blogspot.com

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  8. But what about that beer? Is it bottom fermented? What kind of hops is in it? Is it available outside of Calif? Is it malty?

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  9. There truly is no place like home. Yours looks amazing!

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