Sisterly love

My sister came to visit this weekend so Kyle and I did our best to show off Santa Monica in all it’s glory.  The weather wasn’t cooperating, but despite the misty cloud cover, it was a weekend packed with fun.

Friday morning we hiked to Inspiration Point in Will Roger’s State Park.  By the time we got back it was lunch time and Huckleberry was calling our names.

Laura has heard me rave about Huckleberry so many times, it was an obvious choice for lunch.

First we split the white bean dip with a slice of fresh bread.  Generous portions much?  That’s no pansy a$$ side dish, that’s a dinner sized plate full.

Obviously the amount of bean dip we got was a delightful surprise, however, the resulting ratio of bread to dip was hardly satisfactory for such carb lovers.  We remedied the sitch by also getting a ciabatta roll (the more vehicles to get bean dip into our mouths, the better).

Huckleberry doesn’t mess around with their bread.  The shiz is legit.

We also split the white bean & albacore tuna salad.

I guess we were in the mood for white beans?  The salad also had spinach, arugula, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, green beans, capers, red onions & a red wine vinaigrette.

We both agreed ‘twas quite tasty.

After lunch we strolled to the Promenade for some shopping and a movie.  I got jeggings (a ridiculous name that I can’t stop saying) and we saw Easy A (which was good-ish).

By the time Kyle got home from school Laura and I were showered, dolled up, and ready for happy hour.

We started with a round of drinks at The Library Alehouse.  They have an incredible selection of seasonal ales on tap, so I went with the fall theme.

Is there anything that screams autumn more than pumpkin beer?  Not a chance.  Turns out the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale was one of the tastiest brews to ever meet my lips.  Not an exaggeration.  Everyone who tried my beer wound up ordering it themselves later in the night…including myself again (and many times over).

Eventually we were seated for dinner, but the boozing continued throughout.

Salmon salad.

Soft tacos (hold the queso).

Jerk chicken.

In no time at all both our tab and group size had doubled…meaning it was time to take the show on the road to the next bar.

Please take note of the creeper in the back.  Odd.

So, yeah.  We made it home before the sun was up, but the next morning wasn’t pretty.

I wanted a soy misto the size of my head…I settled for a grande.

We met up with some friends and browsed the farmer’s market…

It’s hard to leave without pounds of produce, but since I was just at the farmer’s market a few days before, I didn’t have to much on my grocery list.

My sister, on the other hand, was on a mission for honey sticks.  She’s obsessed.

I’m going to completely embarrass her by sharing her dirty little secret with you all: she was a squeeze pop addict.  I’m not joking when I say she went through multiple tubes of the stuff (which is basically corn syrup with red food coloring) a week in her youth.  Sick.

Honey sticks are like the more classy mature natural (?) version of squeeze pops (although still a bit bizarre to suck down in sequence).

She was in heaven.

While she nursed her sugar high, I started planning my garden balcony potted plants.

I only have a small balcony which already houses our BBQ, so I’m trying to figure out which veggies or herbs I can grow with such limited space.  Ideas?  Advice?  Any help is appreciated.  I may want a large pot to put a few things in, but I also have a planter along the ledge which could potentially hold a row of herbs.  I’m overwhelmed because I want to grow everything I see.

For lunch we headed to Blue Plate.  In case you missed the last time I went here, it was epic and I still knew there were about 6 things on the menu that I wanted to try.

I went back and forth 483,290 times trying to decide what to get.  Too many delicious options!!!  I really wanted the falafel burger (again), but since I got it last time, I forced myself to branch out.  In the end I went with the garden burger salad (aka a veggie burger over mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, sprouts, and avocado, topped with a sesame ginger vinaigrette).

The burger was okay, but nothing I’d oooh and ahhh over like my last falafel meal.  I cleaned my plate bowl though (as if that says anything).

My sister and her friend both ordered the falafel burger with hummus, avocado and the works.

Here’s a view of the goods without the bun on top.

And then there was the house roasted turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and turkey bacon added.

And Kyle’s turkey burger.  He actually asked for no fries, sub fruit, but they messed up the order and when he saw the fries he suddenly wasn’t so interested in correcting the mistake.  Kyle said the burger was good, but wasn’t extraordinary.  I have to agree.  If a restaurant has burgers on the menu, there should be some kind of special sauce or ingredient that makes it stand out so it’s better than your average burger.

I almost forgot about the sweet potato fries.  Heaven forbid.

We all left with our bellies full, so it was a success all around.

The afternoon was a mix of productivity and recovery.  Saturday was another big night for us, but I will have to continue the post on it tomorrow because right now my head needs a pillow under it, stat.