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Getting to Channel Islands National Park

A few weeks now removed from our wedding and I’m realizing I haven’t posted anything on this blog about our wedding…so that will be the next post when I get to it.

Kaycee and I just got back from a trip to Mexico for my sister’s wedding and a Hawaii trip planned this summer with Kaycee’s extended family so we were a little hesitant to plan a honeymoon trip so we decided that Channel Islands National Park would be a good little weekend getaway.

We drove up the day before our trip to the islands to stay in Oxnard the night before. Buena Park to Oxnard is about a two hour drive which I slept for the last 30 minutes. Zzzzzzzz!

The reason we came up a day early is because check-in for the boat ride is 7:15 AM which would have meant we would have had to leave at 5:15 AM the day of to make it. Would rather not do that if we didn’t have to.

The boat tour was through Islands Packers which as far as I know is the only service that goes to the islands. I believe there were three boats that were each going to different islands and there were a few returns boat rides from the island back to the main land.

Kaycee and I went to the island on Memorial Day 2019 and if you remember that Memorial Day, it was windy and the seas were rough. About five minutes into our boat ride, people started headed towards the back off the boat, where Kaycee and I were sitting, because they were feeling queasy. If you get sick on boats or motion sickness in cars, just know it could be a rough ride. The Island Packers folks will warn you.

Once you get to the park you are pretty much free to roam as you would like. Our boat ride back that same day was at 4 PM so we didn’t venture too far off.

We first headed to Cavern Point which is probably about .5 mile away from Scorpion Ranch (where the boat drops you off). After that we ventured to Potato Harbor which is about an additional 1.5 miles away.

The winds were crazy all day and eventually got really annoying so we headed back towards Scorpion Ranch, where we were originally dropped off…the wind was just as bad there.  We spent the rest of the afternoon going to the visitor center, laying on the beach and watched the island foxes roam around until are return boat arrived and we headed home. 

Lot’s of fun and National Park number 16 for Kaycee and myself!

 

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Vegas, Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon and Back to CA – All Within 36 Hours

It started with an early morning flight out of Long Beach to Vegas.

Kevin, Kaycee and Elliott

Land in Vegas and pack 7 of us into a rental van.

Where to next? Dutch Bros Coffee of course! With a stop at Filipito’s Mexican Restaurant as well.

Then onward toward the Grand Canyon, about a 4 hour drive. Walk around the South Rim a little then get back into the van.

  • Kevin, Elliott, Kaycee, Jo Ann, Ty, Trent & Krystal

Next a two hour drive to Page, Arizona where Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon are.

Drive on some sketchy highways with not a car in sight in any direction.

When we got to Page, we stopped at a Denny’s for dinner. Denny’s is the type of restaurant that you don’t plan to go to, you just end up there. This case was no different.

The Denny’s was a sad scene. No one at the front to greet us and maybe took 3 or 4 minutes for someone to come by and seat us. Soft elevator music setting the scene. Half the restaurant closed off and a few quite patrons seated on the other half. One waitress taking care of all the tables.

I digress.

We get to our hotel and and get to bed as we have a semi early morning to make sure we can get on the road early enough to get back to Vegas to catch our flight.

The first stop is Horseshoe Bend which you can walk right up to and there’s not cost or entrance fee which I believe we heard will be changing in the future.

  • Horseshoe Bend
  • Kaycee and Elliott @ Horseshoe Bend

Then after that we had a guided tour by Ken’s Tours through Antelope Valley.

Then another 4 hours back to Vegas to catch a flight home and make it back in the evening, completing our 36 hour trip.

Really an awesome experience and especially to do it with Kaycee’s parents, brothers and soon to be sister-in-law.

Until next time!

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Sabrosada Breakfast Burrito Review – A Damn Good Burrito

Sabrosada Fresh Mexican Food, 12500 Beach Blvd, Stanton, CA 90680

Kaycee’s side of her extended family always gets together at her Unlce Bob’s in Stanton off of Beach Blvd. Each time we drive to his house, we have to pass by Sabrosada Fresh Mexican Food which is on the corner of Beach and Lampson.

We’ve stopped at Sabrosada in the past before dropping off Kaycee’s car at the mechanic close by. Kaycee’s car needed to go back into the shop, so we decided to head over to Sabrosada again (darn) and this time I would be doing a breakfast burrito video review.

Their breakfast burrito is a traditional one with eggs, cheese, potatoes, ham and bacon and it is delicious. Came out piping hot and not too greasy like some of my more recent breakfast burrito reviews. Above average size and definitely filling.

Sabrosada also has this really good cucumber salsa that Kaycee and I love. If anyone is ever going there, we always tell them to pick up some extra cucumber salsa.

Overall, I give this burrito a 4 out of 5 burritos simply because I want to leave room for something to top it.

I think we are going to make it a thing to stop by Sabrosada before we take Kaycee’s car on weekend mornings over to the mechanic in future. Woohoo!

Until next time!

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Felipito’s Breakfast Burrito Review – Not As Good As I Remember

Felipito’s Mexican Food, 1325 E Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89119

Order: Breakfast Burrito with Ham, Egg, Cheese, Salsa.

This was my third time to Felipito’s in the last 2 years. Every time Kaycee and I are in the Vegas area we make sure to pit stop at Dutch Bros coffee then we head over to Felipito’s for breakfast.

The past two times, from what I can remember, the breakfast burritos were amazing. Kaycee would get the huevos rancheros.

We had been talking it up to Kaycee’s family ever since we had the idea of doing a family trip to the Grand Canyon. I think we may have built up the hype a bit too much.

Don’t get me wrong, the ham breakfast burrito was delicious but it was also very greasy. I felt like I had grease dripping from my chin after it and that feeling stuck with me the rest of the day.

Kaycee’s family all seemed to enjoy the breakfast burritos we scarfed down in the car driving to the Grand Canyon so I think it was a successful pit stop.

Also, next time Kaycee and I are in the Vegas area, you can bet that we will continue to go to Felipito’s for breakfast burritos. It’s a tradition at this point.

Until next time!

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Jason Aldean at the Five Points Amphitheater

Jason Aldean returned to Southern California after having to cancel his concert the year before. 

Kaycee and I had tickets to see Jason Aldean in 2017, which happened to be a week after the Las Vegas shootings happened.  With that show being cancelled, as soon as he announced that he would be back in the area, we jumped on the tickets. 

Luaren Alaina and Luke Combs opened for Jason Aldean and they both did a great job. This was actually the second time in the last year Kaycee and I had seen Luke Combs. The other time being at the UCI Bren Events Center.

Aldean played all his great hits including Big Green Tractor, Dirt Road Anthem, Drowns The Whiskey and more.

He also played a song near and dear to my heart, Fly Over States. This was my anthem when I was playing baseball at Valparaiso University in Indiana. My time out there gave me an appreciation for a part of the country that largely is viewed as just a fly over state. Part of the lyrics go…

“They’ve never drove through Indiana,
Met the men who plowed that earth,
Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me,…”

Kaycee and I had a great time and would love to go see him again. He’s my favorite country artist. 

Until next time!

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Sequoia National Park – Round Two

The end of the summer of 2018 brought with it another trip to Sequoia National Park with Trent, Krystal, Ty and some of Kaycee’s friends.

In our classic Kaycee and Elliott fashion we got out our tiny house doors early on a Friday  morning (6 AM) to try and beat the traffic through LA to get to Sequoia in a decent time. We arrived to our campsite at Lodgepole at about 11 AM so mission accomplished.

General Sherman

Day 1 consisted of a hike through Congress Trail which you can find near General Sherman. While on the trail we spotted some deer grazing on some light green moss growing on a fallen tree. For dinner, Kaycee’s friend, Lauren, cooked up some mighty fine Korean BBQ tacos.

Day 2 consisted of a hike up Little Baldy trail which is about 3.4 miles round trip with about 700 ft. of elevation gained. At the end of the trail there’s a great vantage point where you can look out to all the surrounding trees and mountains.

Little Baldy Trail

When we got back to camp, we all enjoyed wraps and chips for lunch. Once the protein comes out, the bees all come out to get a bit of your lunch. Pretty annoying!

Ty, Krystal and Trent

Elliott and Kaycee on Little Baldy Trail

Later on the second day, the rest of the group went to go see General Sherman and walk around some of the trails in that area.

Since Kaycee and I had already seen all that the day before we decided to adventure around other spots in the park that we missed our first trip like the Tunnel Log and the fallen tree.

Side Note: Throughout the entire trip, we heard a lot of foreign languages. Many people speaking French and German.

Elliott at Tunnel Log

Day three we cleaned up our campsite and headed back to reality. I ended up with zero bug bites this Sequoia trip which is about 30 less than our first trip.

Can’t wait to go back again!

Until next time!

Kaycee and Elliott at the base of a Fallen Sequoia

Kaycee the Tree-Hugger

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Pepe’s Breakfast Burrito Review – All Hat, No Cattle

Pepe’s Finest Mexican Food
821 N. Placentia Avenue, Fullerton, CA 92831

Order: Breakfast Burrito w/Eggs, Papas, Cheese, Bacon, Beans & Fresh Salsa or Green Chili Pork Sauce.

This Pepe’s breakfast burrito had to be one of the most anticipated burritos I’ve ever eaten in my life.

For the past 4 or 5 years I had heard nothing but good things about it from both my brother and sister. Claims that the burrito was the size a small baby (which is true). One of the most scrumptious and satisfying burritos out there, so they say. The hype had been built…

But sadly…

the Pepe’s breakfast burrito did NOT meet that hype.

A decent burrito but without a whole lot of flavor.

When the burrito entered my mouth, it was just meh. Underwhelming.

Not even the storied green chili pork sauce could have salvaged the meh of this burrito.

Another note of emphasis, the burrito was little wet and messy for my liking. The culprit, I believe, being the refried beans which must have also contributed to the bland tasting nature of this burrito.

It saddens me to report this as I hoped Pepe’s would be a staple in my breakfast burrito circuit but I must speak what I feel in my heart to be true.

Until next time!

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Ed Sheeran at the Rose Bowl

The Ed Sheeran concert finally arrived!!

Christmas of 2017, I bought Kaycee tickets to go see Ed Sheeran and it seemed like it was so far in the distance but it finally came and now gone.

We had a great time!!

We started the evening off in search of tacos around Old Town Pasadena. It was pretty warm out so we settled for first restaurant with inexpensive tacos and air conditioning. By the way, we also found parking for just $6 for the night (Colorado and South Pasadena Avenue) as opposed to what would have been $40 at the Rose Bowl.

Then we caught the bus to the stadium, however there was such a long line for the bus that it took about 45 minutes just to get on the bus.

When we got to the stadium, the first things we saw as we entered was Dip N Dots so we had to get some because Kaycee had been spotting Dip N Dots the last few weeks at the Airport and at the Seattle Mariners game but she had previously passed.

We then headed up to our seats (the farthest row up against the cement wall) and made it just before Snow Patrol opened up. Our seats made for a nice back support.

Next was Ed Sheeran. He is a fantastic entertainer and uses a foot pedal called a loopty loop or something like that and he is able to record different chords and loop play them so that way he can layer different live sounds. He was a one man show. It was pretty impressive the coordination and layering of all the different sounds he can create with his guitar and voice.

We took off before the end of the last song to catch the bus so we weren’t able to see his encore of Shape of You.

Overall really fun time despite the heat and the problems getting on the bus to the concert.

Would definitely recommend seeing Ed Sheeran even if you aren’t a huge fan, still very entertaining!