Saturday in Long Beach...

I just finished eating some Frosted Mini Wheats cereal. Yuum! It's been awhile since I've eaten cereal. As I was eating, I noticed that my milk tasted kind of different. So I looked @ the container and my milk is rBST-free! I think that's probably one of the first times I have ever had milk that is hormone free. lol. How sad is that? I was reading an article last night that was talking about scary food facts and it discussed milk and how most milk is now filled with hormones that cause cancer. It's scary really how we don't even know what chemicals we're putting into our bodies. Here's the link to the article if you want to check it out:  http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/9-scariest-food-facts.  I'm all for buying organic food, but it just gets so darn expensive and organic doesn't always mean healthy. With some products it's not really necessary to buy organic, yet with some things it's beneficial. Why must everything be so complicated? haha  Before I met Diego, I didn't even think about things like this. haha. I've definitely become more aware over the past few years. I used to guzzle diet pops by the canful, but then he started talking about the fake sugar and how it is believed to cause cancer and so now it's very rare that i drink anything diet. And I've realized that diet does not always equal healthy. Anyways, I could go on and on about this topic, but maybe some other time.

So I realize that until now, my blog entries have mainly just been about the actual happenings in my life.  One of my goals of this blog is to stay in touch with my Indiana folks <3 but I also want to write about other things: talk about current events, share my opinions on different matters, talk about social issues, share cooking/baking experiences, review different local attractions....just a  hodge podge of different topics. So you never know what I might talk about here. hehe. Speaking of Hodge Podge, did anyone watch the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network last night? Over the past year, I have developed a strong interest in food trucks and LA is the perfect place to be because they have tons and tons of food trucks! I've been tossing around the idea of trying to open a food truck sometime in the future, but we'll see what happens.

Well, I suppose I should review my weekend.  On Friday, we didn't really do anything, just kind of chillaxed @ the apartment. We had talked about going to see a movie, but I was afraid that Diego would fall asleep. He tends to do that if we see a movie during a week night. haha. :P  So Saturday:  We went over to the local YMCA to check out their gym equipment. We got a brief tour and it looked okay, they did have a lot of equipment, but it was squeezed into a pretty small space.  I'm not really sure what to think about it. It looks like it's going to cost $40 some per month for one person or $72 for the family plan, which honestly I think is a bit pricey.  Plus, there is a $130 charge up front , which I think is ridiculous.  I'm schedule for a free consultation with a trainer on Wednesday, but i dunno.  I don't know if I'm overly comfortable going to see a trainer @ this point, the idea makes me kind of nervous, but we'll see.  I had thought that the Y was the only real gym option around here, but I came across another gym, Bally Total Fitness.  I signed up online for a 7 day pass, so I might go check it out sometime today or tomorrow.  I haven't seen the facilities quite yet, but it's sounding a little more appealing.  There is also a Curves here, but I'm wanting a place where I can also do cardio like the elliptical, treadmill, etc.  So that kind of cancels out Curves unfortunately. 

Anyways, so after we left the Y, we headed over to Long Beach to go see a movie.  A bunch of D's siblings met us over there, but they wanted to see a different movie, so we kind of parted ways. We got there around 2:30ish, but our movie didn't start until 3:50 so we walked around the mall with D's mom for a little bit. Then she went over to the bookstore while we went to watch our movie, "The Help" which was sooooo good by the way! I highly recommend it and give it an 'A' for sure! :) Diego even enjoyed it, which is a rarity lol.

Silvia, Joe, and Berenice

Alicia, Larry, Jacob, and Jessie.

The inside...they have like 26 different screens. haha

Diego and his mom

Me with his mom

The mall

The outside of the theater

When we got out of the movie all of his siblings had left except for Larry and his gf, Alicia.  They took us to this amazing pizza parlor in LB, called Millana's Pizzeria.  They serve New York style pizza and it is to die for! The ingredients are fresh and the pizzas taste amazing! We ordered two different pizzas based upon Larry's recommendations (he loves this place haha).  We got the White pizza which had olive oil, garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, and spinach.  We also got the Sheepshead Bay which had sauce, mozarella, meatballs, ricotta, and basil.  They were both amazing.  While we were at the restaurant, my favorite was the sheepshead, but while eating the leftovers at home I realized that I really liked the white pizza. I had never had ricotta cheese on a pizza before, but it was AMAZING! I will definitely be going back there! haha They put the pizzas up on these pizza stands, which totally made the pizza experience! The pizzas are so gigantic that they would never fit on the table, so it's actually quite smart.  I had never seen pizza stands like this before, it was kind of cool.

The front counter, where you order!

Waiting patiently for the pizzas...

Can't wait to dig in! Yummy!

After our pizza, we decided to go walk around the Shoreline Village @ Rainbow Harbor by the water in Long Beach.  There was a jazz festival going on so it was extremely busy, but at least we got to listen to some amazing music (for free! ) hehe.  We walked around and looked at a bunch of different shops.  D and I got a frozen chocolate covered banana with peanuts, which was absolutely amazing! I'd been on a frozen banana kick for about a month before I left Indiana, and it had been like 3 wks since I'd had one! I will definitely be going back to get another sometime soon! :)

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These really pretty earring that were in the shops! I'm thinking about going back to buy some eventually...

Larry the Pirate!

Larry doesn't like having his picture taken so we're lucky we got this one!

Diego isn't quite as convincing as a pirate :P

Some really pretty artwork that I saw in one of the shops...it was pretty pricey though. $35-45 for one of these little paintings.

The chocolate shop! Everything looked delicious!

Me with my banana. I was so excited! hehe

Diego and Larry just hanging out

Diego wanted me to try some chili covered worms...yeah right!

Standing in front of this really nice restaurant @ the end of the boardwalk

Then we walked over by the docks. There were lots of pricey yachts parked along the water. There was also a good view of the Queen Mary, which is this historic ocean liner that is permanently docked in Long Beach.  I think you can take tours and maybe even spend the night on the ship. Here's the link to the website: http://www.queenmary.com/ It definitely looks pretty interesting.  I'll probably try to take mom and dad there when they come visit!

The Queen Mary

Me, holding my choc banana lol, posing in front of the Queen Mary

Alicia and Larry

Captain Diego

The Shoreline Village

Alicia and Larry posing in front of the yachts

This amazing car that was parked @ the village

So Sunday was kind of a waste. We slept in. We were going to go to the afternoon service @ some church in Mid Whilshire LA, but we watched a few min of the online service and didn't really care for it. So we ended up just watching a sermon from Pastor Jeff (LCC in Laffy)

Diego wanted to work on organizing his shop, so I went down and tried to help him a bit, but honestly it is extremely overwhelming. The place is a disaster! It was like that when D started this job. there are just odds and ends thrown in these two big rooms. Plus, the boss lady stores some of her things in there. So it's just a mess. lol. Here is what it looks like:

Well, that's all for now folks! Happy Monday! :)