Day 1

*Side note: There were more than a few challenges to "healthy eating" on this trip. I was uncommonly sick on the plane and pretty much every time I was in a car. Luckily I packed some candied ginger to settle my stomach. My "Day 1 breakfast" was a baggie full of uncrystallized candied ginger and a plain croissant a few hours after landing.

Day 1


Departed Logan Airport (Boston) @ 7:45 a.m.
Arrived at LAX @ 11:45 a.m.

The flight was about 6 hours, and the drive from the airport to the hotel was a little over an hour.
But it was well worth it. When we arrived at the resort, which took all of our breaths away, all worries about an upset tummy had disappeared completely! We stayed at the beautiful Terranea Oceanfront Resort (www.terranea.com)  in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. To say it was "oceanfront" is kind of an understatement.

This is the view from our room...

And from the balcony...

Hello, paradise!

First on my agenda was to get a "lay of the land" and since I was feeling particularly stiff after the long flight, I decided to take a walk around the resort and check out the gym and restaurants.

My walk to the gym was, in itself, a workout. One of the most beautiful, scenic workouts I've ever had!

By the time I got back to the hotel room, it was 5:00 (8:00 east coast time) and we were all getting hungry! Since I'd grabbed menus from every restaurant on the grounds, we perused them and decided on a laid-back dinner at this great little place called Nelsons. It's an outdoor AND indoor bar/restaurant with a cool SoCal vibe and a very agreeable menu for all three of us. Everything looked great and it was reasonably priced!

We were offered seating inside or outside.

The inside was cool and all, but...

Which do you think we went with?

Gorgeous sunset!

We were all pretty hungry but I was ready to eat my hand after my day of non-food and hour of working up a sweat outside. We got an appetizer of chips and salsa for the three of us but I pretty much destroyed it in ten minutes. I actually filled up on the chips, which I could've kicked myself for doing because ALL of the entrees looked amazing.

Mmmmm....

My mom and I are both vegetarian pescatarian, so we split the shrimp tacos, which were so good! 

I only wish I'd been able to eat more. AND a serving of those sweet potato fries!

My sister, who is definitely not a vegetarian, ordered the pulled pork sandwich with friend onions

Even I had to admit it smelled great!

I was super tempted to try the pomegranate lychee margarita, but we all stuck to water with lemon to re-hydrate, which was a good call, in hindsight. I was actually way too full for dessert too (whaaaaat?)

The three of us were pretty exhausted and jet lagged so we got into our pj's early and ordered a movie.

We decided unanimously on Water for Elephants which was a great book, but I can't really give a good review of the movie because I was sound asleep fifteen minutes in...