Taste of Europa...

We had a such a great time at last year's event we got tickets for this year!

What a great time again!  They took people's feedback and added waaaaaay more tables and places to sit which was awesome.  They also gave us a little thing to hold our wine glass!  Brilliant!  I was having issues with my little purse again (I think I had the same issue last year) so I didn't get all the photos of the food like I wanted, but I did get some!  What a great time had!  We also got a room at Carter Estate for the night which is truly one of my favorite places to stay!!

We got a little bite as we were waiting for the place to let us in.  Little wedge salad on a stick.  Good but hard to eat!

Let's do this!

Check out the wine glass holder!!

1st stop

Very earthy flavor

Stop 2 - I liked this better than Pat did

Didn't get the sign, but this was a tiger prawn on a bed of orzo with feta and arugula!  So yummy!!

Sangrias!

Fun little photo op. 

They had Flamenco Dancers this year!  So cool!

The Flamenco Guitarist.  I think he was there last year

Didn't get a pic of the food - but the little pomegranate seeds in here were divine!  A super sweet crunch to a savory dish!

A Prosciutto and Mushroom Pizza and a Sciachiatta with meat inside.  The pizza was TO DIE FOR!

Lobster Rigatoni!

They had the same dessert bar as last year.  So good!

They brought back the Eifel Tower Cream Puff thing too!

Got me some Meyer Lemon Gelato!

This was a fish dish.  Served on rice with mussels, clams, scallops and shrimp. So good! And the sweet young pretty boys gave me extra! :)

So Carter Estate always gives you a bottle of wine!  Sweet!

Fun table in the tasting room

Did a tasting at Carter Estate before we retired to the room

This time we were on the sunset side, rather than the sunrise side

Our sushi take out to get some dinner in our bellies before bed

Gorgeous

I love that Carter gives us robes to wear

Love this shot

Fire sky

The next morning we were up early of course, and took a lovely stroll around Carter.  Then hit up Europa once more for our wine pick up!

Pretty sky!

Morning!

Pick up!

This couple behind me are there EVERY TIME WE PICK UP OUR WINE.  I love it.  They come and have a glass of wine and relax outside.  I swear it's me and Pat's future.

Event left overs

 

 I wish we could have stayed all friggin week.  I just love it down there.  Even though it was too short it was a wonderful couple days away!

Trombone Shorty in LA...

 So my birthday presie this year from Pat was Trombone Shorty tickets at the Hollywood Bowl!  And now that I'm bougee (or really just old and tired) I will only see shows at the Hollywood Bowl if we stay overnight at a walking distance hotel. Because F driving in and out of there. (and no I can't shuttle either cuz of my stupid head thing) SO - we got a room at the cutest little boutique hotel!!  I wasn't familiar with it, but it popped up in my search and I want to stay there anytime I see a show at the Bowl now!  It's called The Prospect Hotel and it's adorable! All the rooms are named after old movie stars and we stayed in the Bette Davis Room. Cute little courtyard and the room was awesome!  Lovely staff there as well.

 

Since a horrific heat wave decided to land on our state for this week, our plans to hike went out the window.  So we landed at The Broad to see some art inside some air condition.

We then had lunch at Otium to get our bite in before it closed for good.  No pics but it was delish!  Sad it's closing down.

We then just chilled for awhile at the hotel, then got ready and started our very hot walk to dinner.  We found a great sushi joint on the way called Shintaro.  OMG!  This was some friggin awesome sushi!!  And it's on the way to the Bowl!  How is this not mentioned in more places!  So yummy!

Get in Mah Belly!

Godzilla was playing on the wall.  So rad

We then hit the Bowl!  We brought in one of our nice wines from Austin Hope.  The opener was Danielle Ponder.  She was fantastic!  Then Big Boi from Outkast performed which was super fun.  But the highlight of course was Trombone Shorty and the New Orleans Band.  They were off the hook!!!  I can't seem to upload video here, but it's on my IG.  What a great night of music!!! I just love when you get to watch people just kick major ass on instruments! Pete Murano tore UP the guitar. Dan Oestreicher tore UP the sax.  And of course Trombone Shorty was AMAZEBALLS!

Free wine tasting?  Don't mind if I do!

Ready to go!

I just love them!

We came back to the hotel on such a high we couldn't go to sleep.  So after cooling off we found ourselves enjoying a glass of Rose (from our mini bar cuz we fancy like that) at friggin midnight!  LOL!  Felt like kids again.

 

Trying to de-puff my feet.  It was so friggin hot!  Still about 85 degrees at midnight.

We're 21 again

We weren't even gone 2 whole days, but it was a great trip up to LA.  Had some great food and some ridikulus music!  Thank baby!