Saturated Saturday: South Fortuna Summit, San Diego

April 30, 2016 //

#Triumphant after reaching South Fortuna Summit

San Diego, much like my other favorite cities (Denver, D.C.) is an outdoor mecca. My home base in particular plays host to boundless recreational opportunities from the shore, to the desert and peaks.

Speaking of peaks, thanks to Mission Trails Regional Park’s Five Peak Challenge I’m on track to complete two more of the five needed to round out the challenge. In the process, I’m discovering views of San Diego I haven’t seen yet and reorganizing my list of favorite trails.

So far, I’ve completed Cowles from the Big Rock Trail on one day, and South and North Fortuna summits on another. I’ll wait till I complete the challenge to share with you how I’ve ranked the park’s trails, so for now here’s a photo from the top of the South Fortuna Summit.

This was attempt number two; we ended up on a completely different trail the first go around and ran out of sunlight and energy to hit South Fortuna properly by the time we found the trailhead (it was mere steps away from the Tierrasanta entrance, where we parked our cars!).

* * *

Saturated Saturday is a new photo series highlighting some of my favorite images, with enhanced vibrant colors courtesy of the photo editing apps I like at the moment. These include: VSCO, Instagram, A Color Story. Most photos taken with iPhone 5C.

Tags Hiking, Mission Trails, Outdoors, San Diego

Categories California, Outside, Saturated Saturday

Weekend Reads: April 29

April 28, 2016 //

Reading these picks before finishing out the Mission Trails Regional Park’s Five Peak Challenge:

Photo credit: Islands.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags Azores, europe, Madrid, Nature

Categories Fitness, Outside, Weekend Reads

Curious Palate: Curative Chicken Soup

April 26, 2016 //

We’re back this week with another tasty recipe from the #HaapsandBarleyXCuriousPassport series. One thing you’ll notice about these recipes is that they all call for fresh, natural ingredients and simple preparation for a delicious and nourishing meal. Nourish is the name of the game lately, quite literally.

For the several weeks leading up to my Eurotrip, I’m participating in my client partner Danielle Omar’s 21-day Nourish program, a clean eating challenge with three tracks; I chose the digestive track to learn how my body really reacts to gluten and dairy. I also have to remove added sugars and alcohol from my diet during the program…and caffeine. One week in and I’m no longer feeling massively hungover from those caffeine withdrawals, I already feel less bloated (except for last Saturday’s hall pass so I could attend the Pizza Walkabout I helped organize with my friends — I also had BEER) and the sluggish effects of the 3 p.m. slump have nearly dissipated. “Cheat day” aside, I’m totally onboard with Danielle’s approach to nutrition, “It’s about being a conscious eater, rooted in your own unique principles about how you feed yourself.”

That said, I’m excited to add Haaps & Barley’s recipes into my meal planning without much modification, like Jill’s recipe for chicken soup, below. Since the recipe calls for orzo, which has gluten, I’ll probably swap it out for quinoa or black rice.

Enjoy!

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 7.51.18 PM