Will Run for Shopping

I have amazing news! I, Rachie the author of this blog, for the first time in my entire life made (all by myself) hard boiled eggs! Can I get a woo hoo?! It was actually pretty easy too, no fires, no burns, and no disasters taste wise. Yesterday morning I decided that I was going to go da beach, a fabulous decision if I may be so bold. I needed to pack a lunch and had viewed an egg salad recipe on  Healthy Food for Living, why not got for it? So at nine o'clock in the morning, right after a long morning run, I dug out some pots and pans, a couple of eggs, and put my big girl cooking panties on and set off for what could only be classified as an adventure. This recipe was easy peasy, especially for a girl like me with zero ability to cook real food (oatmeal can be done any day, other food groups are always...challenging?). In a matter of minutes, in between slathering on sunscreen, packing up the beach bag, and storing the beach umbrella in the trunk of my car, my egg salad creation was birthed. I was hot stuff, but you all already know that.

Food blogging a la beach chair.

The beach is by far the most amazing part of summer vacation, plus it is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from le chateu. The sand was warm, the ocean was super wavy, and there was hardly a soul there since it was a random Thursday afternoon. It was a great way to relax after dealing with so many icky job related issues, nothing like a good dose of sunshine to chase the blues away. I also got the chance to catch up on some much overdue reading. Currently, I am reading "The Winner of the National Book Award" which is a very strange book. The author bounces the story like a baby on her father's knee, up and down, up and down. Most of the time I have no idea what is going on, but I keep reading in the hopes of that perhaps the following page will hold the secret of the author's point.

Sunshine

Sailboat!

Hello, gorgeous!

This morning, while I was running, I found ten dollars in the road what luck!

I had to keep the fabulous streak up with a special shopping day with my sister. Since most of the high schools in the area are having their graduations, my sister had no school today, yippee! We decided to take a road trip to a great outlet mall not too far from us. It was a lot of fun for the two of us. I hardly get to see my sis because of school and I feel like I am missing out on such a big part of her life. Plus, shopping is just what we do best. We arrived at the mall, part of which was outdoors, and found ourselves right outside a Michael Kors outlet store. So I went inside and splurged on two leather bags. Yeah right! But a girl can dream, right? We ogled at the finely crafted leather bags and practically drooled over the Kate Spade bags that we found (some of them had giraffes on it!). The boutique also had a cute quote on the wall, which I sneakily took a picture of. Some people just don't understand a blogger's responsibility!

I also found an adorable French restaurant called "Paul". I have declared that I will eat there. I don't know when, but it will happen. 

Look at that bread! My sister and I peeked our heads in just to get a feel for the spot, which was just as adorable on the inside as it was on the outside. Seeing as it was still early we weren't hungry yet and by the time we were I swear we were about a mile away. Sad day, but now I have a perfect reason to return!

The rest of the day my sissy and I meandered around the bustling mall, dodging carts, children, and serious shopaholics. Along the way I had to pick up a map, that's how huge this mall was! We both bought adorable scarfs, my sister bought a great pair of jeans, high wasted swimsuit bottoms (because she is the kind of girl that can pull that off and make you wonder just why you weren't born with those genes), cds (because she is a music expert), and cat eye sunglasses (again, she makes them work). We shared a venti coffee from starbucks, no sugar because we are too classy for that. By the time lunch came around we had a million choices, but I was too hungry to look at all of them. It came down between a crepes & baguettes place that was blasting European techno music (very very appealing), and a quieter panini place. A sucker for crispy bread and melted goodness, we both succumbed to a small restaurant called "Green Leafs". I got a hummus and veggie flatbread panini. Which was so tasty! The hummus was so flavorful!

And the sister opted for a caprese pesto panini, which looked so yummy!

Along the way we picked up a little something for our mama and then walked some more. And then more. Then we got lost, it was as if the mall was trying to swallow us up. One of our last places was a tea place. Since we both love tea, we just had to go in! We also got to sample a great fruity tea and chatted with an friendly, over zealous tea lover/employee of the tea place. 

All in all, it has been a great couple of days! 

Catch you on the flip side!