This past weekend, I headed up north to my old stomping grounds. And yes, a twenty-something can have old stomping grounds. Truth be told, I missed Chico quite a bit. I missed my favorite happy hour restaurant. I missed delicious beer for ridiculously cheap. I missed my college friends. I missed being in the gorgeousness that is Bidwell Park.
So, I was beyond thrilled when I was able to incorporate all I missed into one completely satisfying, totally sleep-deprived weekend. Lucky for you, I took pictures throughout some of my favorite parts.
Friday: My hands down, favorite lemon drop martini comes from Christian Michael’s in downtown Chico. After work, a group of my office ladies and I would venture over to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap happy hour specials. $3.50 for a lemon drop martini? $6.00 for a personal-sized pizza (the BBQ chicken is to die for!), which comes out to a dollar a slice, booyah! That’s right: three martinis and a pizza for under $20. Obviously, Charise and I had to make this happen again. I even convinced most of my lovely office ladies to meet up and catch up with me.
One of my best friends in college. It got me through bad hair days and finals.
The Raspberry Drop and the Cosmopolitan. Also $3.50.
Saturday: Charise and I ventured to Upper Bidwell Park (locally known as Upper Park) to partake in some outdoor activities on a warm, but grey day. We decided to hike Monkey Face, since it was just over 1 1/4 miles. The beginning part of the trail is practically vertical! Oh, and to the chick who was *running* up the crazy steep hill, stop making everyone else look bad. Both of us slipped numerous times on the way down, but we had a blast.
Horseshoe Lake in the background.
We parked near those little baby cars. We were up so high!
Thank goodness for iPhones now having the ability to take panoramic photos.
We barely survived the hike to the top!
Perhaps our route should be called Elephant Loop? Sorta looks like one, don’t you think?
And then there was the Old Chico (the beer formerly known as Crystal Wheat) IN CANS. I love canned beer. Don’t judge me. It used to be that you could only get Crystal Wheat in bottles or at local Chico bars. But now Sierra Nevada sells my favorite beer in cans! I’m hoping they will start distributing it to other regions asap.
I know, this is an awful picture. But we’d been drinking!
Sunday: We went to Hula’s. It was so delicious (see: The Hula’s Bowl). I don’t even regret the HOUR-long wait to get my food. But there will be more about that next post.
There are a bunch of old favorites (read: bars and restaurants) that I wasn’t able to jam into my weekend plans: T. Bar & Fusion Cafe, The Banshee, 5th Street and Basque Norte, to name a few. Not to mention all of the fun outdoor activities like floating or swimming at One Mile. I’ll be back, Chico. And I’ll be sure to revisit some of my other old favorites.
Pingback: How to Hula | In Natalie's Shoes