A good friend of mine sings a sweet, alt-country cover of the über-80′s Wall Of Voodoo jam, Lost Weekend (a spectacular song in it’s own right). It’s super catchy, which is why I’m using a lyric to title this series – even though the original song is rather forlorn. Quite the opposite of my weekends these days, but never mind that. It’s a great title and really, aren’t they all? Lost, but never forgotten.

Birthday boy.

This weekend was spectacular! Overflowing with fun and I just had to share it, although I must warn you, there were long periods of time where I was having so much fun that I completely forgot to take pictures. Oh well, I always say that if capturing the moment interferes with living the moment, well that’s just not worth it. I hope you can forgive me! As it is, this is going to be a ridiculously picture-heavy post.

So alright, here we go!



Friday
On Friday afternoon, Waits woke up from his nap pretty late, which meant we were in a bit of a hurry. So I fixed him some strawberries sprinkled with hemp seeds (one of his very favorite treats) and got us all dressed and packed and gathered and ready to go.

We had a very important birthday party to attend, you see. Amber is one of my dearest friends – we did our research together back in college – and her baby boy was turning one. Amber lives in LA, which doesn’t seem so far, but with busy lives it’s just long enough to mean we rarely get the chance to get together. Boo!

Damian, Waits, and the little birthday boy.

Beautiful Amber.


After dinner Waits and Damian left, and I was on my own for the next 36 hours. Soon enough the birthday wound down, and once the wee birthday boy was tucked in to bed, Amber and I stole away to one of my favorite bars to catch this awesome jazz trio I love. Of course, we spent pretty much the whole time curled up on a couch in the back corner of the patio, yakking away, not really hearing the jazz at all.

I didn’t take a single picture. Bad blogger!


Saturday
I was so excited for Saturday! I’d been excited for months, in fact, and the day had finally arrived. May 4th – the LA Vegan Beer & Food Festival!

Breakfast. Of. Champions.

I started the day off right, with a nice big high-protein power breakfast. I’ve been experimenting with making my pudla batter a little bit thinner, and then folding it over like a mock omelet. Which is pretty epic. This one had fresh spinach and sun-dried tomatoes mixed into the batter, and was stuffed with vegan cream cheese, vegan cheese, avocados, and hot sauce. Topped with fenugreek sprouts. IT WAS AMAZING.

After breakfast my friend and adventure-partner Kate came over, we mapped directions, and then hit the road. First stop was the hotel:

“Fur Never & Never” // On our way out the door, straw hat posse.

And what can I say about the LA Vegan Beer Fest? I mean really, what can I even say, about a perfect southern California day, and so many happy-go-lucky vegans, and nearly 50 breweries sampling their goods, and food trucks and live music and good friends and DAMN. I mean really, what could I possibly say?




This kombucha beer was the stand-out-of-the-day for me. It reminded me of a mild lambic framboise and it was DELICIOUS!


Tangerine IPA

My friend Instagrammed this picture which caught me looking super cranky . . .

. . . and this pic of Kate and I looking . . . well . . . we had definitely had some beer!

Music!

Sushi! These Dynamite Rolls were off the hook!

So apparently May 4th is officially Star Wars Day? As in “May the fourth be with you.”

The festival shut down by 530-6, and we were pretty hungry for some real food. So we high-tailed it down to Melrose for a little Thai feast:

Dinner // Night cap
All in all, one of the best damn days I’ve had in quite some time. Thank you Quarrygirl and everyone else who made this event happen. Can’t wait till next year!


Saturday
On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and beelined back to SB. Damian had a pool tournament in LA, so he started driving down as we were driving up, and we met and swapped kid in the middle. Waits and I dropped Kate off and went straight to another birthday party!


We hung out at the party well into the afternoon, and had such a great time. Happy big #2, Gavin!

So Waits is verging on dropping his afternoon nap. Basically, when he takes the nap he stays up till 10:00 . . . 10:30 . . . or, like, 11:45 the other night? And um, NO. But when he skips the nap, it can be tough psychologically/emotionally. Still, it seems like it’s time.

So, we left the party and went on a little adventure, exploring downtown SB. We got coffee, and window shopped, and listened to a great street musician. It was lovely.


In the evening we met up with our friends at their place, for dinner and a soak in the hot tub (not in that order). I think a soak is pretty much the best way to cap off an incredible weekend, no?




Especially when said soak is followed by vegan quesadillas?



It was a long fun day and after dinner, Waits was DONE. He fell asleep on the ride home, well before sun down. Please let him not wake up at 5 am tomorrow . . .

And me? My Sunday night?

Well I’m here of course, photo-editing and writing this post, exhausted and totally blissed at the end of a killer weekend. See?


Peace!

I hope you had a great one too! What did you do?

♥