Bottle Tree Ranch

WARNING: Photo Overload Ahead!!

Recently, a few friends and I took a mini road trip along the historic Route 66 to check out an interesting little roadside attraction called the Bottle Tree Ranch. It's a beautiful and quirky destination consisting of over 200 "trees" made from thousands of colorful recycled bottles among other amazing installation pieces and finds. 

Elmer Long is the incredible man behind the whole thing - he's usually on location and is super friendly to talk to so if you get the chance, definitely strike up a conversation with him! As a kid, he and his father would travel the dessert, collecting whatever objects they could find. Once his father passed away, he decided to get to welding those collected items and in 2000 opened Bottle Tree Ranch.

If you ever get the chance to visit this wonderfully whimsical place, I highly recommend you do! Admission is free (although be sure to contribute something to the donation box!), and you won't regret it! It's a truly amazing experience that shows what someone can accomplish with passion and creativity. For more information on this unique spot, check out it's Facebook page!

Bottle Tree Ranch
24266 National Trails Hwy
Oro Grande, CA 92368 US

What's the oddest place you've ever found on a road trip?

My First Trip to Philly: Day One

Since I'll be leaving NYC and the East Coast in only 3 weeks, I thought it was about time I went to visit my best friend (who I hadn't seen since I graduated in the beginning of May) who recently moved to Philadelphia. After I move to LA, I may not have a chance to see her again until we're reunited for her 21st birthday next June in Vegas - yes, we're already planning it.

To go visit her, I decided to travel by bus for the first time. I had heard horror stories about buses so I was a little worried, but after looking up the crazy cheap round trip prices (less than $20 there and back!), I figured even if the conditions were absolutely horrible, at such a low price, I could bear it for 2 hours. After looking at a couple options, I went with Megabus - reviews weren't great but it seemed every bus service had less than favorable reviews.

The night before my trip, I went out after work with friends and co-workers and had a pretty late night and had to quickly pack aka throw random items without much thought into my suitcase and hope for the best.

I took a taxi to the bus stop, passing several New York Comic Con attendees along the way. After going to the one in San Diego for the last 7 years, it felt odd not to be attending this one ocurring in the city I currently lived.

To my surprise, the bus was quite lovely! It was clean, comfortable, and spacious - something I was not expecting. It also had power outlets to charge your phone - thank goodness too because my phone was literally dead as I boarded the bus. ALSO, it had free Wifi and it actually worked!! I read plenty of reviews and all of them complained about the usual non-working wifi. My phone is often very unlucky when it comes to free/public wifi but it had no problem on the bus. It was also exactly on time. So maybe I just got lucky with this particular trip, but after this experience, I would certainly recommend Megabus and look forward to using them again!

After my bestie, Colby, and her boyfriend, Justin, picked me up, we drove back to their apartment so I could drop off my things. For only having moved in in August, their well-furnished and organized place had a very cozy, welcoming vibe that seemed like they had been living there far longer. After some BFF catching up, we went out for a dinner at a little bar/restaurant called The Blarney Stone that operated a food ordering service called Fatboy and Slim's out of it's kitchen. I ordered the Fatboy sandwich which consisted of Buffalo chicken fingers served with bacon, onion rings, and mozzarella sticks on a long roll topped with American cheese and chipotle ranch dressing along with Old Bay fries. It was delicious. 

Before the night ended, we visited a little get together with a couple other Alpha Phi Omega (the co-ed service fraternity we're both in) brothers then went back to her apartment and caught up some more before falling asleep. All in all, a very nice, low-key introduction to this lovely city and I can't wait to see what else the next couple days have in store!

Sorry for the lack of photos in this post! Totally forgot to charge my camera/phone >.<

CALITRIPPIN’ DAY 2: Preview Night!

With registration not starting until 3:30 and the Preview Night exhibit hall doors not opening until 6pm, my family and I had a bit of downtime today before all the impending Comic Con craziness.

I decided to record my July Ipsy Bag video on my hotel balcony. Oh, how I miss recording in natural light – so difficult to do in my NYC apartment because of how close all the buildings are together - they block out most sunlight from entering the apartment.

The view  of the bay outside my balcony

Afterwards, my family all headed down to a local coffee shop called Lion Coffee. We discovered this place and their amazing croissant breakfast sandwiches about 5 or 6 years ago and it’s become a tradition to eat here every Preview Night morning since. If you’re ever in San Diego, I highly recommend checking this place out. Although we come for the breakfast sandwiches, the smoothies are also really good (my sister and I shared a Passion Fruit, Mango, and Strawberry one) and I’ve heard their coffee is not to be missed either – if only I drank coffee. Plus, the service is great - my mother asked for onions and lettuce on her sandwich and when she told them it didn't have any, they offered to make her a whole new sandwich (which we passed, no use wasting food) and gave us a card for a free drink next time we were there. Thumbs up.

Lion Coffee - one of many Comic Con traditions

Next up was Ralph’s for groceries. This is another Preview Night tradition. We learned early on how pricey Comic Con snacks and food can be, so coming to Ralph’s for fruit, sandwich making materials, and whatever else has become an essential part of our SDCC routine.

Picking out snacks for Comic Con

Passing the convention center on our way back to our hotel after grocery shopping

We headed back to the hotel to drop off our groceries and relax. For the first time since I started attending Comic Con, I have free Wifi in my hotel room! They always have it down in the lobby, but NEVER in the rooms. We are only on the fifth floor so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Either way, I’m not complaining. Being able to post on my blog during the con is something I’m definitely not going to take for granted.

Registration goes quite fast so we weren’t in too much of a hurry to rush over. A little after 4pm, my dad, sister, and I (my mom only had a 4 day pass – no Preview Night) made our way to Hall E and entered the convention center. Getting our badges was a piece of cake and took less than two minutes. Between the three of us, we also got the exact three bags we wanted which were Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, and The Big Bang Theory (for which I was propositioned twice as I waited for my dad and sister).

The line behind me to get into the exhibit hall

Just chilling with my Supernatural bag

Got all three bags we wanted - no swapping needed!

Then the waiting began to enter the Exhibit Hall. It really wasn’t all that bad though and before we knew it, we were already inside heading straight to our beloved WB booth. We picked up our usual Comic Con Exclusive TV Guide issues and what would be our biggest swag item of the night: a Batman iPhone 5 case.

Honestly, I was very underwhelmed with this year’s Preview Night. We made it into the very long and crazy Fox booth line so we did get plenty of posters and Bones coasters (ha, that rhymed), but WB stopped handing out anything but TV Guide issues very early. Also, the CBS booth which usually has fun bags and items for shows like The Big Bang Theoryand Dexter did not do any such thing this year. My sister and I barely even recognized the booth as being CBS. Each year, one of our favorite swag items to receive are t-shirts. My dad will usually pack only a few shirts in anticipation of receiving these shirts to wear during the con. Often times, we’ll go home with 20 shirts between all 4 family members. This year, we didn’t see anywhere that were handing shirts out.

In line for swag at the WB booth

The Big Bang Theory art gallery at the WB Booth

FOX booth craziness

I know this sounds like I’m being a bit greedy basing my opinion on how much free stuff was given out, but that’s why my family and I come to Preview Night. So we can go ahead and get all the cool free stuff early and enjoy the panels and events the rest of the week. If they’re holding or cutting items back to give out later in the week, it kind of defeats the purpose of why we do Preview Night. Aside from lack of freebies, the booths and displays seemed a step down from years past as well.

For the first time in seven years, I actually went back to my room early. After hitting up every booth that seemed to be giving away items, I separated from my dad and sister and walked from one end of the exhibit hall to the other, taking pictures, looking at merchandise, and even tried on a few pieces of a clothing (they actually had legit fitting rooms) at this super cute clothing booth for girl geeks called Her Universe. I didn’t buy anything at the time, but I may be back on Sunday…

Upon coming back to my room, I ate, downloaded my photos and vlogging footage from my camera and phone to my laptop, and began writing this post. My dad and sister returned shortly and we created a somewhat vague plan for the next day which seemed pretty underwhelming, as well. 

I'm staying optimistic though and know by the time Friday rolls around, things will kick into gear overtime so I'm just going to enjoy this quiet before the storm. Greatly looking forward to tomorrow's Visionaries panel with directors Alfonso Cuaron, Edgar Wright, and Marc Webb along with Comic Con's last Dexter panel!

I've always wanted to be behind the wheel of a pirate ship

Photo fun at the Black Sails display

Thor Display at the Marvel booth

Zombie at The Walking Dead booth

A couple Star Wars cosplayers

CALITRIPPIN’ DAY 1: Goodbye, NYC! Hello, San Diego!

Today’s the day I’ve been looking forward to since, well, since 51 weeks ago. The day I leave to meet up with the rest of my family in beautiful, perfect-weather San Diego for this year’s Comic Con International.

For those unfamiliar with Comic Con - what started in 1970 as a small comic book convention has turned into the largest multi genre fan convention of its kind AND the world's largest pop culture event. The number of attendees was recently capped at 130,000! Whether you’re into tv, movies, comics, science fiction, fantasy, video games, anime, toys, or cosplay – you’ll find it in excess at Comic Con. 

I’ve been going to Comic Con since I graduated high school seven years ago at 17. Every year I look forward to it. It’s nice to know that each year, no matter where I’m at in my life, my family will come together to attend this event.

Although Comic Con doesn’t officially start until Thursday, my family and I always make sure to snag Wednesday Preview Night tickets that give a limited number of attendees an early look at the convention’s grand exhibit hall. Movie studios, TV networks, video game and toy companies, etc all converge on the massive showroom floor. Along with getting enough free promotional items "swag" to fill two or three extra large suitcases, this is also where all the celebrity signings and cosplay sightings occur. Since the next four days are usually filled with attending panels, we like to use Preview Night as a way for us to go on and get all our swag and take pictures of booths, displays, and costumes early so we don’t need to worry about it later in the week.

We’ve realized arriving on Wednesday can be a little crazy so we usually arrive in San Diego on Tuesday to give ourselves a little time to get settled, buy groceries, and see the city a little bit before the Comic Con chaos begins.

Waking up today, I was still in shock that it was finally that time of year again to head out to the geek mecca. I hadn’t even packed when I woke up at 9am and my flight was at 12:30pm. I was bringing two large empty suitcases with me on the trip for my family to bring swag back to Florida and was only going to be able to bring back my little carry on. I’ve always been sort of an excessive packer so this task was especially difficult for me. I was doing pretty well until it got closer and closer to 10:30 and, in a panic, I threw some extra pairs of heels and clothing in one of the empty suitcases. Going to have to figure out a way to bring those things back to NYC. Oops.

After a 45-minute delay on the runway, my flight from NYC to my 2-hour layover in Houston was smooth and uneventful. I read, drank Cranapple juice, and watched two episodes of SVU (I really can’t stop watching that show). On the flight to San Diego, I watched more SVU…

Finally, I landed and was reunited with my family in the most beautiful city I have had the pleasure to visit each year. We took a taxi van (to accommodate our 8 suitcases) to our hotel – the Marriott Marina where we’ve stayed the last six years. Conveniently located, it’s attached to the convention center and near the bay, has an incredible view and breeze. We unpacked, ate, showered...I wrote this post...and now time for bed. 

Looking forward to what tomorrow's Preview Night holds in store! 

Here are a few pictures from last year's Comic Con.

With actress Lizzy Caplan

Doctor Who panel with cast and creators

With one of my favorite YouTubers, Joey Graceffa

Two of the most sweetest, genuine guys in Hollywood - Jared Padalecki and Zachary Levi

Question Wednesday: Travel Edition

Time for another Question Wednesday post hosted by Nykki from My Mane Blog. This week's questions are all about one of my favorite things: TRAVEL!!

1. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be?
JAPAN!! I want to travel to so many places, but Japan tops the list. I've always found their culture and fashion fascinating and would love to one day move there for a couple months or a year doing an English teaching program or something and just live there. One day!

 2. Where is the coolest/best place you have ever traveled?
Hmm...I don't know. I went to so many awesome places last summer when I backpacked through Europe. Surprisingly, Budapest ended up being one of my favorite locations because I met some amazing people there and everything was SO cheap! I also loved Prague for its amazing food and architecture, Berlin for it's history and culture, and Dublin for it's shopping (I wouldn't have guessed that I'd do more shopping there than Milan!). But I'm going to stop now before I name every city I visited lol

3. How do you feel about road trips?
Don't mind them so much as long as I'm not driving! I HATE driving, and I have to admit I'm not a great driver either >_< But as long as I can sleep, read, listen to music, or write fan fiction on my laptop, I'm pretty good lol.

 4. You just won two tickets to your dream vacation, who's going with you?
Only one person? Uhhh... my sister although I don't think she'd appreciate it as much as me.

5. Airport security is only allowing you to take 3 make-up items with you, what are they? 
Let's hope this never happens haha! I guess my 3 essential items would be my 1) Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation, 2) Urban Decay Naked2 palette (that's not cheating, right? ), and 3) a Revlon Lip Butter.

How would you guys answer these questions? If you have a blog, be sure to participate in the hop over at Nykki's or just respond in the comments! I love reading the responses! (:

COMIC CON: Preview Night!

My family and I made it to San Diego safely late yesterday afternoon. After checking into our room at the Mariott, we all went to Ralph's, the nearby grocery store and stocked up on ramen, fruit, and sandwich ingredients for the next couple of days. Then it was time to go to bed. Getting a good night's rest was important last night, especially knowing that once Comic Con is in full thing, we'd better get used to going to bed around 12am and waking up at 5.

This morning, I woke up and decided to figure out the hotel's WIFI situation. I found out the hotel does indeed have free WIFI - WOOT (even if it can be a little weak)!! This means I'll be able to blog and post photos while here in San Diego!! I'll do my best, although, with the craziness that is Comic Con, you'll have to be patient with me.

Anyhow, today went very smoothly and was a good start to this year's Comic Con outing. As Preview Night inched closer, we picked up our Comic Con, as well as NerdHQ, badges. Zachary Levi was hanging outside the NerdHQ venue, talking and taking pictures with people in line (aww!). Then we waited in our first of many long lines to get into the Exhibit Hall. The place was, needless to say, packed and there were more lines waiting for us at every booth. Every year, people seem to get more aggressive about getting free promo swag and this year was no exception.  At the end of the 3 hour sneak peek of madness, we managed to get a decent amount of swag, do a few interactive activities, and even got a quick superhero portrait done by artist Dan Conner.

Tomorrow, we head out first thing to the NerdHQ Welcome with Zachary Levi and then join my dad in Ballroom 20 for a day of various TV show panels. What am I looking forward to most? TV Guide's annual "Fan Favorites" panel. This year's guests include Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Zachary Levi (of course), Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory), Nelsan Ellis, Kristin Bauer (True Blood), Nestor Carbonell, and Jorge Garcia (Lost). What a line-up!

Alright, time for bed now, stay tuned!

Happy BDay, Jared! & Hello, San Diego!

Today is the day! My dad, sister, and I leave for San Diego in just a couple hours! Tomorrow is Comic Con's Preview Night which will give us a taste of the craziness that is to come in the following four days.

Today is also the 29th birthday of one of my favorite actors (and one of the nicest celebrities I've ever met), Jared Padalecki! You might recognize him as Sam Winchestor from Supernatural or Dean Forester from Gilmore Girls. He will be at Comic Con on Sunday for the Supernatural panel which will be held for the first time in Hall H. He will also be participating in a "Conversation" and signing for Zachary Levi's NerdHQ on Sunday, which we were fortunate enough to get tickets before the event quickly sold out. Jared is such a funny and genuine guy, it's sure to be a great panel!