What Ran Lori and The Blogger Meetup

Posted byLori Posted onJune 21, 2010 Comments7

What run Lori this weekend? Gosh, so much! Literally and figuratively. Let me count the ways…

Team In Training 8 mile run on Saturday. Yippie! It was actually a pretty good run. We met in Santa Cruz, CA and ran through a few residential streets before winding our way into De Laveaga Golf Course. Simple out and back with a few good sized hills to face. I did my 8 miles in 1:12 and it felt great getting back into the running groove (even with doing sprints on Thursday AND Friday…).

The rest of Saturday was spent working in the garden and relaxing my legs. And I know that you are all dying to know how my garden is doing, so I’ll show you.

Lettuces, tomatoes, carrots, little baby squashes and cucumbers, and check out the cilantro. It’s SO tall! Definitely over 4 feet!

Saturday, my boyfriend took me to The Rose Garden in San Jose. I have never been there but it is an absolutely amazing area to relax, barbeque, read a book, hang out with friends and/or family, picnic, or just hang out. It’s a pretty big area with a large grass area for soccer or running around and then a huge rose garden with a beautiful fountain in the middle. I’ll spare you the 20 pictures I took that day but I will share with you a few I liked.

Mad photography skills… camera shadow in my face. 😉

And now for some food. Of course I couldn’t leave my house without fueling for the day with a glorious green smoothie masterpiece. Behold what you get when you blend together 1 mango, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 cup almond milk, 3 (large) chard leaves, 1 scoop Amazing Grass Berry Infusion, Vanilla Cream Stevia, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1 tsp lecithin, 1/2 cup water, and ice.

To answer your dying question, YES it was good! And it was topped with a raw granola mixture, dried unsweetened coconut, and fresh, sweet raspberries.

Yum.

And to the finally stretch of my weekend and the last part of this post’s title, I had my first Blogger Meetup! We didn’t take many pictures but we definitely included the food! Ms. Natalie of Cinnamon Bums (how awesome a name is that?!), I found out, lives only a town away from me in California and I was stoked that she agreed to have a little meetup! After many emails of deciding where to actually meet we came to the perfect meeting venue…

CAFE GRATITUDE!! Yum. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this place??

Anyway, she is an amazing woman who spends her time attending college in Cambridge, MA (very cool!), creating excellent photography, blogging, and eating healthy! It’s always awesome to meet other people in the blog world, as so many of you are truly influential to me, but it was even cooler to meet one in person! Hi Natalie! Thanks for the meetup!

After much conversing over the menu, I got I AM FULFILLED the large cafe salad with fig-balsamic dressing. Take note of the crumbly topping. It’s the Cafe’s signature brazil-nut Parmesan “cheese.”

Natalie got I AM WHOLE, which is probably the best thing on the menu, that is covered in the most amazing spicy garlic-tahini sauce.

And really, what the heck is dinner lunch without dessert?!

Can we say GLORIOUS?

Above: The seasonal Cheesecake of the day was I AM CHERISHED, the chocolate espresso cheesecake. Below: I AM RAPTURE,
Strawberry short cake. Seriously good stuff. We split the cheesecake and I got the strawberry short cake for later (being that I made it home without tasting it. A feat that was truly trying. I’m kidding… eh….).

And since we’re both awesome people and bloggers and super hot, I got us I AM SUPER HOT, spicy dark chocolate nuggets of pure goodness, also pictured above.

This was my first adventure in blog meetups and have to say it was great to meet Natalie, and fellow blog owner. She is so sweet and smart and knows her way around a camera (thanks for the suggestions!) and we will probably be having another get together soon. If you haven’t visited Cinnamon Bums, do it! Because this woman has some great things to say and great recipes to share!

Question Of the Day [stolen from Cinnamon Bums 😉 ]: Have you ever had a blogger meetup? Would you do it again? If you have, did you travel for the meetup or were you two (or more) in the same geographic area? Obviously this was my first meetup and it was very cool! Will definitely be trying to seek out other bloggers living in California, and hopefully farther!

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7 People reacted on this

  1. pretty flowers and lovely garden. lucky you.

    and to go to cafe gratitude–my dream!
    .-= bitt´s last blog ..savoring every last minute =-.

  2. Your garden looks amazing! Someday I wish to have a garden just like that when I get my own place.

    The rose garden looks beautiful too. I really like the pink ones!
    .-= Elaine @ Om Sweet Om´s last blog ..Where the wild things are… =-.

  3. Never did a blogger meetup and am dying to for sure!!!

    U girls are def both hot and need those spicy dark choc nuggets! love it!!

    So sweet the pics of you and your man, what ahot couple I must say!!!

    Got a new coffee pot, so things better now, and yes coconut creamer is the best!!!!!

    xoxo
    .-= Katie´s last blog ..Great ending to a disaster morning! =-.

  4. yay for your awesome meetup (i can tell it’s your first….you are all decked out with a skirt! love it!) but you know i am the queen of them and love em!
    .-= Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga)´s last blog ..Cheezy Hemp Nacho Dip, Tattoo Ideas, Summer Solstice, Meditation =-.

  5. lori! so glad we got to meet up! i had so much fun =) can’t wait to eat/talk again!

    ive been to the rose garden once for a graduation – don’t remember it very well though – would love to go again! another lovely flower garden nearby is filoli gardens in palo alto
    .-= Natalie @ cinnamonbums´s last blog ..Blogger Meetup with Lori at Cafe Gratitude! =-.

  6. YAY for blogger meet-ups! Food looks fabulous! I can’t wait till the day I get to try Cafe Gratitude 🙂 Love blogger meetups, I enjoy getting to know the person behind the blog!
    .-= Pure2raw twins´s last blog ..Giving food a second chance? =-.

  7. I’ve never had one, but would love to!!!

    Your garden is nuts!!! 4 ft tall cilantro? What kind of steroids are you feeding those plants? 😀
    .-= Katie´s last blog ..In case of emergency… =-.

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