the ULTIMATE valentine's day adventure...

As I’m sure the ENTIRE world is aware, Saturday was Valentines Day – and although I am not currently dating anyone – I would argue that my valentines day was one of the best EVER! Megan started dreaming over a month ago about the CUPCAKE CRAWL – and on Valentines Day – the dream was realized. Megan and I have a sweet friend named Rebecca (aka Kenzie) who turned 23 on Valentines Day – so it quickly became a celebration of life and friendship – and a FUN adventure to say the least!!
The carpool mom (ME) left home at 12:00pm to start picking up the girls – first stop: Megan; second stop – Kenzie. We walked through the door and excitedly cheered HAPPY BIRTHDAY – she opened her cupcake themed birthday gift and only moments later we were on the road towards STOP 1: Newport Beach. We turned on the CUPCAKE MIX and by the time we hit track 2: This is what dreams are made of from the Lizzie McGuire Movie – we were making memories!!! Unfortunately, we got a little bit confused by the directions and ended up at STOP 2: Costa Mesa. French’s Bakery is well known for their exotic and eccentric cupcake flavors – we were particularly interested in the mimosa cupcake with champagne frosting – unfortunately, it was no where to be found. Megan and I settled on a chocolate brownie cupcake with peanut butter frosting. AMAZING – not sickeningly sweet – but definitely moist (I hate that word) and flavorful! French’s Bakery also brought our second moment of absolute hysterium... the girl behind the counter calmly and collectedly asked, “what is the cupcake crawl” – seems like a reasonable question given that we were all wearing matching t-shirts: hot pink with a giant cupcake on them – my response with way too much exuberance and volume “WE’RE ON IT – YOU’RE STOP 1!!!” we laughed all the way to the car!
After stop 2 we headed towards the original stop 1: Newport Beach. Kenzie was the first to spy Susie Cakes – a cute little cupcakery all decorated for the holiday. There were hearts everywhere and red velvet cupcakes just SCREAMING our name!!! Megan and I decided quickly and moments later were seated at the table. Kenzie – our gluten free friend also found something her little heart desired: CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES! My first bite of red velvet cake with sweet cream cheese frosting missed my mouth entirely and landed on Megan’s toe – the laughter began again – however, silence overtook as we quickly consumed the glorious baked good – literally 30 seconds later – the cupcake from stop 2 was gone.
Stop 3 was Long Beach: FROSTED – the home of the original ice-cream filled cupcake. Megan and I spied the ultimate in Valentines Day cupcakes and quickly settled on the strawberry with strawberry cream cheese frosting and a little gummy goodness on the top with SPRINKLES!!! Yay!! And to TOP IT OFF – we got it for FREE because of Kenzie’s Birthday! Doesn’t get any better than that folks! Since parking in long beach is such a precarious task, we headed straight for the car and ate in the parking lot behind the Children’s Place – a ticket would NOT have enhanced our adventure. Kenz grabbed a couple of her gluten free cupcakes and we all dug in. Cupcake 3 – very good!
We drove along the coast from Long Beach to TORRENCE…where all of our worst nightmares came true. Moments before our arrival in the ugliest city in all of southern California, we were talking about how beautiful it is – watching the water ripple on our left-hand-side as the sun beams radiated into the car – we almost needed sunglasses. It was GLORIOUS. However, upon our arrival in Torrence, everything changed. The bakery we went to was called Baby Cakes – the cupcakes were NOT GOOD – so NOT GOOD that Megan and I both threw half of ours away – not even worth finishing. They were impressively BAD cupcakes. As we drove out of the city we saw all kinds of things we could never have imagined – a K-Mart that still existed, Koo-Koo-ROO or something like that, a LOT of liquor stores and mini-marts…it was INTENSE. We got out as quickly as we could. Megan was undoubtedly scared – she kept muttering under her breathe, “we’re gonna get shot” the adventure was complete with a VERY OBVIOUS LOW!
Our final stop of the day was at The Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. I’m not sure if it was our all-time favorite stop of the day – but it ranked in the top two with Susie Cakes. Megan and I ordered 3 mini-cupcakes: key lime, black and white, and bittersweet chocolate chip. All three were INCREDIBLE. Kenzie ordered a few Parisian macaroons and enjoyed them thoroughly as well. It was the perfect final stop of the day! We all agreed that a return trip was necessary and went back to the car.
We hit the ultimate of a sugar low while heading towards Yorba Linda for dinner…the car was absolutely silent. The traffic was moderately intense but we just kept edging forward. Finally we hit the 57 and hope was restored. We ate dinner at Blue Agave – delicious – and headed towards the GHETTO movie theatre to get cheap tickets to, “he’s just not that into you.” It was cute to watch – I don’t want to be ANY of those girls – I’m not a crazy psycho stalker, I don’t want to wait 7 years to find out I’m loved enough to be married, and I’m definitely NOT the friend that encourages home wrecking!!! However, it was a classic chick-flick and a good conclusion to a wonderful day.
The carpool drop-offs started at Kenzie’s house – we went inside to watch her open gifts – and got jealous – then I delivered Megan safely to her door and headed home…it was after midnight and approximately 175 miles later that I arrived home – but I couldn’t have asked for a better day of fun with friends!! It was a Valentines Day adventure that will NOT SOON be forgotten!!
Ps Happy Birthday Kenz! WE LOVE YOU!