{Man vs. Food tour, Phillipe's}

The last stop on our journey!

We headed for LA, to visit my friend Sarah

and to visit Phillipe's, the last on our MVF west coast feast. 

The inside was packed, and the floor is covered in sawdust?

I will trade clean shoes for good food any day. 

Now to the famous french dip.

Drumroll please.....

It looks innocent enough.

Don't be fooled.

This french dip is delicious.

The meat is bathing in au jus when you order it,

the fresh french bread is dipped in the au jus before they assemble the sandwich.

The whole thing is so juicy & messy.

mmmmmm.

AND they serve it with spicy hot dijon mustard at your table! 

Mustard = win.

Especially when your boyfriend uses too much mustard, underestimating it like usual.

Which leads to coughing, hacking, crying & running to the bathroom,

leaving me clutching my sides laughing.

Beware of spicy attack mustard.

And thank you to Sarah for being a wonderful LA host!

Even if it was only for an hour,

and I had to use my phone GPS to get her home:)

Don't worry, you'll get your bearings eventually!

{san francisco sunrise}

On our way out of San Francisco,

we were up before the sun 

ready to get on the road for the long journey to LA.

Chris had the idea to stop & look out at the golden gate bridge

(I would have thought of it too, not caffeinated enough)

It was drizzling a bit, but it didn't take away from the beautiful view.

Watching the sunrise in the cold, surrounded by photographers & their tripods

As a hopeless romantic, this is quite high on my list.

 cheesy and wonderful

It was a great start to our last day of travel.

Next stop, 

Los Angeles!

{Man vs. Food tour, The Olde San Francisco Creamery Co.}

When we arrived in San Fran,

we made our Man vs. Food pit stop to meet a friend 
before we drove to meet Chris' other friend

 who so nicely let us sleep on an air mattress in his studio apartment.

Enter, the San Francisco Creamery Co.

Ice cream before bed is ALWAYS a win.

So minty & creamy, this was way too much for me to finish on my own.

Note to self when I come back, bring a partner.

If only I had the cajones to get the kitchen sink, seen on MVF.

If my daunting mini-scoop is any indication, I don't have any.

Side note,

thank you to my new friends, who let my creepy (and awesome) boyfriend

take a picture of their kitchen sink when clearly they were all in a big hurry to get started.

Thank you to Chris who captured this.

And thank you to Tony, who didn't even mind when Chris forced him to take off his shirt in the road to show me his badass tattoo. You are welcome on the blog any time.

{california girls, we're undeniable!}

I was born in California, and lived there for three entire years of my life until kindergarden was calling my name and it was off to Washington we went. 

I, therefore, can claim to be the subject of this song. 

Plus, I'm totally fine, fresh & fierce.

You must be wondering what this post is about.

I promise, there is a point.

We are continuing on the journey of getting my and all my stuff to Arizona, along with the very exciting Man vs. Food tour. 

After we left Portland, the drive started out very gray, rainy and dismal. Full from breakfast and tired, keeping my eyes open was a struggle.

As we crossed into California, the weather started to improve as they day slowly rolled by. 

 No complaints here though, the pacific northwest and all of the beautiful 

dark scenery has always felt like home to me. 

The cold is just another excuse to pour a new hot cup of coffee.

Finally, clear blue skies!

The drive through California was beautiful.

Lakes, green trees and piercing sunlight.

We took turns driving. My schedule consisted of 1 hour on,

6 hours off...

oops.

After what seemed like forever,

we reached our final destination...

San Francisco!

{the journey begins...part 2}

We left on a Saturday morning at the absolute crack of dawn. How early you ask? Well we had to make a pit stop at Starbucks on our way out (of course) and it wasn't even open yet. We actually sat in the parking lot with 5+ other coffee addicted crazy people for 15 MINUTES until they would let us in.

So addicted. 

 {entering Portland}

Then we were on our way to Portland. Extra extra shot filled Americano in hand, I took on the first leg of the journey and let Chris keep sleeping. I'm so generous.

And a mere 3 hours later we arrived at our destination in Portland, the Stepping Stone Cafe. 

Their slogan is 'you eat here because we let you'.

I love that.

{menu}

In true man vs. food form, Chris and I ordered the famous Mancakes from the episode, pancakes the size of my face, and then some. We split only 2 of them, and also ordered a ham & cheese omelette. Massive is an understatement.

{mancakes being manhandled}

Chris' old roommate Rich and girlfriend Kate met up with us to eat. We had a nice time catching up and chatting before we were so stuffed that it was time to hit the road. Too full to drive. So Chris took 0ver:) 

The mancakes were BARELY even dented. Katherine vs. food.....fail.

{the journey begins}

Chris & I recently took a trip to Seattle to round up all of my things to bring back to Arizona. The craziest two days of my life, I managed to pack up everything from my high school room (dumping most of it because I have developed an intense fear of hoarding...thanks A&E), mixed with sorting through everything I brought home from my college apartment which I just dumped before heading off to Europe. Not only that, I ran errands, had a birthday party, got to see my parents, friends, and managed to squeeze in a little shopping.

 {boots}

It hurt my heart a little to visit during this time of year. Fall has always been my favorite season, and Seattle is by far the most beautiful place you can be to experience it. One of my many excited thoughts for my post-graduation date, was getting to finally experience fall again after 4 long years of summer jumping straight to snowy winter in Pullman.

{rain, trench coat & changing leaves}

After I managed to fill every last nook in my mini Corolla (which I recently bought from my mom.Thanks mom! Even though she made me sign a contract to hold me to my monthly car payments...who does that? I'm your daughter! :)) We were off on our next adventure.

Introducing...

The Man-Vs.-Food Tour

I am sure many of you have seen the show. Being a giant fan of Adam's and pretty much all food shows out there, I realized we were going to hit many of the cities that had appeared on the Show, while driving from Seattle to Phoenix. I am still in shock that Chris not only agreed to this, he made a point of calling it 'the man vs. food tour' to everyone we saw on our trip. Kinda cute. Mostly Embarrassing.

First stop: Red Mill Burger

{menu}

Visited by man vs. food, called the best burger in Seattle by Seattle Weekly, and 'one of the top 20 burgers you must eat before you die' by Oprah and GQ magazine, I decided it was worthy of a stop.

{burger heaven}

I decided to go with the classic, Red Mill Delux with Cheddar Cheese.

Drool.

Thankfully, what I couldn't finish, Chris handled for me. 

SO GOOD. No wonder why they get such good press.

Next time you are in Seattle, add them to your must list!

Next stop: Portland!