Jack London State Park, Glen Ellen

After our morning adventures (part one of this post), we headed north about 15 minutes to the small town of Glen Ellen. Our first stop was Jack London Village, where we enjoyed a chocolate tasting at Wine Country Chocolates. This elicited a happy dance from our 3 year old, who has developed quite an appreciation for chocolate!

Sonoma. On a budget. With kids. IT CAN BE DONE!!

Oh wine country...that beautiful place you go to relax with a glass of wine, while basking in the California sun. Sounds amazing right? But what do you do if that day now includes young children?! Simply put...the wine regions of California are too beautiful to cross off your list just because you have your kids in tow. This weekend we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (70 degrees in January!) and headed to Sonoma for what turned out to be a wonderful day with the kids.

Discover and Go!

I was SO excited when my little sister told me about Discover & Go. It is a program offered by most Bay Area libraries, which allows library cardholders access to free or discounted passes at a number of Bay Area museums and venues.

The Japanese Tea Gardens, Golden Gate Park

To cap off our long holiday weekend, we headed over to San Francisco for a morning in Golden Gate Park. With over 1,000 acres to explore it's hard to know where to begin! Our first stop was the Japanese Tea Garden. The Garden was first created back in 1894 for the World's Fair, and is now the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States. The paths meander through the 5 acres of beautifully maintained gardens which feature traditional elements such as the arched drum bridge, stepping stone paths, pagodas, stone lanterns and several koi ponds.

An amazing afternoon at the Point Bonita Lighthouse

For whatever reason the Marin Headlands were not high on my list of places to visit; however, at the urging of my sister, I decided to do a little research into one of her favorite spots, the Point Bonita Lighthouse.  I found that you had to walk through a tunnel to get to Point Bonita and that pretty much sealed the deal. My kids love tunnels! This was a fact I was not aware of until our recent visit to the Sutro Baths, but that was enough for me to pack the kids up and head out on our adventure.

Family Fun in Tilden Park

Tilden Park is one of my favorite places to take the kids in Berkeley and a hidden gem when it comes to free family fun (Note: some of the attractions have a low admission fee). The drive up to the park rewards you with some amazing views of the San Francisco Bay. I always have to remind myself to stop looking at the view and pay attention to the road! Below are my five favorite stops in Tilden.

Sutro Baths and Lands End

By about noon on New Years Day, our house looked like a tornado had hit it, the kids were getting stir crazy and I was waiting for my coffee to kick in (the downside to actually making it up until midnight is that kids still wake up around 6:30!). So we had to get out of the house...and it had to be soon! Parks are a great option on holidays, and we had never been out to the Sutro Baths or the Coastal hiking trail. So off we went!

Last minute getaway to Carmel and Monterey

We decided to cap off our holiday break with a last minute trip down to Carmel and Monterey. Since it was the week of New Years, there weren't a ton of options, but we found a small 1 bedroom beach cottage to rent on airbnb. We had never stayed in Monterey, but found that there were a TON of really adorable beach cottages to rent (check out neighboring Pacific Grove as well) at reasonable rates, many of which were walking distance to the beach and restaurants!

A Beautiful Day in Point Reyes

Point Reyes seems to be on everyone's list of favorite day trips in the Bay Area, yet both my husband and I had never been! To be perfectly honest, we had no idea that we were so close to such natural beauty (it's a little embarrassing)! I always imagined that the really breath taking beaches were all in Southern California. I was very wrong.

My favorite recipes:

I have always enjoyed good food, and since having kids, the quest to search for the perfect balance of easy, healthy and affordable recipes has become a mild obsession of mine. I am far from being an expert in the kitchen, so I like to keep things relatively simple with a focus on fresh ingredients and whole grains whenever possible.



Below are links to some of my favorite recipes, which I will update as I find new favorites. Enjoy!




Breakfast Recipes:

• Sausage, Fontina and Bell Pepper Strata (Bon Appetit) - This is so easy and ALWAYS a hit when we have people over.
• Lemon glazed banana scones with ginger (Fine Cooking) - Scones are deceivingly easy. I like to pair this with the Strata recipe.
• Banana Chocolate Yogurt Muffins  - These muffins are soooo moist and delicious and I love that they use olive oil and greek yogurt instead of butter.
• Baked Oatmeal (My Berkeley Kitchen)
• Banana Bread (Cookie and Kate)
• Zucchini Bread (Cookie and Kate) 

Grain Dishes:

• Quinoa Salad with Apples, Walnuts, Gouda...(Fine Cooking) 
• Greek Salad with Barley (Cooking Light) - I substitute the Barley for the Harvest Grain Medley at Trader Joes and often use organic sprouted tofu instead of chicken to make things easier.
• Whole Foods Quinoa Salad Copycat - I leave out the onions and tweak the proportions on the add-ins...but always a winner for healthy weekday lunches!  
• Quinoa with avocado, toasted almonds, dried fruit... 
• Sweet Potato and Farro Salad (Cookie and Kate)
•  Quinoa with avocado, toasted almonds, dried fruit (Fine Cooking)

Dinner:

• Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce (Bon Appetit) - an easy alternative to canned tomato sauce! Saute some ground beef and zucchini to add to the pasta when you want to jazz it up. 
• Slow Cooker White Bean Chili (YummyMummyKitchen) - Takes 10 minutes to prep and so good!
• Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup 
• Pasta Salad with Arugala and Sun-dried Tomatoes (Fine Cooking) - great for picnics!
• Roasted butternut squash pasta and bacon casserole 
• Baked Ziti 
• Avocado Pesto Sauce 
• Split Pea Soup - I substitute half the water with vegetable or chicken broth
• Sun-dried tomato and Chicken with Quinoa (Pinch of Yum)

Salads:

• Sweet Potato Arugala Salad with wild rice (Pinch of Yum) 
• Caprese Spinach Salad with Salami 

Sides:

• Toasted Corn, Cherry Tomato and Edamame Salad - Big hit with friends. Great for picnics. You can use frozen corn for convenience. 
• No knead dutch oven bread  - This bread recipe is crazy easy! 3 ingredients and some warm tap water, no kneading, no fuss. Just mix it all together, let it rise overnight and pop it in the oven when you wake up. Check out a pic of when I made it here!

You can also see my favorite recipes on my Recipe Winners pinterest board.

Nevada City Family Retreat

I was introduced to the Nevada City area this past Spring when a close friend of mine got married in Grass Valley (about 4 miles from Nevada City). I had never been to either towns and was immediately drawn in by the charm and beauty of the area.  When we needed a spot for a holiday weekend away with my family, I jumped at the chance to return to Nevada City! (Just a side-note...the pictures were taken with my iphone, before I got my nice new camera...so they really don't do the scenery justice)

About Me

I

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My name is Audrey and I live in Berkeley, CA with my husband and our two little girls. I am starting this blog as a challenge to myself to start exploring the beautiful place I get to call home - Northern California. Five years ago, my husband and I were newlyweds, both working full time jobs, with no kids, renting a one-bedroom apartment and saving plenty of money each month!  We have since bought a home, had two beautiful children and said goodbye to our savings and hello to the sometimes overwhelming task of trying to entertain young kids on a budget. 

The real catalyst behind this challenge to myself has been the countless number of times that I have been asked by a co-worker on a Monday morning, "How was your weekend?", and my response has been something along the lines of "uuuhhh, I can't actually remember what we did...", followed by an enthusiastic "but I think it was good!". How does this keep happening!?? I spend all week eager for Friday afternoon to arrive so I can have my precious weekend, and then before I know it, it is Monday again and the weekend has come and gone. Part of this, I am sure, is just a side effect of having two young children and often being exhausted by everything it takes to keep a family of four up and running. The other part is not knowing what to do that is fun for the entire family and AFFORDABLE! So this is where the blog comes into play. Something that will hold me accountable (I hope!) and push me to find fun and memorable day trips/mini vacations to create memories with my family and hopefully be a resource for other families looking for affordable ways to have fun.

Happy Travels!

P.S. If you have any suggestions for new places to explore...please share with me! My email is thethriftytravelerca@gmail.com.

Stinson Beach, CA

How I have gone this far into my adult life without going to Stinson Beach is beyond me! I even went to High School in Marin County, and still...never made it out to the beach. This past Sunday was our first ever trip to Stinson, and it was worth the wait. I didn't have extremely high expectations...it's mid-December so I was prepared for freezing temperatures, strong winds and grey skies, but we needed to get out of the house and start exploring!! So at 8 in the morning we made the decision to take our first trip to Stinson!