COACHELLA

Sleep is at the top of my list of hobbies. Kicking one leg out onto the comforter and laying diagonally across the bed is my idea of a really good time.


However, I did not do much sleeping this weekend, so forgive me if I don't make any sense or am redundant.  I almost feel drunk.


So as Rachel was off to Denver, I was on my way to Coachella with a big group.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Coachella, it's a huge 3-day music festival held over by Palm Springs, in the town of Indio, CA.  This was my first time ever going and I realized I'd been missing out on so much. I mean, I'm not totally high maintenance and can roll with the punches, but I was expecting a big dust bowl littered with trash, with unruly fans on drugs who had no regard for others, who were ready to throw you into a mosh pit if you looked at them the wrong way.  

My experience was the opposite of what I'd envisioned.  The fans were surprisingly respectful of one another's space.  And the enormity of the lush polo fields blew me away.  Seeing the grass able to withstand the 250,000 people traipsing around to the different stages made me rethink next year's Coachella outfits.  You can actually wear cute shoes and mud won't ruin them because there's grass everywhere!  The event organizers have perfected every last detail of this festival.  There were trailers with showers and bathrooms, ample security and medical personnel, and plenty of food & drink options.  There were 6 impressively constructed stages where 189 bands performed over the three days.  The bands we were able to see: Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Duran Duran, The Strokes, Neon Trees, Kanye West.  We missed Kings of Leon on Friday (shoot!) but had soooooo much fun with the rest of the lineup. 

Taking in an Arcade Fire performance alongside other revelers

Let's go back to the food now.  So I'd never eaten anything from the famous Kogi Food Truck that was parked behind the bar area.  You can imagine how excited I was to not only eat delicious food (I was famished after a long day out in the sun + drinking alcohol), but to try one of the places on my list of places to dine!  The line was really long, but we were definitely willing to wait.  Over the course of the weekend, there'd been a constant line at the Kogi truck...and to me, that's a good thing, for you knew the food had to be delicious. 

A 20 minute wait

The friendly girl who suggested what to order.  She did a FINE job!!

I have to warn you, the food pictures you're about to see aren't our normal food pictures.  They're not exactly of post-worthy quality.  You have to remember that I was in concert mode, it was night time, I was heavily buzzed, with hungry friends that don't care about Rachel's and my food blog as much as we do!  It was difficult to stave off the grabby hands as I fumbled with camera settings, but I was able to fire off (below) this bird's eye shot of what was my favorite meal at the concert.  The pizzas on the top right were from Wood Fired Flatbread Pizza Co. (pictures below) and the Kogi tacos are in the brown paper trays.

Kogi Tacos from top (clockwise): Short Rib Tacos with Kimchee, Spicy Pork Tacos, Kogi Beef Sliders. 

A very impressive mobile stone pizza oven

The tacos had so many flavor combinations (such as spicy & sweet, spicy & savory, spicy with pickles) with so much depth and so many textures, that a little taco, went a long way.  And each taco was $3.  How sweet is that?  The pizza was really good, but the Kogi tacos were much more satisfying.

We ended up going to the concert for about 5 hours each day, starting our nights around 7pm.  So my boyfriend and I spent our days with his sister, her husband and their kids, with whom we were staying in nearby Palm Springs.  Our weekend was a great balance of quality time playing with the kids, as well as adult time. 

On Saturday, we took golf carts and drove through a golf course, studying people's golf swings, admiring the architecture of some of the houses...but mainly we took the carts so we could load them up with the oranges, grapefruits and lemons we set off to pick!

Cole found the perfect orange tree

A nearby grapefruit tree

And Ava took cover in the shade.  Picking fruit in 100 degree heat can be exhausting!

We trespassed onto a property (oops!) with 5 of the most gorgeous Meyer lemon trees I'd ever seen. 

We ate the lemon wedges as if they were oranges.  Sweet, yet mostly tart.  100% tasty!

Our colorful golf cart!

After we went back to the house to make orange and grapefruit juice, we went crazy with the snacks...

I've never met two kids who prefer veggies to junk food!  They're all about eating clean.  So grown up.  And so adorable.

There was a lot going on this weekend and I have to say that I wouldn't change anything about it. Yeah, I would liked to have gotten more sleep, but then I would've missed out on something.  So I'm hittin' the hay early tonight to recover.  See you guys next year at Coachella!!!

M