We decided to take a mini road trip down to Balboa Island the other day because we realized that somehow it had been about a YEAR since we were there last. What. The. Heck. Time flies!

We accidentally stumbled upon a cute lil’ neighborhood celebration that was going on which was good because we were able to witness a pie-eating contest, but also bad because SO MANY PEOPLE. So hard to find parking. We lucked out and found a spot pretty quickly, but holy smokes. SO MANY PEOPLE.

BTW – does anyone think they look like zombies devouring something or is it just my Halloween brain working in overdrive?

Anyway, just across the street was Balboa Candy so of course, I had to stop in and stock up on a bunch of saltwater taffy.

I gotta say the best flavors are definitely: Candy Corn, Cotton Candy, Lemon Meringue, Maple, Pina Colada, Pineapple, Red Licorice, and Caramel Swirl. You can’t go wrong with any of those! Promise.

Even they were gettin’ festive already with the lil’ Halloween deocrations all around the shop. I love it.

This lil’ guy is me after snackin’ on all the taffy. No regrets.

Is this heaven? Yes.

Got my fix!

Then we went over to the Original Frozen Banana Stand. There are two within a few feet of each other. It’s kind of weird. We always go to the one further down from the bridge. It’s the one that has the Arrested Development picture on it.

And you know why? Cause they cost $4.50 each. HOT DAMN. They’re still good though.

We ended up getting a Vanilla Balboa Bar with Salted Caramel and Rainbow Sprinkles instead of a Frozen Banana because he hates bananas. What a nut. Who hates bananas!?

Mmm… SO GOOD.

After snackin’ we walked around a TON. Saw some epic houses. Like this Halloween one:

SO COOL.

After we tired ourselves out walkin’ around Balboa Island we were getting pretty hungry so we decided to end the day with a meal at my all-time favorite place – Native Foods! My favorite thing to get is the Twister Wrap with Naked Crispy Chicken with Ranch and seasoned fries. Ugh. I’m drooling. I could eat it every single day.

He got the Meatball Sub this time. He never gets the same thing twice, which is good because then I get to try everything he gets, and I still get to have my favorite meal. It’s a win-win.

I tried it, but I still prefer my Twister Wrap over everything. Forever and always.

Another amazing thing that happened? The super awesome worker dude saw me eyeing the Native Foods Cookbook and let me know I could get it for a cool $10 instead of over $20 like it says on the back. SCORE.

Needless to say, I got it.

They have the recipe for their Seitan and Chicken fingers in here. UMMMMM. YES.

I seriously can’t wait to make everything in here! I have most of the ingredients already, which is the best. It’s not one of those vegan cookbooks where you have to scour the ends of the earth for the most random hard to find ingredients.

All in all, it was a good day!

Hot as heck, and extremely humid so my hair went totally flat (Boo)… but still awesome.

The drive home wasn’t bad either.

Until next time,