Time for my March 2016 recap. This was especially fun to put together because I spent time in several places across the country last month — I started in Los Angeles, then spent nearly a week in Denver, then jumped between Connecticut, New York City, and Cape Cod for the second half of the month. So this is a nice mix of friends, family, food, theater, nature, my birthday, and some fun activities.

Let’s start by recapping my final week in Los Angeles. I went to dinner with Kelley & Irving at Brent’s Deli in Northridge and tried matzo ball soup for the first time (yum).

Jenny and I went to a popular ramen place down on Sawtelle Blvd. called Tsujita LA that I’ve wanted to try for years (they also have a sister restaurant across the street if the wait’s too long). It did not disappoint! FYI, if you go, it’s cash only.

Just a block further down the street is B Sweet, which is known for serving multiple varieties of bread pudding every day. We each tried a sample but then ordered different sweets — Jenny got a donut filled with thin mint ice cream and a thin mint cookie, and I went with the slutty brownie (layers of brownies, s’mores, and oreos). This is place is also known for their Nitro coffee, but alas the hour was too late for me to sample it. Another time!

A few other culinary treats this past month… avocado english muffin (my favorite breakfast), coffee at La Mill in Silver Lake with Grace, and a pork sandwich at Cuban eatery Porto’s.

Grace and I walked around Silver Lake one morning (sadly all the water has been drained and transferred to an underground reservoir where it’ll be better protected from evaporation; in the meantime the community here is working out what to do with this concrete basin). Then we got lunch at my favorite restaurant in LA — Masa of Echo Park, which serves the best deep dish pizza.

A few days later my sister was in town visiting and we went to lunch with Grace & Brenda at Octopus, our favorite sushi spot. YUM. Then we walked over to Porto’s to sample some of their desserts, and then had to walk it off around the Americana in Glendale.

Later that night we went to a comedy show at Largo — we saw The Improvised Shakespeare Company and it was outrageously good. The audience gave a title suggestion (“no glove no love”) and the 5-member troupe made up a 90 minute Shakespearean play on the spot with no advance knowledge of plot or characters. They were so in sync with each other and had no problem juggling complex plot lines and playing multiple roles. I laughed until my stomach hurt. Afterwards we went to the bar next door, The Roger Room. Here’s Sommer, Bethany, Matt, and Grace:

My friend Mike and I hiked in Burbank one misty morning:

Mike and his wife Amy are vegan and it’s been fun trying new restaurants with them — this month we visited Gracias Madre in WeHo with our friend Caitlin. Fun fact: Beyonce and Jay-Z ate here last month, too.

One fun event this past month was an evening with Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder of the Serial podcast. They did a presentation with photos and audio snippets that detailed some behind-the-scenes stories from producing seasons 1 and 2 of the show.

Kelley and I watched the series’ finale of Downton Abbey with our mugs of tea in hand — we’ve watched every single episode of the last two seasons together, and I will so miss this ritual. What a great ride the show has been.

One final walk around Toluca Lake before heading east…

I stopped in Denver, Colorado visiting my uncle. We spent a day hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park that was just glorious; I can’t wait to share more photos from there soon.

We also enjoyed some terrific restaurants and got to catch up with many friends. A big highlight was seeing Molly & Joe! We posed in front of this colorful graffiti in the RiNo (River North) area of Denver:

And then it was time to head to the east coast! I missed these little guys… (photo taken from my sister’s Instagram feed)

My sister threw a fabulous dinner party:

I lucked out with the weather — for the most part I missed winter in New England. We got a small amount of snow one day but it melted entirely by afternoon.

Of course I went into New York City to see theater. I rarely take photos inside but this set from The Woodsman was just so enchanting:

I’ll do a full recap soon, but one of the more unique shows I saw last month is YOUARENOWHERE by Andrew Schneider. Afterwards they set up a photo station on stage:

A few random iPhone shots: Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center memorial, Cherry Lane Theater, and a movie or TV show shooting inside Grand Central station:

We spent Easter weekend on Cape Cod with family and fluffy dogs:

And good food and board games:

We went for a long walk to the beach and at the midway point — farthest from home — the skies opened up and it we got completely soaked. This photo was taken about 5 minutes before that happened:

Another afternoon we looked for whales in Provincetown:

This was a stunning walk and I’ll share more photos in a separate post soon:

And tomorrow I’ll have a wrap-up of Easter; here are two of my favorite shots of my parents, sister, and the pups:

We had a great time catching up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin’s family over Easter — here’s a group shot:

Shout-out to my cousin El and her husband Pete (not pictured) on the birth of their new son! He came into the world right at the end of the month and we are so glad he’s here.

And I celebrated my 32nd birthday this past month!

We had a perfect low-key evening at home with my favorite pizza (veggie + bacon), boardgames (Pandemic + Dealer’s Choice), and lots of cake (lemon + cream cheese frosting).

I’ll end with some fun shots of us and the dogs, Miss Bijou and Oscar. They are so much fun.

And with that, 2016 is a quarter over. I am so grateful for the memories this year has already brought.