#10 Visit Washington DC

Ever since I became an American way back in 2011, I've been wanting to go to DC (it is on my list after all).  So many iconic American buildings and monuments are there- plus I had to see in person the city where Scandal and House of Cards take place. 

#13 Visit New York

For my 30th birthday I decided that enough was enough and it was time for me to see the East Coast. Yup, up until the ripe old age of 30 (whaaa??!??), I had never been to the East Coast of the US until last month. Crazy town. I was trying to hit up as many places as possible in a week and the first one was New York. As soon as she heard the words 'New York' my mom was in! My aunt lives on the East Coast and was willing to be our tour guide as she does work in NY all the time. It was awesome! I loved NY- way more than I thought I would and now I totally want to go back since we just got a small taste of it. We stuck mainly to Manhattan and tried to fit in as much as humanly possible- in addition to cabs and the subway, I made my mom and aunt walk 26 miles all around the city. Basically if I ever start a walking tour group company, I can only accept marathoners. They kept up like champs, even my aunt who had recently fractured her hip- ouch!

#2 Learn how to BBQ

My favorite food? Hands down answer is BBQ. I love it all: the meat, the sides, the sauce...bring it! I especially love how it always feels like summer when you're eating a delicious BBQ meal. Anyways as part of my American list I decided I needed to learn how to BBQ and my friend Kelda (aka K-sista) makes a mean BBQ chicken. What makes her BBQ chicken the most American? That would be the Bud Light beer can up its butt...'Merica!

#8 Bet at a horse race

Sunday was race day! Golden Gate Fields has Dollar Days on Sundays in the summer which means for the low low price of $1 each you get: parking, entry, a program, beer and hot dogs! Horses, cheap beer and hot dogs?!?! Uh yea this event is right up my alley. They also theme each Sunday and it turns out we showed up for Hispanic Heritage Dollar Day- they also have live music playing so we saw mariachi players wandering around between races. We got up not so bright and early (my B but sleeping is just so fun) and got to the race track just in time to hit some serious traffic - the freeway exit is the worst intersection I've ever seen and at least three cars almost got hit while we were waiting to turn. Finally we parked (be sure to ask for the $1 parking-which they do not advertise- or you'll pay $8) and headed to the entrance just to see a giant line of people waiting to get in.

#42 Celebrate the 4th of July

It took awhile but I finally crossed another item off the list! Yup I got all dolled up in my 'Merican finest and celebrated Independence day at my parent's house. Please note the use of my USA beer mitt- best purchase ever! I love my parent's house and affectionately refer to it as my 'summer home'- anytime its foggy in SF its usually super hot and sunny where they're at so its worth the trip over every time (plus seeing my parents is cool too). It was over 100 degrees so I spent most of the day in the pool- mainly lounging with a beer...relaxation at its best.

#40 Serve on a jury

For the first time, when I got my most recent jury summons I wasn't able to check the 'not a citizen' box since I'm full on 'Murican now. So I sucked it up and headed to the court house to do my civic duty. Unlike everyone else, I was hoping I'd get picked so I could check something off my list. Scenes from Law & Order, Legally Blond and A Few Good Men were playing in my head- I was ready for some drama and excitement!

#54 Go to the batting cages

Checked another item off the list this weekend! I was up bright and early Saturday morning to go to the batting cages...well that was the plan but in reality I was up at 12 and even then I didn't actually do anything for a good 45 min. Anyways, once I got going I ubered over to Potero hill to check out the SF Baseball Academy. It was pretty far out and in the middle of a bunch of warehouses (uber driver for sure thought I had the wrong address) but once I figured it out it was easy to find.

#35 Vote in a Presidential Election

Check that one off the list! Just like for the primary, Lindsey and I were up bright and early to get our vote on before work. Finally being able to vote for a president is a pretty awesome feeling - be sure to get out there and vote!

#45 Learn How to Two-step

Just got back from Texas where I spent a long weekend eating BBQ, shootin (of course), drinking beer, dancing and celebrating Nicole's (aka Bus) Birthday!!! I also got to check another item off the list! Full disclosure: I thought I would have this two-stepping thing in the bag. I mean I spent 10 years dancing when I was growing up- 10 years of lessons, recitals, competitions in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical and stage..and yet none of that was helpful when trying to learn how to two step. Why? Despite the 10 years I am still SUPER uncoordinated and I am not good at following directions. Luckily I had some kind volunteers willing to teach me. The first unsuspecting victim was the harmonica player of the band at our first night of dancing at Broken Spoke. He started slow just having me do the steps which were simple enough for me to ask him 'Literally two-steps?! Thats it?!?''. After staring at my uncoordinated self for a minute he goes 'oh girl no thats just the basics' and started spinning me all over the place...it was awesome! Spinning is my favorite part hands down. 

#18 Go to Disneyland

After the wedding extravaganza, my mom and I woke up bright and early to go to Disneyland!!!! I love Disneyland and always have. My mom is also a huge fan so we take our trips pretty seriously. And by pretty seriously I mean that before I even left for LA, I had printed out maps of both parks and highlighted all the rides we wanted to do while we were there...I mean we only had 14 hours!! This is not our first trip- we are seasoned Disneyland go-ers so we do not mess around...get in, hit the major rides and get out. 

We got to the park around 8:30 and ran over (literally) to California Adventures to get Fastpasses to the new Cars ride Radiator Springs Racers. It wasn't even 9 and the return time on our Fastpasses was already 1:40 so we knew it was going to be a popular ride (it sold out of Fastpasses by 11 AND the wait was 2 hours long- crazy!!). Then in a Disneyland miracle, the line for Toy Story Mania aka the best ride ever was only 7 mins long so we jumped in line. After beating my mom (100,000 points to 96,800 points <--- sucker!) we raced back over to Disneyland since we were taking a tour! Everything was all done up for Halloween so there were pumpkins everywhere - apparently on main street there are more than 300 and no two are alike.  

#9 Go to a baseball game

Lucked out on this list item- I got to go to TWO games in one week. Both were last minute and both were tons of fun. First game was with Lea and Rupal who were visiting SF for the summer. They showed up in their Giants gear ready to go! It was Lea's first major league game and my first game as an American.

#42 Celebrate the 4th of July

...eh not so much. I ended up being sick and therefore a miserable disaster all day on the 4th so I definitely need a re-do next year. Still I headed out to the beach to celebrate with the fam for a bit. I felt better after eating three cupcakes...three delicious cupcakes baked by my awesome not-so-little-anymore cousin...I swear she'll be taller than me soon! 

 Since it wasn't the sunniest day, the girls alternated between huddling around the fire chatting and playing bocce ball. The boys played a little football and even flew some kites.

It was awesome to get to see family but I was bummed I was under the weather- next year I'll have to go big to make up for it!

Btw- I came across this 'Murican burger on a food blog: ground bacon, thick cut bacon, egg, bacon island dressing and bacon cheddar cheese. Hmm looks like they forgot to add bacon to the bun.

#20 Go to Vegas

Wow....just wow...Vegas is intense! And crazy hot...but it was all awesome since I was lucky enough to go with six of my favorite people. The seven of us get together once a year as a mini-college reunion but it was our first time as a whole group in Vegas! Luckily they'd all gone to Vegas before and were willing to show me the ropes. We stayed at New York New York which was great- didn't end up riding the roller coaster though (we figured hungover + roller coaster = bad combo).

#28 Go to a NASCAR race

This past weekend by friend Rebekah and I headed up to Sonoma to check out the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race. Technically the main race was on Sunday and we were there Saturday so I think this list item might eventually need a redo but for now I'm considering it checked off. We got to see the practice laps for Sunday so basically its like we were there and all NASCAR-fied. On Saturday it was the Pick-n-Pull Racing to Stop Hunger 200 NASCAR K&N West Series Race. What does that mean? No idea...my NASCAR knowledge is pretty much: cars go round a track, cars try to be the fastest, cars try not to crash....yup sums it up pretty good right? 

#35 Vote in a (primary) election

For the first time in 27 years I voted!! Pretty excited about this whole thing! I even woke up early so that my roomie Lindsey and I could hit the polls before work...I was real American and I hadn't even had breakfast yet.

Yea thumbs up for voting! Excited for what I refer to as the 'real' election in November then I can officially cross it off my list (don't really want to count a primary as my official list item).

And yes I was sporting my 'Merican shades to vote...obvi.

#26 Join a kickball team

 Another one checked off the list- I joined a kickball team! Bonnie and Rebecca decided they wanted in  as well so we went online and picked the team with the best name (since we didn't know anyone) and ended up joining the Bad News Beers (runner up for best name in my opinion was Tequila Mockingbird). Going into this I thought this would be super easy since I played kickball as a kid although in Canada we called it California Kickball- maybe because we played it outside? no idea. Yea not the case...I suck at playing kickball! Attempting to catch the ball turns me into a full on spaz: awkward panic expression, arms flailing, high pitched noises coming from my mouth...its just all bad. I am getting better at kicking the ball though and made it to 3rd base in our last game.

#46 Go to Stagecoach

If you're keeping up with the list you might be wondering why I suddenly added to it- I mean why would I add something to the list that I've already done. Well there's two reasons: 1) I like making lists with things I can cross off right away so I can feel super productive...'write list' check! and 2) had I known how 'Merican Stagecoach would be well then it would have been #1 on the list from the very beginning. Sadly I didn't know about the epic awesomeness that is Stagecoach so I have added it now as an afterthought. Don't take its lowly #46 status to mean it is not amazing because it was truly one of the most fun weekends I've ever had. Combo of college friends getting together + new friends + amazing country music + beer pong/ flip cup/ civil war +4 days camping out with crazy Americans = good times.

#36 Meet a Rockstar

Just so we are clear, I LOVE Mest ...hands down favorite band ever...E.V.E.R. So when the chance to hear live Mest songs again happened, I was all over it! Was it the same as a few years ago? No but it was so amazing to see Tony up there and killing it again...so much fun! I might be 27 (ahh seriously!?!?) but I was jumping and moshing like college and I LOVED it.  

 Me and my favorite

#25 Tour the Budweiser factory

Road trip (to Fairfield)!!!!!! I love road trips...especially ones involving beer, bellys and burritos. 

Did not manage to get the camera upright before taking the picture however this is the only non-blurry pic of the Budweiser wind turbine I had soooo it made the blog

Bonnie and Rebecca joined me in checking off #25 on Saturday aka Budbelly day. Even though I went to school at Davis, I never made it over to Fairfield to go on a tour of the factory....soooo un-American of me.  

#41 Host a Super Bowl party

I updated the list to include some more American things to do...one of which was host a Super Bowl party! I hate Comcast so in an act of definance, the cable was cancelled a few years ago...because you know loosing my business is really going to make an impact on them. FYI life without cable TV has been pretty awesome(thanks to Hulu and Netflix). So to solve the lack of cable problem,  we ended up borrowing an antenna from Rebecca so that we could actually watch the game/commercials.

TV!! In our apartment!! Good start to any Super Bowl party

American napkins obvi