Work Weekend in Pasadena

After leaving Las Vegas last Friday morning I headed out to Southern California for another work assignment. I guess that if you are in a situation where you need to work over the weekend it is better to have to do it somewhere warm and sunny like Pasadena instead of back home in the cold and snow.

The hotel we were all staying at was in Old Pasadena which is a fun area full of great shops and restaurants. After I finished checking in I had a little bit of time before my meeting so I grabbed a fast lunch at Chada Thai. I had one of my favorite Thai dishes, pad see ew with beef, which also included soup. The food was tasty, came out quick, and was inexpensive - everything that I look for in a lunch place.

After work on Friday evening my colleagues and I headed to Choza Mama for a dinner of Peruvian food. My entree of pulled pork and yams was okay, but I enjoyed the ceviche appetizer that we shared. When we were walking to the restaurant we spotted an adorable cupcake shop, Dots Cupcakes, so we decided to grab dessert there. I had a wonderfully moist red velvet cupcake that was just as tasty as it looked.

We were spending the weekend working at the Pasadena Convention Center which just so happened to be across the street from the Pasadena Antique Center. On our lunch break on Saturday one of the other women and I couldn't resist heading over there to wander around for a few minutes. It was packed with all sorts of things and it was fun browsing. I ended up buying a cool old ravioli rolling pin for my kitchen and some vintage reproduction California postcards for fun.

For dinner on Saturday night we went to Mi Piace for some amazing Italian food. We shared a wonderful charcuterie plate and then I had a delicious plate of ravioli for dinner. The homemade pasta of the ravioli was spectacular and I loved the citrus zest on top. For dessert we split a tiramisu that was wonderfully moist without being soggy. 

On Sunday during our lunch break we couldn't resist a quick run to Dots Cupcakes again. I wanted to try some additional varieties so I got three yummy mini cupcakes, mint chocolate, chocolate coconut, and fleur de sel. They definitely kept me going for the rest of the afternoon at work.

By the time we wrapped up on Sunday evening I was completely exhausted and not up for going out to dinner (lame, I know) so I ordered room service. Monday I was up bright and early at four in the morning to head to LAX for my flight back to Michigan.  It had been a long week and I was excited to be finally going home.