Tags
anuhea, cali roots, california roots, j boog, monterey, music festival, reggae, soja, the green
This past Memorial Day weekend, I went to my first outdoor music festival: Cali Roots! California Roots is a music festival featuring reggae and “Jawaiian” music. After visiting Hawaii with Justin we fell in love with the music from Soja, J Boog, Anuhea, and The Green, so this was a perfect opportunity to take a mini vacation to see them live!
And as a little treat, Justin and I pooled some Chase rewards points together to fund a two-night hotel stay at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey. This was my first time staying in such a nice hotel on my own (without family). I’m not one to spluge on hotel stays normally so this is pretty swanky to me!
We reserved a regular king bedroom but ended up with an upgrade to a Regency Club King room with included club service (aka free food and drinks OMFG) instead. Wow! It was completely unexpected and I felt so lucky at that point…
Balcony view of the golf course:
It even had an Ipod dock!!! I must sound ridiculous but I get excited over the littlest details or mundane events like going grocery shopping at Target… And when I do Justin laughs at me (but in a good way).
I loved their modern bathroom with vanity and stool. I put on my makeup here every morning and felt like a real queen ;D
The room included a modern open shower:
Justin and I are a little too OCD for this kind of shower setup.. the water flies EVERYWHERE all over the floor. Not that great of a design, but it sure does look pretty! The shower height is also adjustable!
The hotel was less than a mile walk from the fairgrounds and we walked each day to save money for parking. I hadn’t planned it that way, but it saved us at least $15 in parking fees per day!
There were a good amount of food vendors but by the end of the festival I was honestly getting tired of the selection.
On the first day we had chicken tikka masala for lunch; Justin got an interesting naan-bread burrito and I got a rice bowl.
Lots of fans were excited to attend, like this guy with a handpainted SOJA sign complete with shaka! I think the other side had Iration painted on it.
It was cloudy and cold on the first day.. I’m glad I didn’t try to wear shorts. I was imagining a wannabe reggae-Coachella but no. Monterey was too cold for that.
Anuhea also performed (My favorite female artist from Hawaii):
This was my second time seeing her live since our trip to Kauai…She is SO down to earth and I love her and her sultry voice!
J Boog performing: (I finally bought one of his shirts!)
We had the opportunity to buy presale tickets to The Green after party so we jumped on it; The Green is my favorite band out of all the artists we saw that weekend. I’m glad we went, because we ended up at the lip of the stage… since I’m so short its difficult for me to see over people’s heads.
Zion likes to play barefoot so I thought it was cute that he rolled out his own little bath rug to keep his feet clean.
Hehe.
The next morning we took full advantage of our club access at the hotel! The setup reminded me of my good ol’ college days eating in the dining hall.
These pastries were delicious! Especially the berry one. Sorry for the yellow lighting!
The fridge was stocked with free drinks and yogurt! *cue the angels singing from heaven* I felt so lucky that they upgraded us for free, even though we weren’t paying any cash for our stay. SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL.
And we were able to make fresh, customized Starbucks lattes :}
After breakfast we quickly changed into our bathing suits to experience the sauna and gorgeous pool
If only I could afford this kind of experience in Vegas!
Complete with huge fake chess set.
And babbling brook… err. Fountain.
We took a quick shower and then headed out for day 2!
Arm candy for the day (just some natural materials and beads)
And I brought along our yummy Hawaiian hurricane popcorn
Thankfully this day was much warmer! It seemed like there were even more people attending, too.
I think next time we’re bringing chairs and a lawn blanket.
Justin always pushes me to go up to my favorite artists for a picture.. I’m so shy that I wouldn’t do it myself but I’m glad he forces me to do it in the end. Here is Caleb Keolanui (vocals), me and Ikaika Antone (keyboards, vocals) from The Green.
We got hungry in the afternoon so we splurged on this GIGANTIC heap of instant heart attack. Freshly fried potato, thinly sliced, with a garlic cream sauce and topped with a fistful of bacon bits. *DIES* It was SO good. We couldn’t even finish it, it was so huge. Talk about major garlic breath.
We washed it down with this delicious-looking-but-too-sweet lemonade
Woo! Well that was all of my photos of the festival. But after we got back ‘home’ that evening there were a few more goodies to eat!
We got back just in time for Hyatt dessert buffet and more free drinks. Man what an unhealthy weekend!
Little baby cupcakes
And some deeelicious carrot cake. I think carrot cake is one of the only cakes that I like. Besides fluffy Asian cake with fruit.
It was time to say goodbye to the Hyatt and Monterey.
At checkout, my receipt printed out on the lobby kiosk… we owed $0! I was fully expecting to pay a $22/night resort fee, too! What!! Again, SO thankful and so grateful to the Hyatt!
And as we were leaving, we spotted this little outdoor cat house near our parking spot… apparently this little one lives there 
Too cute for words.
Bye bye Hyatt cat!
♥ E&I
