As I was turning 39 I realized that all I wanted to do for my birthday was try something new, sit by a pool and relax with the folks I love and eat my Mom’s good food. I got a chance to do that and more ! The good folks over at Mitsubishi allowed me to test drive the 2018 Outlander Sport, I rented an awesome home on Airnbnb complete with a pool, and my friends and family all came by to help me celebrate another year of life!
This year my birthday fell on a Thursday, I knew I had the weekend carved out for the more festive festivities, so I wanted to be low key on my actual birthday. I sent a group text message to all of my friends letting them know where I would be and suggesting they text me directly with any questions. I realized after having not heard from anyone I didn’t ask for any confirmations so when the day rolled around I wasn’t sure if anyone would show, however, I went ahead to the bar I’d chosen (The Rhythm Room) and decided that regardless of anyone showing up I’d just make the best of it. Plus, I knew there would be a house full at the Airbnb so I knew I would celebrate at some point that weekend.
On my way to The Rhythm Room my Mom called to cancel and then a couple others followed suit, I began to worry that nobody was going to show! I sat there for about an hour and was just about to ask for the check when one after the other all of my friends started to show!
One of the reasons I chose The Rhythm Room was because I’d gone on a date there before and I loved the speakeasy vibe of the bar and all of the fun board games they had to play. It was a fun twist to the regular first date meet up and opened us up to a lot of conversation and laughs. It definitely did the same for my birthday! We played a fun game called “What Do You Meme?” where each of us were given a popular internet image and from 6 cards that were dealt to you with actual “meme’s” on them, you had to choose the funniest that would go with the image. We laughed hard ALL night!
What started out being a kind of “up in the air” day, ended amazingly well! It was the perfect segway to the weekend….
Finding an Airbnb that would accommodate me & up to 20 guests at a time proved to be a bigger challenge than I was expecting. If I found a house spacious enough the owners were too afraid to rent it to me because they were scared off by the fact that it was for my “birthday” which immediately made them think huge out of control party. If I found a host that would accommodate me, they wanted me to pay a huge holding fee that was twice the rental price of the Airbnb and I just couldn’t afford it. Thank GOD for James!
Jame’s house was the PERFECT house for my birthday. He usually rents to large families on Disneyland vacations so his house was well equipped with all the amenities I needed. He had the perfect pool, pool toys, a kitchen that was stocked with snacks and drinks for guests to enjoy and a game room complete with a ping-pong table, air hockey and other arcade games.
Everyone commented about how homey Jame’s home felt and we were all comfortable sleeping there.
Besides loving the sleeping quarters, the amenities, and the vibe of the home, I LOVED the backyard!!! We played flip cup, listened to music, splashed around the pool and enjoyed the sun and it was PERFECT!
As I get older I realize more and more that my life is testament to the quality of my relationships. Having great people around me, lets me know that I am doing something right! To host family and friends over the weekend in a lovely home, eating, laughing and just enjoying one another is my idea of perfection! Here are some other photos of the weekend.
So a few paragraphs up I stated that I wanted to try something new for my birthday, well that “something new” came right in the form of test driving The 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport!
This car was the absolute perfect car to drive for my birthday week! First of all the bells and whistles were super convenient- leather interior, iPhone connection, and amazing sound system just to name a few. Plus we went grocery shopping for the weekend and that big spacious trunk was able to fit all the food we brought back.
I’m more of a lists girl so I came up with a pros and cons list for the car. Thank me later 😉
Pros
- GREAT price point! This ride starts below $14,395
- Mp3 player; I absolutely loved the iPhone mirror image feature
- Easy Bluetooth set-up
- Seat Warmers
- Dual side temp control
- Rear camera for easy parallel parking
- GREAT gas mileage! I didn’t fill up the whole week and I was back and forth between Los Angles, Long Beach and where the Airbnb was in Garden Grove!
- Roomy interior & spacious trunk
- Smooth and tight ride
- A beautifully big sunroof that spanned the length of the car
Con’s
- When I plugged my iPhone with AUX cord into the sound system the Apple Play wouldn’t work well so I had to just end up using the bluetooth. Nothing big but it was one of my favorite features of the car and not having it work sucked
- Although the sunroof ran the length of the car, it didn’t open!
Overall I liked this car a lot and if I were looking for an inexpensive family car or a starter SUV I would definitely check this one out! Here are some more images to get a better idea of what you would be working with.
