Friday -Laguna and Huntington Beaches

Monday night I had to drop off Kristen and Merilee at the airport. It was really sad to see them go! We had a wonderful weekend together, and it was so fun to both "play hostess" and also feel like I was on vacation as well!

After staying up late Thursday night when they landed, we slept in a bit on Friday morning. Well, some of us did. Others of us woke up at 4am because our bodies sometimes forget if its supposed to be awake or asleep...

We packed up a picnic lunch, made yummy smoothies with my new Magic Bullet (BIG fan so far!) and hit the road. We stopped by Jim and Marilyn's to water house-plants while they were gone, admired Marilyn's lovely geraniums

and Merilee was helpful in watering the outside front garden. You can tell by her grin we were already off to a fun start of our day! Since Fullerton reached a high of 99 degrees that day, having the hose going for a few minutes felt pretty nice!

Then, three excited girls hopped in the car and headed to the beach! It was the moment we were all excited about, and going to Laguna Beach, we weren't disappointed!

We went to an overlook and watched the surfers a bit
then left to head down here:

We enjoyed our picnic on the beach, had a great time in the ocean cooling off or jumping the waves, and relaxing on the blankets trying to get a tan (turns out SPF 30 really does block everything and we didn't get really any color that day whatsoever). To the right of us we could see the palm tree area that has the overlook we were at.
To the left of us was a great area for walking. I went as far as the condos you see at the end of the beach and realized when I go to Laguna next, this is where I'll spread out my blankets because it's not quite as crowded.

One of the fun things of the day was the great chance for people watching! These little boys in front of us were having lots of fun!


We decided to get packed up and head up Pacific Coast Highway towards Huntington Beach. Along the way, we pulled over quick at one of the state parks to snap a few pictures. It was a beautiful location!
You know how much I love black and whites...
My beautiful cousin, Kristen. I'm so glad you came to visit!

I'm so glad I was able to make a new friend in Merilee! It was so fun getting to know you!

When we weren't barefoot in the sand, we (of course!) lived in our flip-flops. Look at these fun feet!

Oh, the beauty of the ocean...

So you might be able to guess that we had a lot of fun trying to get pictures of all of us in it! There are a lot of two-people pictures! But, after doing a few "hold the camera out in front of us" shots, someone finally walked by this secluded area and took a picture for us.
We left this state park and drove just a few miles north passing Newport Beach, and moving into Huntington Beach. I love that these places are all so close together! Here's the Huntington Beach pier with Ruby's at the end.
A fun gathering place to people-watch.
I love flags blowing in the wind...
and there are a few of them on this pier!
There were tons of sand volleyball courts, but being it was the end of the day, I'm guessing the players were all played out!
I love the layers of waves in this picture.
The beach is so long and wide that even though there were lots of people, it felt less crowded since they were pretty spread out.
I love the coloring and shadows that the late afternoon sun provides.
California babes.

Fishing anyone?
Don't you think this seems like a fun place to celebrate the Fourth of July? I'm going to have to do a little research and find the best spot with all these great beaches I've found!
Peaceful...
The wait at Ruby's was over an hour, so we grabbed some food from the pick-up window (it tastes just as good inside the restaurant as outside!), found a lovely bench to sit on, and settled in to watch the sunset!
You can see that we weren't disappointed! Can it get any better than this???
When we first sat down, there were a whole bunch of surfers just hanging out in this calm water. It seemed a little strange since there weren't any waves in this area of the ocean. More on it later...
It was great to watch the sun starting to hide behind the horizon.
So I know that I look like I had just spent the day at the beach, but can you see the pure joy of having spent a wonderfully relaxing day with friends in some pretty beautiful places?
A beautiful, relaxed, and happy Kristen!
Beach buddies...
A few of the surfers had given up by now.
After the sun set, we got up and looked over the railing at the other side of the pier. I was able to snap this perfect surfer pic!
Back on "our" side, the waves started picking up -like these surfers knew just what they were waiting for! On the bottom left side of the wave, you can see a surfer catch this one.
I love watching the waves.
There are a few surfers caught in the middle of this wave, and one successful on in the bottom left.
We watched the waves and surfers for a while, then decided it was time to head home. We needed our sleep that night -you know, after a busy day laying on the beach! The sky started getting dark quickly, and here's the view of the palm trees by the parking lot.


I hope you enjoyed our first day of vacation! If you've made it this far in this VERY LONG post, thanks for sticking with me! I know there are a ton of pictures, but decided that it was worth it (especially for my mom and Aunt Barb) to see what our vacation was like. Days 2-4 to follow soon!