Saturday -the San Diego area!

Welcome to our day in San Diego!

On Saturday morning we stopped at Starbucks then hit the road. Our drive got a little slow due to an accident on I-5, but once we passed that area, it picked right up and was a nice drive! Kristen played DJ with my iPod and we chatted and listened to some tunes.

Just before getting to San Diego itself, we stopped in La Jolla. For you non-Spanish-speaking people, that's pronounced La Hoya. But, just so you know, if you type "La Hoya" in your GPS, it won't show up because that town doesn't exist. But, if you finally figure it out and type "La Jolla" in your GPS, then your handy-dandy GPS will take you right there...
It's a beautiful spot!
Doesn't it look like this picture was posed for a magazine? Nope, this cute couple was just enjoying the view on a sunny day. Perfect bench for wave-watching...

Kristen having some fun on the rocks.
Merilee checking out the ocean.


Beach beauties...

There was a little cove that the seals seemed to really enjoy. We saw a few there and you can see the people having fun watching them. Then, the man standing in the middle started swimming out towards a rock and a few of the seals followed him there and hung out on that rock. It was pretty cool to watch!


A video so you can hear the waves and see the seals. I'm sorry I can't get the salty-ocean-air smell to come through the computer!

La Jolla, California from Kari Swanson on Vimeo.

It was SUCH a beautiful area!! I'm so glad we didn't skip this part of the day!
After leaving La Jolla, we went into San Diego and made it to Old Town San Diego. I had a lot of people telling me to check this place out, and it was worth it! It had the feeling of an old town in Mexico and was full of terra cotta buildings, great little Mexican restaurants, and bright colors. We ate at the place in the picture where there was a really loud parrot sitting directly behind Kristen. It only made her jump once, so we thought that was much better than it could have been. Walking around Old Town was great, and I'd love to go back, but I think I'd plan it a bit differently. It's right in the middle of the city, not too close to the ocean, and we were there in the hottest part of the day. The almost 100 degree heat with the sun shining down on the dark pavement made for a very hot walk so we didn't stay as long as we might have normally chosen to. I better make plans to go back again!

After leaving Old Town, we crossed this beautiful blue and white bridge and made it to Coronado. What a quaint town! This was so fun to see! We parked on the street in front of this great house with lots of character...
walked along a tree-lined street with yards full of gardens...
stopped to smell a few flowers...
and ended up at the Hotel Del Coronado.
There are these little (well, not so little...) cottages/villas that make up the Beach Village. I think we should get 20 or 30 of us to all pitch in together to make it affordable, and hang out here some fun weekend. Who's with me on this idea?
If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I have a love of benches. I'm always looking around for the next great spot to grab a book and read the next couple of chapters. I think this curved bench seems like a fun place to curl up with a novel and listen to the waves in the background!
We went inside and explored a few of the overpriced shops. The big dome area of the hotel is a ballroom/banquet hall with a great ceiling. There was also a really fun, very old elevator that I didn't snap a picture of and wished I had.
We headed out to the water where this little guy had fun walking in the sand.
These taller girls had fun walking in the sand as well!
The sand had this golden sparkle to it, where you felt like you might actually get rich with some golden nuggets. We decided to snap a fun picture, but the waves kept washing up over our feet!
We finally got the picture we wanted! (it might be hard to tell, but the sand really does shimmer!)
I really love waves...
and the silhouettes of people enjoying them!
It was a lovely afternoon!
While we were at the beach, we saw two weddings take place, and saw a bridal party take pictures for a third wedding. I guess it's a popular place!
The bride was beautiful...
and we loved the idea of parasols for the bridesmaids! Very needed in the bright sun!
The short ceremony was very Christ-centered (yes, we stayed around to watch -but so did a bunch of other people!) and I love the view the guests and bridal party had for this wedding!
We left the hotel and walked towards the town of Coronado. It's a quaint town (am I using that word too much to describe our wonderful vacation?) with lots of fun little shops. We wandered in and out of many of them, then decided that we were a little hungry, but after our big lunch, not too hungry. So, it was agreed upon... ICE CREAM for dinner! Yummy!
Can you see the joy on these faces enjoying this wonderful treat?
We knew we still had a two-hour drive home, so we walked back towards our car...
saw some really great architecture...
and beautiful palm trees.
About a mile or two down the road, we found ourselves in the midst of a strange cloud. We couldn't tell if it was fog, a cloud, or maybe even looked like a sand-storm except we didn't get any sand on my car. It turned the sky an eery color and it was weird to be able to look right at the sun with this strange cloud-cover over it. Kristen snapped this great picture!
As we were driving back, we realized it would be a great sunset! So, I got off on an exit and drove towards the sunset. It turns out I wasn't the only one with that idea! We found a ton of cars all pulled over on the side of the road to watch it. Don't you think it was worth it?


Well, we hope you enjoyed getting to see our fun day! We had a blast and are so thankful we got to visit San Diego.

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!

First Day of Summer

I had a GREAT day today! My cousin, Kristen, and her friend, Merilee, are in town for a visit, and we had a BLAST today, doing a lot of relaxing in some pretty fun places! I'm too tired to tell you all about it just now, but thought I'd tease you with these couple of pictures and tell you that there will be many more to come!