CALIFORNIA!

Okay, so I love to travel. I love to travel anywhere! But mostly, I love to travel out of the country, to go camping up north, or to my beloved birthplace, California. Luckily, my bestest friend and her new hubby live in my favorite state AND my MTC companion was getting married there this weekend, so I had two excuses to go "home."

I wanted to have a car while I was there, so Mom was nice enough to take two days off of work, one to drive up with me, and one to drive back with me. I dropped her off and picked her up at the airport in between :)

I got there and was delighted to find my darling Becca friend in her darling house being a darling homemaker.

We played games, ate, and walked through cute shops by the beach. They even took me out for some yummy bread bowls and soup at Boudin Bakery- I got to pretend I was back in Northern California. Thanks Mike and Becca! They had a fun date night ahead of them, and I had a beautiful wedding reception to attend, so I headed out for Del Mar to see Sister Smoot and her new hubby and join in the celebration. I have a really cool brother who let me borrow his gps and it saved me on more than one occasion this weekend. However, this adventure was not one of those times.... No one told me that that little panel on the top is actually an antennae, so I had it down the whole time. It took me to Del Mar, but then brought me to the top of a pitch black mountain filled with thick trees and well gated homes and said, "you're here!" Well, I wasn't there. I was on the top of a eerily empty mountain wondering what kind of depressed and unstable rich people lived in the dark homes behind those tall gates. So to avoid a scene from a horror movie, I tried to go back the way I came. Thank goodness for cell phones and Daddys. He talked me into putting up my antennae and trying again... After a little more driving and having to check my name on the guest list (I know, cool, right?) I made it in time for some of the festivities and to congratulate the beautiful couple- what an adventure!!!

Saturday we played some more Risk and went to the beach. A hungry gull found the fishes. But they were OURS! We tried to fight him off, but ended up giving our fish to the birds... :)

Mike braved the waves and did some boogie boarding, I even went for a swim-- It was cold! We had lots of fun and Rebecca and Mike began building their newest kingdom. Rebecca told me to do something with the mound next to her castle, I don't think most kingdoms have a giant turtle, but ours did! Mike built a crazy awesome set of moats and defense structures. I was pretty impressed. I guess the turtle was meant to be extra backup in case of an attack...? The cutie couple went out to sea while I stole Becca's chair and studied my GRE vocab.

On my last night there they took me to the beach again for a nice walk It was so beautiful!

Did anyone need further proof that my hair is straight? I had it in ringlets and it turned totally straight after 5 minutes in the ocean air! No curls to be seen :)

I love the beach! It's so beautiful and peaceful. Becca asked me this weekend, "what is it that makes you want to live here? Is it just the weather and proximity to the beach that draw you?" My question in response was, "what else is there?"