Our Weekend...

I don't know if you've heard (which I'm sure you have) but Florida has been dealing with some pretty intense wildfires - more than 420 brush fires to be more specific.  In recent days we've had plenty of rain but it's just not enough to beat the fires because of the lighting that is coming along with the rain.  Many of the fires have been started by the lightning. 

Fortunately our area in Jacksonville hasn't directly been hit by the fires but we are definitely dealing with the smoke that's coming as a result of the fire and tons and tons of rain.  These two pictures were taken on my way home from work one day last week:

You can't really tell from these pictures but even with the heavy rain we've been experiencing you can still see the smoke lingering in the air.
In happier news, one of Paul's best friends (Paulo) was in town from Brazil last week so we got to spend some quality time with him.  When we were in high school Paulo lived with Paul as an exchange student and to this day they are still the closest of friends and whenever Paulo comes to town we make sure to get a group of his buddies together to celebrate:

Side Note: No, my husband is not obsessed with Bret Michaels, he actually had a basal-cell carcinoma removed from his head so he wore the blue bandana to cover up the bandage he had to wear.  The good news is that the doctor was able to remove plenty of skin around the cancer and Paul is healing really nicely.

We had a great time seeing Paulo and catching up because as we're getting older we seem to see him less and less.  We love you Paulo!!!

Happy Monday!!!

Family Time Back Home

This past weekend Paul had the annual Gerrety Camping Trip where he and all of his friends, as well as his dad and all of his friends, get together for a long weekend of guy time so it was the perfect opportunity for me to head home for some quality time with my family as well as my BFF Brittan - it also happened to be the weekend of my sister's 15 year high school reunion so I went as her plus 1 and we had a blast.

I wish I had taken more pictures from the whole weekend but the one's I got of my sister dancing at her reunion are so classic so at least I got these:

Paige had a blast dancing solo and I had just as much fun watching her break it down :)

After her reunion we met up with Britt, my bestest friend in the whole wide world (besides Paul), so I had to get at least one photo of us:

After we took this picture we realized that our last photo that we took together was almost 5 years ago.  Have we changed much???

How about when we lived together about 8 years ago --- see much of a change?

I think the only thing that's really changed is our hair - mine got lighter and straighter and hers got darker and shorter.

Anywho, the weekend went by way too quickly but it was so much fun to spend time with my family and Brittan (who I also also consider to be family).  I think I've convinced Paul that we should head home for the long 4th of July weekend so hopefully we'll get some more time with not only my family but Paul's family too.

Happy Monday!!!

Trip to California Continued

Okay, so back to our fabulous vacation...

After Paul and I spent some extra time with my brother and sister in San Francisco we started our trek down the coastline of California with no agenda or time frame - I can't tell you how nice it was to have the ease of traveling however fast or slow we wanted and being able to stop whenever we wanted for a bathroom break or to take in the beautiful scenery.

Here's some great shots we got on our first day:

On our first day we took our time driving down Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) and stopped a few times to take some great shots - the view was absolutely amazing. 

The first place we stopped to stay overnight was in Pismo Beach/San Luis Obispo.  Paul was really looking forward to getting in the water because it had been almost 4 years since he'd surfed in the Pacific Ocean. 

The original plan was that Paul would rent a board for a half day while we were in Pismo Beach and then he would get a 3 day board rental once we got down to Southern California.  He made sure to pack his wetsuit so there was no need to worry about the water temps - or so we thought.  We weren't expecting that the water would get down to below 60 degrees.  When we went to go check the waves, all of the guys out in the water not only had on wetsuits but they were also wearing hoods and booties.  They were literally covered from head to toe.  I felt so bad for Paul but the good news was that the waves weren't all that good while we were in Pismo so it didn't take long for Pauly to get over it.

Here's some pictures we got while in Pismo Beach:

I know it looks a little overcast but that was just the morning fog before it had lifted - the day ended up really sunny and a perfect temperature.

On a side note, while we were checking out the surfers in the water I spotted a few little guys hanging on to the pier and I just had to take some pictures:

If you can't see them very well, those little pink spots just above the water line are the biggest star fish I've ever seen and there were about 50 of them all along the support poles of the pier.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

After we spent a little more time in the Pismo Beach area we got back in the car and continued on our journey.  We were trying to decide where our next destination would be when I remembered hearing about this little Danish town that's really close to Santa Barbara and supposedly well worth a visit.  I told Paul about it and before we knew it we were on our way to that little town called Solvang.  Here's some of our pictures:

We had lunch at this really cute pub - with the BEST ceviche ever - and walked around town checking out all of the shops before we loaded up and got back on the road headed South bound on 101.

Here's a few random pictures we got after leaving Solvang:

 Our rental car was a mini van and it was AWESOME!!!

When we first started planning our trip to California we knew for sure that we wanted to spend a few days in Southern California.  In case you didn't know, Paul and I lived out in Laguna Beach (Paul) and Costa Mesa (me) for about a year before we moved to Jacksonville so we had a few places that we wanted to go see and a few people that we wanted to spend some time with.  It's hard to believe how much things have changed in the past 4 years, since moving from California: we moved in together, we got engaged, we got married, we adopted Teddy Bear...as much as we liked California, life is so much more complete these days :)

Here's a few of our favorite places that we made sure to visit while we were in town:

This was the view from Paul's house in Laguna Beach (we drove by both his old house and my old place in Costa Mesa and they both looked exactly the same)

These next 3 are from our favorite Mexican restaurant in Laguna Beach, Adolfo's.  It's really reasonably priced and very authentic:

This is from a Sushi restaurant we would visit and we called it "Train Track Sushi" because the sushi would move along this conveyer belt and you could pick what you wanted from the track.  Probably not the most germ free means of eating but it was still fun:

 About halfway through the trip we had to do laundry so here I am in the hotel laundry room waiting  on our clothes to dry --- and why not enjoy a little vino??? 

 The water temperatures were much warmer in Southern California so we hit a few of Paul's favorite surf spots in San Clemente & Newport Beach:

Look at the name of the board he rented:

We also enjoyed some dinner dates out around town:

And before heading back to Florida we had to make a stop by one of our favorite pubs, The Goat Hill Tavern, to play some shuffle board:

We have so many more pictures from our trip on Paul's camera but I'll have to post those in some future entry.

Anywho, we had such an amazing time in California but I must say it's so nice to be back home with Teddy Bear and settled into our old routine.  There's so much to be said about being at home :)

Happy Monday!!!