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:
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:
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:
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!!!
