We heart California...

Alex and I went back to California (our favorite vacation spot second to Disneyworld of course). We began the weekend in San Diego, which was a great surprise from the hubs, and ended the weekend in LA for the UH vs. UCLA. (I will not be talking about the game in this post)

While in San Diego, we started out by going to Balboa Park where they have all their museums, parks, and a lot of areas to walk around. We walked around there for a couple of hours and went to the Museum of Natural History.

Neither Alex nor I are big museum people, but we figured sometimes museums are kind of interesting. The Museum of Natural History was actually kind of a bust....but we did come across a Cougar, so Alex got a picture with the school mascot. :)

Alex and Shasta

After we were done wandering around Balboa Park, we head north of San Diego to La Jolla. The weather was WONDERFUL and I was actually a little chilly in my dress. We ate at Sushi on the Rock in La Jolla. We were able to sit outside and could see the ocean. Plus the sushi was SO good. After lunch we headed down by the water....

We were looking out at the water and I kept telling Alex that I thought I saw seals and he kept telling me that they were ducks. (well there were ducks, but I swore I kept seeing these seals popping up out of the water) Well a couple minutes later, what do we hear, but a seal.

On those rocks way behind Alex, there were a couple seals and TONS of pelicans. Plus, if you look closely, there is a person the water swimming laps. Just swimming with the seals. I think they may do a triathlon here or train for one, because there were buoys marking distances out in the water. I could NOT imagine swimming in that water, it looks FREEZING!!

We stayed down by the water for quite a while. There were all these little crabs everywhere and Alex TOTALLY freaked me out suggesting that I almost stepped on one. I seriously almost fell into the water. Not a funny joke. You don't mess with crabs. ha

From La Jolla we headed a little farther north to The Grand Del Mar Resort and was it ever Grand. We had the TIME of our lives and decided we needed to get back to this resort sometime, possibly for our 5 year wedding anniversary which also is the year we turn 30. (scary how close that is.....)

This resort was amazing for the breath taking views, great rooms/pool/golf course etc, but what REALLY blew us away was the service. I have NEVER encountered such amazing service. From the bell hop to the management, this resort has it down. I am so glad that this was the first of MANY stays at The Grand Del Mar. Alex kept saying they picked a perfect name because everything about the resort was exactly that... "GRAND!"

Wednesday Night we got to get all dressed up and eat at their 5 Star/ 5 Diamond restaurant onsite called Addisons. We had a very romantic table overlooking the backlit fareway. It was perfect. In between each course, they would bring a particular food that would cleanse your palet for the next course. It was a very unique experience but wonderful! Again, the service was stellar. Their wine selection included 35,000 wines!! Bananas I tell you.

All dressed up and ready to go!!

We went to the bar after dinner and sat by the fire and talked for hours. It was wonderful. My hubs has to be one of the best trip planners. As I mentioned, this portion of the trip was a surprise. Thanks Alex for a great surprise. Love you boo.

Here is random pick of our room... I am standing at the balcony and you are looking into the bathroom.

Other side of the room with the couch and balcony. The weather was awesome. We left our balcony open the whole time we were there!

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early. We had room service brought to the room and then Alex went off to play a round of golf and I went off for 90 minutes of heaven -- what a great massage. Even got a work out in there.

Here is our breakfast -- pastries, fruit smoothie, bagel, omelette, OJ and of course a Diet coke for me. :)

This brought me back to our wedding night. The Waters ordered a full breakfast to be brought to our room the morning after our wedding. It made me feel like I was in pretty woman. Great memory -- Thanks Waters for being such a huge blessing to Alex and I in big and small ways. :) I digress....lets get back on track...

Thursday evening we headed from our wonderful resort northbound to LA. We laid low Thursday night, because LA traffic is LAME. Seriously...how do you people live in LA with that traffic. M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E. If I lived there I would get a motorcycle.

Friday we met up with Steven and his friend Javi went to Universal Studios. It was a lot of fun and again the weather was ridiculously awesome.

Why hello chunky butt -- gotta love pictures to remind you how you REALLY look. Time to get back into working out hard core and eating boring food. :/ But not until after this weekend -- too much fun stuff going on to worry about it right now.



This is as close as we got to any movie stars...Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks and other guy (Bill Paxton, had to look him up) haha

While we were at Universal and on the Backlot Tour (which we barely made, the last one of the day is in spanish, so we were worried we were going to have to have Javi translate for us), they were taping Desperate Housewives. I couldn't see any stars, just security guards and a house decorated up for Halloween.

Saturday we headed over to Old Pasadena - they have all these cute shops and restaurants. We got to get a little shopping in.....Alex even went with me to H&M. We went to Barneys Beanery which was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for their Chili. They actually sell a $200 something chili dog -- it comes with a chili dog and a bottle of Don Perignon. haha

I didnt try the chili but everyone said it was good. We hung out there for quite a while watching the other games on that day and meeting up with all the other Cougars in Pasadena for the game.

Then we headed over to the Rose Bowl for gametime!! They actually get to tailgate on grass which is nice. They had a good showing and it was a lot of fun. The game itself -- not so fun. We love you Kace & Cotton and hope you heal up quick.

Leivas in UCLA

Roomies for life

PS - Any cute, single, catholic ladies looking for a man??? :) Steven needs a bride (as his mom likes to remind me)

That pretty much sums up our trip. Always nice to get away with my favorite travel buddy.