Huntington Beach or Bust!

Disclaimer: This is gonna be a long one... I'm recapping the Cali trip in just one post. When I try to spread them out, it takes way too damn long and I don't seem to get around to it! So here goes!Noelle and I planned a little trip to Hungtington Beach this year over Memorial Day. After last year's slightly disastrous Memorial Day trip we decided to keep this year's on the DL and farily low-key. Noelle hadn't been to see her brother's family in quite a while so we decided that's where we should go. The fact that we got to stay with them for free was pretty sweet too!
We flew out Wednesday late afternoon, had a layover in Phoenix, almost spent all of our money in the Brighton store in the airport, and arrived around 8 PM in Orange County. Waiting for the luggage and renting the car took FOREVER, so by the time we got to Kevin and Shellie's we were in for the night. Lauren was a doll and let us move into her room for 5 days! Thursday morning I was woken up by Noelle serenading me with the guitar. No she can't play it, but that sure as hell didn't stop her from trying. We got up, grabbed some coffee and explored the yard a bit. Kevin and Shellie (referred to as K&S from here on out) have a house with a fabulous yard, a spool (spa/pool) and flowers galore. I think we spent 20 minutes taking pics of the hibiscus tree! We got ready, ran to the pharmacy (which took forever) and then decided to check out Balboa Island for the afternoon. We had lunch at this cute little Italian place, but the food was crap. Very disappointing. After that we checked out a few of the shops on the main stretch and came home with a few treasures (and pressies for our friends). That night we headed to dinner with Kevin and the kids (Shellie had to head up north for a wedding for a few days; and when I say kids I mean Lauren, Kenzie and Jake) and ended up at Longboard's. Dinner was pretty good and then we walked down to the pier. Weather was a bit chilly but it was clear and beautiful!Later that night Noelle and I headed up to Long Beach to meet a friend. We took Sasha the Garmin Whore with us (she's our trusty GPS that we both want to beat into oblivion) and we ended up taking 1.5 hours to get there. It should have taken 20 minutes. She (Sasha) took us to the trucking yard... TWICE! At that point I decided to look up the address of the place we were going and actually put that into Sasha. It took us right there. How two Masters degree recipients took 1.5 hours to figure that out, I will never know.
Friday morning we woke up and headed straight for the beach... do not pass go, do not collect $200. Just get me to the effing beach! And let me tell ya, it was pure heaven! Both of us needed that like you have no idea. It was absolutely perfect. And we would have stayed there all damn day except for the fact that we had to pee. We debated peeing in the sand, but there were too many witnesses. The water was too chilly. Plus, I don't get in the water!

Noelle and I had lunch at Ruby's on the end of the pier. It's a cute little old-fashioned diner with pretty yummy food. It's so much fun being at the beach and looking over the ocean. I absolutely love it! After lunch we ran over to Trader Joe's (which we don't have in Utah) and did a little shopping. We got a ton of wine and stuff to make dinner. I was going to help with dinner but ended up taking a long-ass nap, and Noelle was on her own. It was quite delish though!

The rest of the night we hung out around the house with Kevin and the kids. Here's a little backstory on the kiddos. Lauren just turned 18 and is graduating from high school next week, I think. Noelle and I spent a lot of time with Miss Lauren over the weekend. Kenzie is 16, a sophomore in high school, and had a decathalon on Saturday and Sunday that weekend. She spent a lot of time prepping and participating in that so we didn't get to hang out as much. Mr. Jake is 12 and is quite the artiste! In fact, he made me a drawing and Noelle still has it.
Saturday morning Noelle, Lauren and I drove down to San Diego. It's about a 1.5 hour drive from Huntington but with traffic, it took us about 2 hours. We went to Kono's for breakfast and ate out on the deck. Have I ever mentioned how much I love San Diego? Didn't think so!

After breakfast the three of us went to find the Flying Panther (?) tattoo studio in Downtown SD so we could get Lauren a tattoo. The shop is owned by a friend of ours' brother and so we knew it was a place we could trust. That was Aunt Nellie's birthday/graduation gift to her. It was her first tattoo and ended up not being nearly as bad as she was anticipating. A very good experience all in all. Next stop on our agenda was Fashion Valley mall. The MAC and Tiffany & Co. stores were calling our names. I didn't do too much damage in MAC, weird, I know... but I managed to spend some moola in Tiffany. I bought myself a new necklace chain and contributed money towards a bracelet for Noelle for her graduation gift. I love walking out of there with pretty things!

After blowing nearly all our money at the mall, we went to Coyote Cafe for dinner and margaritas. Well, margaritas and a bite to eat... let's be real here, people! Did you see the size of those things?! I don't like tequila so Noelle has been suggesting I try a margarita with vodka... Hellloooo! Good idea! I loved it. I'll definitely be making some of those this summer. After dinner we made the trek back to Huntington Beach and crashed fairly early.

Sunday morning we went to breakfast with Lauren at Ohana Cafe, otherwise known as Breadcrumbs. It's a very cute little family-owned cafe the the back corner of a strip mall... If you have the chance, check it out. Yummy stuff! After breakfast Noelle and I decided to go shopping... watch out! Now I can't even remember where we went! Hmmm... Oh duh!

Noelle had never been to Fashion Island so I decided she had to see it. Not that we could really afford anything at the mall, but it's a fun place to visit... the atmosphere is all worth it. After that we went over to the Avenue (plus size clothing store) to see what they had to offer, and ended up getting a few cute things. I even found a new swim suit!
After shopping it was time to return the car so we had the girls follow us to the airport so we could have a ride back to the house. Shellie had made it back home by this time so we decided to order dinner in for the night and hang out at the house. We got Chinese food from some place they order from all the time. The lady who delivers just comes inside and starts putting everything out for you. Pretty entertaining.

I don't know what Jake was doing, but this picture cracked me up and I had to share it with y'all. Like I said, he's quite the artiste and he was working on another one of his masterpieces!

That's Shellie, but pretend you don't see her. She wasn't really there, *wink* *wink.* I think it's actually a cute picture!

Before dinner arrived we started drinking sparkling clementine juice with vodka... and by the time dinner got there, I was three sheets to the wind. I hadn't drank in a looong time and it was kind of fun! Later, Lauren and Kenzie entertained us with their rendition of "Yes" by LMFAO. I have it on video and will probably post it on here sometime in the near future. I won't include it in this post because it's already so long.

By the way, Kenzie took 5th place her the Decathalon! Way to go Kenz! I think her dad made a comment in reference to Gaylord Focker... rude! His ass wasn't out there, was it?! I'm proud of you, Kenzie!
On Monday morning we got up and I made breakfast for the fam. They'd never had rice patties, so I introduced them to the joy of leftover rice. If you want the recipe, give me a holler. They were all pretty impressed, that is, unless they were lying to me! From there I had to hurry and get packed. It was a good thing I took an extra bag with me. Lots of crap to bring home! K&M drove us to the airport and dropped us off... and now we can't wait to go back!!!

So there you have it, Huntington Beach in a nutshell, or a large overstuffed back of nuts... whatever. Hope you all had a great weekend and I can't wait to get caught up on bloggyland!