California love.

5.17.12-5.22.12

Ahhh California.

After my week in Utah I flew to CA to spend a few days in the Bay Area with Mckay.  A friend of his was getting married in the Oakland temple & I couldn't resist a trip to my old home. We enjoyed a few days in San Fran (the Golden Gate bridge, Muir woods, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Ghirardelli square, & too much delicious food).  I love that SF is so completely different from NYC.  We had a great time & he was soaking up the reuniting time with his old college buddies.  I can't say anything mean on my blog but  I will say that once we separated from his friends and did stuff with our friends, I enjoyed myself only slightly more. 

 

While there we had dinner with my oldest & dearest friend, Lauren, and her boyfriend.  We met up with them in Berkley at this organic pizzeria Jupiter & had a great night visiting and stuffing our faces and reminiscing. The guys seemed to get along great,  and they were good sports to let us share some of our funny, growing-up stories with them.  She has a heart of gold & comes from a salt-of-the-earth family --I'm lucky to have a best friend who is there for it all no matter how far away we are from each other.  I wish we were closer (in distance), but I guess in its own way it makes reuniting so exciting & joyful!

(note our matching haircuts- Lauren's Mom gave us those one day at my house. we were in love)

 

Sadly, the trip came to an end faster than I would have liked.  We went to church on Sunday in my old ward & saw so many sweet & familiar faces.  It's always so good to go back & it was such a treat to have Mckay with me to meet all the wonderful Concord people I love.  We stayed with our good family friends (Jim + Bonnie) who were an absolute delight to spend time with.  I could do a whole separate post about that, but I didn't get a single picture of them or their charming home.  But Mckay said to me, "I think they are the nicest people I've ever met." & that just perfectly sums it up!

We stayed our last night in Palo Alto with the beautiful Christine & our good friend Barrett, who also happens to live in the area, joined us for the evening.  We toured Stanford & fell in love.  It was so gorgeous... we could easily see ourselves there.  You never can tell...

On our very last day we drove down the beautiful coast & stopped at every beach & vantage point we could.  We stopped in Pescadero for fresh, warm artichoke bread (thanks for that suggestion Christine!) & just tried to soak in as much of the coastal sun & beauty as we could.  It was a breathtaking drive.

It's always sad when vacations end!

But we were happy to return to our little home.  Mckay hit the books for two more weeks of intense study before taking his CFA test & I am catching up on all the stuff I neglected during school.  Which is a long list. 

Summer is just around the corner & I am so ready to enjoy myself & relax some!!!