Vacation: Laguna Beach

After a very tough 2008, we decided we needed a warm, sunny beach vacation and what better time than during our 7th anniversary and Kerry's birthday. We looked into the Caribbean islands, but with flights alone starting out at $1100, it was too expensive. As many of my blog friends can relate, 3 IVFs in one year can knock out your entire income pretty fast. We had earned free flights with Southwest, so we decided to stick with their destinations. That landed us in Laguna Beach, CA. We went el cheapo on the hotel and rental car, so it was a bargain of a vacation.

Here's a photo blast of our time in California...

Day 1:
Happy 43rd Birthday DH!!! I can't believe you're 43 already, you old fart!

We started our day in New Orleans, awoken by 3 different alarms at 4:45am. Maybe a little overboard, but we did not want to miss our flight.

During our long layover in Houston, I surprised Kerry with a new iPod nano as his was stolen. I had preloaded it with all his favorite songs and also made a playlist of all "our" songs. I had a Y connector with me, so we hooked 2 sets of headphones to it and bopped through the airport listening to our songs.

We arrived in San Diego and drove to our Laguna Beach destination. To our shock, it was in the 50's here while in the 70's back home. So much for our warm beach vacation. We were pretty zombiefied from the time change and long flights. We choose to just chill in our little Laguna Beach Inn and enjoy some down time. Sorry, no photos to share from day 1.

Day 2:
The majority of our plans involved the beach. Now that that was pretty much out of the question, we decided to chill and just play it by ear.

This is the lovely painting of Eve that we awoke to each morning! Kerry commented that Eve must not have been a natural brunette based on her blonde area below, LOL.
Our little Inn, right across the street from the ocean... but of course you can't see it because it's cold and foggy.
Our first stop was the mall to buy me a winter coat. Uh, the new swimwear we brought, staying in the suitcase.
This was one of our last minute excursions, a catamaran dolphin safari. It takes you dolphin and whale watching, which is one of my favorite things to do.
Hello cone head! Don't you love it when your dh lets you walk around looking like an idiot and never says a word?! We were freezing but so excited at the possibility of getting to see a whale that we weathered it for 3 hrs. Other than a few dolphin, we didn't get to see much. It was one of those rare trips where the sea creatures were just not interested in checking us out. While a disappointment, it was still fun getting out on the ocean.
Day 3:
We're headed to Hollywood! We really had no clue what all to do, so we just bought a city pass and did the tourist thing. We did the Hollywood walking tour, celebrity home tour, wax museum and Kodak Theater tour. We visited the Hollywood sign on the hill, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the Hollywood stars on the sidewalks.

The day started out rainy and chilly, you can start to see the ocean.
A view of Los Angeles... I had no idea this place was THAT big. You can't really tell in this photo, but LA is huge and goes on forever.
Baby Jesus goes to LA... will there be some fruitfulness in Cali??? (if you missed my last post, this won't make sense)
Our last stop was to see a movie at the El Capitan theater. This 1926 theater was restored to its original design by Disney.
30 mins before each movie, this guy plays this incredible organ like they did back in the day. He played all the Disney theme songs as Kerry and I sang along.Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-AyMy, oh my what a wonderful DayPlenty of sunshine heading my way (Where???)Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Ay
This one cracks me up!!! We attempted to get a photo of us with our 3D glasses. What's ironic is the movie was about aliens... I think we fit right in.
Day 4:
Our last full day here. The weather was finally warming up and it was time to hit the beach. While we finally got to put on the swimwear, we ended up buying a huge beach towel before we even finished our walk from the car to the beach as we were shivering. We walked barefoot along the beach wearing the towel as a blanket. We attempted to get our feet wet, one time was all we needed to decide that there would be no swimming this trip.

Heading out to lunch before hitting the beach.
We so enjoyed this path leading to the ocean from our hotel. It was really neat to see all the painters out painting the ocean landscape.
Some fun in the sand.
Our shoe prints.
We ended our evening with a really nice sunset dinner at The Beach House right on the ocean.
Finally, I thought it was time for Eve to put some clothes on.
Day 5:
Time to go home. =((((

Our last few moments before heading back to San Diego to catch our flight.
Our favorite scenic photo.
Despite the rare chilly weather, we had an awesome time and can't wait to go back. I could totally live there! Love was in the air and it was like a 2nd honeymoon.