California Adventures - Day 3

I cant ever resist putting flowers in my hair

So, today we started out with yet another fabulous breakfast from our chef Paula at the inn. I chose the home made granola (SO good) and yogurt and fresh fruit. And before that she cooked fresh berry muffins that was honestly the best muffin I have ever had--on top of a raspberry campote. Then, we talked to some locals and got the down low on the best shopping so we headed to Mission Valley and shopped for a couple hours. Then, mom really wanted to go to San Juan Capistrano--the oldest church in San Diego still standing. Not really my thing, but she loved it and it did give me good photo opportunities.

 

 

Next, we headed down Pacific Coast Highway to hit the beaches. This is the scenic route to the beaches and it was incredible. We first stopped at Crystal Cove (below) and Laguna Beach. We had dolphins swimming literally just a couple yards off shore (mom thought it was a shark at first) but it was 4 or 5 dolphins and they swam around the whole time we were there. They are such fascinating creatures--I am totally a dolphin in another life.

 

 

 

Next, we went to Newport Beach and ate lunch. We didnt really explore much of Newport we just stopped real quick for food - the town was nice though.

Our last stop was Huntington Beach--Surf City. I ended up not surfing today because of our limited time but I guess Ill have hopefully all summer to do that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view of Laguna from the car

 

 

 

Laguna Beach was by far my favorite beach and beach town. Lauguna was the most authentic to me-- Huntington is definitely a fun place and hot spot, but it is very commercialized compared to Laguna. Laguna could just take your breath away.

After the beaches, we headed back to San Diego. We knew we wanted pizza for dinner (which was good because we had a very healthy breakfast and lunch) so we asked some locals for truly San Diego's best pizza around. They said Bronx Pizza--it was a hole in the wall place (usually a good sign for good authentic food) but it was definitely some of the best pizza I have ever had.

After that we went to Seaport Village down by Harbor Drive and did some more shopping. Then, we went to San Diego's most famous place for desserts -- Extraordinary Desserts. It was overwhelming, you could barely get in the door but I chose a blackberry danish. It had a flower on top and edible gold encrusted on it. It was delicious.

Tomorrow, we will ofcourse start out with another amazing breakfast then go check out the Invisible Children Headquarters around the corner for a tour (if you dont know what is going on with them and Kony 2012 I suggest you look it up). Then, we might check out San Diego State (yay!) then we will head to the San Diego Zoo (hoping to see baby pandas born!) and in the later afternoon go to Balboa Park.

Time here is going by so fast, I dont want to leave. I really do love it. I still want to come back and visit San Francisco and see if I would like to live there. 

Oh yeah, we totally passed the National Cat Protection Society in Newport--I think that was the cherry on top of my reasons to move to Cali with my new-found love for cats--I would totally volunteer there.