beach bummin'

when the opportunity came for us to stay at the cottage in newport beach over fourth of july weekend, we took it.  and this time, we were able to take both dogs with us.

teddy seemed to remember it from when we were there over spring break, and he was more than happy to show his sister around.

it didn't take them very long to make themselves at home, and the hub put up a gate so that they couldn't run out onto the street.  they spent a lot of time out on the porch, watching all the activity and barking like crazy at all the dogs who dared to walk past them.

they enjoyed walking on the beach, although neither of them was brave enough to touch the water.

i'd recently regained my sewing mojo and got to wear a bunch of me-made outfits all weekend, which was really cool.

while the old lady and the old man weren't able to join us because of work (and the fact that cocoa refuses to accept june as part of the family, which means getting the dogs together is impossible), we had a really lovely weekend at the beach.  a bunch of the hub's friends joined us one day, while lilcee and co. came to spend the fourth with us.

we went to an old favorite for dinner on our last night:

and then it was time to pack up and go home.  i think these two were perfectly happy to go back to normal life.

vegas - solvang - newport beach

holy crap, i'm so behind.  i didn't know i hadn't actually wrapped up the spring break '23 recaps.  oops.

but i don't want to just skip it, so we'll just banzai right through this bad boy and whip through the second week of break in one post.  by now i guess it doesn't really matter, but i'm gonna do it anyway.

we stopped one more time for some delicious bagel sandwiches at our new favorite spot on our way out of vegas:

and then we proceeded to spend the next seven-plus hours in the truck as we headed to our next destination - solvang, to fulfill a craving that the bean had been nursing for two whole years.

according to them, this place serves up the best burger they've ever had.  too bad that by the time we got there they'd switched to the dinner menu, which does not include said burger.  and nothing we did or said would convince them to make one for us.  "tell the chef i'll give him $100 if he'll just make the burger for us," the hub said...to no avail.  dang.

despite the disappointment, the bean still stopped to recreate a photo that we've taken in this spot at least 2-3 times.

we'd decided to head on home after the burger, but since we couldn't get it until 11:00 the next day we ended up priceline-ing a room a hotel that was so meh, i didn't even take a single photo while we were there.  and then the next morning, we went back to peasant's feast and made the bean's dream come true.

but - you know how you have something stuck in your head and put it on a huge pedestal in your head and convince yourself that it's the best thing on the face of the planet...and then when you finally get it, it doesn't live up to the hype?  sadly, that was the case for the bean.  they said it was still good, but not as good as they remembered.  i will say, though, that it really was quite delicious...but i didn't have any expectations or a previous experience to compare it to.  in any case, i'd eat it again but i wouldn't make a special trip for it for sure.

we walked around solvang as we always do, and stopped for some aebleskivers before we hit the road and headed home.

i don't think i mentioned it, but our sweet cocoa jumped off the couch one day and didn't stick the landing, letting out the saddest cry as she did it.  when we took her to the vet for some x-rays, they found that she'd completely torn her little ACL.  this happened just before spring break and she had to undergo surgery to fix it, which meant that we had to board her while we were gone because she was going to need more constant attention than what our dogsitter was going to be able to provide.  she's totally fine now, fully healed and running around like always.

all that to say that teddy got to join us on the last part of our spring break adventures, which took us down to newport beach.  the hub had secured this super cute little cottage located just a couple of short blocks from the sand:

and we spent the next couple of days just relaxing, enjoying the cool weather, napping on demand.  pretty much the best medicine for a stressed-out freshman trying to get a little zen before jumping back into the last six weeks of a grueling school year.

we even had an almost-proper easter dinner while we were there, plus sandwiches using the leftovers.

teddy seemed torn between intrigued and freaked out by the sand beneath his paws when we walked him down to the beach.

we were excited to see our little cocoa when the vet opened back up the day after easter.  it really could've gone either way - she could have been pissed off at having been left behind, or super excited to come home and be back to normal.  luckily, she went with the latter.

the last few days of break went by in a flash.  we went out for tea with the old lady:

took the bean's BFF to little tokyo for some shopping and udon:

and they spent four hours of four days at driver's ed, where they both earned their certificate of completion.  after a morning that was a comedy of errors, we took that certificate to the DMV and they both passed that written test and came home with their learner's permit in hand.

although can i tell you that was a solid two months ago and the bean has yet to sit down behind the wheel even once.  kids these days...

it's all tradition

while the bean's beloved grandparents were still in town for graduation, we got to spend a day with them going to some of their most favorite spots in southern california.  first up:  a meal at the crab cooker in newport beach.

we hadn't been here in several years - partly due to covid and partly because they were closed for a good bit of time for some much-needed remodeling.  we were pretty amazed when we walked in and saw all of the changes.

we were also a little bummed to see that some of the items on the menu that we'd been looking forward to were gone, but that's okay.  i still got my shrimp cocktail and the grilled shrimp on a skewer.

the bean was pretty happy with their plate o'crab legs.

and even the restrooms had received a major facelift.  is it weird to take restroom photos?  whatever, i did it anyway.

after stuffing ourselves silly with all that delicious seafood, we made our way over to balboa pier for some good old fashioned fun.

i know i've taken (and posted) this picture before, but i really liked the movie "big."  heh.

and it's not a trip to balboa pier without a spin on the ferris wheel.

the views are really pretty from the top.

of course, we took a ride across the harbor on the auto ferry.

which one is the actual "original balboa bar"?  i guess we'll never know, because both places are equally good.

it was a sweet way to end our day together.  get it?  sweet.