Vacay- Day 4 (and 5)

Tuesday, Stephen had two meetings with people around the OC, so the kids and I had the day to explore the area.

First, we had to get our game faces on...

Then we ate breakfast at a Yelp-recommended donut shop.

Then, we headed to Irvine Regional Park, a cool park not too far from the hotel.  The kids played on the playground, and we rented a fun "bike" for an hour to tour the park.

Thankfully, Sydney could help pedal.  Those hills were tough!

A view of the mountains from the car.

We got to meet Stephen between his meetings for lunch, and we decided to go to In-n-Out Burger.  I haven't eaten a fast food burger since high school, and I was hoping for other options (chicken sandwich, etc) but LITERALLY all they had were burgers.  And only, like, 4 to choose from.  I have to admit... it was really good.  The kids loved it.

After lunch, the kids and I went to a place called Boomers!, which was an indoor arcade, a water park, outdoor fun, and more.  It was like kiddie heaven.  It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

We ate out that night and had to go back to the hotel and pack up... wah waaaaaah...

The next day was uneventful, as we headed back to LAX and flew home!  It was a fun little vacation!

Vacay- Day 3

Monday morning, we got up, did some work, ate breakfast, and then headed with Stephen up to a town called Chatsworth that is north of LA.  One of his customers is based there, and he's worked with them for years now.  They had wanted to meet our motley crew, so we were all going to go to lunch after Stephen's meeting with them.

As beautiful as California is, I could never live in LA.  The unpredictable and all-day-long traffic makes Atlanta traffic look like nothing!  Oh, and you might be behind a Maserati.

We dropped Stephen off at their office, then headed to a nearby mall while he did his thing.

Mid-morning "snack".  This time difference made my normally hungry children hungry at weird times of the day!

We then met the group at a pizza place.  I didn't take any pics at lunch, but we got to meet 6 of Stephen's friends from this company.  It was nice to put faces to names!

After making the 2-hour-with-traffic venture back to the OC, we decided to hang out at the hotel, swim, play ping-pong and foosball, and then eat there for dinner.

This was so. much. fun.

Vacay- Day 2

We woke up around 6:00 AM Sunday morning, which was Father's Day!  We gave Stephen his little card and gift, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Laguna Beach.  It was only about a 15 minute drive from the hotel, which was a nice reprieve from the day before.  We left steamy, humid Atlanta and woke up to 63 degrees in LA!  It was very chilly, so we didn't wear our bathing suits to go to the beach, like we had planned to.

Honey, I shrunk the kids!

The ocean!

We first stopped at a park called Crystal Cove State Park, which had some hiking trails that we ventured on.  You hike on dirt trails up with nothing but mountain views, until you get to a certain height where you can have a great view of the Pacific Ocean!  That was about as high as we made it, with Taylor, the "hike hater", starting to gripe and moan and complain.  We turned around, tried to avoid any rattlesnakes (we didn't see any, but we saw warning signs every quarter of a mile!) and drove to another part of the same park, which was across the street by the ocean.

Here, we could walk down to the beach and see the ocean.  The beaches are gorgeous, yet so different from east coast beaches.  They don't have as much of a "chill on the beach all day" feel, as there isn't as much free sand to hang out on and there are lots of rocks on the beach.  The waves were pretty strong and we got to see some brave souls surfing in the distance.

See that house?  We zillowed it and it was something like $64 million.  We were so tempted. ;P

After the beach, we headed to a cool park called Bluebird Park.  They had different types of playground equipment, and the kids enjoyed it for about half an hour.  Then we went and grabbed some lunch before heading to the actual town of Laguna Beach.

By this point, the temperature had warmed up to the mid-70s, and Main Beach in Laguna Beach was hopping.  There were several volleyball courts, basketball courts, lots of sandy beaches, and tons of people.  Still not as much sand space as most Florida beaches have, but people were all crammed in there, claiming any space they could... and they didn't seem to mind.

We walked around downtown Laguna Beach, shopped a little, hit up a candy store, went down to the beach to people watch.  You really saw all sorts of people- tourists, locals, people in bathing suits, people dressed up, old, young, skateboarders, dogs galore, etc.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel and hung out there the rest of the evening.

Super foosball!