Sunday morning at the beach...

Just a few snapshots from Crystal Cove.  This beach is just a 10 minute drive down the street from our apartment.  While living here in California, we tried to make it down to the beach as much as possible.  This is one of my favorite spots.  It's always a lot quieter than the rest of the beaches and there's barely anyone ever there.  I want to remember this spot when we move back to the east coast.

Scenes from the Weekend

Dinner at Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach Friday night

Spent Saturday hiking in the Cleveland National Forest

It was such a gorgeous day!

Views of the ocean from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain!

Made our way down to San Clemente after our hike

and was pleasantly surprised with all the Christmas lights on the pier!

Dinner at Pizza Port of course

(getting in as many visits as possible before we leave!)

Sunday morning coffee at the beach

I'm going to miss this being right down the street from our place

The rest of Sunday was spent brewery hopping!

Rough Draft, Saint Archer, Hess, and Ballast Point!

Can never have enough beer tastings!

Hess Brewing had a gigantic Jenga game!

Perfect sunset to end our last weekend in California

Well, thus concludes our last weekend living in California.  We made sure to live it up doing all of our favorite things.  I'm sure going to miss having the beach right down the street from our place.  But I'm looking forward to getting back to Pittsburgh to do all our favorite things there!  This week is going to be busy, busy.  My last day of work is Thursday.  And besides working, we've got a lot to do: start packing and cleaning our apartment, plan our cross-country road trip back, finish up our Christmas shopping, and hopefully hit up a few more of our favorite places one last time.

I'm going to need a lot of coffee to power me through these next few days...

Then it's time to hit the roooad!

Let's get to it!*

Thanksgiving in California...

Even though we weren't able to make it home for Thanksgiving this year, we still had a great holiday!  A bit different than our normal traditions, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless...

A gorgeous sunset hike at Crystal Cove

Coffee & the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

A glorious bike ride down to the water

(to compensate for the massive consumption of food later...)

Brett prepping our HUGE turkey breast for two

(A whole turkey would have been way too much food)

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you!

It may not be quite the same as home, but we made the best of it =)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

And now onto CHRISTMAS!!!*

Scenes from the Weekend

Stumbled upon an awesome bar in Costa Mesa Friday night: Goat Hill Tavern

Then met up with our friend Brandon for dinner and drinks - fun times!

Saturday morning breakfast on the beach!

Headed up to the mountains for a hike in the Cleveland National Forest

We made patatas bravas!!

(An authentic Spanish dish that we ate almost every night while we were in Spain - so delicious!)

A leisurely Sunday walk around Irvine Regional Park while Brett mountain biked

Sunday afternoon beers at Noble Ale Works!

And winding down from the weekend with some tasty snacks, delicious wine, and our owl friend =)

 Lots on the agenda for this week, so here we go!

Happy (?) Monday!*

Mom & Dad Visit Southern California!

Well, we dropped my parents off at the airport on Sunday morning.  Womp womp.  We had the BEST time with them visiting this past week.  Our time together flew by way too fast and I miss them already.  We had such a good time showing them around California and definitely did a ton of FUN stuff!

While my parents were here, we...

 Walked along the beach at Crystal Cove in Laguna

Checked out Downtown Disney & the awesome Lego store

 Took the walk with Hanson =)

Went to the Hanson concert at House of Blues Anaheim!
(Dad & Brett did not partake in this part...haha)

Checked out the Griffith Observatory and awesome views

 Saw the Hollywood sign

Introduced Mom & Dad to the amazing In-N-Out

Walked down Hollywood Blvd
(My Mom's nickname is "Fred" haha)

And my Dad got interviewed for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
(and he was ON that night!)

Took another walk with Hanson on Sunset Blvd =)

Made some delicious homemade pizza

Went biking along the beach

Took them to the Top of the World!

Went to Downtown Disney again for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe

Explored Tablerock Beach

And walked along Thousand Steps Beach

Found the Elephant Parade at Dana Point

Witnessed a beautiful San Clemente sunset

And hung out on the pier before dinner at Fisherman's Wharf for their last night

We had such an amazing time together.  Seeing my parents made us miss home even more.  We can't wait until we can get back to Pittsburgh and see everyone!  What a wonderful week we had together.

Counting down the days until we can see them again!