California 2017 - The Rest of Our Adventures

We didn't spend the entire time at the beach, I promise.  Here are a few of my favorite non-beach photos from our trip...

Airports & plane rides, selfies & bike rides, smoothies & tree hangs, hiking & zoo time, breweries & delish food, sunsets & flying home...

We love California so much.  It holds a special place in our hearts, especially since we lived there for a short time.  We try to go back as often as possible to get our Cali fix, so we aren't tempted to move back... ;)

And our next fix is coming soon!

Dear April, please come faster...

California, we're ready for you!*

Scenes from the Weekend

Spent all day on Saturday wandering around Joshua Tree!

It was chilly, but awesome

Our friend Brandon came along with us

I'm really strong, guys

Finished up our hike right as the sun was setting

Stopped at the Joshua Tree gift ship for some cool stickers!

And found the magic school bus

And ended the night at the Joshua Tree Saloon before heading home

Look, In-n-Out is getting all festive for the holidays!

Checked out some new breweries on Sunday: Iron Fist and Barrel Harbor
(honestly, we weren't impressed with either of them)

So we went where we knew we could get some good beers: The Lost Abbey!

And ended the night at Stone Brewing Company!

Now that we are officially moving home to Pittsburgh in a few weeks, we are trying to squeeze in as many things as possible that we want to do here in California before we leave.  It is definitely bittersweet.  We are going to miss a lot of things about California, but we are also really excited to get home.  But with these few short weeks that we do have left here, we are making them count!  And also stocking up on all our favorite beers to take home with us to the east coast. ;)

Cheers!!*

We should probably start packing...

Scenes from the Weekend

Lee & Jess (my brother & sister-in-law) are visiting!

Kicking things off with dinner at Stone Brewing Company!

Mmm, Saturday morning donuts

Hiking along the coast in Laguna Beach

What a beautiful day!

A snapshot of the guys at the top of our hike

"Cards Against Humanity" - This game is RIDICULOUS!  Lee & Jess gave it to us as a gift and we have been playing it for the past 3 days straight.  It is hilarious!

Hanging at San Clemente, where Brett taught Lee how to surf!

We have been having SO much fun with Lee & Jess here!  They are still here and don't leave until Wednesday, so we have a few more days of fun ahead!

Happy (?) Monday!*

Let's get right to it!

One of the things Brett and I were most excited about when moving to California was all the awesome breweries in the area.  We couldn't wait to visit some of these places and we didn't wait.  After only a week of living in California, we decided to take a mini road trip down to the San Diego area for some brewery tours and fun on the weekend.  

We headed out on a sunny Saturday morning and hit the road.  We stopped at the town of Oceanside on our way because we didn't want to start drinking beer at 10am... :)  After roaming the pier and checking out the area for a while, we deemed it officially beer o'clock and headed to our first brewery of the trip:

The Lost Abbey

(which shares a brewhouse with Port Brewing Co.)

We sampled some beers, went on a fun brewery tour, and hung out in the barrel room.  This place had an awesome vibe.  We hope to come back and visit again, for sure.  After a few hours hanging at the Lost Abbey, we continued on to the second brew stop of the trip:

Stone Brewing Company

We've been to Stone before on one of our previous California vacations (which after just looking at those links, I realized I wore the same dress both times, ha!), but we couldn't wait to come back and visit again.  We didn't go on a brewery tour this time.  Instead, we grabbed a couple pints and relaxed in the beer garden for a while before heading inside for dinner.  Just like the first time we visited, we had a blast spending time at Stone.  I'm sure we'll be back again soon!

After our fun brewery filled afternoon, we continued on down to San Diego!

We booked a hotel (with an awesome rooftop lounge that provided great views of San Diego!) in the Gaslamp Quarter and soon after checking in, the sun had set and we were ready for the night.  The Gaslamp Quarter was hopping and we had a ton of fun drinking and dancing the night away at various bars.  And at the end of the night, of course pizza was eaten. ;)

We woke up the next morning with an immense need for an awesome breakfast (read: we were really hungover).  So we packed up our things, checked out of our hotel, and hit the road back towards home.  We heard about an awesome breakfast place in La Jolla and decided we must stop.  And I am soo glad we did.

We ate at Kono's Surf Club Cafe and had to wait in a line wrapped around the entire building but it was so worth it.  The breakfast was gigantic and delicious.  Completely hit the spot.  Afterwards, we strolled the pier and checked out all the surfers before getting back in the car and heading home, where we then took a 2 hour nap... :)

Fun times!