About: Girl's Weekend in SoCal!

This was a first for me - I've been on two other girls trips, but they were with family and I was invited/taken along on them - and I loved them! I had been missing my friend Stephanie so much, and so ready for a break from Idaho that when I found a cheap ticket I went ahead and bought it to fly down for the long weekend. It. Was. So. Fun. We did whatever we wanted, had great weather, and just had the best time relaxing and talking and doing new things. I came home feeling relaxed and also energized.

Saturday morning when Steph picked me up at the airport we drove straight to Newport and went to the Fashion Island Mall so we could have lunch at Lemonade, a place neither of us had ever been, but were recommended. We loved it! After a little shopping to go along with that we headed to another recommendation, Crystal Cove, which is a little beach area that's a part of Newport - since it was also a state park we had to pay to get in, but it meant that the beach was not overly populated as we would've expected on such a nice Saturday. We lived it up sitting with our feet in the sand, eyes on the waves, and not a care in the world. We explored the creatures living in the tide pools, walked in the water, and stayed until sunset just so we could see what it looked like.

 It was worth it. 

Afterwards we stopped at Downtown Disney on the way home to have a walk around and some dinner - we shared some delicious nachos, and did a little shopping, but it was so crowded there, and we were pretty tired... also we weren't allowed in to Disneyland so we figured we might as well keep it short and head back to get some rest. 

The next morning we headed out pretty early for Palm Springs! Stephanie had booked us pedicures at a nice day spa which meant that we had access to the pool and all amenities for the entire day - this could not have been more perfect. The pedicures were so relaxing, and then the weather was sunny and warm and beautiful and we laid by the pool for hours just taking in the beauty and vitamin D (and get just enough sunburned to feel good about it).

 About dinner time we headed out to check out the downtown Palm Springs area - it was also pretty crowded (holiday weekend + Modernism week = lots of tourists)... it wasn't exactly what we had in mind so after a bit we headed out - but not before driving through some neighborhoods to see all the fantastic mid century architecture and a quick stop at the visitor's center and then In N Out on the way home.

On our last day together we headed into L.A. - Stephanie had never been to The Grove and I knew she would love it and we always like going shopping together.

 It was a much chillier day that ended with some rain. We enjoyed our time at the mall though, and our lunch at The Original Farmer's Market, and our Sprinkles cupcake, we even spotted a celebrity (Donna from Parks & Rec)! We got to see the Hollywood sign and drive through some of the central L.A. neighborhoods on our Google Maps detour to the freeway to avoid traffic - it was so interesting! I was hoping to make one more stop in L.A. but as we were leaving the drizzle turned to hail and the traffic picked up so we decided to head back to Riverside, which turned out to be a great idea because got to do some unplanned and really fun sight-seeing around the area that both of us loved! 

She took me downtown to see the Mission Inn, it's on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and it was beyond imagination just how beautiful it was! 

 We explored almost every nook and cranny of it before taking another little walk around downtown to get coffee and see some sights, then out to a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner.

 It was just so nice to spend some time in California, one of my favorite places, to soak up some sun and girl time and be utterly relaxed. I missed having the family there, because they would have enjoyed all of it, but also I wouldn't have changed a bit of it.... maybe we'll make this girls weekend an annual thing :)

I put together a video of all the video clips and a few more pics and realized that they were mostly coffees, food, and palm trees - ha!

Until next time California!