California: Day 2

We slept in Thursday morning and woke up to a leisurely breakfast of coffee (Starbucks K cup! New obsession!) and an english muffin. We got ready for the day and then headed out to Newport Beach to rent a Duffy boat.

Garth was captain and he loved it! He wants a boat even more now, I think. My brother, Brad, played navigator. They both did exceptionally well.

The rents!

LuAnn and Ramzi!

The "kids" as we were called this trip, ha!

It was the perfect day for a leisurely boat ride. It was a weekday so we pretty much had the harbor to ourselves. There was a light breeze and the weather was sunny and 80 degrees. 

We had appetizers and wine as we tooled around the harbor. Does it get much better than that?

We gawked at the yachts and the beautiful mansions. It was pure bliss. 

I was in heaven looking at all the houses!

Fun fact: This is John Wayne's boat!

It was so relaxing. We just had the most enjoyable time soaking it all in. We even saw a seal!

I just couldn't get over the pretty houses.

This house was my favorite.

After our little boat cruise we went to Laguna Beach to do some beach walking. Our hosts just knew us so well and took us to the ocean as much as possible. LOVE. 

Gosh, I heart palm trees. We must have looked like such freaks because we flipped out about EVERYTHING. The weather. The sunshine. The palm trees. The mountains. The ocean. The flowers. 

We were just so easily amused and so completely in awe over the beautiful landscape.

Just looking at all these pictures makes me miss it so much. It was such a blast!

Does the theme song to The Hills come to mind when you see the above photos? Just me? I would be lying if I told you I wasn't looking for Heidi, Lauren, Stephen, Brody and the rest of the cast.

We went back to Nicole and Jason's house and relaxed for a bit and had coffee, then we headed to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse for dinner. This was Brittany and Jay's favorite restaurant. Garth and I split the chicken bacon ranch pizza which was incredible. But Brad loved it and I loved Brad's chicken avocado pizza with garlic aioli so we kind of switched. But it was all so yummy and the beer they brew onsite is amazing. I had the Jeremiah Red and loved it!

Garth and I wanted a picture outside by the fountain. The picture is pretty dark, but I had to share because my dad is photo bombing our picture. Hilarious!

After dinner we all headed back to Nicole and Jason's house to work on wedding guest gifts. We had quite the assembly line going and got all 200 plus put together in just over an hour. Booyah!!! Good times. We were rewarded with wine after our hard work and sat around and talked for a bit before calling it a day. Another fun-filled, fantastic day in California if you ask me!