Vacation fun!

Well, just got back from a week trip to California and Oregon. My brother got married a block from Malibu beach, which was the reason for going down! So I flew into LAX on Thursday and bam! LA hit me - smog (ick), palm trees (cool), expensive vehicles everywhere (wow!), heat (ick).........but we had so much fun!

The wedding was simple, they went to the beach for pictures after - then we went to a Greek restaurant (The Great Greek) on Ventura Blvd (fun street) for the reception - oh my - it was so fun and the food was amazing - there was a two man band playing Greek music - the waiters would get up and dance and pull others into it - soooooo fun, sooooooo "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"!!! I wound up escorting the bride and groom back to the hotel in their rented convertible Sebring (I WANT ONE!) - Friday night meant Ventura Blvd. was busy - it was really fun! Then we did some visiting and shopping on Saturday and saw family Saturday night in Camarillo. Sunday we headed to Santa Barbara - my dad had scheduled us in for brunch at this Christian conference - it was very nice............OMG Santa Barbara is so pretty - to get to the college where the events were, we drove up in the hills past MANY gated estates - I was taking pictures of just the gates - lol - a local told me that Oprah and Brad Pitt among others have a place up there we may have passed by (I try to say celebrity doesn't impress me, but these homes and the beautiful landscaping did).......we also drove through part of the town area which was very nice with lots of shopping (I couldn't afford a tissue in those places)........

Then we headed north after brunch - we kept driving north as far as we could and wound up staying in Fairfield a little north of Oakland - turns out it's the home of the Jelly Belly factory! So the next morning we went to visit - sadly they were doing maintenance so we didn't tour, but we took pictures outside and in of silly things and bought some goodies. Then north up through the pass to Mt. Shasta; here I met up with Jeff, who had gone to his mom's on the Oregon Coast and borrowed her 2004 Thunderbird convertible - mint green, and with that cool retro look - we drove almost the rest of the trip top down - it was AWESOME!!!!!!!! Perfect weather for it! I'll share pics of my sunburn, heehe...We stayed in Acosta (near Eureka) and the next morning drove down to the Avenue of the Giants to see the Redwoods - amazing - I'll share pics of these too! We even drove through a tree, lol! Then we headed north on 101 up to Newport OR - driving along the coast most of the way - it was sooooo nice - at this point my face was pink so I wore the hood on my jacket most of the time but we still had top down.........I have never seen the OREGON coast with such nice weather for more than a few hours at a time! So then we stayed with MIL for a few days in Newport and headed home Thursday!

It really was a great trip for Jeff and I; we both needed to relax and enjoy each other again! Now it's time to get some stuff done at home while I'm off for summer vacation! Woohoo!

Ok, here come some pictures too....