This is Hollywood!

After a day at the zoo and a delicious introduction to In-N-Out Burger, mom and I hopped in the car and headed north on the 101 to LaLa Land! It was fun to drive and see signs for the places you see on tv: Malibu, The Hills, Laguna, etc.

On Day 3, we stopped in on some friends from church who are now living in Huntington Beach. So good to see Dan and Melissa, their little guys, and the place they call home.

Then it was on to Hollywood! I've heard Hollywood is a bit underwhelming, but we figured, if we were going to be in California on a girls trip, it was a must stop. 'They' were right, Hollywood was a bit of a dud, but we were right too, that it was good to stop by.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame!  A few highlights from the walk:

They were setting up for the premier of Monster's University! Cool to see where all that actually happens. The red banners highlight the Jimmy Kimmel Show, that I think was taping there too!

Just to the left of The Knickerbocker Theater sign, you can see THE sign - Hollywood!  And of course, I needed to hang out with Marilyn too!

After leaving Hollywood, we headed north again up to Simi Valley to see the Reagan Presidential Library on Day 4. Fab-U-Lous. I am a Reagan baby, and while I knew he was wonderful I didnt really realize how wonderful. This is a must see in California.

We were greeted by Ron and Nancy upon arrival.

Learned so much about the Reagan's as people and saw lots of their memorable things, including Air Force One!

 hehe - Nancy's so proud of me, and look at Jimmy Carter! He was glad to have anyone take over! :)

The grave site - totally lovely with a beautiful view over the Californian mountains that he loved.

After leaving the Reagan, we went west to Ventura and met up with Steve and Alyssa and their family for dinner!  So good to catch up with old neighborhood friends in their new neighborhood.  We never had an avocado tree in the backyard, just crab apples and old pear trees!

A view from the top of Ventura overlooking the ocean.

We went to dinner just north of town at a darling little place on the beach.  We sat outside to eat, (which we did a lot on this vacation and enjoyed SO much) and the kids could play in the giant sandbox, with the Pacific just on the other side of the hedge!

Faith and Shane :)

After this is was north again to Cambria, CA looking forward to seeing the Hurst Castle and the Giant Redwoods!

California! Here I came!!!

California! The Golden Coast: where the beaches are huge, the kids are ultra cool, and life is one long day in the sun (without sunburn of course). Growing up, California just seemed like a far off place of unattainable Disney utopia, and now I've been! It was great, even if I didnt ever run into Danny Tanner or anyone from the Mickey Mouse Club for that matter :)

Mom and I spent a week driving up the coast and taking in the sites. It was a great trip, full of fun, sites, adventures and no plans or maps!

I spent Day 1 hanging around and enjoying the little town of Pacific Beach.

First sighting of the Pacific Ocean!! toes in the water!

Ahh breakfast on the balcony overlooking the pools and then a little swim later

I rented a bike and went for a spin! So Californian!

We rode the bus into Old Town to walk around and have a little dinner. I hadnt thought about how much history Southern California has, it was interesting to learn a little more.

Day 2 was a trip to the San Diego Zoo! I have heard so much about this zoo, it was fun to finally see it for myself :)

Some of our favorite friends. The Polar Bears and Elephants were neat too. Baby Panda was sleeping the the tree, SO cute!

Riding on the Skyfari!

Stop number one after the zoo was my only real agenda item for the entire trip - In-N-Out Burger! Delicious with a capital D, especially Animal Style - dont judge us Javier!

After we left the zoo we hopped into the car and headed up to LA!  California cruising on the 101! It was a beautiful drive, and we even found that California has 'Fancy Dancey' rest areas to boot!

Welcome to the world Harrison!

Recently, my friends welcomed their fourth little one to the world.  

Harrison James

Prince Harry came to meet us Monday June 10th just before 8 am. 

I was sure it was a boy the whole time (except the last day when I got gun shy.)  

His three (yes, three) older sisters couldnt wait to boss him around meet him. 

The girls keep calling him 'her' :)

Let's Go Tigers!!!

That was our rally cry!  

Since dating, Peter and I have said over and over, we need to go to a Tigers game - so, we finally did!

We had a great time with Kari and Jason enjoying America's pastime.

It was a perfect day (they havent all been lately), the nachos were SO good! thanks for the tip Karla! and the Tigs managed a win!

Hot Date

We're always keeping it real here.  It was a Tuesday so my show was on the road, and Sweet Pete didnt disappoint! He took me to dinner, and since he knows how to show a girl a good time we went mini golfing AND he let me hit in the batting cages.  

What a guy!

It was really fun, and my batting average went through the roof!  Just call me Miggy!

DC: where Dreams Come True

Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for sure! We went out to DC to visit the family and had a lot of fun along the way!  Trampoline, zoo, Arlington, baseball, 5 Guys, and Segways were just some of the fun!

Zoooo and National Cathedral - Sam spent most of his time with Peter holding his hand :)

Rolling Thunder rolled through town on Sunday - we saluted!

 What's Memorial Day in DC without a trip to Arlington?

Eric was a guy Peter knew from his time in the Army. It was nice to be able to find this site while there.

No trip to DC is complete without Chick-Fil-A and 5 Guys!

A Nat's game was on Peter's to-do list, so now it's on the done list.

Super cool hot pretzels! Go Nats!

We had a few minutes to kill so we popped into the American History Museum - saw an exhibit on the history of food (music to my ears!) and Julia Child's kitchen!

And after a long time in the making and yearning I finally got to go on a Segway tour! It was excellent! I highly recommend doing it! My favorite part was rolling through the gravel on the mall; striking to be honoring history and engaging the future all at the same time.

We had just arrived in front of the White House when they said Obama would be landing on the lawn shortly.  And sure enough!  Now we've seen Air Force One and the presidential helicopters!

And here is where A LOT of time was spent! It sealed the deal with the kids! We're in!

We had a really fun time and already are forming a list of things to do on the next visit!