Lately...

Things have been cruising along here in sunny (or not so sunny lately.. Summer seems to have forgotten LA a bit this year!) California and we've been enjoying a mix of family visits, exploring the town and continuing to pull our little apartment and life out here together.  It can definitely be a bit daunting to reach the point where you are settled and unpacked but then trying to work on making this place feel more like home.  We've been trying to pull together a "bucket list" for the fall of things we want to do, people we want to visit and new places we want to explore but the west has got so much going for it, it's hard to know where to start!

The past few weeks have been great wandering around our neighborhood, creatively coined "SaMo" (Santa Monica for short) by the locals and doing everything from hitting up the best sunset happy hours to eating at the local Caribbean chicken stand (Cha Cha Chicken... I would say that's the best name ever..) to taking one of the big incline hikes to get the 360-degree view of this beautiful town, coast and forest.  We've also had a blast catching up with family that we rarely got to see while living out East and in the rest of our free time have clearly been working on our California tans at the beach :)

It has been amazing to adjust to our surroundings in other totally unexpected ways as well, namely figuring out that people are just very simply happy and nice around here.  That may sound funny, but coming from 4 years in the Big Apple where it's more dog-eat-dog than love-for-all, we're still finding ourselves surprised when a stranger is nice to us or says hello while we're out on our evening walks.  It's probably been the most pleasant part of the adjustment out here and we're simply loving the beach culture and laid back lifestyle... Makes it pretty hard NOT to be happy and nice all the time!

It's a beautiful day at the beach so we are headed out to enjoy our Sunday but sharing a few pics from the last few weeks of life.. 

Day trip over to Hermosa Beach for brunch..

Our place starting to come a bit more together...

A visit up North to see the Brown clan...

Making time for a relaxing afternoon with our books at the beach...

We found out that Tuesdays are Food Truck night in the neighborhood.. One word: Amazing.

Dirt cakes legs... Would say that was a very successful hike!

Sunset picnic dinner at the beach.. Don't think I'll ever be sick of this view :)

And a bonus photo.. This was the cutest couple I saw at the movies who held hands the whole time... old love gets me every time :)

Coming To You From Sunny Santa Monica...

Finally coming back on the radar after a busy but exciting month of settling in to our new life in California!  We are still pinching ourselves and can't believe we get to live here... between the beach, summer sunshine and rolling hills we are in love with the new neighborhood and can't wait to keep exploring over the coming weeks and months.

Barrett has started his new job downtown and I am starting mine on Monday - we were lucky to have both sides of the family as huge support systems in the first few weeks here and our place is definitely starting to feel more cozy and more like home each day.

This weekend we are headed up to Santa Barbara & Ventura for some family BBQ and county fair time and are feeling so blessed that we get to spend time with family and friends after being away for so long!  Many more photos and memories to come soon, but for now, all of the pictures from our moving and settling in process - enjoy!


Appreciating our old view a few last times...

Prepping for the new lifestyle...

... And enjoying one of my favorite meal at one of our favorite spots - crispy eggs at Amanda's!

Saying goodbye to great friends...

... And hello to new ones!

Visiting my old Manhattan apartments...

Starting the packing process...

Ziggy is not too pleased about the move...

Three musketeers goodbye dinner at East LA...

Giving Zig some goodbye love...

Moving time!

Saying goodbye to my empty room...

Leaving for real...

Ziggy saying goodbye...

The journey begins... with a lucky first class upgrade!

Welcome home!

Some photos of the new place...

Our new street :)

My sad little first week set-up, frozen pizza and cheetos!

Pictures of the new 'hood...

Buying our first car together... the pain of the process and taking Pearl home :)

Family visits :)

Excited to enjoy many more memories in this place soon!

Carmel & Big Sur

Have spent the morning here sipping on a laaaarge cup of coffee and re-tackling the pile of photos I have from our CA trip a few weeks back - already seems like months ago at this point!  Between the moving madness / chaos, it's definitely been relaxing to sneak away to edit and post some photos instead of looking at the bomb of stuff that is all around me 24/7 :)

Speaking of moving.. we are 'officially' on the road late next week and will both be in our new home a week from Saturday!  The whole process has gone so quickly after what seemed like months and months of waiting for things to happen with jobs / transfers and now we are like two cartoon characters who just got run over being all like 'Whaaaaat just happened?!?!'  Luckily, being organized / control freaks comes in handy in these situations and we've gotten through about half of our stuff at this point.  A little final push of packing + purging should do the trick this weekend and we'll be on the road in no time...


Booking the one-way ticket... woop!

Now back to the fun stuff!  Carmel, Big Sur and road-tripping down the Pacific Coast Highway were definitely a highlight of our trip - seeing everything change from Northern CA beach coastline (think rocky, pine trees) to Southern California sunshine and crystal blue water was amazing and even though it takes a bit longer in terms of the drive, it is very well worth it!

Carmel (by the Sea) is home to B's twin sister Tessa, Pebble Beach Golf Course and a million beautiful tiny shops, restaurants and cafes.  The beach in Carmel rivals (and probably beats) our new beach (Santa Monica) with its awesome horseshoe bay, direct view of Pebble Beach and the group of dolphins that regularly make appearances only a few feet from shore.  We spent a morning wandering the beach and the town and couldn't get enough of its charm... excited to go back for another visit once we are finally settled on the West (cough, cough.. Best) Coast soon!



Carmel Fire Station...

Beautiful Buildings & Cottages...

Can't wait to have succulents on our front doorstep!

Made in CA...

Ocean Street, heading down to the beach...

Amazing beach...

Toes in the sand...

Happy twins!

Pebble Beach Golf Course...

Beautiful day...

Dolphins in the bay!

Couldn't get enough of this Big Sis & Little Bro...

Terrorizing me with the seaweed...

Serene.

Taking a break to take in the views...

Beach Cottages...

No addresses allowed in Carmel, every house has a unique name...

California Poppies in full bloom...

Charming Inns everywhere...

Neighborhood map.

Visiting the Carmel Mission...

Spanish architecture...

Loved all of the 'peek-through' courtyards..

After our time in Carmel, we hit the road for the big roadtrip down the PCH - a stop I've been dying to make ever since setting foot in California has been Big Sur.  The pictures of the jagged coast, sea mist and huge cliffs have always stunned me and I was so psyched that we were able to build a stop there into our roadtrip.



Finally a Big Sur postcard of my own!

Tessa had a great plan to stop for lunch at this cafe that hangs over the cliffs and has some of the best views in the area - we had a delicious brunch and took in the 360 views all around us.

Even got a nice little visit from a Hummingbird.. my Grandma Marilyn's favorite bird :)

After lunch, I clearly had to force B into a few photos with a view (can't you see how happy he was about it??)

Then it was back to the road and onto B's hometown in the San Ynez Valley - more pics to come soon!