California knows how to party (part 1)

I am back from my 2 - 3 week hiatus in which time I travelled to California where I climbed a bunch of mountains, ate too many pizzas and applied sunblock like it was going outta style (but it's never going out of style because the sun can KILL! Apply that SPF liberally, kids). 

You know those times when your friends want to show you vacation pictures featuring like 42898467486 species of plants they saw, 5482563847 shots of them eating food,  and another 3892175478 pictures of them posing in front of rocks and stuff - and you politely smile and feign interest? Well, consider that good practice because I've got a bunch of vacay pics coming up and I'm using this post as my travel diary so that in years from now, I can be all like 'Oh yeah I ate that' or whatevs.


Day 1: Got our rental car from Enterprise Cars then headed for Irvine just in time for the Michigan-Rutgers match followed by a delicious BBQ dinner with the family.

BBQ king Mike chopping the beef for maximum yums

Day 2: I was all like 'pffft what jetlag?' but then woke up at 1pm so yeaaaaah. After a late lunch at Beachcomber at Newport Beach, our day was pretty much over so we capped it with a dip in the hot tub and a take-home pizza from Mod.

My awesome god-parents and some unintentional matchy-matchy

Newport Beach is postcard worthy - Wish you were here!

Day 3: The road trip begins! We brunched at 28 Beach then walked about Venice Beach looking at men whose arm muscles were larger than my head. We popped into Camarillo for some outlet shopping before dinner in Santa Barbara with aunty Belita and her family.

The French Toast at 28 Beach is a whole lotta noms.

Searching for muscular men

The view from aunty Belita's is phenomenal

Day 4: Had a quick breakfast at Crush Cakes which had great coffee then we started on our journey towards Big Sur. People had been telling me that we HAD to drive along the coast because it was supposed to be super beautiful but we saw a whole lotta fog. On a whim, we decided to stay one night in Big Sur so we booked a cabin at Ripplewoods. We had a kind of pricey and not great meal at Deetjens but the night ended on a high - we lit a campfire because we're outdoorsy people and drank beer and ate cheese in front of the fire.

Crush Cakes breakfast for one shared by two

It's a motherfricking cabin in the (ripple)woods.

Caveman make fire.

Day 5: We went for a morning hike because I'm an action outdoorsy person ok? Don't let my ghostly pallor deceive you. Then we drove through Carmel (so pretty!) and Monterey (not so pretty) and stopped to eat at Mundos Cafe before heading to San Francisco. We ended up being extremely cool and eating cheese at Mission Cheese which is some hipster cheese and beer place that only cool people go to before having a fancy meal at Abbot's Cellar with Nik and GP who were so lovely to let us crash at their beautiful home.

What is that smell? Oh. it's nature.

This is the face one makes after eating way too much cheese.

Abbot's Cellar is a fancy person place with a cool interior.

Day 6: Mousie raved to me about the lemon ricotta pancakes at Plow so obvi that was the first place we ate at before we did the touristy thing of walking around Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf where we saw a bunch of sea lions not doing anything and played a couple of games at the Musee Mecanique.

Then GIMMEAFRICKINMEDAL because we went tandem cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge (I can't actually cycle) and had lunch at a Greek deli in Sausalito before taking a ferry back to San Fran. 

We dropped by my cousin Zack's place to look in awe at his kegerator (a keg fridge which brings him so much joy I had to mention it here) then had a wonderful pizza at Tony's Pizza.

1 minute before I inhaled my food and it was byebye lemon ricotta pancakes

That's what I look like first thing in the morning.

He's pretending to be the captain of the tandem bike but we all know who the real boss is

The weather in Sausalito was way nicer.

I want to marry Tony's Pizza

Ladies, my cousin Zack is single and has a kegerator.

This is where I sign off because I have to take Nacho out for a poop but I'll continue part 2 another day. Hope you enjoyed my vacay pics! (You smile politely and feign interest).