The Best of Summer

[T-Street Beach, San Clemente, CA]

The best of summer is coming to an end. Be sure to soak it up while it lasts!

Crystal Cove Beach & State Park

Crystal Cove Beach is one of our very favorite beaches. It's a bit of a pain to get to (park across PCH and a long walk to the beach or pay $1 to take the bus down) but it is less crowded than most beaches and is always so pretty.

At the beach you can enjoy exploring the tidepools, go for a morning walk or just lay out and play in the water. At the State Park in the bluffs overlooking the beach you can take a nature walk, have a picnic lunch with a spectacular view or even bike the paved roads.

Parking is $10 at all of the Crystal Cove parking lots. Crystal Cove beach is located just south of Newport off of PCH.

TO EAT:

• Buy picnic items at the Trader Joe's located in the Crystal Cove Promenade just south of the beach area on PCH.


• Eat breakfast or lunch first at the Pacific Whey Cafe in the Crystal Cove Promenade. See previous post.


• Eat right on the beach at the Beachcomber Cafe but be prepared to wait a while! (And I mean like a minimum of an hour, sometimes the wait is hours long.)
  
  
• Walk up the hill to eat at the Shake Shack located right off PCH overlooking the beach.

Hiking in Laguna Canyon

So after almost 6 years (ahem!) of living in Orange County, my husband and I FINALLY went hiking in Laguna Canyon. I still can't believe it took us so many years to get around to checking this activity off my mental list. The one time we did go try and do this hike, the trail was closed from too much rain! Ha - just my luck too!

The park is called the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. We parked in the Willow Canyon Staging Area right on Laguna Canyon Road just below El Toro. It was a beautiful hike, especially right now during the springtime while the grasses are still green. I'm sure it gets pretty dried up in the fall. There isn't much shade at all on these trails so I'd recommend going early in the morning or on a cool day. The trail is also very steep in some places, so no strollers, pregnant women, young children or people not strong enough get in gear and attack steep slopes.

Bring plenty of bottled water too. We thought we were just going for a little hour long hike, but you could go on for hours! We lasted for about 3 hours on my half drunk iced coffee. The views kept getting more and more beautiful that we hated to stop going and turn around. We did finally get to see the ocean as well.


P.S. Don't pick the flowers. Or even a flower! I picked one teensy flower along the trail at the top of the world, with no one around, and stuck it in my hair and the park ranger actually pulled her pick up truck over along the trail to stop and tell me to leave it there so it can reseed more flowers...for goodness sakes! At least I didn't leave my Starbucks cup up there!

Why I Love Saturday Mornings

Who doesn't love saturday mornings right? Well I love Saturday mornings because my husband and I started a new tradition. We sleep in, get showered then head straight down to the beach for a late breakfast. It's our new "date night". And I love it. Driving with the windows down, listening to Jack Johnson, eating pancakes and bacon with a view of the pacific ocean. Then we go for a walk on the beach (or just sit and soak up the sun if we're too full.) It feels like being on vacation for a few hours. You should try it sometime. :)

One of our favorite places to eat is the Pacific Whey Cafe in the Crystal Cove shopping center off PCH in Newport Beach. You can sit outside and enjoy the incredible view of the ocean across the street. I like the School Boy breakfast because I can never decide what I want to eat (I want a little of everything) and that is what this breakfast comes with: pancakes, toast, fruit, potatoes, bacon & eggs. My hubby gets the breakfast burrito. I think he wanted another one for dinner last night. We're also fans of the Cottage in Laguna Beach that I posted on previously.

Saturday Morning

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and was able to take some time to relax. The weather was beautiful here in South Orange County on Saturday and my hubby & I got to get out and enjoy some of it. We had breakfast on the patio garden at The Cottage in Laguna Beach (on the corner of PCH and Aster/Cliff drive) and then went for a walk along the Laguna Bluffs (off of Cliff Drive). We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place where you can enjoy these type of activities this time of year. Every time we take advantage of it, we wonder why we don't go more often!

If you don't normally get down to the beaches in winter, November/December is actually a great time to go have breakfast or lunch outdoors and go for a walk on the weekends. The sky is usually clear this time of year (less morning fog) and there are less crowds.

Weekend in Big Bear

We got to spend this past weekend in Big Bear with my husband's brother and his wife. The weather was perfect, in the high 70s, which was a nice treat as we left the scorching 90+ weather in Orange County. Our two favorite activities of the weekend: kayaking on Big Bear Lake and bike riding on the paved trail around the lake. My favorite meal: pasta from Paula's Pasta Mia, a quaint little Italian resturant in Blue Jay. What can I say...an Italian can never have too much good pasta!

Photo 1: Scenic view from the bike trail

Photo 2: Two of our bikes looking very picturesque

Photo 3: Honeybees hard at work, they asked me to post their picture on MelliB =)