My good friend from high school lives in California with his wife, so I decided to come visit them since it has been over 2 years since I've seen them. His wife was put on bed rest for her pregnancy, so I was pretty bummed she couldn't come along on our adventures. Nick was so excited for me to come out. He had a ton planned for us. We spent 3 days touring around places.

Pasadena - We wandered around the Sidewalk Chalk festival in Pasadena. At first we were a little disappointed because it seemed like there were more classic cars than sidewalk chalk. But then we hit the explosion of sidewalk chalk! It was so amazing. I really appreciated those artists that made their pictures look realistic. After that we ate an extended supper at Yard House. Nick had heard about their huge beer list and wanted to try it. Wow was this place great! There were 2 pages of beers! We all ordered some then perused the appetizers! That was hard to choose from! We finally decided on some tuna and some cheese dip as well. As we enjoyed the beer and appetizers, we finally had to decide on entrees. I had an amazing burger. Meanwhile we ordered a second round of beers. We absolutely loved this place! To get back to Torrance we took the metro train. It was late, but not too late I thought. Yet we ended up being the only ones on the train for a part of the trip! Crazy!

San Diego - Our drive to San Diego was beautiful! We took the highway next to the ocean. I was a little jealous that there was a road that could look over the ocean as you drove. There is definitely no place like that in Wisconsin. Nick had me choose between Olde Town or Gaslamp district in San Diego. We decided to start in Olde Town and then see if we wanted to wander the Gaslamp district. Olde Town was nice. It was very touristy and silly at times, but I still had a great time. We wandered around several stores within the complex. After we ate a yummy Mexican meal we headed over to the Gaslamp district for a while. This was so much fun! There were a ton of restaurants that I would have loved to eat at. Then we were drawn to this HUGE conference center. We couldn't believe how big the place was. As we followed the center toward the ocean, we saw Petco Field, the home of the San Diego Padres. I was super excited because I have been on a total baseball kick this summer. I have gone to 5 Brewers games this summer! We walked around the entire stadium trying to find the Pro Shop. As we were going around the stadium we found a spot where you could walk all the way down to the field! It was so amazing. I loved taking pictures that close to the field. By this time of the day we had to start going back. On the way back to the car we noticed this place that had a wall of Icee machines. We went in and found out that this was a daiquiri bar! It was amazing! I loved it! We were able to test a bunch of the flavors since we were the only ones in the bar. I absolutely love finds like this. (It was called Wet Willies) We went back up toward Torrance but made a quick stop at the Stone Brewery in Escondido. We thought we would get there in time for the tour, but it was sold out 20 minutes before! We were told that we should stick around and see if there were any extra spots. Thankfully our guide was awesome and he took a bunch of extra people on the tour. The tour was great, the beer was ok. I really do like beer, but this stuff was not great. Still, drinking beer is not a bad end to the day!

California beaches - For my last day Nick had planned that we go to a few beaches. First we went to the Torrance farmers' market to get food for supper. I love love loved the farmers' market! All the food smelled so yummy. We sampled a bunch of fruit and then bought some Korean BBQ chicken! YUM! Then we headed to the first beach - Venice Beach. We walked the vendors here. It was definitely interesting. I found some birthday presents for my friends. We also saw some/many medical drug "clinics". Oh California. The skateboarding pits of the beach was awesome. There was a little kid that was more impressive than many of the adults! Once we had enough of this beach, we headed over to Santa Monica beach. Here we just sat on the pier and soaked in the sun. I loved looking over the the skyline and the Ferris wheel. It was absolutely perfect! We then went home and grilled out food. We stayed up pretty late just talking and hanging out. I absolutely loved my time with great friends in California!