Fast Cars and Family

Another weekend taking the 5 North, we left early Friday afternoon to spend time with friends and family up the coast.  My cousins had been vacationing in Huntington Beach for a week to celebrate their parents 40th wedding anniversary!  I haven’t seen any of them in such a long time and it was so wonderful to pop in for the day!  We enjoyed sitting on the back porch catching up and looking through a wonderful photo album that Lauren put together of Karen and Jim’s wedding from 40 years ago!

Soon after, we gathered numerous beach toys, a beautiful butterfly kite and walked to the beach. Kate and Connor enjoyed standing as close to the water as possible and then running away with all their might when the waves came near. This is, of course, the universal kid beach game!

It was great sitting on the beach talking to Robin and Mike about their upcoming move to Laguna and all the wonderful exciting things they will get to experience once they move here from Chicago!

We eventually walked back to the house and changed before heading out to dinner at an Italian Restaurant in downtown Huntington Beach!

Jim and Lauren

Connor, Robin, Mike and Kate-  These guys have now moved to Laguna Nigel!

Karen and me

James and I enjoyed spending time with the Quinn family, et al.  What a great opportunity to get together!  We are thrilled for Robin, Mike and the kids who are now in California.  Since this visit, we have had a few more opportunities to get together with them and have just really enjoyed it.

That night, we spent the night at our friends who live in Long Beach.  Whenever we are here, I love relaxing on their back patio.  It’s the quintessential California backyard.

Not much sitting around though.  We soon hopped on those fancy bikes and rode to downtown Long Beach for some street racing!

Because what else would you do when they shut down the roads for the Grand Prix!

Taking a break from the races, we settled into a table with some friends at Yardhouse.

Our bodies were exhausted from the long day in the sun, fun times spent meeting new people and the many miles on a bike getting around.  It was the kind of tired you felt when you were a kid, when you just run around and play; you don’t even realize how completely worn out you are until you sit down and just konk out.  (And I did just that when we got back to their friends house.)

Once back at Rudy and Kindell’s we dropped off the bikes, sat on the porch to rest our legs and then headed out to an incredible dinner at a sushi restaurant called I Luv Sushi.

Delicious.

I can’t get enough of that backyard!  The inside of their home is pretty amazing too.

Overall, we had a fun, exciting weekend learning a little more about what this California life is all about.  Surrounded by family and friends, I gotta admit, life is pretty sweet.