California

Last weekend Nick and I were able to go to Orange County, California. Nick needed to go out for work- so i just tagged along. We left Thursday morning and flew directly to Orange County. (For the record- I hate flying. I hate it even more when pregnant!) We made it our fine and got our rental car and luggage. We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach where we had some lunch, treats, and checked out Nick's boss' office. We got all checked into the hotel and relaxed for a little while. We went over to and had dinner on the beach with Nick's boss and his family. It was so nice to eat pizza on the beach.

The next morning Nick got up at around 6am and went to work all morning. I went down to the hotel restaurant and had some yummy breakfast and then say by the pool and read until about noon. We then went out to a business lunch and then walked around by the beach. Afterwards, Nick and I went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. We then went to this huge outdoor mall and were thinking of catching a comedy show. After I threw a mini-fit, we decided to just get some food and went and played games at Dave and Busters.

Saturday morning we slept in a bit and then walked to a awesome bakery in town. It was about a mile to the bakery- which would have been fine had I not taken my vitamins before we left the hotel. I barely made it to the bakery with out puking- but felt much better after we had some awesome doughnuts! We then walked back to the hotel the long way- right next to the ocean. When we got back to the hotel, it was still pretty chilly out. (and cloudy) I was able to talk Nick into coming and sitting in the hot tub by the pool and then just relaxing by the pool. We did that for a couple hours and then went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We went to this restaurant in Laguna Beach that was literally feet from the ocean. It was really cool to eat dinner so close to the water. (We were not that impressed with the food though.) After dinner we drove through some of the hills of Laguna Beach and I freaked out (someone is afraid of heights...) We went to bed fairly early so that we could get up early the next morning.

On Sunday, we decided to drive up to the LA area. We started off by heading up to Hollywood. We walked the stars and then found our way up to the Hollywood sign. It was quite the hike- but totally worth it.

We then headed down to the Dodgers game. I have always told Nick that when we retire I would just like to travel around to all the different sporting events. So, it was very nice for us to add another stadium to our list! (The Dodgers make the Twins look good this year- so the game wasn't the most exciting thing!)

After that, we decided to head over the Venice Beach. It took awhile to get there, but once there we were able to walk around and see the crazies. I was really uncomfortable the whole time and really didn't enjoy it as much as Nick did- but oh well! It was kind of cool to see the canals that hey had made when they originally built the city.

We then went to Santa Monica for dinner. We walked around for awhile and I was getting in the "If you don't feed me now, I will kill you" mode- so we just found a sports bar type place that had open seating. (it was outside too!) We joked that if we were in Minnesota- the outdoor patio would be full and we would have had to sit inside. It was the reverse there! After dinner, we walked down on the pier. We only stayed for awhile- I was getting very tired and sore- so we decided to call it a day.

We drove back to our hotel and took a detour to the Port (of LA I believe.) Nick ships a lot of stuff out of that port, so he was kind of excited to see all the container loaders and how large the port was. We got back to the hotel and both of us crashed.

Monday morning we got up early-ish. We went to the bakery again and got some great doughnuts again. Then we went in to Nick's boss' office for Nick to work for awhile. Nick found us a great deal on massages- so we got a massage down there too. We had to have our rental car back at noon- so we went to the airport and dropped off the car and checked-in. We got some lunch at a horrible restaurant in the airport and waited for our flight. We took off a little late and I was afraid we would miss our connection in Salt lake City. We made it just fine and my mom picked us up from the MSP at 11:20. I was happy to be home!

The next morning Nick and I got to sleep in a bit because my mom took Aidan to school (like she had been doing while we were gone!) Nick met Aidan at school at 10:30 for his "Dad's Day at the Farm" field trip. They had fun and I was able to get some groceries for our house and the kitchen organized!