Feels like home to me

I went to California two weekends ago with one of my best friends, Ellyn. And it was absolutely the perfect vacation. It was exactly what I've been needing lately.

We left Phoenix on Thursday morning and drove to San Diego. That evening we went to the San Diego temple. It is so gorgeous. This has long been my favorite temple, but I hadn't been inside since I was a kid and went to the open house. I have to say, the beauty inside far outweighs the beauty outside.

After we finished at the temple we drove to our hotel in Oceanside. We stopped for dinner at a cute little diner called The Pit. Really great burgers and fries. We originally stopped at a super ghetto drive thru but were too nervous to eat there. Glad we moved on, because The Pit was awesome. That night we settled in and watched the olympics then went to bed.

On Friday we woke up early and drove to Newport Beach to go to the temple there. So great.

Then we headed to Newport Beach and laid in the sun for hours. That beach is by far my favorite. The sand is soft, the waves are just right. It's not too busy to make you crazy. Really, it's just right.

We read and slept and played in the water, and it was great.

In the evening we went back to Oceanside, grabbed some take out dinner at a local Latino market and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. I love sunsets at the beach. Then back to the hotel to warm up in the hot tub, watch some Olympics and fall asleep early. Oh how I love going to sleep early! Don't worry, I medicated myself to sleep each night. I no longer trust my ability to sleep on my own.

Saturday morning we braved the traffic to go up to Los Angeles. We got to the temple first thing and enjoyed our third temple in three days.

Then we headed to Huntington Beach. And it was crazy! We had to park over a mile away and walk to the beach.

And it happened to be the US Open of Surfing that day, so the beach was insanely crowded. We used to go to Huntington when we lived in California, and I remember it being fun, but this time it was somewhat of a dud.

The sand was really rough and it was over crowded. All in all, our least favorite beach of the trip. But we still enjoyed the sun, sand and water.

We saw this crazy high truck twice.  Ellyn is really short, and this truck was insanely tall.

That night we went back to Oceanside and watched the sunset at the beach again. Then we watched the olympics and went to bed. Another perfect day.

Sunday morning we slept in a little, had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and went to the beach at Oceanside. We just laid on the beach and relaxed for a few hours. It was so nice to just hang out at the beach everyday.

After a while we headed back home. The drive went well, and we made it safe to hot Phoenix. It sure was unpleasant to open the car door to 108 degrees after spending four days in paradise.

All in all the vacation was perfect. Relaxing, uplifting, rejuvenating. Couldn't have asked for anything better!