June 27th & 28th 2013- Laguna Beach

Not a huge change of routine but on the last few days of our perfect vacation (seriously perfect), Matt and I decided to hang out at the pool, but we couldn't abandon the beach entirely, so we would go down to the beach in the morning, come up for lunch, then hang out at the pool till dinner. :)

^ The pool was amazing, and we were always the only people there.  

Not a bad place to eat lunch--

And the sunsets were amazing.

Oh, & naturally, we worked on a few crossword puzzles. I kinda love them now. Matt and I never finished one after the first day because they were so hard though. I like to think that if I work hard I can get good at them, since my grandma typically does the Sunday NY Times puzzle...in ink. :) Maybe it runs in the family?

Laguna Beach was the perfect way to start off my summer... beach everyday, and watching funny movies at night (Miss Congeniality, American Dreamz... Snow White and the Huntsman... which I thought was kind of a comedy!). It was such a great week, thanks x1000 to Matt for opening his home to me! We are planning on making this a tradition! :)

Thursday, June 27th 2013

Marshall Islands (throwback #15)

I have been staying this week with my friend Matt, who I first met while we were both volunteer teachers in the Marshall Islands. We have been looking back at the pictures of orientation and laughing at so many ridiculous RMI stories. Like the time Kasey fell asleep while we were getting a lecture from the coast guard on how if we got lost at sea we would probably just die. Or the time that Todd sang karaoke, how we ate the most disgusting food every day, the sad little "grocery stores", how we were kinda jealous of some other volunteers who paid $15 for a block of cheese, and of course debating which is better: rice and corned beef hash, or rice and ravioli? (I am a rice and corned beef hash girl, myself.)

It's funny how different the experience we had ever  (his island had jungle, mine did not, he taught like 50 kids, I taught 200, he lived in the back of a church, I lived with a family, his family had a truck and three bikes, no one on my island had either of those things, I had one window he had one (that matters!!!) etc.) 

So here we are almost 2 years ago-which is crazy to think it was that long ago!

Also, I am sending lots of love to the RMI this week because the stupid super moon, high tide and global warming means that half of Majuro (the capital) is flooding! 

June 25th 2013- Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach day 2 was just as amazing as day 1.

June 24th 2013- Laguna Beach

 True story.

I texted my friend Matt when I booked my ticket to California (he lives in LA). Here is a pretty accurate recap of how that went:

Me: I am going to be in San Diego for two weeks, you should come visit me!

Matt: Well actually, my family has this little condo in this little town between LA and San Diego called Laguna Beach if you want to meet there instead

Me: That sounds amazing!

Matt: Okay, should I book a whole week?

Me: YES PLEASE

Matt: Okay, sounds good I will get the condo for a week.

So I took the train from San Diego to Laguna Beach, Matt picked me up, and I landed in paradise. 

 It was kind of overcast, so obviously a crossword puzzle was the morning activity.

 But then the sun came out and it was the beach, all the way.

We headed back to the condo for dinner:

And to top off the perfect beach day (number one), we even finished our crossword puzzle!! 

(I think it goes without saying that I never want to leave.)

June 20th 2013 - the state fair

Friday night Caroline and I went to the Fair. Caroline is not a fan of rides (I love them!), so we just looked at the animals and exhibitions, which I love too. The animals are sooo cute. We had so much fun.

 ^ These baby goats were play fighting it was probably the cutest thing I have seen in awhile.

The rabbits were so cute! 

 ^ Especially this one. Which is adorable/confusing.

What we were arguably most excited for, however, was the food. Of course! If you look closely, you can see that one of the available things is a sloppy joe with a donut bun...which we did NOT get. We had corn dogs, & australian fries.

 After DEVOURING the food, we checked out the flower exhibitions.

And got a deep fried klondike! Which was a really unexciting thing. It wasn't that good at all. :(

 Soooo we checked out more cute animals, walked around the rides, & got desert again. This time a frozen banana, which was really good! :)

 Lastly, we went to the craft exhibition hall, my favorite. Because they had CANNING, and LOTS of it. I am totally entering something in my local fair next year.