CA adventure

Once upon a time, some friends of ours rented a beautiful beach house and invited us to join them. We left the girls with baby sitters, loaded up the car at stupid o'clock in the morning and set out on our CA adventure. Two of the couples were flying down to LA and staying for a week at the beach house. But we had decided to carpool with another couple and only stay two days.

The drive was long but fun, getting to have long, enjoyable talks with friends, nap when we could and just generally relax. The drive was great until we approached LA. Despite having left early enough to avoid rush hour traffic, the freeways were still ridiculous and slowed us down considerably. But we survived and left LA, driving up the coast to our destination.

The beach house was beautiful! It was an older home but beautifully decorated inside with a great kitchen and four large bedrooms so each couple could have privacy. We immediately walked the block and a half to the beach and despite the cloudy skies and the minimal waves, it looked wonderful. We spent the evening rounding up groceries, eating pizza and hanging out with friends.

We woke up, ate breakfast and headed for the beach! The skies were perfectly clear and the waves much bigger than before. They were so tempting in fact that all the men left to go find body boards (something that turned out to be harder than expected). While they were gone, the four women sat on the beach to soak up the sunshine. It was a blissful morning of getting to talk with some of my closest girlfriends, hang out in the sunshine and listen to the waves. We met our husbands for a quick lunch at the house and immediately returned to the beach for more lounging in the sunshine. Our husbands, dignified and responsible men, turned into carefree little boys as they laughed and played in the waves. Even the girls took turns trying to ride the waves. But being as pregnant as I am, I declined and resumed my position as observer and sun worshiper. After awhile, my lounge chair had become uncomfortable so in a stroke of ingeniousness, I dug an appropriately sized hole in the sand, spread my towel over it and was able to lay on my stomach (with belly in the hole so I wouldn't squish baby) and stretch out in the sun. It was both brilliant and blissful.

Are you ready for my confession? Despite my years of growing up on southern California beaches and my spf 15 (I haven't worn anything stronger in years), I got sunburned. I haven't been this sunburned since middle school. I've decided to blame it on living in Utah for ten years (and conditioning my skin to be weaker than it was growing up) and after some google research, on being pregnant. Of eight people, the only two who sunburned were pregnant and both of us look blotchy and uneven. Google informed me that pregnant women are in fact more susceptible to sunburn because of increased melamine production (the same thing that causes the cholasma effect/"mask of pregnancy") and a serious vitamin/hormone in balance. I'm not sure how reliable any of this information is, but it makes me feel slightly less stupid for getting burned so bad. (Fortunately, it's now only two days later and nearly all of the redness has turned brown and I'm becoming much less cranky about my discomfort.)

After our day at the beach, we returned home where my husband cooked up a phenomenal dinner to spoil us all. (Not only is he the grill master but in general, is a really great cook, probably better than me. He rarely cooks but when he does, it's a wonderful treat.) And then we hung out on our patio, swapping stories and laughing until my stomach hurt.

Day 2 started with a lazy morning for the girls and some very cold water for the boys (who simply couldn't resist more body boarding, despite having been thoroughly tossed around the day before). Eventually the girls went out for pedicures (and a massage chair that I seriously could live in for months at a time). Husband used leftovers from dinner to make another tasty meal for lunch and then we drove down to Venice Beach. The rest of the group had been sold on the idea by some neighbors and while I wasn't particularly impressed with it on visits in high school, we went along. We wandered, mostly watching the crazy street performers and briefly checking out some of the shops before deciding it was briefly entertaining but didn't have much for us after all. So we headed out for an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for a birthday celebration. Dinner was a blast! We stuffed ourselves on the delicious food and then entertained ourselves by asking for a nutritional guide (even after discovering I had already eaten an entire day's worth of recommended calories, I ordered cheesecake anyway).

Our two days were short and the next morning we again packed the car and began the long drive. We had originally hoped to stay longer, especially since I will soon be missing my ten year high school reunion and had wanted to put together some kind of "mini-reunion" with friends while we were there. But once we realized how far from LA we would be staying and that our stay would need to be so brief due to family and work commitments, we weren't able to make plans with my high school friends after all. :( But other than that, it was a great trip. We made our way home and arrived very late to find two sleeping angels in our bed. They slept through my cuddles and kisses so soundly that I didn't bother putting them in their own beds. Instead, I climbed in next to them and got to snuggle my girls all night. (especially fun was when they woke up in the morning and realized we were there!)