California!!

With my last post giving thanks for summer, I figured now was as good a time as any for a summer update. This summer I am out in California for 6 weeks total, its been about two and a half so far. I absolutely love this state. It still blows my mind that in a single state you can have so much variety; deserts, mountains, beaches, lakes, skiing, surfing, huge cities, vineyards, ranches, you name it. 

Our first week we we're very busy seeing lots of family and friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Staying with my aunt and uncle in Costa Mesa, we live about a 15-20 minute bike-ride from the beach...it's amazing. We spent the 4th of July with my mom's side of the family and seeing our cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles was really a blast.

Week two consisted of a trip up the coast with San Francisco as our final destination. We stopped in several town as we slowly made our way up, the first of which was Solvang, a small Swedish town. It was simply adorable, all the windmills made it quite charming.  After that we made a few more stops, including the Monterey Sea Aquarium, and then finally ended up in San Francisco. 

San Francisco was amazing, I definitely want to go spend much more time there exploring the city. Its so alive and vibrant, there's music and art,  and so many people walking and biking. The golden gate bridge was incredible, we drove across it on our way to Muir Woods, a national forest of redwood trees. 

Altogether our trip was great, minus maybe the seven hour long car ride back to Costa Mesa where my uncles lives. But now that we're back we've been biking to the beach, surfing, tanning, and just hanging out alot. There's a surf competition in Huntington next week that I'm stoked for...