New Camera and Laguna Beach

Just got a sweet new camera! A Canon Rebel XOS. Sooo excited! I've used it twice now and it's pretty fun. First time was a "photoshoot" with my Goddaughter. This time I headed down to Laguna Beach. Got a few nice pics. Next time I need to find a spot where I can see the sun set on the water. I had a cliff/house in my way! haha.

Laguna Beach main beach was very crowded being that it is 4th of July weekend. I did not want tons of people in my pictures so I chose to keep driving south. There are many spots where you can just park on the street and walk down lots of stairs and get Beach access.

The area I found was a tide pool area. it was pretty rough water. I can imagine how big the waves can get there.

I only got a little wet while taking these pics. :-) FYI sand and wet jeans are not a good feeling.


Enjoy!





















Happy 4th of July Weekend Travel kids!!



Music on my Zune for a good car ride along the coast-
Courtyard Hounds

Weekends Ahead

As my good "friend" Kelly Clarkson would say..... "I'm Ready Now!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMkIqfmW2s

Ready for what?? For my 2 upcoming weekend trips of course! This weekend I'll be celebrating 2 of my good friends' birthdays in Manhattan Beach and next weekend is my Labor Day DC trip! I'm so excited.

Currently I'm concentrating on Manhattan Beach as it's coming up this weekend. I have picked out a dinner place which I cannot disclose at this time for the off chance that my roommate (who is one of the birthday girls!) may read this post. I also have a nice bottle of champagne which I received as a 30th birthday present to me from said roommate. Roommate had a free 2 night stay for the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel which she won from a work raffle. My ex-roommate's ex boyfriend also works there and he is going to take care of our parking charges and possibly get us an upgrade. Which we totally did not ask for but are sooooo excited about!! I will let you know what we end up doing on our little weekend trip.

Then...next week I will concentrate on the DC trip coming up next Friday! We will be making a Target trip sometime next week for the last minute necessities. We also decided that a great way to save money will be to bring breakfast bars/snacks so we won't have to go out to breakfasts. This will save us 3 meals! Once we are there, I will pick up some sort of fruit from a market. Fruit is something I crave while on vacation. Maybe it's all the walking or maybe it's the lack of fruit in the meals eaten on vacation. All I know is I always want APPLES!!! haha. Oh and of course WATER! Always have to make sure you buy water before you head back to your hotel for the night. The worst thing is when you end up having to drink the bottle of water the hotel has provided and then seeing the $5 charge on your bill! Fail Whale!!

Ok kids.... enough of this random post. I just wanted to let you know that fun things are coming. In fact....I think I shall make a DC playlist for my Zune. I'll let you know how that goes. All of these pre-planning rituals make the wait a little more bearable. :-)

A bientôt Travel Peeps!!
translation: See you soon!

Travel Girl gets her last minute travel necessities from:
TARGET
www.target.com

Hiking- Laguna Coast Wilderness

Laguna Coast Wilderness
http://www.ocparks.com/LagunaCoast/
Laguna Coast Wilderness Park
18751 Laguna Canyon Road
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(949)923-2235

So, my friend and I decided to play tennis a few weekends ago. I met her at her apartment in Irvine, Ca at about 9:30am. We went to play tennis at some courts near-by and they were all full with people waiting. We then tried 2 other courts that we could find and all of them were full. She had remembered a co-worker mentioning hiking near the hotel that we work for. Since we were near our hotel, she called her to get directions. We ended up at Laguna Coast Wilderness.

Since we were only planning on going to play tennis, I only had 1 bottle of water. She had her water in a to-go coffee mug. We just thought we would be going for a little "walk". That was mistake #1. Armed with 1 bottle of water between the two of us (remember, she had the mug so she couldn't bring it on the walk), car keys and my camera, we headed out on the trail. We left our phones in the car because again, this was just supposed to be a little walk.

5 hours later-Dehydrated, dirty and hungry.....we got back to my car. I've never been so happy to see my beautiful air conditioned Nissan. We had been so excited that we found this jewel in Orange County. It was so beautiful. Lots of fun plants to look at, bugs, caves, etc. Also, it was an easy hike. Until we decided to go back in the direction of our car. It was all up hill from there. Literally. It was really steep. Plus, we were out of water. I started to see black spots and was dizzy. After resting for a few minutes, I felt much better and we went along. An older man and his daughter and grandson were hiking and asked us if we had anymore water. Which of course we didn't. He was decked out in a "camelback" full of water and bags full of food. He told us to take some of his water from his flask. We felt bad and politely declined. He insisted. God bless him because we needed that water soooo bad.

So clearly we were not prepared for this 5 hour hike. We were not very smart. We should have stopped somewhere to pick up some sort of food and more water. We didn't realize how long we'd be out there. The older man pretty much saved us. He told us if we didn't drink the water, we would become coyote bait. Ek! We must have looked dehydrated. ha ha.

Well, even though I almost died....it was an amazing place to go hiking and I can't wait to go back. Next time I will print out a map from their web-site, pack a back pack with snacks and extra water, maybe bring a cell phone and enjoy the view. I really loved the cave we found and I heard there are more of them! It was really overcast and drizzelly when we went (which was kind of nice actually), but I hear on a clear day you can see the ocean from some of the spots.

So if you are in Orange County and like to hike (or mountain bike), you should definitely check it out! Here are some pictures that we took. Yes...we brought a camera but not a cell phone. We're lame.

***A hint. There are paid parking areas which you will see on their web site. However there is an entrance in Newport Beach that is free! From Newport Coast Drive and Ridge Park Road. Take Ridge Park Road all the way up to the top. Park where it ends and there is an entrance right there. You can't miss it.

Amazing views.


Can you see the huge spider web??




Um not sure what this paw print belongs to. EK!




Our cave.


The entrance to our cave.


Wow.


These butterflies were everywhere. They're blue!





Don't look too close at this one. No make-up and very dehydrated!


This was funny. Had to take a pic.


A hawk!


Cactus!

Have a great summer Travel Peeps!!

Lake Mission Viejo: South Orange County

A few pics from the lake by my house. Lake Mission Viejo. (located in South Orange County) This is a great place to take a walk. It's a little over 3 miles to walk around the whole thing. It is located on Alicia Parkway in between Marguerite and Olympiad. I usually park on Marguerite in a shopping center. Then walk towards Olympiad. Right on Olympiad. Right on Alicia and then Right back onto Marguerite. Basically it's like a big triangle. Nice views though!

Orange County: Beaches, Beach Cruisers & Balboa Bars

Orange County: Beaches, Beach Cruisers & Balboa Bars!

So on Friday, I was so excited that I was going to have 4 days off of work. 4 days!! Monday being Memorial Day and Tuesday being an extra day off to "save money" for the company. I have plenty of paid time off so I was happy to take the extra day off. However....friday at work all of a sudden I got a sore throat. No way! Seriously, I just got over a 3 week cold. This cannot be. Well I woke up Saturday morning and it was definitely a cold. Not cute. So I spent all weekend (and most of Monday) sleeping off this rude cold.

Today (Tuesday), I decided I'd had enough of my house and bed so I decided to venture out on a drive. I live in Orange County. Besides the hiking posts, I don't think I've done anything on Orange County yet.

Being that it was such a beautiful day, I decided to do some of the beaches. I started at the nearest beach to where I live which is Laguna Beach. It was still a little cloudy but still nice.

Heading North on Pacific Coast Highway, the next stop is Crystal Cove State Park.

A must stop is the Shake Shack! Located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's on the left (if you are driving north on PCH) right before Crystal Cove State Park.

This is the historic district of Crystal Cove. They are currently renovating some of the cottages within this district. You can rent one of the updated cottages per night. Right on the water. Amazing views and some movie history as you'll see a few pictures down. http://www.crystalcovebeachcottages.org/

Does this view look familiar? Check out the cottage on the left.

Up close. Well, it may not look like much now. But this was the cottage used in the movie Beaches! Seriously! I know, it's not so cute now but still pretty cool. And who knew it was located in Orange County! I believe this is one of the areas that will be restored once more funds are available. Hopefully they restore it to it's old movie star days!

**They also filmed scenes for the movie at the Balboa Fun Zone! Balboa Fun Zone is a waterfront amusement park located on Balboa Peninsula.

Next stop is Corona Del Mar. Located in between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Mainly residential with amazing houses and amazing views. From PCH, take a left on Poppy Ave. This dead ends at a beutiful view. Make a right at the dead end onto Ocean Blvd. State Beach is on the left. Tons of celebrities live in this area. I didn't want to be a stalker so I didn't take pictures of the amazing houses around this view. But stop by and you will see. :-)

Wow!

Check out the top floor of this house! I wonder what it looks like from the water!

Last stop of the day was Balboa Island. Continue going North on PCH. Make a left on Jamboree Road which turns into Marine Ave. Marine Ave. is the main street of Balboa Island. Very cute little beach town. Quaint restaurants and beachy shops surrounded by cute (million dollar) houses. Lots of people drive golf carts around since parking can be tight and not plentiful.

A MUST have while on Balboa Island: A Frozen Banana or a Balboa Bar! Yummo!


This path surrounds Balboa Island making a really nice walk!

From Balboa Island, you can take the ferry (by car or walk on) over to Balboa Peninsula where you can access Balboa Pier/Beach and Newport Pier/Beach. Also on Balboa Peninsula is the Balboa Fun Zone which is a boardwalk/waterfront amusement area.

There is also another way to get to Balboa Peninsula without taking the ferry. From PCH continue going north and make a left on Newport Blvd and merge onto Balboa Blvd.

Normally, I would continue driving North to Huntington Beach which is a few miles north of Newport Beach but I didn't have time since I got a late start. Most people would probably start in Huntington Beach and go south to Laguna. But since I live south, I went backwards! Huntington Beach is a fun busy beach. If you make a right on Main Street, that is the central hub. Tons of restaurants, bars and beachy shops. On the beach you can rent beach cruiser bikes. When I lived in Huntington, I used to ride my beach cruiser from Huntington to Newport. It's a nice fairly flat ride. My favorite part of living in HB was utilizing my beach cruiser! If you live in HB you must own one! :-) Huntington is great for people watching too. Crazies!!

So if you are in Orange County, you must check out the beaches. Even if you just do a drive by. Have a nice casual Southern California day!

**Check out Newport Harbor Tours to see where your favorite celebrities live and hang out. Some celebrities you will hear about are: John Wayne, Dennis Rodman, Dean Koontz, Jean Claude Van Damme, Michelle Pfeiffer, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Shirley Temple, Bette Midler and more! Check out their website! www.seeing-stars.com/live/newportbeach.shtml

Movies to See:

Beaches of course!!! ha ha.

Travel & Adventure Show- LA

So yeah.....I went a little crazy on brochures.






Got to meet Rick Steves and sit in on his seminar. http://www.ricksteves.com/ He reminded me of my Travel & Tourism teacher back in the day. He was enthusiastic about what he was talking about and for travel in general.



After listening to him speak about what makes his tours different from other tours and what people would be a good fit for his tours......I decided that I would most likely not be a good candidate for his tours.... your luggage has to be approximately 9 x 22 x 14! wtf! For those of you that don't want to do the math...that is the requirements of a carry-on at the airport. There is absolutely no way! The reasoning behind the small luggage is because they stay right downtown in main cities (as opposed to some of the bigger tour companies who stay outside of town in bigger hotels). Some of these main cities have lots of stairs, no elevators or a little bit of a hike since the bus cannot access some small areas in which these hotels may be located. Also, everyone carries their own luggage. The advantage is that you get some great family owned quaint hotels in some amazing cities right near all of the action. When all of the bigger tour buses have to leave for the night, you will still be there in the middle of everything! But yeah.....2 weeks worth of luggage in a carry-on?? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do that. :-)



We also got to listen to Samantha Brown speak. She is host of a few shows on the Travel Channel. Passport to Europe and Passport to Great Weekends and next season's Passport to Asia. http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Samantha_Brown She pretty much has the best job ever! Getting paid to travel and stay in wonderful places! Luckyyyyyy.

I put my name in all the drawings. I haven't won anything yet but I'm waiting for a phone call or an email telling me i've won a 6 night trip to Ireland or a round trip ticket on Jet Blue to anywhere they fly or one of the sweet gift baskets or the trip to Vietnam. ;-) I'll keep you posted!

LA Travel Show this weekend!!!!

So I just found out about this travel show coming up this weekend in Los Angeles. It's called the Los Angeles Times Travel & Adventure Show. The show will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center this Saturday 2/14 and Sunday 2/15. The cost to get in is $10 at the door or $8 if you purchase them online. Parking is $12 so car pool!! The show will be open to the public from 10am-5pm. http://www.latimes.com/extras/travelshow/index.html

I checked out the exhibitors list and they have some really awesome ones. A few that I am excited to see are:

Authentic Ireland- www.authenticireland.com
Car Italy And Tours- www.caritaly.com
Celebrity Cruises (Europe)- www.url.com
Contiki (Europe)- http://www.contiki.com/
Greek National Tourist Organization- http://www.visitgreece.gr/
Holland America-Cruise Stars- www.hollandamerica.com
Holand America Line Alaska- www.hollandamerica.com
Jet Blue- http://www.jetblue.com/
Oceana Cruises (Europe)- www.oceaniacruises.com
Travel Bound (Europe)- http://www.aaa.com/AAA_Travel/EuropeanVacations/european_vacation.htm
Travel Impressions Africa- http://www.travimp.com/brochures/ti_south_africa/index.html
Travel Indochina- www.travelindochina.com
US Department of State Passport Agency- www.travel.state.gov

Some of their sponsors are AAA, National Geographic Adventures and The Travel Channel.

Along with all of the booths, there will also be Destination Workshops, Speakers and chances to win some sweet prizes (trips!!!!!).

**Also, the US Department of State Passport Agency will be there and you can apply for a passport if you need one or renew your current passport. I will be renewing mine as I'm pretty sure it's almost expired. ;-) See the show's website for information on what you need to bring to the show if you are interested in getting a passport or renewing your current one. If you don't have a passport, it is always good to have on hand.....just in case!!!!

I am looking forward to collecting brochures and information and adding my name to all of the drawings. ha ha.

Hope you get a chance to check it out too!

I am SUPER excited!

Day Trips- Mud, Rivers & Mountain Lions, OH MY!

So, my friends and I decided that we wanted to go for a hike this weekend. There are a ton of hiking trails near my house. Unfortunately, it rained the night before and was still raining yesterday when we were planning to go. After calling the park rangers, we found that the hiking trails were closed. :*( After texting back and forth for about an hour, we decided to just pick up a trail from one of the entrances near my house. I did not know which trail this was or where it went but I knew there was an entrance from the side of the road near my house.

When we first walked onto the trail, we could still see houses and hear traffic but we decided to keep going. Then we came accross this sign.

Mountain Lions??!!! WTF!!! I read online (and I've heard stories) that there are mountain lions in our area but seriously.....for us to go into their territory? OMG I think we were crazy. But we decided to go on anyway.

The first part of the trail was a muddy mess (thanks rain!). Basically we slid down most of the way. It was like mud skiing or something. We laughed so hard going down this hill. Our shoes had inches of mud stuck to the bottoms of them which made us laugh, then we kept sliding which made us laugh more. It was just out of control for about 10 minutes.

Then we got to this:

Do not enter?? So what do we do? We enter. And this is what was behind.

A cliff with a small little trail on it.

We walked a bit and then came to this:

A creek. Hey who put that there?? Rude.

Hmmm how deep is it?? (don't mind the socks....we brought extras just in case. She wasn't wearing long pants and she wanted her legs covered just in case there was poison oak so I gave her my London socks. ha ha)

Pause for a picture:

We contemplated how we would get across. We threw big stones to create a path. Then I figured nothing would help so I ran across. Getting my feet soaked.

They threw more rocks. Then decided to take off their shoes instead. Such resourceful girls. :-)

Freezing and rocky.

Oh look.....another river to cross. Yay us! :-\

This time I took off my shoes too. The rocks in this particular river were smaller and painful on the feet. (notice our shoes on the other side of the river in the picture below. We threw them over so we wouldn't have to carry them.)

Nature Girls! (?)

All in all I think we crossed 4 rivers. Went on a few REALLY muddy tracks. Almost walked into what we presume could have been a "lion's den". It was a really creepy cave like place filled with water. We chose not to go investigate too much. It was a little scary!! It was a fun little outing and I had no idea that was all in my own "backyard"!

We walked back to the car absolutely filthy. We took off our muddy shoes socks and went home and took hot showers to wash the nature off of us. ha ha. Then we ate Taco Bell and watched movies all night. We deserved the lazy afternoon after our day of nature. :-)