California Trip Part 1 with Caitlyn McDonald

Hey y’all! It’s Michaela and I’m going to be writing today along with my best friend Caitlyn from pureaquarian.com about our California trip! We’re collaborating on this so that we can remember the details together. (Two brains are better than one right?)

C: We had such a great time catching up; the whole trip started because we wanted to attend one of our best friend’s and former roomies weddings in LA. Michaela lives up in the bay area and I hadn’t seen her since February so it worked out well for me to fly into San Jose and for us to travel down to Southern California for the wedding.

M: I’m laughin’ just writing this because I’m thinking about all of the incidents we had on this trip! I picked Cait up late on Thursday night and we left early the next morning to drive down the coast. Our first stop was Monterey, CA. I had been there with Michael last year but was excited to see more and get to explore a bit.

C: I had done this same trip when I was little with my family. I think I was about 8 so it was fun to remember little things about that trip that I had since forgotten. We both adored Monterey and got a great lunch at a place called Hula’s. We’ve always called my mama “Tour Guide Barbie” because she has everything planned out perfectly for our trips… even down to the exact restaurants we are going to eat! (I can only hope to develop that skill.) Anyways, we called my mom and asked her to find us a yummy restaurant in Monterey and Hula’s didn’t disappoint. It was sooooooo good.

M: I got the hula burger and Cait got the shrimp salad. It was a good start to a whole lottta good food we were fixin to have over the next few days. After Monterey we drove thru Carmel and drove the 17 Mile Scenic Drive.

C: I was taking pictures of Pebble Beach Golf Course and sendin’ them to Jord cause I know it’s one of his dreams to play there. It’s breathtaking.

M: We drove basically that whole stinkin’ day! Big Sur is one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, sights I’ve ever seen. My mom had asked me if I thought it was prettier than Yosemite and The Grand Canyon, and I honestly I couldn’t compare them, but it’s definitely a drive I recommend for everyone to do in their life.

C: It was so hard not to spend hours stopping and taking pictures at every turn in the road because it’s that pretty!

M: The drive ended up taking us 12 hours to get down to Redondo Beach where my aunt and uncle live. (We stayed with them).

Click here to see the route we took.

C: The next morning we woke up and started getting ready for Mel’s wedding. The ceremony was at the LA LDS Temple. It was a gorgeous but hot (especially for California) day. We spent all morning getting ready with no AC, then when we arrived at the temple and I looked in the mirror in my car, I realized that all my makeup had literally MELTED off my face! I looked like a freak because the spots were seriousy bright orange with makeup clumped together from sweat.

M: I was dying laughing because we had spent all morning getting ready and bless Caitlyn’s heart, her makeup had just melted off. We got into the temple only to find out that the AC wasn’t working there as well, PLUS the water had been turned off. It was a comical few moments watching her frantically try to reapply her makeup in a public bathroom, with no water.

C: I was being overly dramatic but now looking back on it I die laughing. Everything turned out well though and all I can say is I’m glad that didn’t happen to me on MY wedding day hahah!

M: We went down to Rodeo Drive immeadiately after the ceremony to get lunch and walk around. We ate at a cute place called the Panini Cafe. Cait got a sandwich and salad and got my favorite….French toast. We walked around and shopped for a bit and stopped for Sprinkles Cupcakes on our way back to the car. We drove straight down to Temecula, CA where the reception was. We allowed an extra hour for driving (luckily) because we got lost about 10 times on our way there. The reception was gorgeous and we had so much fun dancing our little hearts out we didn’t even get any pictures!

C: That night we drove back up to Michaela’s aunt and uncle’s. We woke up the next morning to get brunch with one of my best friends from Utah. I finally got to see her sweet baby which was a highlight for sure.  We went to Bottega Louie and got the yummiest beignets. It was a mad house in there but it was so cute. We went straight to Venice Beach after that so we could see a southern California beach then drove back up to San Jose.

M: Our trip mainly consisted of driving which was totally fine since we were just happy to be hanging out together! When we drove up that evening we took a different route via the 101. It was neat because we got to see a lot of vineyards and missions which was so cool! I felt as if I saw the whole state of California within a few days!

We will be posting on Caitlyn’s blog about a fabulous day in San Fran next. Thanks for reading!