well, it has been quite busy around here. we finally went to california!

matt and i have been planning to go to head west for quite some time now. i grew up in the sacramento valley and then lived in downtown san francisco right out of college, so i constantly miss the golden state. my parents still live in the house i grew up in and i’d been missing them, so a few months ago i said that before i went crazy, we needed to get a trip out there on the books.

our first stop was monterey. emily, {see below post about her visit!} who has been my best friend for 10 years lives there, and a visit to her beach cottage was much overdue. so friday morning we hopped in the car bright and early {7 a.m., yikes!} and got on the 80 headed west. it took us about 13.5 hours {traffic in san jose, always} but we arrived in one {two?} pieces and walked to dinner at one of my favorite beachside burger haunts in the heart of downtown pacific grove.

i love monterey. it’s this sleepy little beach town with old, funky buildings and no one takes credit cards {okay, that was actually a little bit annoying…}. but the entire town is kind of constantly in a damp fog, and everything, i mean everything, is green green green! it’s one of the most scenically beautiful places i’ve ever been, and  am so lucky to have a best friend that lives there!

saturday morning we woke up {not so} bright and early and headed straight to the beach. emily has access to the private beach where the pebble beach golf course is housed, and so we walked along the boardwalk path and enjoyed the crystal clear water and incredible views.

even though i grew up in the landlocked valley, i’ve always been a huge fan of the ocean. as i said to matt and em on the beach, staring into the ocean just makes me feel like everything is going to turn out all right. matt also found a starfish and {GASP} picked it up! Ew!

it was so fun to spend time with emily. she is one of my favorites. and it was so great to be home{ish} again. after all of our chats over brunch asking ourselves how in the world are we going to find someone to marry us, we are just a little bit closer! {more on that in my next post…}

we also stopped by the pier to get matt some some clam chowder in a bread bowl. the wind was crazy fierce, so please don’t judge my hair. you know how wild it can get out in the elements. he loved his bread bowl!

we had such a wonderful time visiting emily! i am so grateful for her friendship and generosity. i am also ecstatic that she and matt get along and that she makes such a big effort to be a big part of my life. i was also so glad to show matt some of the reasons why i love {and miss) northern california so much!

xoxo,

cait