Weekend Report

My birthday is actually on Wednesday, but we decided to celebrate this past weekend because we are heading back to Chicago next weekend for an engagement party.

On Friday we grabbed a few drinks before going to see The Big Wedding.

The movie turned out to be really funny for both Joel and I. It's super inappropriate, but I found myself tearing up and laughing out loud, so it was a win in my book.

I'm still not used to spending Friday night's at malls, but I'm working hard to redefine my mid-west idea of them. If I don't fight against the principal of it, they're actually quite pretty. 

On Saturday morning we drove out to Laguna Beach for a day of shopping, eating, and drinking.Our first stop for lunch was at The Rooftop were the views did not disappoint.


We split an Ahi Tuna sandwich and bacon wrapped dates and both were freaking divine. It was pretty chilly up on the roof with the ocean breeze but the restaurant supplied blankets which was a cute touch.

 

After lunch we hit the shops. The first store we went into - Laguna Beach Antiques, Joel spotted this beauty hanging out on the stores patio.

We have been talking about the need for a china cabinet, and just figured we would buy a standard one at Crate and Barrel after the wedding.

We both quickly fell in love with this pieces charm, and the store owner gave us a big discount, so we loaded the baby up into the car and called it my birthday present. It looks SO good in our house, so I'll show you more pictures tomorrow.

After our big furniture purchase, we decided we were pretty much done shopping - so we headed to Laguna Canyon's tasting rooms for a few sips of wine.

Laguna Beach is a very walking friendly city, with the water, sand, restaurants, and shopping all within a few blocks from each other.

We walked the beach, watched some sand volleyball, and even caught sight of a huge whale hanging way to close to the shore for my liking.

By this point, it was about 3pm and we decided to head to the Surf and Sand hotel for one more cocktail before dinner. This hotel is absolutely gorgeous and there happened to be three weddings going on while we were there. Aint gonna lie, seeing the brides semi made me break out in a cold sweat.

We grabbed a drink at their downstairs bar Splashes and just enjoyed being up close and personal with the water. It was such a relaxing and beautiful place for happy hour.

For dinner we went deeper into town to a restaurant called Cafe Zoolu. The actual restaurant isn't much to write home about, but it was the best food I've had in California to date.

Everything was absolutely perfect but I'm pretty sure I'm still full from their enormous portions and my lack of self control.

We ended up driving back to LA that night to reunite with our puppy and all three of us slept like 12 hours that night. The day had us all wiped out.

Sunday we spent the day cleaning our new cabinet, running errands, and having dinner with my cousins. It was a perfect weekend - and now I have a few more days in LA before it's back to Chicago.

No rest for the wicked!