California Loveeee 💖🌴

Two weekends ago, I had the chance to go back to California to visit. I hadn’t been since the Summer of 2011, so this almost made seven years! Even though my mom and I only went for three days, we made sure to take advantage of the time we had! We spent most of our time in Malibu, but ventured off to Santa Monica, Venice, West Hollywood, & Beverly Hills.

Snapchat-365912115 — Somewhere in California

20180210_180402 — The sky on our first night

20180211_080606 — Morning view right from our Airbnb

As soon as we checked into our Airbnb, the sun was just setting! This was so nice to see on the first night we arrived. The sky was always multicolored with pinks & purples before night fall. It was a view that was hard to look away from.

After settling in, we went to our dinner reservations at Moonshadows.

They sat us at a really nice ocean view table with the waves striking up against the rocks the entire time. Absolutely beautiful to see & listen to! We even got to see a pelican catch dinner as well right from our chairs! Here, I got to try swordfish for the first time ever (I was always interested, but never had the chance). Delicious! I would definitely recommend! (fresh of course).

20180211_113546_1518980047834 — Brunch waters at Geoffrey’s LOL

20180211_113936_1518980006227 — Before ordering the only drink I drank on Vacay 🙂

20180211_124403_1518979970659 — The cars parked outside of Geoffrey’s

The next morning, we had Brunch reservations at Geoffrey’s.

This was probably my favorite restaurant atmosphere wise! It was so relaxed, yet so elegant. We got another good table with a little view of the ocean to look at outside. Most of the restaurant is outdoor seating, so thankfully it was a gorgeous day out! The weather was absolutely perfect for Brunch with an ocean breeze! 🙂

20180211_173523 — Sunset behind Santa Monica Pier

We took the rest of the day to explore Santa Monica and Venice Beach. I had already been to Venice Beach in the past, but my mom wasn’t too interested in spending a lot of time there. It was actually pretty cold (low 60’s with wind), but anything beats a snow storm & low temperatures in Indiana!

20180212_071955 — View outside our Airbnb

20180212_082827 — Clouds over the Pacific

20180212_172947 — Sunsets from out Airbnb

We had a blast just hanging out at our Airbnb as well since it was right on the ocean! We got to see dolphins, pelicans, and seals right from the balcony! When the tide was low enough, we got to go downstairs and walk the beach a little. Amazing time just doing nothing!

20180212_113549_1518979816453 — Westfield Century City Mall Beverly Hills, CA

I made sure to have a mini photo shoot with the views we had! There was no way I could resist this opportunity. LOL!

I also stopped by our Angeleno office in Beverly Hills to meet some of my sales executives I work with daily! They were so sweet to give my mom and I free lunch at The District by Hannah An.

This was pretty cool because I traffic the ads for this client. So experiencing the restaurant verses looking at their ad definitely made an impact. (Also my first time trying Vietnamese food).

The last stop for the afternoon was Melrose Ave. OF COURSE to go to DASH!

20180213_055501 — Early sun rise from our Airbnb 2/13/18

The rest of these pictures are of the sunrise on that Tuesday morning before we left. These are the actual photos. Nothing is edited. I woke up at 5:30 a.m just to watch the whole thing from our porch. It was so lovely to experience. The whole mini vacation was great!

Malibu is absolutely beautiful and a must see if you haven’t already been. There’s still so much I want to do, so I’ll be back sometime in the future. 😉