more huntington beach fun

the rest of our fabulous beach getaway went by in a flash, especially since we spent saturday pretty much hunkered down in our room sucking up the AC and taking naps.  it's pretty fantastic knowing that you don't have anything that you have to do, no schedule, no commitments, just time to hang out and relax.  it's not something we do often, really.

we did get out of the hotel to grab some lunch, though.

and then while the hub went to grab a cigar with his friend the bean decided she wanted to go upstairs and chill in the room while i went to the forever 21 that was literally right next door to the hotel.  while i didn't find much for myself, i did score a bunch of stuff for her.  after all, their clothing is sized for small people.  i made her try it all on when i got back and it all fit her perfectly.  like, how cute is this?

she ended up wearing that outfit when we headed outside and walked over to nearby duke's to meet up with the hub for dinner.

on sunday morning, the hub headed out for an early morning meet-up with his buddy out on the beach.  the bean and i were more than happy to stay in bed.

and since the hub isn't a huge fan of bruxie, i decided it was the perfect time to call in an order and run across the street to pick up some breakfast for us.  the bean happily waved to me from the balcony.

we'd decided to split a couple of items - the bacon and egg sandwich and a liege waffle with nutella.  super tasty.

when the hub got back, we decided to get dressed and make an appearance at the beach.  after all, we had to go at least once, right?

it was overcast and breezy, while still being pretty warm but not uncomfortably so.  a perfect day.

we lost her to the water almost as soon as we put our stuff down on the sand.

these flip flops have taken me everywhere - rome, vatican city, florida, the bahamas, disney world and disneyland.  they have a lot of sentimental value, but they're pretty beat up and the hub was all "dude, i think you need some new sandals."  heh.

quick family selfie and then we were outta there.

i decided to walk back over to pacific city to do a little window shopping and finally got to stop at philz coffee for a little afternoon pick-me-up.

and then when i got back, i found the two of them hanging out on a couple of chairs in front of the hotel, enjoying a milkshake from the shop across the street.  we went up stairs to change and then got in the car for the first time all weekend to head over to newport beach for dinner at our favorite place, the crab cooker.  while he parked the car, the bean and i went inside to put our names down for a table and were pleasantly surprised to hear that the wait was only 10 minutes.  being a sunday of a holiday weekend, that definitely wasn't what we were expecting.

while we waited for our food, the bean flipped her place mat over to do some drawing.  she likes to ask us to draw some sort of little squiggle and then she has to figure out how to incorporate it into a work of art.  something like this:

turns into this:

and this one:

became this.

i know she's my kid and all, but i really find this talent of hers to be so impressive and creative.  i sure couldn't do that.

the food was delicious, of course.  you can't go wrong with crab and shrimp.

the next morning, we did another bruxie run for breakfast.

and on our way back up to our room, we came across this fun little set-up.  why yes, i think i will, thank you very much.

and then it was time to pack up, check out and head home.  always the saddest part of any getaway, yes?

one last look at our view of the ocean, and then we walked out of the room for the last time.

back at home, we reunited with the old lady after a four-day separation and were happily surprised to find that we'd managed to escape the worst of that weekend's heat wave.  while it was still in the mid-90s, there was a bit of a cloud cover and a pretty nice breeze that did a decent job of cooling off the house.  with all the windows open, it was nice to air it out a little after being on lockdown for awhile.

hands down probably one of the best labor day weekends we've had in a long time.  and now i really want to move to the beach one day.  heh.