Girls Gone Wild aka Paradise!! August 6-11, 2007

Okay, so call me spoiled! I guess after this fabulous week in sunny California with my sister, Nancy, I could certainly be looked at as spoiled! It was the greatest gift I could have been given--by my sister to invite me and by my husband to encourage me to go!! It was a week of complete indulgence and no guilt! Of course, it was all within the standards of the church, so no worries there! It was basically a girl's dream vacation! A week of no cooking, no cleaning, no worrying about anything except where we are going to eat next and what fantastically, fun thing are we going to do next.

We rode bikes from Nancy's house in Huntington Beach to Balboa Peninsula. We rode along the boardwalk past Newport Beach and stopped for breakfast on the beach at the Stuft Surfer.

Once we got to Balboa, we rode around looking at all the beautiful homes and dreamed of life on the beach!! Aaaah! We wheeled our bikes onto the ferry and rode over to Balboa Island. We did more looking at the wonderful homes and shopped at all the fun little Balboa shops. The only downside to the day was riding home--we had to go about 10 miles facing the wind, and it was sooo windy! It about killed us, but it was sooo worth it!

We spent a whole day at a Laguna Beach Spa, The Montage! It was like a day in heaven. I have never felt so pampered!! We laid out by the pool and were waited on with lemon water, and smoothie samples, then lunch on the patio (lobster salad for me), then more lounging, then the jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, and then our hour long treatments (massage for me), then a dip in the pool and then finally we had to leave--we loved it so much. I do have to say that my dear sweet husband gives as good or better a massage as this high paid, trained masseuse. She was good though and I loved every minute of it.

Views from the Montage! It was literally on the beach. We saw whales spouting while we were eating our lunch!

Crystal Cove is a cluster of beach cottages that are being restored and rented for overnight stays. It's becoming very popular and very hard to get a spot, but we did get to have a lovely breakfast at the Beachcomber Restaurant that sits right on Crystal Cove Beach. Maybe someday we'll be able to stay in a cottage with some of our family along!!

This is the Crystal Cove cottage that was actually used in the movie "Beaches" with Bette Midler.

We spent a day in Laguna Beach shopping and eating in wonderful restaurants. We got to see the muscials, Mama Mia and Menopause. Both were fabulous. We spent a day at the beach just laying on the sand and reading our books. We got to spend a day looking at model homes (some starting in the low 7 millions, can you imagine?) We watched a couple of movies at home and went to the theater to see "No Reservations." We didn't have popcorn---we had See's chocolates!!! I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.

If you ever need ideas on great vacations, I suggest you talk to my sister! She is so good at planning a fantastic time.

I need to thank Dale, Nancy's husband for going to Africa with their youngest son, Sam, on a 2 1/2 week medical mission for making this whole week possible. We had the house to ourselves and like I said no responsibilities, no schedules to follow except for fun things to do from the minute we woke up to the time we went to sleep. I also want to thank my adorable husband, Mike for letting me go and letting me spend the money and he never even questioned what I was spending (I guess he trusts me)! He is a great guy and I love him so much!!

Lastly, thank you Nancy!