Carmel Annual Trip

This past weekend Nate and I went up to Carmel for his Dad's annual family trip.  I have to say this is one of my favorite trips and I have looked forward to it so much since last year (my first invitation to the trip).  They schedule the vacation for the weekend before Valentine's day because it is is also the weekend of the Pebble Beach ProAm golf tournament. 

This year Karly and Ryan were not able to come so it was just John, Laurie, Nate and I (with a bunch of their friends joining from dinner to dinner).  The four of us love vacationing together and though we missed K & R we had the best time.  Did some serious shopping (even found Nate's wedding suit), had amazing lunches on the course and other favorite spots, Dinners FULL of laughter and amazing amazing food (dinners were one of my highlights), fun on the course watching Tiger Woods, cheering on the amateurs on hole 15, walking tons, more laughing.  Card games, relaxing, and eating cheese were also frequent activities.  I honestly don't even know how to recap the weekend because every second of it was perfection.  We had the best time.

{THE WEATHER GOT A LITTLE IFFY AT TIMES.  BUILT HAIR ON OUR CHEST-ALLL GOOD}

Nate bet me that instead of flying to Monterrey, we could save th $1000 in airfare and have just as much driving it.  I got a pair of great shoes out of the bet whether he was right or not, so I accepted the challenge... Begrudgingly.  He was of course right, not only did it save the flight money, but it was a highlight of the trip, I will be requesting the drive next year.  The trip there was done through the night and through the freakiest most barren 5 hour span I have ever seen.  It was so dead and lifeless you almost start hallucinating, we had fun with that :).  His navigation also decided to have an emotional breakdown in the middle of the drive telling us to turn into the sand of the desert, make u-turns in the middle of nowhere (we didn't listen of course, but she became a quick source of fun).  The way back was amazing.  We drove down the PCH the whole time, stopped at Napintha (my fav. restaurant in Big Sur), loved the views the whole way down, stopped at an elephant seal beach- which blew my mind away, walked down Nate's memory lane in a few towns, ate at Hitching Post all whilemaking it in time for a relaxing evening in LA.

{ROAD TRIP BUDDIES}

{AMAZING! THE DUDE ELEPHANT SEALS WERE SO LARGE AND AGGRESSIVE, THE GIRLS ALL SEEMED EXHASTED AND DIDNT DO MUCH.  THE NOICES THAT CAME OUT OF THESE GUYS WERE SO FUNNY.  I LOVED SPENDING TIME WATCHING.}

 {ONE OF NATE'S SUMMER BASEBALL HOUSES IN SANTA MARIA, CA.}

{VIEW OUT THE CAR WINDOW, IT WAS EITHER AMAZING BEACHES AND CLIFFS OR ROWLING HILLS OF THIS AMAZINGNESS}