one thing you must do before you die

{headed out to dinner at Octopus in Long Beach}
{my outfit | dress {similar}, sandals and sunnies {similar}: H&M; bag {similar - it's actually a makeup bag}: Target}

If I could suggest one thing that you should do before you die, it would be to fly across the country with your best friends. Preferably to some place you've all never been before. And beachy. Most definitely, beachy.

My friend was going to a conference in Long Beach, California and had a hotel room all to herself for five days. Because friends don't let friends stay in free hotel rooms alone, that good-looking foursome up there made the trek from Ohio to the Golden State for a week in June.

I won't bore you with the details of how my worst nightmare came true on the flight out {a 2-year-old in the aisle next to me screamed for, no joke, half of the flight - mind you the flight was four hours long. Trust me when I say that there was not enough alcohol on that plane to make it tolerable}. Or how on my flight home tornadoes in Denver meant sitting on the tarmac for two hours in LA, and eventually led to me sleeping for only four hours in a gorgeous airport hotel in LA, in order to finally catch a 6 a.m. flight to Columbus the next day.

But this trip was one of the best {if not THEE best!} trip I've ever been on. Here's how it went down:

{nothing says "California" like cruising the streets in a minivan}

We visited Huntington Beach, where we ate at Las Barcas and had cocktails at Duke's:

{because people drop their teenagers off at the beach in California like they do at malls in the Midwest}

We ventured to Laguna Beach, where we ate lunch at the appropriate named The Cliff and spent the rest of the day on the beach {until a tidal wave swallowed our set up, and we may or may not have had to thrown away the bed sheet we borrowed from the hotel, along with several soaked and sandy books and towels}.

{my outfit | romper: Old Navy {similar}}

{first time to In n Out Burger! I ate it in about 2.5 seconds. It was obviously delicious.}

Then, we road tripped to Santa Monica, strolling through the Third Street Promenade and riding the Ferris wheel on the pier.

We drove around Venice Beach long enough to take this photo. Parking is a premium here, and we decided it wasn't worth it.


So we headed up the PCH to Malibu, where we stopped at Zuma Beach for some pics then ate dinner with our toes in the sand at Paradise Cove Beach Café.






It was quite a gorgeous, relaxing, pee-your-pants funny trip. And the four of us have since decided to make this an annual thing, choosing a new location each year.