I actually AM still alive!

Hello, hello! I'm still here! For those of you who did not know, back in January I ran off to California for a couple weeks. I had had a realle emotionally difficult week and one night I got on Facebook and a friend had mentioned it was in the 80s!! That did it. I had been dreaming about a tropical vacation for months and decided this was the closest I was going to get. So the next day I packed up my car and my dog and off I went!! I didn't tell my family until I got there! My friends were kind enough to take me in with less than 12 hours notice!

Some may not know that I am from Orange County, so I have lots of dear friends to visit there! I REALLY needed it. I had also REALLY been missing California the last year. Not just the beach and my friends, but everything about it! My friends were good enought to go with me to all the places I wanted to revisit, much of which was delicious food!! AND, I finally got to go to a LUSH store!! I took my camera with me to California, but did exactly what I always do and was too lazy to take any pictures. Luckily my friend, Dina who is a professional photographer, had her camera with her whenever we were together. So those are the things I have pictures of. Check out her website at dinalovephotography.blogspot.com.

I have to say that going to LUSH was a bit anti-climatic. It was quite small compared to many I had seen online and I decided I have pretty much everything I actually like! They were having a huge soap sale, so they were out of many of them that I wanted to smell. We got great the equivalent of a facial for our hands. It was lovely but just too much to buy all the products. I was disappointed that she was stingy about giving samples of things. That's one of the reasons I was so excited to go, because I had heard they were really good about that, but the sales girl was not about to give me anything. It was still fun to see and I got a couple small things.

One of the things I experienced from the time I drove into Orange County was that I was IN LOVE with the palm trees!! Really. I got so much joy from them I can't even explain! They're just such a huge part of Southern California and memories of my life there.

This is at some of the Laguna tide pools with Dina and her kids. So nice to be at the beach! My first day there I had taken Petey to the dog beach, but he was NOT a fan!! The waves were too loud and one got him, so he was traumatized! Also, the first he said hello to, snapped at him!

I love poking the sea anemones. I like there texture and the way they feel when the close around your fingers!

While I was there I also enjoyed going to the swap meet, tanning at my friend's salon and going shopping with her in downtown LA for jewelry and purses for her boutique, farmer's markets, and spending time with all my lovely friends and eating, eating, eating!!