TRAVEL DIARY | Fall Break in Southern California! Part 1! (+ A VIDEO)

Today, I am going to finally be sharing my Southern California Travel Diary on here! It was almost a month ago that my friends and I piled in a car and drove from Utah to California for our Fall Break. We spent three full days having a blast together. I didn't mean for this post to take so long, but the last month has been crazy and busy. Hopefully I can get back on my blog post schedule.

Before I start with the Travel Diary post, I want to share the video I made of this trip with you! The first time I had ever made a video was for my Dixie National Forest Travel Diary this last summer, and it was... very rough! You can definitely see the improvements I've made in just my second video. Hopefully I'll keep improving! Anyway, it would mean a lot to me if you would give my video a view, a like, maybe even a comment. As always, I'm up for any tips and/or constructive criticism.

Now, to move on to the actual post! I have so many pictures to share and it was so hard to narrow it down! My friend, Christine, is basically the group's personal photographer and she captures the most amazing moments. I had hundreds of pictures to choose from and I just barely narrowed it down to about 20 which is still way too many. That is why I'm making two posts, a Part 1 and a Part 2. Part 1 will be days one and two and Part 2 will be day three, which was our busiest day of the trip. Today I will be sharing days one and two with you!

We spent our first day at Huntington Beach. We slept in a little bit that morning because we hadn't gotten to California until about 2am. However, some of us stayed up even later talking, so I ended up going this whole day on two hours of sleep! I'm not sure how I made it, but it was so worth it. We checked out some of the beach shops and then we headed over to the actual beach. Before getting in the water, we took some great pictures.

It's a good thing we took pictures before getting in the water, because as soon as we ran into the water, Blakely got stung by a sting ray! It was so sad because she couldn't get into the water for the rest of the day and she was limping the rest of the trip. We did, however, have a lot of fun pulling her around on skateboards and carrying her piggy back everywhere. The group photo above is one of my favorites of all time. All of us are being our complete selves in that picture. It makes me so happy!

After we spent all day at the beach, we decided to eat dinner at Ruby's Diner on the pier. It was so cute and the food was delicious. Then, as we were leaving we had a little issue where we locked the keys in the car. In any other situation, that would have ruined the day, but I'm so glad I have such good friends who are just fun and easygoing. We all sat around and talked, waiting for the car people to come and save us. We ended the night by watching a movie together, all cuddled up in one bed. This was such a fun, busy, crazy, long day!

On Day 2, we slept in pretty late to make up for our busy day before. We spent our day shopping at a local swap meet and taking pictures at a local park. It was so nice because everything was in walking distance so we got to explore on foot! We didn't get any pictures at the swap meet, but we did take some great pictures at the park. All of us girls were wearing pigtail braids and I loved it so much. Even Taylor let me put his hair in pigtail braids for a little bit. That made for some fun pictures!

Our friend, Ian, joined us for this trip as well. He went to school with us last year, but is now living at home in California before his mission, so it was so fun to spend time with him! Check the caption on the silly group picture below for name details on everyone, just so it doesn't get too confusing when I tell stories.

Left to right: Me, Ian, Taylor, Christine, Blakely, Spencer

That night, we had some delicious homemade pizzas made by our host, Eva. Christine's aunt and uncle so graciously hosted us and they are the best people ever. So welcoming and loving. I can't believe they put up with six college kids staying a whole weekend at their house! After dinner, the boys put on a concert for us along with some of the kids who were at the pizza party. If you watch the video above, that is what the clip at the end is from.

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy just sharing these pictures and memories on here. This was an amazing trip. Definitely a memory I will always cherish. Check back in a few days for Part 2 of this Travel Diary, which will be about my favorite day of the trip. I'm so excited to share that day on here.

Thank you for reading! Sorry posts on here have been so sporadic the last few months. I'm in the process of a huge life transition and I've changed a lot and I want my blog to reflect that. I'm trying to live life fully every day and have genuine experiences. I hope you continue reading and come along on this journey with me!

-Rebecca

P.S. All of these pictures were captured by my talented friend, Christine. Check out her instagram for more of her pictures.