Two Weeks till L and I hit the beach! I am really pale according to L, so I am excited to show off my paleness. Currently Laguna and Seal Beach are tied for 1st place. In a close second are Huntington Beach and Santa Monica.

Here are some interesting numbers to ponder for the people that haven’t voted. Huntington Beach is 8 miles long. Laguna is 7 miles long. And Newport is 6 miles long. Santa Monica is only 3 miles long and filled with tourists. However, Santa Monica beach is probably the busiest since there are 15M (45M for Santa Monica Bay) visitors. Huntington beach has 11M visitors, Newport 7.2M visitors, Laguna 3M, and Hermosa/Manhattan with about 3M. When I visited Santa Monica I usually parked by 3rd street promenade and then walked over PCH. This is not very easy. Further, the pier is pretty gaudy and cheesy and they have a lot of homeless people. But they do have wide beaches, a nice bike path, and eateries.

Huntington beach has the moniker “Surf City USA”. It is close and the parking is not too bad. Huntington beach has nice restaurants, such as Duke’s and Sparks, even though they are touristy as well. They also have the longest concrete municipal pier in CA. They have great surf shops and nice atmosphere with broad side-walks.

I was suprised with the amount of young people partying it up in Newport. Interesting for a snobby place like Newport. However, the pier isn’t that great, and they don’t have a cool moniker and parking is tough.

On Saturday, May 27th, we’ll be at one of SoCal best and most popular beches. But which one is the question. Stay tuned to find out!

This past weekend I spent some quality mother-daughter time at the 2nd Annual WPC Women’s Retreat. The speaker was Tara Barthel and the theme was “Real Peace for Real Women”. Tara was quite an engaging speaker AND biblically based…now I am reading her book, “Peacemaking Women”. Read her blog–she mentions how much fun she had with us 🙂 I like how she calls herself a “recovering lawyer”.

On another note, WPC was written up in the OC Register, pretty cool.

I am new to SoCal and need some help with figuring out which beaches are the coolest. Please give me your favorites. I think Huntington Beach is the best for a everyweek destination and Laguna Beach is the best for a weekend getaway. However, your opinion matters. We need a destination for Memorial Day. Would you like to influence where L+D spend their weekend? Please vote. Here are some criteria for the best beach. We need a beach with…
– Relatively easy & cheap parking
– Good cheap restaurants (burgers NOT steaks)
– Wide and long strands of sand to walk on
– Relatively clean water
– Shops: clothes, ice cream, trinkets

Today at Costco I saw that they offer a selection of magazines at 30% off the cover price. Some of the ones that caught my eye are InStyle, Real Simple, and Cooking Light. Now, I did not buy any, mind you. See, that would feed into the magazine addiction that I have (as well as the rest of my immediate family).

Here is a list of magazines that I have subscribed to in my life:

Highlights
Ranger Rick
Cricket
Penny Power (Consumer Reports for kids)
Brio
Alf (I’m not kidding, but it was just because the original magazine I ordered, Muppets, was discontinued before I received even one issue)
Seventeen
InStyle
Glamour
Allure
Shape
Self
Marie Claire
Jane (only b/c it was free)
Vogue
Lucky
Cooking Light
Gourmet
Bon Appetit
Better Homes & Gardens
Budget Living
Sunset*
Audrey*
Domino*
Los Angeles Magazine*

*Currently subscribe

I’m sure there’s more, but those are the ones I can think off the top of my head. Of course, this does not include all of the magazines that D, my parents and sister subscribe(d) to, which we swap on a regular basis. I don’t think that web ‘zines will ever fully replace regular mags–there’s just something about the feel of a new magazine, with the fun new ads and glossy pages that cannot be replicated.

It is a rare occasion that D and I go out on a weekday night. We made an exception last night, however, to join fellow YAGgers in welcoming ebidebbie home. She likes Thai food, so we met up at Thai Nakorn, which is close to WPC, on Garden Grove Blvd. This restaurant passes the previously mentioned authenticity test (there were a lot of what seemed to be Thai people). D and I had been once before and I must say it is delish. We ordered family-style and there was lots of food. D was happy to have the yellow curry (he claims I always make us order panang, not true). Of course, there was the requisite pad thai and chicken satay. I also really like the pad see ew (I think my littlest sis would like this–think Thai chow fun) although it is not listed by that name. I believe it is described as rice noodles with broccoli and chicken, or something). We also had a fried fish appetizer and something that looked like beef jerky. Oh yeah, there was also a beef salad and spicy soup. D can’t believe I never ate Thai food until I was in college. What can I say–I was missing out! Anyways, we’re glad that ebidebbie is back in the States! 🙂

Top North American Destinations

City Travel – Urban Cities
1 New York, NY Y
2 San Francisco, CA Y
3 Chicago, IL Y
4 Boston, MA Y
5 Vancouver, BC Y
6 Washington D.C. Y
7 Seattle, WA Y
8 Montreal, QB N
9 New Orleans, LA N
10 Los Angeles, CA Y
City Travel – Beach Cities
1 Honolulu, HI Y
2 San Diego, CA Y
3 Miami, FL N
4 San Juan, PR N
5 Puerta Vallarta, Mexico Y

Adventure Travel – National Parks
1 Yosemite, CA Y
2 Grand Canyon, AZ Y
3 Yellowstone WY Y
4 Banff, AB N
5 Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica Y
Adventure Travel – Skiing
1 Whistler Blackcomb, BC Y
2 Snowbird / Alta, UT Y
3 Vail, CO N
4 Mammoth, CA N
5 Squaw Valley, CA Y
Adventure Travel – Islands
1 Maui, HI Y
2 Big Island, HI Y
3 Kauai, HI N
4 U.S. Virgin Islands: St. John N
5 Bahamas: Harbour Island N

Top California Weekend Trips
Northern
Carmel By-The-Sea
Napa
Southern
Laguna Beach
Palm Springs

Top Overseas Destinations I Have Visited
Europe
Paris, France
Zermatt, Switzerland
Asia
Hong Kong, China
Phuket, Thailand