Orange County Beach Time!

This past weekend I flew out to Orange County to catch up with Melayne – it’s always fun girl, down time when I see her every summer. We eat, enjoy the beach, and talk – a lot about everything.

I realized how it’s amazing to laugh with people not necessarily because they’re funny or you’re funny, but the relationship and chats can make you laugh and that’s the best part of friendship. You might have already figured out that my girlfriends are a huge part of my world.

First night, Tabu Shabu – I love shabu so much, it’s kind of ridiculous, it’s a toss up – am I seeing Melayne or am I visiting Tabu Shabu? Just kidding!

I researched how I could have shabu in my house. The reality is, I don’t feel like getting the meat so I need to find a good neighborhood place around me in Phoenix. We get chicken and lamb shoulder and I ordered a broth  similar to ramen soup – salty! Melayne likes spicy so you can see her peppers flowing in her broth.

Melayne also plays beach volleyball on the weekends – she was an NCAA volleyball player at UofA and South Florida. It’s funny we went to the same college and were the same year but we didn’t know each other. We did know a ton of the same UofA athletes. We later met competing in a pageant!

We took a few fun shots at the beach these are iPhone shots. I brought my new to me but very old film camera and right now a few rolls are in the process of being developed and scanned. I’m unsure if any will even turn out at everything was experimental with using an ancient camera for the first time, trying to see how the camera’s custom settings work, and figuring out which film I like.

If they’re worth sharing, I will of course. Otherwise, I enjoy challenging myself as a photographer.

There was a lot of eating – Shirley’s Bagels in Costa Mesa is so popular, we ordered open faced bagels. I need to make this at home, so here’s the recipe – Sliced bagel, cream cheese, sliced cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes and some lemon pepper seasoning. Amazing.

I also love stopping into Heritage Mercantile Co. It’s such a cute store even cuter on the outside with vines crawling up!

Melayne also cooked for me, she had some salmon her mom and dad caught on a recent Alaska trip. I would love to go back to Alaska and bring Benjamin (I went when I was in jr. high on a cruise).

Such a catch! Melayne, I mean.

I got a crazy sunburn on my left arm. It just felt so good that day with the breeze and sun that I didn’t think I was getting fried – just like that horrible back tan from France that took me three months to get rid of.

I also have tan lines from my bathing suit which I thought were imprints. I definitely would not have done this if I had filmed that commercial last week, I’m very careful about my professionalism with modeling.

As we sat on the porch facing the beach – like it was one of those rows of homes right on Newport Beach, Ryan made us legit Acai bowls, the frozen Acai is below and it was incredibly refreshing.

A lady walked by and mentioned how good it looked before I took a bite and I told her I’d sell her mine for $40.

But I’m so glad I didn’t.

I have one more trip back to California to visit my family and friends – Nor Cal this time and then I’ll stay put in Arizona because the weather will be amazing and all of you will be begging to visit me! Haha! It’s been a fun summer so far – haven’t even noticed the heat because I’ve been gone every other weekend which has been such a blessing, I love my summer trips!

Have a great weekend!