Life Lately

Happy Thursday! February already?!❤️ I guess I don’t mind too much with all of the beautiful sunshine and warm weather we’ve been having here in Cali–might have made a couple of trips to the pool already.  #notmadaboutit  {I’m dreading moving back to that Indiana weather, which, by the way, is happening the first week of March; our road trip back East will be happening here on the blog, so don’t miss it!}

Our Life Lately has been a little bit of everything, cramming in our last-minute goodbyes (to both people and places) and Grant’s Valley Milk project started making powdered milk on Feb 2nd–a good thing since it’s kind of the reason we are here! Grant has been working through most weekends but when we get an open day we’ve been making it a point to get away to see favorite sites one last time and even explore some new ones!!

Carmel-by-the-sea has been a favorite of ours since month 1 of our stay in Cali, so we figured it was only fitting to visit for what might be our last time…EVER! We left early so that we could have a full day there! Carmel (pronounced: Car-mel, not Car-mul like we Hoosiers say 😂) is delightfully peaceful and charming, especially at 10:00 am on a Sunday!

We strolled down Ocean Ave (their main street) and ended up having brunch at this quaint French Kitchen on Lafayette!

We stopped by Grant’s favorite place– Cottage of Sweets. He loves buying little candy chips that his Grandpa Bucher and Great-Grandpa Isch used to have.

I of course didn’t mind shopping through a couple of boutiques and Grayson Quinn enjoyed the typical people watching! We stopped at the beach, another favorite…

and then we headed for a new adventure to Folktale Winery and Vineyards just outside of downtown!

Folktale has a whimsical-rustic atmosphere combined with amazing tastings/pairings to enlighten your taste-buds!  The cozy, “not pretentious” feels (as Grant described) cultivated a place where one could spend hours basking in great company and wine (don’t worry, we split a tasting🍷).

Carmel, as always you didn’t disappoint and we will miss you!

Another recent quick trip was to Catalina Island!! If you get the chance, GO! {I told Grant, I didn’t know why we hadn’t come here earlier and more often. It’s similar to a Caribbean Island but right here in California.} We made the trip late Saturday evening and spent the night near LAX so we could get up early to board the ferry out of Long Beach. #sowethought  I took care of booking the ferry and when we were driving there, Grant asked what the place was called to get directions. I told him the name and that it was out of Long Beach–but not to be confused with the San Pedro location since they were both nearby!  I figured he had it from there, we even saw a sign for the Long Beach port and next thing I knew we were there. Yay!!

We arrived about 45 minutes early, like Catalina Express services had recommend, and when they finally opened for us to confirm our reservation I told them our name. Long story short, we were at the San Pedro port🤦🏼‍♀️ #wrongone Luckily, the lady was nice enough to switch our times/location and we ended up going out of San Pedro Port instead!  It was all good and ended up being better since this port was less busy during the winter months compared to Long Beach Port.  Remember for future travel–use the San Pedro Port and don’t get the 2 confused!

If you aren’t familiar with Catalina Island it’s an approximate 1 hour ferry ride from the different ports in the LA area and is a complete gem!

Since the island is small enough to walk around, the only forms of transportation are bicycle or golf cart. We walked since we had planned a day at the beach and weren’t going too far.

Our beach of choice was the Descanso Beach Club, where you can rent cabanas and relax!! We definitely did that!

Grayson loved the Seagulls!

It was a wonderful day in the gorgeous Catalina sunshine!

We finished the evening by taking the 5:30 pm ferry back to San Pedro and then drove back to Turlock (5 hours)–Grant proceeded to jump back in the vehicle and drove (2 hours) to Sacramento airport where he flew out for meetings!  #woof

This past weekend we had a day away with our small group in Murphys, CA— it was like our “going away outing.” I had never heard of it, but it seems to be a place where only the locals go! It is a historical mining town, restored to be a touristy location.  This was a fun day of food, wine tasting, boutique shopping and fellowship with our small group! Grant and I stayed the evening after everyone left and had a nice date night– we already had the babysitter so might as well!!

We celebrated the Super Bowl with friends and matching boots💜

Grayson Quinn turned 11 months on February 5th– loving a morning in the mirror😂  {I asked him to blow kisses and this is what he did…}

That’s been our Life Lately–Have a wonderful Thursday!
~Until next time, Stay Classy~