Summer/Fall 2013

Over the past few months, we've been really enjoying our San Diego life. With the exception of a few mini-trips to Orange County and LA, we've been mostly spending our time taking advantage of the beach, surf, events and restaurants walking/biking distance from our house. Late summer/early fall is our favorite time at home when the tourist crowds thin out and the weather is better than ever. This is why we like to save our traveling for other times in the year.

Here are few of the things we've been up to:

Stand Up Paddling - With the recent addition of a baby bump, this has been an even more frequent activity.

Mike, Tanner and Dad.

Trying out stand up paddle pilates. Yes, it was hard!

Tanner and Chelsea SUPing in San Clemente

Surf Competitions - In Oceanside, there are a lot of surf competitions but one of my favorites is the SuperGirl Pro. It's the largest female pro surf competition in the world!

Congrats to winner Malia Manuel

Kayaking

La Jolla Sea Caves

Mom and Chelsea

Camping

Camping trip at Point Mugu Beach.

Surfing

Surfing in Malibu. Chelsea is 13 weeks pregnant here, so hopefully the baby had fun surfing too.

Mike surfing South Oceanside

Spending time with family

Night out with the Denning Grandparents at the Padres Game

Dinner at the Lightouse Grill in Oceanside

Ian (Chelsea's brother) & Jolina's wedding

Most Southern California residents will agree that September and October are the best months to be here! Enjoy the rest of your fall season. :)

Oceanside Harbor

Santa Barbara Camping

Memorial Day Weekend, 2013

We love the Ventura and Santa Barbara Coast and were luckily able to secure a fairly last minute campsite at El Capitan State Beach for Memorial Day weekend. El Capitan is about 15 minutes north of Santa Barbara. We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up our camp and left to take a stroll on the beach. We walked North for a few miles and there was barely anyone in sight. The beach was deserted. It was incredibly beautiful. 

Evening hike along the beach

We then started up a fire and made smores with strawberries. It was Chelsea's idea of making something with absolutely no nutritive value at least have something a little healthy. They turned out really good. We brought our new air mattress and that made sleeping much easier than on the little pads we have previously used. Having a mattress when camping is a serious game changer in getting good sleep when camping.

Cooking up chicken apple sausages for dinner.

Strawberries, roasted marshmallows and graham cracker treat! Tasted like a strawberry shortcake!

We went for another few mile hike, this time South of El Capitan, early in the morning to another deserted coastline. We couldn't believe on the Saturday of a holiday weekend we had found a completely empty beach! It was awesome and really pretty. 

Chelsea getting in touch with nature hiking barefoot.

We then hung out in downtown Santa Barbara at the pier and ate at a cafe nearby. No one in SB was at the actual beach, they were all dressed nice and there for the restaurants and shopping. It was really bizarre. It was an 80 degree day and everyone dressed up nicely as they walked along the boardwalk to get to different shops but not hang out on the sand. Although beautiful, the city of Santa Barbara isn't really our scene, so we made our way to Carpinteria, which was way more like a beach town. We then checked the waves all the way down the coast to Ventura, where we stayed the night. We surfed a slow but fun C-Street the next morning and hung out at San Buenaventura State Beach afterwards. Everytime we're in Ventura we've been able to score fun waves at C-Street!  

Had to put the full suit back on for Ventura surf.

We had a ton of fun together on this weekend getaway and would recommend El Capitan as a place to camp for anyone! Here are a few more pics from the trip.

Ocean view from our campsite.

Taking a stroll at high tide along El Capitan Beach.

Colorful sand crab

Watching the dolphins at sunset together.

Sunset at El Capitan State Beach

Guide to Romantic Adventuring

It's Valentines week!!! To keep with the theme of the week here's a guide on ways to have romance while on adventures.

1. Take a walk on a deserted beach
Best Places: Culebra, Puerto Rico and Molokai, HI

 

2. Stay in a hotel with a private hot tub
Best Place: Riviera Maya, Mexico

3. Go to a place with a legend about lovers
Best Places: Sweetheart Rock - Lanai, HI

4. Watch the sunrise together
Best Place: Sonoma County Coast, CA and San Diego, CA

5. Surf together during sunset
Best Places: Oahu, HI and San Onofre, CA

6. Ice Skating holding hands
Best Place: NYC at Christmas time

7. Camp alone at the beach
Best Places: Red Beach, NZ and Molokai, HI

8. Take a walk along a pier
Best Place: Oceanside, CA pier and Santa Cruz, CA pier

9. Go to a travel destination popular for Honeymoons
Best Place: Tahiti, French Polynesia

10. Sit and watch the sunset together
Best Places: Huntington Beach, CA and Bodega Bay, CA

Happy Valentine's Day

New Zealand Part 1 - North Island

We kicked off our travels this year with a New Zealand and Tahiti trip. Since both New Zealand Islands are completely different and with Tahiti being a whole other beauty, this post is just on New Zealand's North Island where we kicked off the trip. We arrived in a time zone 23 hours ahead of PST. The slang is different and we had to get used to driving on the left side of the road. Along the way, we saw some of the most beautiful scenery we had ever seen and that probably exists as well. We rented a camper van with a bed and kitchenette and spent the night in holiday parks or at the beach, depending on where we were. One thing that we didn't realize about New Zealand was how much driving there was to do. We spent the majority of our time driving from point to point but enjoyed the beautiful views that the country had to offer along the way.

We surfed a few times on all sides of the island. Raglan, having been featured in the movie Endless Summer and the known surfing mecca of NZ, was of course something we really wanted to explore and we had one of the most exciting adventures of our lives there. Our second day in Raglan greeted us with high winds and blown out surf. We took a narrow and windy dirt road around an isolated coastal mountain just south of Raglan to get to a surf break that was more isolated from the howling wind. We finally arrived at Ruapuke to overhead sets and insane rip currents. The conditions weren't great but it was beautiful there and the water was warm which was nice since we had just come from wearing wetsuits being winter time back home in California.

The Kiwis are really nice. They are always willing to lend a helping hand and give you directions, food, whatever it is that you need. The country is very clean too. There was no trash or litter anywhere. It was really impressive how thoughtful and respectful they were to their land. There definitely was a much more communitive effort and shared responsibility to take care of their land.

Here are a few highlights from the North Island:

Bay of Islands

Cooking brawts for dinner by the lake

Spent the night in our van at Red Beach

Surfing Ruapuke in Raglan

Raglan Harbor

It's so pretty everywhere!

We stayed the night at a funky little ski lodge up in the mountains

At the top of Red Crater during the steep Mt. Tongariro hike

Emerald lakes of the Mt. Tongariro hike

Every twist and turn in the road led to another gorgeous lake

Hot springs in Rotorua

Hiking in the rain down to Cathedral Cove beach

Cathedral Cove Beach

Digging the hole for our natural spa at Hot Water Beach

The natural hot springs under the sand made for a nice hot spa at the beach

Heading out to surf in Whangamata

Mike surfing in Whangamata

Vacationing in a campervan was awesome!

A night out in Auckland