The Romantic Island of Lanai

While babymoonin in Maui, we also wanted to spend sometime on Lanai. We had only been there for a day trip once before, so this time we wanted to spend a couple days and really slow down to the mellow pace of Lanai. This island doesn't get a ton of tourists and while there, we would often go hours without seeing anyone else. This cute, small little island we would call the most romantic of the Hawaiian Islands. With more pine trees than palm trees, it doesn't have the tropical feel the other islands do, but it's still beautiful in it's unique way. Here are the highlights from our stay on Lanai.

Taking the ferry from Maui to Lanai - It's only a 45 minute ferry ride and we got to see a ton of whales along the way!

Staying at the Hotel Lanai - This is a restored old plantation home that is the cutest place we've ever stayed in.

Hanging out at a remote beach - No footprints or anyone else in sight at this beautiful cove.

Snorkeling at Manele Bay - The best snorkeling we've done in the Hawaiian Islands was here! There are tons of very brightly colored fish and live coral. Because the island is so rarely visited, the sea life is much more vibrant.

Hiking to Sweetheart Rock

Off-roading to checkout remote coastline and an ancient fishing village, where King Kamehameha had a summer house.

 Hiking through the mountains of Lanai on the Koiliki Trail

View of Molokai from the top of the peak of Lanai

Amazing view of Maunalei Valley

Waiting for the ferry to take us back to Maui

View of Lanai from the Lahaina Harbor in Maui when we got dropped off by the ferry.

San Onofre Trails - Hiking, Nudists, and Secluded Beach

This weekend was another beautiful, sunny November day and at a perfect 70 degrees, it seemed fitting to go for a nice hike. We chose one of our favorite local hiking spots that seems to be surprisingly relatively unknown by lots of San Diego and Orange County locals, which are the trails at the San Onofre bluffs. There are 6 different trails that lead you down to the approx. 3 miles of state beach.  Just south of the state beach, the beach trail continues through Camp Pendleton. This is also an awesome place to go for some uncrowded long boarding!

You're guaranteed to run into a few nudists just south of trail 6. As we've found, the common trend among nude beach goers is they typically tend to be male, age 40+ and love to stand up and do a little stretch coincidentally always when you are walking by. This weekend was no exception for this norm based on the few we ran into getting their tan line free sunbathing in.

The good news is once you pass the nudist section you are on completely remote beach. How many places in Southern California can you be the only one on a beach???

Getting There: From the 5 fwy, exit Basilone and head west. You'll go south past the San Onofre Surf Beach and follow signs to San Onofre State Beach which leads you to the top of the bluffs and the beginning of Trail 1. This is a state beach so the typical $15 day use applies if you do not have a state beach pass (which is awesome to have, by the way).

We like to start at trail 5 or 6 and head south to do the more remote part of the trail which very few people seem to head to.

Here are a few pictures from our hike this weekend:

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

Mexico and the Big 30

The Big 3-0 Celebrations

This month Mike turned 30. We had a full week of celebrations for this milestone birthday! We started with a trip down south to Baja. We had hopes of an awesome surf trip, but while the waves were far from epic, the trip itself was still awesome with some great family time and amazing tacos.

Heading out for a surf at a beach break in Cantamar.

The next celebration was on Mike's actual birthday so we had a family dinner at Mike and I's favorite dinner spot, Rubys on the Oceanside pier. Tanner, Mike's youngest brother was having a birthday the following week, so we did the standard embarrassing song and Ruby's hat for both of them.

That next weekend was the big 30 bash with friends, neighbors and family. It was a great time! We were able to hang out with people from various parts of Mike's life, so it was interesting to see how little he has actually matured...or, uh...changed in the last decade.

This amazing birthday cake was made by Mike's mom.

Birthday boy enjoying some of the catered mexican food.

Pre-Party Set Up

Hanging out in our tiki garden. The plumeria is from our garden. :)

Some of us girls hanging out.

Happy 30th Mike!!!

Rocky Mountain Fun

Mike's grandparents celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary this year and we came up to Utah to celebrate. They eloped when they were 18, and they never had a wedding reception so this was a mini reception for them to be able to celebrate filled with a cake, presents and tons of food. While up in Utah we also got to take advantage of adventuring in the gorgeous mountains with hiking, riding side by sides and ATVs and exploring.

Day1:

After getting off the plane a few of us did a hike up Cottonwood Canyon to get a little exercise. We got off trail for a bit so it also turned into some rock climbing but we made it out and got to see a beautiful waterfall and stream.

That night was the big 55th wedding anniversary so we got to hang out with the whole family and have a big celebration.

Family Picture

The happy couple. How cute are they?

Mike with his grandparents

Playing bocce ball

 Day2:

Family activity of riding dirt bikes, side by sides and ATVs through the Wasatch National Forest! We were all covered head to toe in dirt after a full day of riding. It was a blast!

The group loading up

 Day 3:

We spent most of the day visiting other friends and family in the area that were not part of the Denning side. We also took a little side visit to the spot where we got engaged.

Driving up the canyon seeing waterfalls out the window

Provo Canyon - Where Mike proposed 8 years ago!

Day 4: 

Our last day we spent visiting a few more people and having some fun in Park City. We did a little hike through where the ski trails are during the winter time and did the Alpine Slide. The Alpine Slide involves taking a ski lift up the mountain and then doing a luge style slide all the way down. It was awesome!!!

Park City in Summer

Taking a trail in between a few ski runs. I had no idea there were trails here!

 Here's a YouTube video that shows the Alpine Slide. I would highly recommend doing this if you're up for trying something new!