Since it was only one night, we wanted to go somewhere pretty local. Laguna Beach came up when we came across Laguna Beach House, a newly renovated beachside boutique accommodation. Even though it was only one hour away from our house, Laguna Beach brought the feel of the summer getaway because this little town is pretty isolated from the rest of the Orange County cities by a narrow canyon road.
I work closely with Angie on our Baum-kuchen love letter (aka: our monthly email newsletter:) and we are getting ready to launch Sara's ceramic jewelry Great Plain at our shop so the weekend was a great way for us and Baum-kuchen to deepen our soul search.
Here is a run down of where we went and what we did to fuel ourselves with inspiration.
La Sirena Grill for lunch: They were the yummiest taco dishes I had in a while. Wholesome and fresh. Definitely recommend their avocado salad and Carnitas tacos!
Laguna Beach House for a place to stay: It was a lovely place to stay. We had a pool level room where we could walk 10 steps to the pool. Pool was not really big but they had a nice ambience with fire-pit and lovely lounge chairs. They served wine (which we missed), and cookies and milk for evening time and coffee with yogurt parfait for breakfast. Little details are lovely to see and feel inspired. We did wish they remodeled their bathroom in the room but other than that... the walkable proximity to the beach and great restaurants was priceless!
Swim at Shaws Cove: There are so many little coves in Laguna Beach. They are so easy to access and creates a perfect little oasis to relax, swim and explore the tidal pool. We actually did a real beach swim (and float) in late afternoon and it was both relaxing and empowering. I have a bit of wave fear so it always takes me little while to actually get through the wave breaks. But once we were out in the ocean... it was peaceful. I so need more of that.
Watermarc for dinner: The entire Laguna Beach gets pretty busy for weekend evenings. Many restaurants were booked for the weekend and so as Watermarc. We were able to make a late night reservation. We were glad that we walked in little earlier to grab drinks because they were able to seat us much earlier than our actual reservation. We ordered a lot of small dishes and shared between three of us. I still dream about their cocktails:)
Morning walk and journaling at Heisler Park Cove: Even though I was on vacation, I still woke up at 6:30am... so I quietly sneaked out of our room and walked 5 minutes to the water. Having quiet moments all to myself was priceless. I sat for a while, journaled on my Hobonichi with Roterfaden... and sat little more.
Paddle Board Yoga to push our comfort zone: The moment I saw this idea of paddle board yoga on the website of Bliss Paddle Yoga, I knew I had to try it. Well. It turned out that this was a bit of crazy idea. The highlight was getting in and out of the shore with waves coming in. With instructors who were so skilled, they timed us perfectly to ride the waves and it was an incredible feeling. Not so fun was the actual yoga on the open water. Until we actually got out there, we didn't realize how much we would get affected by motion sickness. To be balancing on the tiny paddle surface while trying to actually practice yoga. It's funny to think about now... but it was definitely NOT funny at the time. I still love that we did it (and thankful for Angie and Sara to go along with it) but next time we will probably do a simple paddling instead of practicing yoga on the board.
Lunch at The OC Mix: Sunday afternoon came so fast and it was time for us to start heading home. Since we didn't eat much in the morning between paddle boarding and feeling rather sick, we wanted to treat ourselves to brunch. We stopped by The OC Mix, a new indoor/outdoor boutique mall, on our way home and grabbed oysters and good coffee. It was a nice change from being at the beach and it was a perfect break for a drive home.
Now that I write this post, I can't believe that we were there just a week ago. I am all about taking the kids to adventures with us but it was a nice break to be just with grown-up friends. Can't wait to plan another trip with them!
xo
-wakako
Photos by Wakako, Angie and Sara:)
