"It's SPRING BREAAAK"

A stay-cation... kind of. Three of my friends from home came and visited me in San Luis Obispo (SLO) to check out the Central Coast, and we were lucky enough to discover southern California and northern California as well.

Here are some pictures with descriptions of what we did during our one-week break from school.

Saturday, March 24th
We explored Architecture Graveyard (with an incorporated campus tour), went to Morro Bay and saw a squirrel, ate some delicious Thai food, and lastly went to Pirates Cove for sunset. Needless to say, it was very easy to fall asleep.



This was the first time this year where I heard the bees buzzing, and it made me really happy, so I had to take a picture!



Little bird caught my attention with it's chirping. 



After Arch Graveyard, we climbed down to the river, which was really calming.



Squirrel posing in Morro Bay

Sunday, March 25th
We defeated the Tri-tip challenge!!! Woohoo. (It still kicked out butt). For those who do not attend Cal Poly/have no idea what the Tri-tip challenge is, let me explain it for you. There are three well-known peaks in SLO (Bishops, Madonna, and the P), you climb them in one day and then go down to Firestone to eat a Tritip sandwich. Legend has it that they used to give out the tritips for free, but too many people completed the challenge that they stopped doing that. Anyways, we really got our steps in that day.



Bishops



View from Bishops



Madonna



View from Madonna



I know some of us look in pain, but it's just the wind and the sunshine that wore us out.



View from the P



More wildlife 

Sadly, Mikee has this great picture on his phone with us smiling at the top of the P, but my computer won't let me access it 😔

Monday, March 26th
We woke up at 5 am. Yes, you read that correctly 5 o'clock in the morning (after our four-and-a-half hour hike the day before) to drive down to Santa Clarita to check out socal life. Once there, we spent some time with Austin's family before heading out for lunch (since we arrived in socal at 9am). We went to Fatburger (because they sell the impossible burger, which is a vegan patty that tastes pretty similar to meat and has a very similar texture, and Savannah and I were both very interested in tasting it), and it was really good. Then we drove to Santa Monica and walked down the pier before walking down to Venice Beach. Sav and I decided to take a detour and go to Cafe Gratitude to get some milkshakes (and they were delicious!!!). Once we were done, we met up with the rest of the gang and people watched at the beach (where the rings are and all the workout equipment... but it's not muscle beach), and Alex and Mikee tried the rings, before walking back to the car. Before heading back to Austin's family's house, we decided to drive through the nicer neighborhoods to inspire us to work hard. At the house we watched Deadpool and the Aristocats before passing out.



Austin and Mikee completed the XXXL challenge



Stoked to enjoy the sunshine



Sav and I got some vegan milkshakes and nachos. So yummy.

Tuesday, March 27th
We decided to take it easy this day. We woke up naturally and got ready, then we chilled out for a little bit before driving back to SLO. The weather was beautiful and we weren't very enthusiastic for more hikes, so we decided to check out the tide pools at MDO (Montana de Oro), and it was SO COOL. We saw anemones and starfish and Alex took some cool underwater videos. We spent almost two hours looking into the different tide pools and we had so much fun. After our fun-in-the-sun we drove back home and just sat for a good two hours (and ate). Then we went to Madonnna Inn, which is a famous hotel in SLO where each room has a different theme and the bathrooms are super sick as well, and it's also famous for it's cake.

Wednesday, March 28th
The big surprise. I had asked the boys previously in the week if they wanted to know what their big surprise for the trip was, and they said no, which was fine with me. So we woke up and packed up all of their stuff. We went to Slodoco (San Luis Obispo Donut Company) to "fuel up" and got gas. Then it was go time. The boys followed us for a remarkable two-and-a-half hours without asking any questions. What is the big surprise you ask? Don't fret, I will tell you. My aunt and uncle were gracious enough to let us stay at their house in Capitola (basically Santa Cruz)!! Woohoo. We didn't hangout there long though because we wanted to go check out the Redwoods. Spoiler alert... They're so cool. The weather was perfect and it felt like summer, and we got to walk among some of the oldest and tallest trees. We even saw a banana slug! It was a good day.



Flower boys



We even saw a banana slug!!



View from the house :)

Thursday, March 29th
The last full day for the boys. We woke up and Mikee made eggs for everyone (well 80% of the group of 5), but it was so beautiful outside that we got ready and walked out to the pier and along the beach. There is a super cool hotel in Capitola that is comprised of little pastel houses. We spent some time doing that before going back to eat some snacks. Then we drove out to Westcliff (and apparently parked at the very end of Westcliff) and walked all the way to the end of the Boardwalk! Along the way we stopped at the Surf Museum and watched surfers do their thing, as well as enjoyed the sunshine. On our long trek back to the car, we stopped at an ice cream parlor where the boys got... well, some ice cream. The boys also mentioned that they wanted to watch the sunset on the beach, so after we got back we went down to the beach and watched the sunset as Alex went into the water and swam. We went back to the house and made spaghetti. Then we just hung out and talked for a while before going to bed.



Brave soul

The boys left on their drive back home at 6 am on Friday.

Overall it was a fantastic week with lots of walking and sunshine (and food), and I am so glad that we are so fortunate to have these opportunities to visit each other and discover bits of the world together.