County of Orange

Seriously, that's its technical name: County of Orange. And I'm still not clear why it's so famous; can you name any other famous counties? Yet this is where we found ourselves rather unexpectedly last weekend. Here's how...

Josh called Tuesday afternoon to say he was being asked to speak at a conference...in 3 days...in California...with me along for the ride.

This has never happened before. They could have offered me a weekend in MICHIGAN and I would've taken it. Southern California? Done.

I wish. By Thursday, I really wasn't sure if it would be worth it. Turns out I took Operations in b-school so I could make arrangements to go away for THREE WHOLE DAYS. #3boys #6sitters #6pagesofnotes #22guests #72hours #1millionmovingparts #bye-bye

"Just landed in Dallas and it is 25 degrees and snowing.
Snowing. When we finally get to San Diego
I expect to see pigs flying. Or a sharknado."

But with a village at my back, we flew to DFW Friday morning. This was my first time flying American Airlines with Josh since he's become an Up In The Air-style frequent flier, and it was oh so very lovely. There is an upside to all those weeks of him being gone, and it's spelled p-r-i-o-r-i-t-y. It smoothed out so many bumps in the trip. 

And there were some, like spending 8 hours in the plane, on the ground in Dallas with very little food (hence the many "flight delay" calls from the airline). Or a 4-hour layover in Charlotte after the red-eye (which was filled with babies crying #heartbreaking). We managed to spend 28 hours of our 75 hours in travel, but really it was all fine. Better than fine. And not just because of the VIP stuff. It was the fact that we had NO CHILDREN with us. We love the little guys beyond words, but this would have been a complete nightmare with them, and just knowing what could-have-been was enough to keep the silver linings ever in our minds.

"Going on hour #7 sitting in these seats, first waiting for the pilot, then waiting for de-icing. ‪#‎details‬ But I have my hubby, a good book, tea, and no children, so really there are worse places to be stuck." ‪#‎bright side‬

And the big whopping silver lining? A happy ending: We made it to San Diego before Saturday (by an hour), where it was 63 degrees and not snowing.

The conference was at Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point, CA, which is literally on top of cliffs overlooking the Pacific.

Saturday morning was our raison d'etre (in OC anyway): Josh's talk to med school deans about his research. It was the first time I've sat in to hear his stump speech live, and it was awesome, of course!

Who's that handsome guy up there, that sexy science guy? (Yeah, not the guy in the chair...)  ‪#‎groupieintheaudience‬ (me, not the guy in the chair, though he may be too)

That afternoon we drove up through Laguna Beach to Huntington Beach where we'd heard we should watch the sun set.

Huntington Beach surprised me - it is atmospheric, with large signs of industry (plants, cargo ships, an oil rig), a giant empty beach (unless you include the surfers in the water), and a massive pier with a steak-and-shake Ruby's diner at the end. It was moody and impressive and far more interesting than a sunny bit of sand. The black cherry milkshake at Ruby's didn't hurt either.

Sunday we started with a run around the harbor to earn our breakfast, including the largest biscuits-and-gravy I've ever seen (though sadly their size didn't make them taste any more like Grandma Merrill's).

Then we drove to the famous mission ca.1776 was not on a hill overlooking the Pacific as I unreasonably expected but tucked in the middle of town across from the Starbucks. Still, it is an oasis of CA history with a layout reminiscent of Oxford, CA-style. And this way I could get a chai tea too.

Lesser-known Mission Trivia, clockwise...TL: The famous looks-like-an-ugly-wasp-nest Sparrow homes (which can also be seen under Mack Hatcher).
TR: The scariest flowering plant I've ever met. Probably transplanted from The Secret Garden.
BR: No comment. ‪#‎noneneeded‬
BL: Turns out the native Americans had a food pyramid too! Theirs included "insect larvae" and "ground owls." Ours isn't sounding so bad...

#pros SoCal does have Starbucks that carry sandwiches and bento boxes (not to mention palm trees, Pacific Ocean, whatever), #cons But then we saw some house listings... 

Time to go home!

After a quick dinner with a bestie...💜