Laguna Beach

For the Easter 2010 weekend, we decided to head down south to territories unknown. One of Mike's goals is to play as many new golf courses (that is, new to him) as he can. Along the way, he collects the logo balls. So he's played pretty much everything within a day's drive of where we live. Having said that, it's time to hit Southern California. This means more driving and possibly in the future flying, if we can swing it, but for now we took advantage of my Spring Break and drove the 6 hours to Laguna Beach.

Actually, it was 7 hours if you include the gorgeous L.A. traffic. We stopped at Harris Ranch in Coalinga on the way there, and Mike surprised me with a visit from Mom and Sam who joined us for lunch. They had driven over from Fresno. Then we headed off to our next adventure.

We stayed at a nice little inn that was right across the street from the ocean. When we arrived, they had free wine and snacks in the evening. We walked down the block and found a wonderful Italian restaurant by accident. The next day, we got up super early and attended the Sunday Easter services of Coast Hills Church in Aliso Viejo (I didn't want to miss Easter service and found it on the internet). After that, we drove back over to Laguna and enjoyed a beautiful brunch at a local hotel that had an awesome view of the ocean. Then we set off to play Aliso Creek Golf Course...it was in a canyon and you can tell from that picture with Mike it looks almost like we're in the jungle! We saw some deer, which is always the highlight of my golfing experience. :-)

Later on, we found a little cove on the beach no bigger than our house down the steps across the street. We played catch with our baseball mitts and soaked up some sun, before going for a drive even further south to check out San Clemente. On our way back to Laguna, we found a swell old place called Ruby's Diner, a hamburger joint dressed up like the '50s. Grubbin'!

On our last morning, we checked out and drove over to San Juan Hills Golf Club and played 18 holes with a local named Wally. We forgot the camera. :-( Wally was very patient with me the quasi-golfer and a super sweetheart---he is in his 70s and plays golf there twice a week. My favorite part? Bunnies everywhere!

Then we started our trek home and you know...it's fun going places, but isn't coming home always the best part???