Happy (Early) 26th Anniversary!
After doing some pondering, we realized we haven’t gotten away just the two of us in 8 years!!! That’s just way too long! When you have a family life and busyness take over and you lose tack of each other too easily. Sometimes I miss Jared. We live in the same house, sit at the same table for dinner, raise the same kids. But sometimes, when things get really crazy, it’s like we’re strangers passing each other in the hallway. It’s so important to take time to be with each other and build your marriage. Not to say we haven’t been doing that, and that it can’t be done without a trip or vacation, but it makes it a lot easier when you can disconnect from your regular routines, kids, piles of laundry and dishes.
We decided that we needed to spend some real one on one quality time with each other and reconnect and remember why we still love each other and look back and see how far we’ve come when those two babies in High School met and began this incredible life together.
I searched some areas in California since I knew we’d only be able to stay a couple of nights (the drive needed to be reasonable) and found this dreamy resort called Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort and Spa. It’s in Dana Point and it was absolutely PERFECT!! 
We arrived midday and checked in. Our room was spacious and clean. We unpacked and decided to walk around the grounds and explore down by the wharf to get the lay of the land.
The June gloom had just swept away when we arrived. The gal at the desk said it’d been dreary all day until just before we arrived! And I’m so happy to say it stayed clear and sunny the whole time we were there. We couldn’t have ordered more perfect weather! It was gorgeous!
We headed back to our room and got ready for our dinner reservations at The Chart House.
We had a romantic dinner with spectacular views of the ocean.
It was wonderful to sit and relax and soak in the views and talk without any interruptions.
After dinner we headed down to the jacuzzi. To our surprise and delight it was empty! We had the whole place to ourselves. So many perfect moments. I felt like “Someone” planned it just for us!
The next morning we decided to do a whale watching tour.
We walked down to the wharf and we got lucky once again and snatched up the LAST TWO tickets!
I mean…come on! So awesome right!?!!
The tour was 2 hours and did not disappoint! We saw LITERALLY 100’s of dolphins. So. Many. Dolphins! And little sweet baby dolphins zipping around so close to their momma’s and the boat. It was incredible!
Apparently, Dana Point is the whale and dolphin watching capital of the world. There are more dolphins per square mile than anywhere else in the world with over 450,000 dolphins.
Here are a couple of clips of the cute dolphins zooming around and leaping out of the water. They swim so fast!
We also saw a gray whale but he was pretty far away so I couldn’t get a great picture. As well as a mola mola (sun fish). Those things are weird looking. LOL!
If you squint REEEALLY hard in the center of the photo you can see a small puff of water from the whale spout. I wasn’t kidding when I said he was far away. Haha!
Picture above is from the internet of a Mola Mola fish.
One thing that we forgot was sunblock on our tour. Jared got very sunburned poor guy.
After we got back to the dock we were starving so we headed over The Wind & Sea to get some fish and chips and a nice big pina colada! They are my favorite thing!! The fish and chips sadly weren’t very good though. But the pina colada was on point!
We walked around Doheny Beach which was super close to the wharf and to our hotel.
We were ready for some down time so we went back to our room. Our hotel was on a cliff and so to get to it we had to trek up a very very steep and decently long hill. It was quite the workout! Ha!
We caught our breath and made it to the resort. We hung out on our balcony that overlooked the pool and we could see the ocean.
After a little reprieve we went to explore more of the Laguna Beach area.
Jared wasn’t cooperating in the elevator selfie. LOL!
We drove around and randomly picked this place called Heisler Park to stop at and take in some sights.
When I got out of the car and walked over to the lookout point my breath was taken away and I got so emotional. Tears filled my eyes and I was choked up. I can’t really put into words why it struck me so deeply but it was one of those moments in life I will never forget. It was everything I needed!! Stunning doesn’t even seem to describe it accurately. All I can say is God is so good!
They had a walking path and you could walk around and see several different sculptures along the way. They also had stairs that took you down to the beach and we dipped our toes in the water and sand.
This place was an absolute gem!! We’ll be back for sure!
It was starting to get late and we wanted to try this pizza place I had found that came highly recommended so we tore ourselves away from this little piece of heaven and went to get some dinner.
The place was called NEApolitan Pizzeria & Birreria.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
If you are ever near the Laguna Beach area, and even if you’re not that close, it’s absolutely worth the drive to eat here! Just go!!!
We’ve never had pizza this good in our lives. We had the Calabrese Pizza (left) which had Pomodoro, mozzarella, garlic, spicy calabrese, salami, and raw basil. And the Blackberry Pizza (right) which had homemade blackberry sauce, apricot ricotta, and applewood smoked bacon, topped with raw arugula tossed in olive oil & lemon.
By the end of the night none of this was left! It was incredible!!
We waddled ourselves back to the car and got cozy in the hotel and put on a movie. It was such a wonderful and fun day!
We got up the last morning and packed up. Got some breakfast a place around the corner from the resort. We had planned to stop at a U-Pick strawberry field on the way home (we’d seen it on the way in) but somehow we either missed it or took a different way home. We never saw it. We were a little sad but we also didn’t want to get home too late. So it was ok.
There’s just something about car trips that are magical. Maybe it’s the captive audience. Nowhere to go and nothing to distract you. I love the long heart to heart conversations and thinking and dreaming together that happens in between all those hours and minutes on the road. <3
This trip was everything I dreamed of PLUS more! It was absolute perfection (other than Jared’s sunburn). I’m beyond grateful we could do this and make each other a priority and put our marriage in the forefront. There’s no other relationship on earth more important than the one you have with your spouse.
Happy 26th Anniversary, Babe!
