Entering San Diego County...

After a brief interaction with Johnny Law in the wee hours of last Wednesday morning, we pulled into LA. More accurately, we drove around it and went to Laguna Beach, where my friend Troy happened to be subbing for another yoga teacher and I got to go to a class taught by a good friend of mine from teacher training. Top it off with the fact that I got to eat a fish taco prior to class, and basically the day is already a huge success.

After a great class, we finally made our way to Aliso Viejo, where our good friend Scott put us up in his beautiful house. Before his partner (and my cousin) Emma passed away, she put a lot of effort into making a wonderful house a wonderful home; and Scott preserves that feeling completely.

It was great to pull into a place and just crash 100%. Scott took very good care of us. We had an awesome dinner outdoors on the back patio-- steaks on the grill and fresh salad and homemade margaritas. Can't beat that.

On Thursday, Scott was at work so we did our stinky laundry and spent a productive day catching up with various tasks on the internet. But wait! Because it is nice all the time here in SoCal, and because Scott has wireless internet, we took our work outside.

Kate is certainly the craigslist ninja - searching for a place to live long-term AND a place to stay short-term while we search for the long-term place. I'm exhausted already.

With all that searching, we naturally required a refueling. So of course, bring on the fish tacos!

A shrimp taco is not cheating if; 1.) it is accompanied
by a real fish taco; and 2.) it was highly recommended.

After a great meal at Wahoo's in the infamous Laguna Beach, we headed to the beach itself:

So close to the ocean....

We officially made it to the Pacific!

Whoever owns this is my new hero.

After our outing to the beach, we headed back to Scott's for a quiet evening. Friday morning we woke up early-ish and headed south to San Diego, cheering as we crossed the county line!

These things are on the side of the freeway as you drive past Camp Pendleton, between Orange County and San Diego County. Not even the Marines know what they are.
As my dad once said, "Oh look, Mae West." My mom then punched his arm.

Since Friday, we've been staying in a temporary apartment we found in the "vacation rental" section on craigslist; it's a little odd, but it couldn't be closer to the beach and downtown Encinitas (where we are looking to live). It is very open and airy, and has lots of good vibes and interesting books on eastern medicine that make me sleepy at night. It is just so wonderful to have a kitchen and to cook for ourselves after weeks of eating on the fly; it's also pretty great to not have to pack up and move every 2 days. We're here until the 25th; after that, we may end up couch-surfing for a few days to bridge the gap between now and our fictitious apartment that we expect to be available August 1st. But as you can see, our problems aren't really problems at all - this is how every single day ends here:

First of many San Diegan sunsets!

This picture was taken at 8:00pm on a SUNDAY.

I am 100% willing to call this "home" for now.

So the apartment hunt continues, but we are confident we are looking in the right places, turning down the wrong ones, and enjoying ourselves as well. In fact, we are hitting up the D Street Grill's "Recession Monday" - half price on wine and entrees. We'll save our worries for a rainy day. What? It doesn't rain here, you say? That works out well, then.