my brother and sister-in-law recently moved to santa cruz (and gave birth to their beautiful baby girl on monday night!) so this means lots of road trips up the coast are in my future and i am very excited about this. i love road trips – especially up the coast of california. my love for this state continues to grow as i see more and do more and create memories with all of the different experiences it has to offer. california is so vast and diverse and unique and there are countless little nooks and crannies that i am dying to explore!

a few weekends ago on taylor’s due date, we drove up to santa cruz in hopes that we would get to meet our sweet little niece! parker babe was cozy in mama’s belly and didn’t make an appearance all weekend, but we had so much fun hanging out with the parents-to-be, seeing their life up there, and visiting their adorable cottage. we also got to spend time with laura, who lives only a few blocks away from my brother and taylor. this makes me really happy because 3 of my favorite people in the world now live within walking distance from each other! another perk of the weekend was driving into san francisco on saturday night to surprise one of my best friends and her fiancé at their engagement party. i’m so glad we got to be there for the special celebration and having a reunion with all of my college roommates was the best ever! love those girls so much. sidenote: i am completely fascinated by the fog situation in sf; seeing it roll in like a blanket on our drive into the city had me snapping a million and one photos. we cruised around the city in the morning and couldn’t leave without stuffing ourselves with burritos from la taqueria that are ohmygosh so good. we made our way back down the coast late sunday afternoon and stopped in beautiful big sur just as the sun was setting. we hadn’t been back since this trip and goodness gracious, that place is breathtaking! it’s definitely worth the extra driving time in my opinion! this weekend was one for the books for sureee and i’m thankful for many more trips up there real soon!

way back in november, we celebrated our one year anniversary with a three day getaway to santa barbara. since our wedding day, i had been wanting to celebrate our one year in the town where we met and got married. before we had made any accommodations, my parents surprised us and booked us two nights at the bacara! you guys. that place is insane. it’s definitely the classiest and most luxurious resort we have ever had the pleasure of staying at (and way nicer than any place reis and i would have booked for ourselves, that’s for sure – thanks mom and dad!). we took full advantage of everything the resort had to offer and roamed the beautiful grounds both mornings of our stay. it was the most relaxing trip i think we’ve ever taken because we had no agenda whatsoever. another perk was that our anniversary landed on a weekday so we lucked out with a very uncrowded visit (and had the spa and pool all to ourselves!). we spent a little bit of time downtown, including a quick stop at cantwell’s market. reis took me here as part of our first date (6 years ago!) and i remember being insanely nervous ha! it’s so fun to relive those dating memories.

there’s just something about santa barbara that is so magical. it has endless amounts of charm, but we decided a lot of it has to do with the light. the dreamy gold/pinkish hues are always perfection! i would move back there in a heartbeat.

a few other notable stops on our trip: a delicious italian dinner that took us right back to our honeymoon at via maestra 42, a movie night at the riviera theater (my favorite hidden gem of santa barbara!), coffee at the french press, and of course our usual stop at mcconnell’s ice cream (salted caramel chip is a must, people).

this past weekend i had the pleasure of trekking out to the desert for a design retreat called designer vaca (we successfully spammed instagram all weekend with the hashtag #designervaca). i got to meet so many talented and truly inspiring women and left palm springs feeling crazy inspired. i really enjoyed making new friends, eating yummy food, exploring the oh-so-hip ace hotel, bonding with my roomies candace, bri, and meg, and hearing people’s stories on the Q&A panels. it’s assuring to know that i am not alone in this crazy freelance life and that i can relate to so many women who are in the same boat.

thank you SO much to promise, alyssa, liz, eva, megan, and kathleen for organizing such an amazing weekend!

ALSO…i’m working on a little video recap of the weekend that should be up very soooon! so stay tuned for that.