Back in the saddle

Yes, it's really me this time - no interlopers. Well, what have we been up to? Not much really, just chilling. Our morning walks down to the State Park and along the lovely beaches are a regular feature and we've also had short trips to Laguna Beach (on the Marriott shuttle bus) and Huntington Beach, aka Surf City - it was just like the movies - all volleyball courts, big waves, surf schools and miles and miles of golden sands - I swear I could almost hear the ghosts of Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again - our first trip was the short journey south down to Laguna Beach - the lifeguard stations are so typically evocative of the West Coast:



We liked the decorated VW bug we spotted:



Lunch at the Cliff, overlooking the bay, was nice.

On Monday, Scott and I went to golf at Strawberry Farms (http://www.strawberryfarmsgolf.com/) - sounds like a nice, open friendly golf course? - couldn't have been further from the truth - it was very tight. We bought golf balls at the start - or at least Scott did - I foolishly persuaded him to buy the more expensive Pro V1 balls - fatal error! Still, it was a whole lot cheaper than playing the golf course our villa overlooks - http://www.pelicanhill.com/#/golf/ - lovely looking courses, but $250 per round? - no thanks. If you strayed at all at Strawberry Farms - and we did - there wasn't even any point looking for the golf balls - it was jungle, added to which these signs didn't exactly encourage us much:



There was a nice finishing hole there however:



In the evening we had dinner at the lcoal brewpub - Newport Beach Brewery (http://newportbeachbrewingcompany.com/) - nice ales and excellent food - the complete opposite of our experience last night at Huntington Beach (http://www.hbbeerco.com/) - average food and beers that were over-carbonated and just dull really. There were 2 brewpubs directly opposite each other - I guess we chose the wrong one - we should have tried BJ's - http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/

The pier at Huntington Beach is an extension of Main St where there was a weekly street fair going on - the boys enjoyed the bouncy castles, but we all enjoyed getting blown off our feet walking out to the end of the pier to Ruby's Diner:



Ruby's maintains the style and standards of a typical 40's/50's seaside diner - all red plastic booths and waiters and waitresses dressed accordingly - it was great - as were the shakes:



OK - that's me up to date again - back to the pool now.