Making a Splash

                            Taken on our way out of the J. Paul Getty Museum

Exhale-a new year! We decided to celebrate the birth of 2013 away from the Big Apple and headed west to southern California to hang with family & friends while taking in some surf, sun & sand.  It's a beautiful place to begin again. Perhaps, after our 2012 it is also the most fitting.  I wasn't raised in southern California but a part of me grew up here. For this is the place where we, Papa Bird & I, became an "us". It's the place where the first chapter of our story began.  It was in California where we had our first kiss, our first apartment, our first jobs outside of our parents home & our first real taste of adulthood.  We sought adventure up and down the coast. We scrimped, we saved, we fought and we lived.  

            Loving how Egg by Susan Lazar salmon shorts compliments the blue hue of the ocean

It's always fun bringing Bebe Bird back to the west coast.  Sharing with him some of our favorite beaches and watching his amazement when witnessing a surfer carrying a long board while skateboarding down to the beach-where there happen to be trains! A dream come true in the world of this almost 2 year old.  I love hearing him ask "Beach? Choo Choo?" and pointing in the right direction of the surf in the mornings.  Our days spent in this sleepy little beach town are peaceful yet exciting.  We came without an agenda.  So, here we are catching up with old friends, spending time with family and trying to enjoy each other.  Disconnecting (a little) so we can reconnect.  There are many a mornings spent on the white sandy beaches chasing waves or walking the pier .  There are purchases at Rip Curl & Hobie to fill our Brooklyn closets. Visits to Republik of Kalifornia skate shop where Bebe Bird is escorted out by his parents for making such a fuss  kicking and screaming because he can't ride all the skateboards the shop has to offer. Go figure.

There have been magical play dates with Nana Bird and dinner parties with aunts and cousins. A visit to the J. Paul Getty Museum in LA, which was nothing short of amazing and to the San Diego Zoo. We spotted a lion, elephants & a panda oh my.  As our trip winds down and we welcome the new year we can only ask that we continue to ride the wave of life, with all it's up's & downs with grace & with style!