The Land of CD Hustlers, Bland Mexican, and Sea Lions

       I recently realized that I hadn't posted very much about my time living in California, and I thought it would be a good idea so one day I can remember this place once I've possibly lived in a bunch of other places.  I've been procrastinating and blaming my lack of posts on needing to work/clean/socialize with humans rather than just my dogs, but I finally have pretty much no excuse not to today.  It's Super Bowl Sunday, and the good Lord knows I don't care one ounce about football.  So here's what's been up in CA:

This is our house!  We scored a 4 bedroom, since that's all that was available, and I am ok with that for sure.  We also won the view lottery, apparently.  Perfection.

Weird angle, but I had to leave the house number out of it.

This backyard view could only be nicer from a hammock and without the fence! 

When we first got here we were amazed by the weather, I was excited to have many of my friends from Virginia nearby, and we were so excited about all there was to do.  We talked about how we planned to try to stay here as long as we can, and we said that we'd request this for our next duty station as well.  I have to say that while it's beautiful here, and I couldn't be more happy having such awesome friends so close by, we will be ready to move on to somewhere else when it's time.  The laws here are pretty ridiculous (you'll get a ticket for holding your phone, and you can't own certain guns, but you can fly between lanes of traffic on your motorcycle).  The major downfall is the food.  I know I'm a total fatty for expecting there to be delicious food everywhere I go, but this place was really built up for me, so when I discovered that finding a decent Mexican restaurant without bland, chewy meat or getting some good hibachi would be harder than finding a health food store in Mississippi, I was pretty distraught.  Luckily, I'm not afraid of a little hard work, so I keep trying new restaurants to find some to go into our regular rotation.  I've found a few that I will honestly miss when we leave here.  Unfortunately, the best Mexican I've had is an hour away, but I think that's doable on an every other month basis.  I should look at it as a good way to lose weight, but unfortunately, I've just been eating more to compensate.  Next subject!

Here are some cool things I've seen.  Most of these were taken while we had company.  Otherwise, you won't catch me exploring very far from my little area, because we all know I'm prone to full blown hysteria when my GPS apps on my phone lie to me as they often do.  

Aliso Beach AKA Laguna Beach's beach (I think).

Doesn't this remind you of the opening scene from Grease?

La Jolla beach, a place for seal lions and protesters

More La Jolla.  

Santa Monica Pier.  So pretty and also very scary to drive on!

So, as you can see, there are some pretty beaches and cool things here, but the best part is this:

My Pendleton friends.  There aren't enough words to say how lucky I feel to have them here.  They are some very brave, very strong women.  I'm not looking forward to when everyone has to start changing duty stations again, but for now I'm just going to enjoy the way it is!