What a week my wife Deidre and I had visiting beautiful southern California. We were in town for one of my cousin’s weddings and decided to go the week leading up to the wedding as a small vacation. Staying at my grandparent’s house in Vista, we certainly made the most of our time. Here is what we did during our stay and some accompanying pictures! 

We arrived late Monday night after a few flight delays and had to pick up some In-N-Out Burger to cheer ourselves up. The food is always solid and a novelty to us since there is no location east of Texas. Hearing that the area had gotten an uncharacteristically high amount of rain this year, I went to check the lemon trees in the yard and was blown away by the size of our lemons! 

lemon-tree        lemon

Tuesday was a great day as we saw some of my family. We visited my cousin’s coffee shop, Invita, for awesome coffee and lunch. Deidre loved her avocado toast because of the freshness of the avocados over there. We also caught up with my cousin to hear about the wedding planning and how the family is doing.  

invita-food        invita

We then set sail on a relaxing boat ride in San Marcos to enjoy the incredible weather. The dock worker just tossed me the keys and said we were all good to take ourselves out! It was a fun ride on a calm little lake where we even saw two black swans.  

boat-trip        Dante-boat

Wednesday was our scheduled visit to the city of Los Angeles. Another beautiful day began with us meeting everyone’s new favorite LA resident, Tom Schulte, for lunch in Santa Monica. After we crossed the street to the famous Santa Monica pier, where I was roped into a performance. A gentleman jumped over me and three others as we were crouched down. Overall, an entertaining spot with plenty of fun things to do! Deidre wanted to continue with more tourist destinations, so we walked down Rodeo Drive before meeting a couple of my friends for dinner.  

ferris-wheel        santa-monica-66        santa-monica-pier

We were able to check into the hotel early and were in awe of how stunning the room and views were. We ended up with an amazing day on Saturday, perfect for the outdoor ceremony which was incredible. Deidre and I loved seeing all my extended family there and even made a few new friends. We were so glad to make the trip out for our vacation and the wedding, made the red eye flight on Monday morning tolerable.  There will definitely be more vacations to California in the future!

Wedding        Deidre-Dante-Wedding wedding-cakewedding-table

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By Dante Coppola Financial Planner CFP® Read More