Earlier this year, our bestest friends from college approached us about sharing in a spring break trip to Southern California. They were aiming for Santa Barbara and we gently nudged them to smaller and more quaint Carpinteria. Even though Texas’ spring break is technically in the winter, you never would have known it given the weather we were dealt. All of California suffered an intense heat wave this week which consequently just made places near the coastline really really nice.

Normally in March, Carpinteria is covered in sea fog until 3pm and can be downright unpleasant on the beach. Not the case for this visit. The high 80s gave us picture perfect beach days. We all shared a beach house a couple blocks from the beach. We spent a day going up to wine country and visiting Ostrichland USA. Laura got to spend her actual 40th birthday with friends and cake. Paige and Brad afforded us the luxury of a fancy birthday date night out in Santa Barbara. The only bit of bad luck was one of the kiddos got sick for a couple days.

It was a unique combination of sharing some of my favorite places with my favorite people. Check out the highlights below and click any photo to see the full Google album.