SoCal

This week I had the privilege to travel to Southern California for work, and I have a little confession to make.. I had never been to the West Coast before. What a waste! I totally fell in love with the area. The conference I attended was at Dana Point, at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort. I've been to some nice hotels before, but this one is definitely up there on the list of best places I've been to. Everything about the place was exquisite, including the food at the conference, which is usually bland and uninspiring. This time the food was California healthy, gluten free, lo-carb, etc, but extremely tasty. I'm not a big fan of work travel, because the trips are usually quite hectic and this trip was hectic too, but the locale made up for it. One night I went to an event close-by at the Laguna Beach town, and it also looked lovely with lots of art galleries and people out at bars and restaurants. I would love to go back on my own and explore the area more.

Price shock when I got to my room.. and the realization that this was "that" kind of a resort! 

Woke up the next morning and this is my view... I can live with this. 

The resort was built in Spanish style architecture, very SoCal. 

Beautiful grounds, seen from a window on my way to a conference room... 

When I finally got a couple of hours for myself, it was cold and foggy. But that did not stop me for finding my happy place, i.e. the beach. 

It was just me and the surfer boys.. who were pretty nice to look at...so I didn't mind.

And somehow seeing this made everything ok. Why is peace of mind so elusive? 

Eventually I was there all alone... 

A little garden back at the resort

The hotel pool was absolutely gorgeously breathtakingly beautiful. I want to come back here when it's actually sunny and lay down on one of those chaise lounges and order a mojito...