Welcome back to the frozen tundra

I'm back from California and I have to say, I'm not that happy about it. It's 50 degrees colder here and we got another 8-10 inches of snow while I was gone. But California was amazing and beautiful and fun. I want to go back soon; I'd go this weekend if I could.

On Saturday morning we got up, had some coffee and headed out shopping. Our first stop was Mood - the fabric store in Project Runway. I've been to the Mood in NYC and was expecting something similar. It was, but on a much smaller scale, which didn't stop me from spending an hour and a half in there!

Then we went shopping on Melrose in West Hollywood. I think this was the best shopping of the trip. Lots of smaller boutiques, reasonable prices and unique finds. This area is a little racy, so maybe not the best place to take the kids shopping.

We went to Kamin, a Thai fusion restaurant in LA for lunch. It was very good and very affordable. We had salads, pad thai and kai kua. It was supposed to rain all day on Saturday, but we were lucky and the only time it rained was when we were in the restaurant eating lunch.

After lunch we headed to Santa Monica to Main Street for more shopping and wandering. The shopping was good but the wandering was better. It was 65 degrees and mostly sunny. We are used to living in the frozen tundra and it felt like summer. The locals, however, didn't seem that impressed with the weather and were dressed rather warmly in our opinion. We got the giggles when we saw a woman wearing her snow boots, down coat, mittens and stocking cap. It's all relative and depends on what you are acclimated to, but that seemed a little extreme.

Saturday afternoon we were tired from all the walking and shopping, so we hopped in the car, turned on the GPS and just drove around. We ended up in Tonpanga State Park. We drove through on Decker Canyon Road and came back on Mulholland Hwy. It was beautiful. Mountains and valleys and amazing views of the ocean and Malibu. We even saw a mountain goat. We decided he or she must have been a wealthy movie star goat in order to be able to afford to live in Malibu.

We stopped in Malibu on our way back into LA for dinner at Plate. I had seafood black spaghetti with shrimp, squid, fish, mussels and enoki mushrooms in lobster sauce. Very, very tasty and not that expensive. I think it was about $60 for both of us to have dinner and wine.

On Sunday, we drove north on the Pacific Coast Highway. We went through Santa Barbara all the way up to San Luis Obispo. The entire drive there and back was beautiful. Mountains, coast, valleys, vineyards as far as the eye can see, strawberry and cauliflower farms, cities and more. It was a long drive, but totally worth it.

I have recently become obsessed with San Luis Obispo and really want to go and see it. It's a fairly small community in a breathtaking area, about half way between LA and San Francisco. It is home to California Polytechnic State University and a community college, so it's a pretty young population. The shopping and food in the "college town" area were great. My suspicions were confirmed: I could definitely live there.

On Monday we had a big breakfast at the Omelet Parlor in Santa Monica. Another place I'd highly recommend. For $10 we got enormous omelets, fruit, potatoes and an English muffin. It is a good thing we ate so much for breakfast because the plane trip home ended up taking about 3 more hours than expected, but that's a long story for another time.