Mom and Dad SoCal Visit

In January, my parents escaped the wet winter of the Pacific Northwest for the sunny winter of Southern California! We loved having them for the week! We had just moved in 10 days earlier, so it was great to explore around our new area with them.

The first thing we did with them was do the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Burbank! When we took them to Burbank last year, they had mentioned the tour we be fun to do sometime, and little did they know we'd be living in the area again a year later!  The tour was jammed pack with stuff that anyone who has ever watched TV or movies (so, umm, everyone) would find facinating.  They took us to the back lots where street scenes from The Mask, Nation Lampoon Vacation, Annie, Friends, and hundreds of other movies were filmed.  An entire museum of Harry Potter memorabilia was definite highlight, along with getting to walk into the sound stage of Big Bang Therory. But the ABSOLUTE highlight won by a long shot: standing in Star Hollow from Gilmore Girls.  If you were a teenage girl in the 2000's like I was, then you can understand how cool is was to see the backdrop of Rory and Lorelai's hometown, ESPECIALLY since they were revamping it to prepare for the comeback season production.

Tourists

Lorelai's House!

Rachel working like Rachel

 My mom grew up in Northern California, and visited Southern California countless times growing up, and somehow had never been to Santa Monica, so of course that was a stop to be had! From Santa Monica we drove up the coast through Malibu to get back to where we live in Oxnard.  Who can complain about a drive like that?

Over the week we continued to explore.  One afternoon, we headed to Santa Barbara (only 30 minutes up the coast) to walk along Main Street and the Marina.  A perfect day of shopping and walking.

And have you ever heard of Ojai? I hadn't either.  We discovered this little mountain town just 30 minutes from us as well, that has the cutest shops and gorgeous vineyards.  I guess it's a celebrity get-away too.  Beautiful views through the mountain valley. I love that we can go from ocean to mountains in just minutes.

On their last full day, we headed back to the Malibu coastline and enjoyed a great afternoon at the beach, and a beautiful beach hike!

 And of course we took them to the company's orchard to pick complementary avocados, oranges and lemons for them to take home.

Such a great week with my favorites!