Home From Huntington Beach

What a great trip we had.  My husband's boss invited us to go to the National Taco Johns conference in Huntington Beach, California.  It was awesome!  The only thing that could've been better was the weather.  It was chilly and windy the first 3 days, but the last day was beautiful.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach which was right across from the ocean.  It just killed me the first night not to be able to cross over this bridge to the ocean!  I told Shannan (who doesn't collect shells) to imagine a beach covered in Blu Ray movies just laying there for the taking.  Then he understood.  This bridge stretches across the Pacific Coast Highway and connects our hotel to the beach.

Most of our hotel walkways were wide open.  This is the "Market Place" where there was a small grocery store, an art gallery, a pub and other restaurants and shops.  This fire pit is lite at night and once we saw some people making smores!

Time to learn a little something.  We had general sessions on two different mornings where we listened to motivational speakers, and had meetings about the restaurants.  I learned a lot and sometimes was even able to apply what I was hearing to my own profession.

Shannan the fish whisperer.  They came up to where we were because I think they were hungry.

The hotel grounds were beautiful and very well kept.  There were flowers everywhere!

On rainy days the hotel would set out these blue umbrellas.  You'd pick up an umbrella, walk across the open courtyard, then drop it in the bin on the other side.  I never used one.  The rain was nice.

Pete's Bar was my favorite place.  It had surf boards everywhere, Jan and Dean posters and album covers on the ceiling.  By the end of the week one of our regular bartenders (Dom) knew what everyone would want right down to the lime in one gal's beer!  Our group liked to meet there for "one last round" before bed. 

Record sleeves on the ceiling at Pete's

Jan and Dean!!

These flowers looked like birds!  Crane birds.

The crew took a cab a few blocks down Pacific Coast Highway and we ate at Spark.  It was here that I tasted my first Hefeweizen beer, which is apparently a German wheat beer.  I know nothing about beer but swear I drank more of it on this trip than I did all my college years combined.  I drank beers I'd never heard of and some I had.  Now I want to learn more because this Hefeweizen stuff was Gooooooood.