thursday night, nicolaus and i packed up the car and headed down to newbury park to commence my graduation trip. we like driving through the night on road trips, because then you feel like you don't waste an entire day. we just take turns driving/sleeping and pull off the road for a power nap if we both feel to sleepy to drive. 
aaanyways, after 11 hours in the car instead of going to shower and going to take a nap like most normal people would do, we went straight to the beach. when nick heard that some of his friends were out surfing, he got a second wind and turned into a kid at a candy shop. he threw on his wetsuit, grabbed his board and practically ran into the ocean. 
i was happy to be there and smell the ocean air and feel the warm sand (after all, it had been snowing in utah last week), but i can't say i was quite as enthusiastic as nicolaus. i groggily sauntered to a shady spot (black leggings do not make the best laying out attire), shot a few photos, lay down and barely remember closing my eyes before i felt salty water dripping onto my face and nick was waking me up to leave. but i can't complain because beach naps are my favorite naps. i don't think i've ever slept deeper or woken up feeling more refreshed from any other sort of sleep.
and things have even gotten better from our first morning here. we're staying at our friend, matt's house, and been hanging out with him and courtney a lot...eating at our favorite sushi restaurant, playing super smash bros on nintendo 64, hearing about their wedding plans and all sorts of good stuff. plus on saturday we took a day trip down to newport to hang out with jake and ashley and baby toddler johnny. ashley is full-term with her second pregnancy and we were eating spicy mexican food and briskly walking along the beach in hopes of being able to see her baby girl this trip, but had no luck!
that evening, we went to our friend danielle petty's wedding in laguna beach. the first time i met danielle was the day before she was baptized into the lds church and she was so sweet and friendly and invited me to her baptism that was the next day and i went! it was so cool and even cooler on saturday when she was married in the temple to the very nicest boy. pluuuus her dad's family is Jewish, so the highlight of the reception was definitely when i was dancing and an older man grabbed my hand and next thing i knew i was dancing around in a circle to this incredible Jewish music and danielle was being lifted into the air on a chair! it was amazing and i felt like i was in a scene from fiddler on the roof and i loved it. haha apparently i need to find a lot more Jewish friends because they really know how to throw a wedding!