California Love - Part 3

By Abbas -

Can you believe it's taken me three posts to get through our CA trip? So where was I...? 

Yes, so after Hearst Castle, the plan was to spend the next night in Santa Barbara. After a relatively uneventful drive (except for lunch at a dumpy dive where we had a run-in with a crazy lady), we got to SB and checked into our hotel late afternoon. Santa Barbara seemed to be very much a college town, or at least that was the impression I got from walking the main shopping strip. 

The next day, we continued our drive down Route 1, which had now turned into the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). The drive here wasn't as scenic as it was earlier in the trip - either that, or you just get spoiled looking at the ocean so much. We stopped for lunch in Malibu and then continued on to Santa Monica. Our plan was to have dinner in Santa Monica with a couple of dear friends, Preeti and Siva, who've recently made the move from NYC to LA. So, naturally, we went to another Mexican restaurant.. dinner was delicious and Samarah had a great time meeting her new aunt and uncle. Afterwards, we drove straight to our final destination, the OC (Irvine, to be exact).

We spent the last few days of our vacation visiting Kaniz's cousin Mohamed, his wife Mubina and their two kids, Sarah & Kabir. If the names sound familiar, it may be because the kids made it into the blog over the summer while they were in Toronto for a visit. Samarah had a ton of fun with both Sarah (who's a great babysitter!) and Kabir (who's a super soccer star!), and Kaniz and I really enjoyed ourselves too. A big thank you to the entire family for (always) being so hospitable.

One last highlight - Samarah got to go trick or treating on Halloween. The original plan was for her to dress up as a cow (we brought along this super warm costume), but as luck would have it, it was so hot in the evening that she went out in her swimming suit instead! Her first piece of Halloween loot: a little box of Play Doh. Kaniz must have been a little disappointed since she was craving some Snickers!  :)

Anyway, enjoy the final installment of photos from our first family vacation.. 

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