Meghan Kelly Teles!

A few weeks ago, PK and I headed back to the midwest to visit our family and friends.  It was right about the time a “heat dome” settled over the area and pushed the temperatures to 100 degrees and above and combined with the humidity, it was sweltering!  But, that is what it the midwest is all about, great people in less than ideal weather!

Our first stop was Chicago – land of Barack Obama, hot dogs, and summer concerts.  My friend Lauren was a gracious host and we stayed in her awesome apartment with Walter the french bulldog, hilarious doormen, and fabulous views of Lake Michigan and Wrigley Field.

We spent the majority of our time visiting with members of our family and old friends, so we didn’t take in too many Chicago sites.  On Sunday afternoon, we headed down to Union Park for the Pitchfork Music Festival.  It was amazingly hot, but we danced our butts off to Cut Copy, who I love.

It was just getting hotter and luckily we planned to head to Northern Michigan to beautiful Higgins Lake. It seriously looks like the Caribbean… see for yourself!

We spent lots of time on the Pontoon Boat and had more fun kid and family time with our oldest family friends. I even saw my old friend Kasha who now lives in China who has the cutest baby.

Pat and I also practiced a sweet new trick.

Finally we traveled back to my hometown of Northville, MI so we could see one last round of family and friends and eat at my local favorites: Olgas and Custard Time. Despite the heat, it was a fabulous time… though maybe next year we should go in the fall!

Our friends Scott and Heather are spending the month in Laguna Beach at a beachfront house, so we took them up on the invite and headed down to the O.C. for a long weekend over the 4th of July.  We were excited to get out of Tahoe since it is usually mobbed on the 4th.  We left town after work Friday to make the 9 hr trek to So. Cal.  Some nice scenery on the way down:

We rolled into Laguna around 12:30 pm and although it was dark out, we knew we were going to wake up to ocean views when we turned towards the ocean off the 1.  The next morning we woke up and walked down to the beach to get a neighborhood tour and get the dogs out.  Yzie enjoyed both laying by the ocean and in tidal pools.

After the walk we began our So. Cal daily routine of surfing, eating tacos, and drinking cocktails… sometimes even repeating this multiple times per day.

On the actual Fourth of July, we tried our hand at ocean stand up paddleboarding (really hard), hung out at the beach, and watched the sunset and four sets of fireworks from the rooftop deck.

While the sunset and fireworks were both exciting, we were probably more pumped to find out that we could see Lauren Conrad’s Laguna Beach home from the rooftop deck… thanks to the help of this aptly named website.

After one last surf, beach, and taco session, Juliana and I headed out on the long drive to Tahoe, leaving Pat behind to continue living the life and attending Scott’s Advanced Surf Camp.  Thanks everyone for the good times – I can’t wait to get back out on the surf board!