Celebrating Two Years of Bendrea

Ben and I alternate who plans our anniversary and Valentine's Day every year. Last year I was in charge of V-day and he planned our anniversary trip, so this year it was my turn to plan our anniversary. The original plan was to drive to Hilton Head, SC and spend a week playing tennis and laying out on the beach. This would have been lovely, but as I planned the trip, I was never quite satisfied. I had the unique opportunity this year to orchestrate a surprise, cover all my tracks, and not get caught... so it didn't seem right to do something Ben was already expecting.

Ben's world turned upside down when he found out South Carolina was just a front. At least I still got him to a beach...

While watching the NBA-All Star game over Valentine's Day weekend this year, it hit me that we needed to take better advantage of this serendipitous timing. Since I'm in charge of V-day next year, I checked and LA is hosting the 2011 All-Star game. With that, I hatched the idea of taking a California coast trip that would culminate in saying hello to Kobe and his fellow All-stars.

While planning our anniversary trip and looking for an alternative to SC, I decided that NOW and not later was the perfect time for our west coast trip. California would be cold in February, and getting ahold of any type of ticket for All-star weekend in a basketball crazed town and 20,000 person arena would be difficult (Dallas's 100,000 person stadium made for some cheap seats this year). Plus, Ben, the man of the hour, adores California, so it would be his perfect surprise.

In retrospect, this view + Kevin Durant in one week would've been too much to handle.

The trip turned out to be a dream. We flew into San Francisco, spent 24 hours visiting our favorite Australians in Berkeley, spent the next two days (including our Anniversary - 6/7) in San Francisco/Palo Alto/Half Moon Bay. We then embarked on a two day road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. I'm a self-proclaimed ocean addicted who literally couldn't get enough of the drive. We set ground rules that each of us had three stop cards that we could pull at any point while driving. Ben used one to stop and see kite surfers in CentCal; I used one to stop in a Dutch town just before Socal; etc.

Here we are "killing time" in Santa Barbara. I used one of my stop cards right at 5 pm when traffic picked up. We picnicked on the beach, watched some volleyball, and went for a sunset walk. We then headed to Ventura, our final destination for the evening, at 8 pm with zero traffic.

SoCal surprised me this time around because I found myself almost liking it more than NorCal, which had previously not been the case. We had an incredible time in Ventura, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, and Beverly Hills. I built in a "backup surprise" to our trip in case the bigger California surprise was ruined. Ben's parents met us for the final two days of the trip, and we went to Disneyland together. It was great to see them, especially at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Just another day at the beach. We rented rollerblades in Newport and Ben showed off his sweet moves.

It's a shame that our trip had to end. Some of our favorite memories were created in those nine days, and it left both of us California dreamin'. Ben has always preferred the West Coast, but recognizes his career aspirations are tied to DC. I'm a westerner at heart, but really do love the East Coast and would be hesitant to leave. I can now say that if San Fran didn't have "temperature issues" or if SoCal didn't have such sprawl/traffic (and if the Federal Government relocated), we'd consider the move at some point. But alas.

Farewell Cali...

Bendrea will miss you!