The Official Start of Summer

Friday was the first official day of summer and we wanted to make it great!

My daughter and I headed down to North San Diego County for some fun.

We started off with a stop at an antique mall in San Marcos.

Then, we picked up my hubby from work whisked him away for a well deserved afternoon off.

We went to lunch, stopped at a few of our favorite stores and headed to the beach in Encinitas.

The three of us took a long leisurely walk along the water.  Ahhhh!

We walked far enough that we had parts of the beach to ourselves.

It's so beautiful down there and the weather was absolutely perfect that day.

Then, we sat on the beach for a while to relax, take in the scenery, and people watch.

It was interesting to watch life guards bring people closer to shore as the rip currents picked up.

After that, we decided to get a bite to eat and then head down to the Oceanside Harbor.

Our favorite blues musician, Nathan James, was performing at the Nautical Bean that night.

He was surprised and happy to see us and his music was great as always.

It seemed like the perfect way to end the first day of summer...the three of us together,

an ocean sunset, great music, and some great coffee.  It was wonderful!  

Check out the view we had from our table...

It just kept getting better and better as the sun went down.  Gorgeous!

We enjoyed watching birds dive for fish, boats coming and going, and 

seals were diving into the water and swimming around.

We were all up and on the road bright and early Sunday morning to take our daughter

to the Long Beach Airport so she could fly out to a week long harp event.

It was our first time at Long Beach Airport.  It was a surprise to see how small it was 

and that the original Art Deco building that was completed in 1941 is still being used.

That's really something considering how old buildings are so often torn down these days.

Hubby and I explored around the building a bit before we left.

Check out some of the old mosaics on the floors...

Hubby and I wanted to make a whole day out of our long drive to Long Beach.

So, we brought our beach cruisers to go for a ride along the beach and harbor.

I thought this sign was funny.  

There were a few of them posted along the pathway at the dog beach area.

Speaking of dogs...we came across a dog show in a nearby park.

And, not any dog show...it was all terriers!  My favorite!

We fell in love with this little girl.  Isn't she cute!

She's a Welsh Terrier.  She looks just like our dear Salsa but in miniature.

We just may get one of these someday.  The same cuteness as Salsa but in a smaller, calmer package.

We were determined to get over to the other side of the waterway that boats go through
and get to the Queen Mary.  It took lots of circling around and exploring to figure out
where the bike path went over the bridge but we finally found it!
Here we are (Yikes! Beach hair! lol) at the top of the bridge with the Queen Mary behind us...

When we went back over to the harbor side we just had to stop to oooh and aaaah over this boat!

Wow!  Doesn't that look like soooo much fun?!  We saw another one come into the harbor later on.

It was even more impressive and had a gorgeous paint job.  But, I couldn't get a good picture of it.

We rode over 15 miles on our cruisers.  Yes, we enjoyed some flat riding.  But, there were some steep hills...like over the bridge and back and riding up to a little light house.  Then, there was the head wind as we headed back to the car.  So, we actually got a bit of a workout.  But, it was all fun!

We ended our fun day in Long Beach with a visit to Yard House

for some delicious drinks and appetizers by the water.

Our summer is off to a great start.  

Here's hoping it's just the beginning of lots of wonderful times to come!

How's your summer?  Did you do anything special to kick off this wonderful season?

It's a lot of work to carry my big camera around and spending a lot of time getting great shots.
So, I've only had my cell phone with me lately and using it for photos and very few of them.
It's hard sometimes to not have my camera when something great shows up but
not worrying so much about getting a ton of great photos sure is a lot more relaxing!