The Best of My Life: California Girls

For an unprecedented third time in five months, my group of college girlfriends got together for a major event in one of our lives. In this case, it was Kirsten's wedding day. It has not yet been mentioned in this blog that my core group of friends from UF, known fondly as the EIGHT, are not only some of the coolest girls in the continental United States, but are great about traveling any distance when one of the group gets hitched. In addition to this, we also convene for an exclusive EIGHT bachelorette party for each engaged girl. Though we live in cities across the country, we have traveled to Vegas, California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia and Florida for party weekends and weddings. Kirsten was the sixth of the EIGHT to tie the knot, and now the pressure is on Jaime and/or myself to find someone to put a ring on it so we can all congregate again soon!

And so the EIGHT all traveled to Ventura, CA for the wedding in late September. Most of us flew into LAX and piled into a sporty RAV4 for the trek to the site of the wedding. Traffic was slow, but a stop for In N Out burgers kept spirits high, as did our illegal parking spot outside of a medicinal marijuana clinic while we waited for our food. God bless California! After arriving in Ventura, we met Kirsten and the wedding party at a local restaurant and the EIGHT reunion was underway.

Reunited and it feels so good!

While the wedding party did their wedding party duties on the morning of the wedding, the remaining five of us explored the beach town of Ventura. A long stroll down the beach provided plenty of time to catch up with the ladies and, per usual, afforded me a healthy sunburn.

Catching up on the beach

Beautiful Pacific Ocean

Our main quest for the day was to find a good Mexican joint close to the ocean for lunch. Mission accomplished! We found a spot on the Ventura Pier that provided staples like tacos and beer, and set us up nicely for a walk down the pier when we were done. All around, a relaxing prelude to a great evening wedding celebration!

Long walk off a short pier...

What a day for a wedding

Highlights from the wedding included the fun photobooth, a great video put together by Kirsten that provided a walk down memory lane and the toast given by her sister that brought up how K used to go by the name 'Spike' as a child. We are all still laughing about that one (well, maybe not Kirsten)! I finished out my California vacation by spending a night with Jaime in Cardiff before flying home to Austin on Monday.

I'm getting married today!