A surprise California getaway!

Last winter, I was beep bopping my way around South America (don’t worry, I will tell you all about it some other time) and headed back a little bit early to surprise my brother at Sectionals in Seattle where he was trying to make a second Olympic Trials qualifying time. My parents walked in to meet him at the pool lobby, and a few minutes later, I walked in. He told me later that he thought ‘that girl looks like Megan, but she’s not home yet.’ See, we have a pretty close sister-brother bond and we were both happy to see each other. We spent time together both at the pool and outside of the pool and had a great weekend. I was so happy to be able to cheer him on to his second Trials cut there!

Fast forward to this year. Ian has been training really hard down in California with my old coach Mark Schubert from USC. I have been totally miserable in cold and rainy Seattle since I got back from Ecuador, was craving a sunny vacation, and Joelybean’s dad lives in the LA area. The idea to surprise him for his big championship meet took hold.

It was a quick 3 day vacation (we couldn’t really take much more vacation than that). We flew down Thursday night, rented a Fiat named Guseppi to carry us around for the weekend and stayed on the beach.

 

Friday morning we went to breakfast with my room mate and best friend from my USC years, Rebecca Soni. It was the perfect sunny breakfast on the beach with great company! We then packed up and headed to the pool in East LA to surprise Ian for finals that day. We snuck onto the pool deck and just then he walked in. Joelybean caught the moment on camera.

Sucker. He’s so easy to surprise.

Mark followed closely behind and gave me a big hug. Mark was a huge supporter of everything I went to, and even went to doctor’s appointments with me and waited outside of surgery for me. While there wasn’t much time to catch up, it was really good to see Mark and see him working so closely with my brother.

Sitting in the stands, Joelybean and I watched Ian split a pretty incredibly race for the 200. It was a good swim, and afterwards we headed off for an evening in Laguna Beach and dinner right on the water.  We spent the next morning at the beach, but I was so bummed that it was so cold! We headed off in Guseppi and drove up the PCH until we happened up Joelybean’s favorite eatery of the whole trip: In-N-Out burger.

 

We then headed up to the pool for the last night of finals to watch Ian swim the mile. It was a much improved swim from last year, and it was great to watch him help the Golden West team win CCCAA’s!

 

Afterwards, Guseppi took us to dinner with Joel’s dad, and then on to Joel’s home town. I was loving the hot hot sun in the desert! We hiked around Devil’s Punchbowl on Sunday in the 90-something degree heat before Joelybean and I did a quick trail run. As it turns out, going from 60 degree weather to 90 degree weather can really take a toll! Thankfully, a milkshake helped cool me down.

 

We headed down to Huntington Beach later that day to go to dinner with my brother and walk on Seal Beach.

Joelybean and me on the pier on our last night.

 

It was a great getting to go on vacation with my Joelybean, get to meet his dad, and visit my little brother. I only wish I could do it more often, and for a bit longer. And maybe not try to fit so much stuff into a 72 hour period.

Happy Monday to everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!