Guillaume & I woke up early this morning to check out a local eatery that everyone raves about as the best breakfast in Long Beach. It's a little joint called The Coffee Cup, and it's open for breakfast and lunch only, but somehow always has a line out the door when it's open. We woke up a little later than we expected, but managed to make it to breakfast around 10. There was a line along the street as expected, but we found a parking spot down the street and poured ourselves a cup of brew while we waited the short (by our standards) 30 mins to be seated at the breakfast bar. The menu was vast, and I, naturally, wanted to try everything. But, we're still on a budget, and despite this being our little treat from eating at home and taking lunch all week, we decided to keep it simple. We both got the equivalent of the "economical" that's on the Magnolia menu - 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, fruit pancakes - plus, we opted for a side of potatoes to share. The food was delicious and the service was phenomenal...everyone so friendly and cheery and excited to keep our mugs full of fresh and very tasty coffee. It was everything and more than I expected, enough to keep us getting up early on a Sunday more often!
Today was exceptionally beautiful, maybe about 85 degrees, clear skies and a slight ocean breeze. After filling our bellies and bringing smiles to our faces so early in the morning, we headed off to Trader Joe's to pick up a few essentials and some stuff for the week. I can't go on about how much I love this place, but let me tell you that I do. It's amazing how great the deals are on such yummy and practical food. We decided not to waste the sunny day, so we came home to change into our swimsuits and headed to the beach; we couldn't believe that we had already done so much before noon - it makes such a difference to your day when you wake up and start it early. We went to a beach that we had just discovered by taking a wrong turn, and it turned out to be a very nice one. Well, not nice, but certainly a good one for laying out and seeing people. There were still a few strange people around, lots of families, a few BBQs that reminded me of growing up and hanging out at Garrison Park, and even a congregation of people speaking spanish and performing a baptism in the ocean!!! WTF??
 That was certainly a little weird and unexpected. Anyway, the beach was a lot better for laying out than the beach just a 10 minute walk from our apartment, but we still have a lot more to explore. We actually went to our neighborhood beach yesterday, but it was waaay too windy and chilly to lay out. So, we were glad to make up for it today. We just finished cleaning up our apartment, so now we're relishing in the Spurs' Game 1 win and enjoying the nice weather and cool breezes coming in. We'll top of this particularly super Sunday with a new episode of DH and Brothers and Sisters! Good stuff...good stuff!

Windy Saturday

Sunny Sunday