The day after I wrote that I had a perfect day, I had an even perfect-er day. Completely unexpected, wild, and full. Life is too damn good. Here’s how it went down.
My brother, Jed, had been telling me to keep June 10th reserved. He said he wanted to take me out for my birthday. I didn’t question it, even though it’s 2 weeks after my actual birthday. I was super giddy and excited to just see what he would plan.
Two weeks before, he asked if I had kept June 10th open – I had completely forgotten to mark it on my Google calendar, but thankfully I didn’t have anything planned.
A couple days before, he tells me we’re going hiking and I should dress appropriately. Oh, and wear a swimsuit. Cool.
June 10 rolls around and as I pack food for the hike and get ready to go, he tells me he’s taking me to Temecula to go hiking. I was like Whattt?! Lolll of all the places, why Temecula, and why would I need a swim suit? Anyway, he appears to be in a hurry and rushes to get us out the door.
I walk down the stairs and when I get to the bottom, I see two human beings below the stairs hugging the walls with their phones out in front of them. It was one of the most creepiest feelings in the world. I couldn’t recognize them because their phones were in front. But it turns out…
These three human beings had planned this whole thing. There was no hike, and definitely not in Temecula – thank God. Hahah jkjk Jed. Though I had been looking forward to spending the day with the brother and seeing what he had planned, I was thrilled to spend the day with my other favorite people on this planet.
After I recovered from a bout of laughing and disorientation about what was happening:
Stef and Esther whisked me off to a “secret” location. On the way there, they shared stories about how planning went down and how they tried to get enough sleep the night before to wake up early. In the middle of Stef’s story, she accidentally let it out – we were going to Catalina Island hahaha. Holla!
The weather was less than ideal for the beach but I didn’t care. We had a boat to catch!
We got to Newport Beach, stood in line for an hour (we had arrived early), and eventually boarded. Here we are right before leaving the harbor – and the crazy rocking and seasickness-inducing ride.
There were barf bags on every table. We laughed when we saw them – little did we know people would actually be using them that day lol. The boat ride was ridiculous, I tell you. Everyone looked sick hahah. Back to the barf bags – Stef had brought Porto’s (potato ball, cheese bread, and meat pie) for each of us so she distributed the food… in the barf bags, as such:
Shameless, right? I call that capitalizing on resources.
When we finally made it across the choppy waters without any of us barfing, we rushed off to the next location. I had no idea what it was, and I knew better than to press them about it – they wouldn’t peep a word. It’s a surprise.
And damn – it was.
Here we are chilling, waiting for our reservation, me having no idea what we’re waiting for.
Turns out, they had made reservations for us to go parasailing.
I… was floored hahah I had wanted to try it all my life and here we were! It’s the perfect combination of flying and the ocean – my two favorite things!! Couldn’t believe it. Here’s proof.
After this crazy experience, we jetted off to rent bikes and explore the island a bit. It seriously felt like we were transported to a different country. The houses were small and quaint, there were bikes and golf carts everywhere. The weather had cleared so it was no longer grey and gloomy.
We got to a beach club/resort, parked our bikes (without locking it up – all the bikes were just chilling there unlocked lol), and headed to the sand. Seriously, this day could not get better. But it did. We grabbed drinks and just chilled. Music was blasting from the speakers and the vibe was right.
I was in my happy place. Those are Stef’s toes but I’m stealing this pic because I was enjoying everything too much to mess with my phone.
And here’s a picture of my back with my amazing tan that I could never take a picture of myself lol. There are three different tan lines going on. Amazing. Lol.
Once we felt the chillaxation was sufficiently enjoyed, we headed back to board the boat mainland. All I can say about the ride back was, it was brutal. Almost as brutal as the boat ride to the island lolll. We could only find seats outside and we basically endured an hour of freezing wind and cold. We were definitely not prepared for this but we’re troopers:
We were supposed to grab dinner and they had some other activities in mind but my relatives were over from Korea so they dropped me off right after, but not before giving me a couple more gifts and a card.
Dinner with the relatives was awesome as well but I’ll save that for another post. Possibly haha. This one was all about my amazing friends.
Because I am seriously blessed up the heezy to have friends like this. Friends that get me. Friends that love and accept the crap out of me. Friends of a lifetime.
This trip is just one day. But behind it are hours, days, months, years of busting our guts laughing, getting into shenanigans, sharing lives and hearts, venting, crying, texting, dancing all night, getting real, asking hard questions, dreaming together… simply being present in each others’ lives.
And that is one of the greatest gifts I could ask for while on this planet – companions for this crazy journey. These are my ride-or-die’s. I know, no matter the season, no matter the time of day – or night, no matter the issue, no matter anything, we are more than available for each other. And that’s everything.
So thanks, Stef and Esther. You guys are the MF best.
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