Huntington Beach - May 2015

Rebecca, Keith and Shawna @ Cabos

Keith had a work meeting in Huntington Beach so we decided to head out early with Mike and Rebecca to have a beach weekend in CA.

Hyatt Huntington Beach

We left work early as we had a 3:30pm flight and we burned a handful of Southwest drink cards on the plane.  Landing at 4:30 at SNA, it was a quick drive in the rental car to the Hyatt Huntington Beach where we got the meeting discount for the whole weekend.  Our room was on the very south of the building - Mike and Rebecca had to move rooms after the first night because of the noise from the hallways.  Upon the recommendation of the concierge, we headed up Beach Street to SeaLegs Wine Bar.  The name does not do it justice - the cocktails and small plates were just fantastic.  We called it a night after dinner.

Keith and Shawna @ Mutt Lynch's

We all met at the gym on the Saturday morning and then had breakfast together at the hotel before Mike and Rebecca changed hotel rooms.  We then all rented beach cruisers and headed down to Newport.  It was a 45 minute cycle before we hit Cabos for some Corona Lites with chips/guac.  We posted the location on Facebook and immediately received suggestions on where else to drink - it appears that we are not the first of our friends to hang out in Newport!  We then started cycling back north but stopped by Mutt Lynch's for a schooner - it appears we would have been berated by our friends had we not done this.  The cycling took us along the boardwalk in front of some of the most amazing houses on the beach - many of which are $5-10k a week for rentals.  But...we added this to "the list" - we'll see if we can ever do this.  Rather than calling it a day when we got to the hotel, we kept cycling into central Huntington Beach, locked up the bikes, and had a drink at Fred's Mexican where we had beer and queso.  We then cycled back to the hotel - except for Keith whose pedal fell off so he walked the bike back.  A nap and a shower were had before we walked back up the beach to Duke's for a delicious dinner.

Keith and Rebecca @ Mutt Lynch's

Rebecca, Mike and Shawna @ 230 Forest Avenue

Sunday was another morning at the gym before we headed out to the greatest ping pong tournament of all times - Kevin vs Momma Chi.  Kevin is a colleague of Keith's and Momma Chi is the mother of another colleague.  The battle had been months of smack-talk in the works, with the question of brute force vs finesse being answered.  It was incredibly close, but finesse won the day - which also won Keith $50 off Mike!  The competitors and all 10 spectators headed over to Mark's place for an incredible Chinese lunch catered by Mark's "aunt" - it was just delicious and a super way to spend the afternoon.  After the ping pong tournament, we headed to Laguna with Mike and Rebecca to walk around a bit and also grab a drink at 230 Forest Avenue.  Dinner was at Pete's in the hotel where we had an early feast before bed.  While that was the last we saw of Rebecca - she headed back home.  However, Shawna stayed at the hotel all week working from the room as we both were flying to Oakland for a wine weekend with Keith's parents the following weekend.

Ping Pong Tournament and Lunch at Mark's