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After my mom and sister kindly dropped me off at JFK airport during the very early morning hours, it was time to begin the journey around the world. I landed at LAX with plenty of day in front of me. My friend Katherine had gotten out of work early, so we went to lunch at my favorite place to come home to (Homestate Tacos). It’s a little reminder of Austin right in my old neighborhood in LA. Sorry no taco photos; we were too busy eating them!

We caught up on some work in the afternoon and I got to settle into Katherine and Nath’s amaaazing new house! Then we tried a sweet little new place for dinner. It felt great to be back!

Our LA time was cut a bit short, because we had an epic wedding to attend! On Friday, Katherine and I got our nails done while eating bagels, naturally. We picked up Nath early from work and drove about two hours north to Ojai. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a raging fire in between, but we skirted around it and held our breath when the sky got smoky. Yikes!

The wedding zone was unaffected by the fire and smoke, lucky for us as we partied through the weekend, celebrating one of my favorite couples of all!

Ojai is kind of like if Palm Springs had a cuter little sister that you don’t hear as much about. It offers picturesque mountain views and has a way of feeling totally remote from LA in spite of its proximity. The wedding venue was a secluded desert oasis with about ten retro-style airstream trailers for guests to stay in, which we sure did.

It was the perfect spot to celebrate love, gather with friends, and partake in my last California hurrah (for now)! It’s nice to know so many people all over the country that make it so hard to leave.

Before I knew it, it was time to drive back to the city and repack my bags (and eat some chicken and waffles) for the next, way longer flight!