After an excruciatingly long work week, what better way to relax than a weekend getaway with some friends to Temecula, California?! A couple months ago, my friends and I went on a cabin ski trip to Big Bear. Fast forward to summertime, one of my friends from that trip messaged us saying, "Hey! I've been working so much and just need break. Why not rent a house again and just chill."
He dubbed this trip Soft Summer.
Why Soft Summer? Because the annual Hard Summer Concert weekend was a week before and unlike a weekend full of jumping up and down, this weekend was meant to be more relaxed. Hence, Soft Summer. (By the way, he also makes music so check him out.
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Day 1 | Friday, August 11th
John, my boyfriend, and I had gotten to Temecula a little later than everyone else. Some of the group took the day off (Lucky! Have to save my PTO for other trips) but John and I had gone to work and had plans prior to heading out.
We live in San Diego so Temecula is just an hour northeast from us. If you've never been to Temecula it is pretty "in-the-middle-of-nowhere" but still suburban city. Temecula is known for two things: cheap and big houses (by California standards) and wineries.
We got to the house around 10pm, after a quick run to the store to get spam. (I'm Filipino, we gotta have our breakfast spam and eggs).
The house was perfect!
It was on top of a hill, overlooking the hills of Temecula, and huge. The backyard had a outdoor patio, grill, bonfire pit, Jacuzzi, pool and small putting green. The house had 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a pool table, formal and informal dinning room, huge kitchen and a supply of games for us to play with.
We got the house through VRBO/Homestay.
Day 2 | Saturday, August 12th
Unfortunately, I woke up at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to go outside and watch the sunrise. I know, I'm crazy! I tweeted about it and posted an Instagram story but of course no one else was up.
I'm used to seeing sunsets but there's something about sunrises. The dark skies slowly getting brighter with the coming of the sun.
I had half an hour until the full sunrise so I decided to go back to bed and try to make John see it with me. He actually agreed.
But the picture below shows regret.
I told him it was okay for him to go back inside since I wanted to stay outside a little longer and enjoy the morning.
Recently, I've taken up water coloring. I brought my watercolors and note pad to do some morning painting.
Here are some pictures of the backyard of the house during morning golden hour.
I went back to sleep until breakfast. Your girl needs a bit more sleep.
For breakfast we had spam, eggs and homemade Chipotle guac.
Look how studious my friends are while they study as breakfast was being cooked.
With food in our stomaches and the sun at high noon, it was time to hit the pool!
We had a good number of floaties in the pool. I specifically bought a unicorn floatie from Amazon just for this trip.
We had a donut, sunglasses, beer pong table (don't forget the balls), unicorn tube and unicorn raft. I highly recommend buying some fun floaties if you are going to be poolside.
Don't forget the sunblock and drinks.
Almost everyone took an afternoon sieta. John and I watched part of Inception and played some pool.
Vacationing with a dominantly Filipino group we began prepping a Kamayan style dinner.
A Kamayan dinner basically means eating with your hands. Traditionally, all the food is placed on the center and the table is draped with banana leaves. That's what we did. On the menu was Filipino bacon, hotdogs, carne asado tacos, lumpia, fried milkfish, vegetables and rice.
Chow time!
We were stuffed! Time to go back to the pool.
We played some keep the ball away (Is there an actual name for this?). The game where you have two teams and you just keep the ball away from the other team. It was boy vs. girls.
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are...
During the weekend we were out there, it was the peak time to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Unlike our homes, LA/OC/SD, Temecula doesn't have much light pollution so it was perfect timing. We all laid towels on the putting green, turned off all the outdoor lights, played some "starry" music and looked up.
The blank canvas sky was decorated with countless twinkling stars. Our eyes scanned the starry night sky waiting for some action. Right before our eyes dried up from not blinking for a long time, a star would shoot across the sky, leaving a stardust tail. We would all scream in delight when we spotted a shooting star. Jokes would be make to the individuals that were able to see the magical sight. The night grew colder. Many of us went back in the house to change into warmer clothes or grab thicker blankets. We watched Perseid for about an hour. Our eyes slowly closing as we got comfortable and sleepy.
We retreated back into the house.
A short intermission. I actually fell asleep for a bit while everyone else were playing games. I cleaned up and joined everyone as we ended the night with a game of Cards Against Humanity.
It was time to leave our weekend getaway.
For breakfast we finished all our leftovers. We cleaned up the house. Packed our bags, deflated the floaties and put away all the games we used.
Overall
It was the perfect weekend getaway. I didn't have to used any PTO (paid time off) or spend a lot of money. We divided the cost of the accomodations and food and it came out to $125 + $35 = $170. Not bad at all for a whole weekend.
Until next time!
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