Beach Day

True bliss for both my husband and I always involves the ocean, and more specifically, an West coast ocean, either on the West coast of Ireland or the West coast of the US.

It was no surprise, then, that on a perfectly sunny, 80 degree November day on our Foodbuzz Festival trip to San Francisco, we chose to head away from the city and down along the coast for a day of wine tasting and beach lounging. I’ll have separate posts about our tasting at Bonny Doon Vineyards and the Santa Cruz Brewing Company and the various other delicious things we consumed on our journey West, but today’s post is all about beachy bliss.

Our trip South toward Bonny Doon included a dip in the Pacific Ocean, just my feet, or so I thought Smile It crept up quickly, and before I knew it, my pants were soaked to my knees. But I was on a beach on the Pacific Ocean!

Pescadero

Pescadero

Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean

footprints in the sand

Don’t the photos just speak for themselves? My shoulders dropped a few inches, I can breathe *almost* freely again, and my appetite is back! I credit the fresh sea air and sunshine Smile

After our tasting at Bonny Doon, we decided to head to the former hometown of my friend Chef Robin White to check out some of her old haunts. With the sun blazing in the sky, we wandered around Half Moon Bay checking out its quaint shops and beautiful streets. I fell instantly in love and could see why Robin missed it so much.

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese purple flowers
Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese

After drooling over all of the cheeses, meats, chocolate, spreads, and of course wine, we decided on a soft goat cheese, toasts, and a small bottle of Prosecco.

image

Ahhhhh. . .

Prosecco picnic goat cheese

Our beach picnic was one of the most perfect moments of my life. The crashing of the waves, the sun, delicious, dry Prosecco, and of course, the company of my wonderful husband. I love vacation!

Kelly over at She Wears a Red Sox Cap is doing something fun, 30 Days of Blogging, and while I may not blog every topic every day, I thought a lot of them were fun, and I also love hearing from readers.

So today, since I will be meeting so many people at Foodbuzz Festival, I thought I would share the thinking behind my blog name.

As you know, I started out as Travel Eat Love. The day I started writing my blog, I didn’t think much about it to be honest! I love to travel and eat, and to encompass all sorts of other fun things, I added the love.

Enter the movie, Eat, Pray, Love. As I was NOT a fan of the book, it became nightmarish every time I told someone my blog name! I changed the name, but not the URL, to Travel, Wine, and Dine, a name that is still kind of in limbo. I love to travel, wine, and dine, but travel has taken a back seat to other things in recent times, and not having a job will probably make that more so.

And so my blog name struggle continues!

If you are a blogger, how did you decide your blog name? If you aren’t a blogger, tell me a fun fact about yourself for this fun Friday! Smile

Tags: beach, California, picnic, prosecco, San Francisco, Travel

  1. Kirsten’s avatar

    Wow – that looks amazing! Glad you are relaxing and having a great time.

    Reply

  2. Emily’s avatar

    I went to a wedding this summer outside of Half Moon Bay and agree it is beautiful. If you are still there, be sure to grab fish tacos at Flying Fish Grill!

    Reply

  3. Michelle’s avatar

    Looks like you’re having a blast! Enjoy the relaxing! Its quite rainy back here, bring the sun back with you!

    Reply

  4. MelissaNibbles’s avatar

    Oh my god. What a perfect day! Enjoy your vacation!

    I wasn’t a fan of Eat, Pray, Love either.

    Reply

  5. Michelle’s avatar

    It looks like you are having a wonderful time! Enjoy every minute of the gorgeous weather and ocean scents…you deserve it! xo

    Reply

  6. Raija’s avatar

    I love the picture of you jumping on the beach. So happy!

    Reply

  7. Daisy’s avatar

    pure bliss. oh my gosh meghan, I’m on cloud nine just looking at these pictures.

    Indulge Inspire Imbibe came about on the red line heading out to quincy. random right? I wrote on a scrap piece of paper the orders all switched up
    Inspire Indulge Imbibe etc…..then I debated whether is was too long / a mouthful. be it what it may, i stuck with my first instinct and thus III was born!

    Good luck with your name. you know we’ll read no matter what it’s called 🙂

    Reply

  8. Lindsay Meyer’s avatar

    Beautiful beach photos! Looks like an awesome day.

    Love Northern California 🙂

    See you tonight!

    Reply

  9. Anne @ Food Loving Polar Bear’s avatar

    Your beach day looks so lovely, I’m glad your feeling better and relaxed. Sometimes you need a day off from everything and just spend it with someone who you love. Bliss.

    Reply

  10. Roxan’s avatar

    Oh, your day looks like heaven. All the while, I have been sitting cooped up at my desk at work! I could totally use a wonderful beach day like yours, especially if it involves wine and cheese.

    My blog names comes from the quiet and peace I find in the kitchen. I love love love yoga, and I find the same stillness in the kitchen as I do on the mat, so the name Kitchen Meditation seemed was perfect.

    Reply

  11. MichellePC’s avatar

    Your pictures are gorgeous! Enjoy the rest of your vaca! And my blog name was also easy to come up with – I love to cook and eat, but need to do so on a pretty strict budget. So, in came The Economical Eater. 😉

    Reply

  12. Kimmy’s avatar

    I’m so happy you’re feeling better and having a great time! My blog started as “The lighter side of me” and it was more a of a diet/healthier blog. Over time I found my local love… and changed it back in July to Lighter and Local to try and keep part of my old name… but add the new focus.

    Reply

  13. Kim’s avatar

    Oh how you’ve made me long for that region again. I heart the Santa Cruz area and used to live an hour away from there. I miss the ocean so much.

    I can’t believe how spectacular the weather is for this time of year. Usually cold and cloudy. You guys got lucky!

    I hope you have a wonderful remainder of your trip. tThe San Francisco Bay Area is a beautiful area to spend time in for a few days.

    Reply

    1. traveleatlove’s avatar

      It is such a special part of the US! You are lucky to have lived around here!

      Reply

    2. Katie’s avatar

      So jealous! This looks like quite the day!

      Reply

    3. Julie’s avatar

      Wow….WHAT a PERFECT day!!! That’s awesome! So glad that you’re having a fun and restful time! Half Moon Bay is just great, isn’t it? I like your blog name as is. If you really don’t love it, you could always add “run” somewhere in the title, because that’s also a verb that we associate with you. =)

      Reply

      1. traveleatlove’s avatar

        We HAVE to plan a wine country weekend together soon! Eric and I talk about it all the time!

        Reply

      2. alicia’s avatar

        Wow – glad to hear you’re de-stressing. a beach, a bottle of wine and some cheese sound like the perfect antidote!

        I struggled with my blog name for a WHILE. Rafe finally suggested the clean plate club to me – because I say it ALL THE TIME. It was kind of a no-brainer once he suggested it.

        I like travel, wine, and dine – I think it suits you – but you could call it anything and I’d still read 🙂

        Reply

      3. Megan’s avatar

        You look so happy and so relaxed!

        Hmm… I think I was trying to go with something catchy (and some alliteration) and it just came to me. I often think about changing it though.

        Reply

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