San Clemente

Hello loves! Josh and I went a little mini vacation before we started school. He was in San Clemente with his mom and I joined them about two days after. I took the train in from Irvine, it was such a smooth and nice train ride. (Take it from someone that is terrified of trains). The Irvine train station was so nice, very small but I enjoyed that. I prefer smaller less crowded places when it comes to transportation. Like I never fly into or out of LAX because of that. I am also not fond of Union Station. So I am very glad that Irvine was as nice and simple and small as it was, because it definitely kept me calmer than if I had gone to Union Station. But it was a 30 minute or so train ride into San Clemente where I was picked up. It was lightly drizzling but it was fine, it made San Clemente just a little bit more beautiful. We went to where we were staying, we ate McDonald's breakfast lol and then Josh & I headed out to town.

We walked around the little downtown area, going into the different shops, trying on clothes, putting the clothes back and so on. We went to one little chocolate shop called Schmid's Fine Chocolates that Josh said has been there for the longest and I got a chocolate covered strawberry. Very good, definitely stop by and try some of their other items too, let me know how they taste haha. And then we walked to Starbucks, I got a Passion Tea Lemonade (which they didn't fill all the way to the top, kind of annoying but I survived). And then we headed to Poke Roll 808 to get happy hour sushi. We had two crunch rolls, a california roll and chicken teriyaki. Really good and fresh too. We then headed back to our place and chilled out. We got pizza a little later and enjoyed that. Josh was doing hw and then my poor babe fell asleep because he had been up late the night before doing work. His mom and I stood up until 4 am watching Love, Lust or Run.

The next day we again got ready and then headed over to the Casa Romantica. Omg we have been trying to go and see this place since the beginning of our relationship and we've either tried to go when it's closed or when there was a private party going on. But we finally got to go in and omg was this place HUGE! At the door, we paid the $5 admission fee and got a little bit of a rundown on the history. Ole Hanson was the original owner and builder back in the early 1920's. He built the house as a vacation home for himself, his wife and their 8 kids (maybe it was 9). But the house was foreclosed by Bank of America during the Great Depression. The house was then owned by a handful of people until the San Clemente Redevelopment Agency bought it in 1989. It was inducted into the historical society and has since been renovated and opened to the public as a cultural center.

Casa Romantica was so beautiful. It was huge. Had an endless amount of rooms and different little areas. The view is breathtaking. And it's a pretty cheap activity that was quite fun. I would go again. I highly recommend you check this place out, even if you weren't to stay in the city and were just driving by.

After the Casa Romantica we walked to downtown again, rechecked out all the shops and then headed back to pack up, clean and leave.