California Daydreaming

With a record-breaking heat wave here in Minneapolis, I am definitely NOT complaining about the weather, but with less than two weeks to go before my California vacation, I have been daydreaming heavily about all the lovely amazing people I will get to see, food I will eat, coffee and cocktails I will drink, and of course, all the amazing California sights I will see. 

I am absolutely loving summer in Minneapolis, but part of me will always long for California. Having lived there for over 10 years, I seem to have the equivalent of phantom limb syndrome: I swear I can sometimes feel the air, the topography, the lifestyle, coursing through my veins.

I am also looking forward to being inspired by some real California style. Most other places in America (and maybe even the world) are constantly trying to emulate the "California cool" style that has become iconic. California girls really know how to do casual without looking boring. There is an ease to a lot of the fashion in California that I absolutely love. 

Unfortunately, it's not an easy place to be poor in your twenties (or any age really). With sky-high housing prices, a failing social system, and an economy based on entertainment, technological innovations, and the prison-industrial complex,  I was simply never able to get my footing there financially. And while life has been hard here, and I am still pretty damn poor, it's a lot easier to be poor in Minnesota.

But I am and always will be a California girl at heart. And for all you haters out there, I will break a fucking bottle and shiv you because "I'm from Oakland, bitch!"

And with that, I give you a pictorial translation of my California daydreamin':

                                                                             The iconic Oakland cranes at sunset

Taco trucks, quality sushi, and Peet's coffee: all of which I will be putting in my face throughout my vacation.

  While I am hoping there will not be widespread rioting with the release of the BART officer who murdered Oscar Grant, hating cops and breaking shit is one of the things Oakland does best.

Minnesota may have ten thousand lakes, but I still love Lake Merritt best. Also, strawberry mimosas at the Lake Merritt Cafe are the shit on a Sunday morning.

Pretty dresses at sunset, the Golden Gate Bridge and prison overcrowding. Get ready California, with the new Supreme Court ruling these friendly gents might soon be your new neighbors. 

Big Sur is my favorite place in the world. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a quick stop on the way to my friend's wedding in San Diego. 

This is what I think So Cal looks like.

 

The second half of our trip will be spent in San Diego for my amazing friend Nikki's wedding in Balboa Park.

I also get to see a bunch of other BFFs as a bonus.

I hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures. Unfortunately, I can't do the DIY segment this week because I am so poor that I don't even have enough $$ to purchase the materials for the DIY projects, but I promise I will do a DIY summer trends post next week after I get paid. However, there will be a post on how to decorate your apartment or house for almost no monies later this week. 

Thanks for reading!

<3- hallee