lago santa margarita.

today christine and i spent the day in one of my favorite cities - rancho santa margarita.  it's not a super luxurious city or anything like that, but i can't help but love it because i spent a good portion of my childhood growing up there and it gave me many great memories.  every time i go back to rancho, it still feels like home to me, even though it has been years since i've lived there.

first... to grandmother's house we go!  we visited my grandma (gram) at her house in rancho, located very close to my old house and elementary school that i attended for a couple of years.  gram recently got a new corgi puppy, named rusty, to keep her company after our fifteen year old corgi, copper, passed away a few months ago.  i had only seen him once before and christine and i both really wanted to see him again while he is still little and extra cute.

he's super adorable, but i totally forgot how rambunctious corgis are as puppies.  after all, i was only four years old when copper was a puppy, so i guess i don't really remember how crazy he was.  but as small as rusty is, i just couldn't believe his strength!  he knocked us over to the ground and tried to bite everything he could, from our toes to our hair, shirts, and jeans.  and when he got a hold of something with his teeth, it was nearly impossible to loosen his grip.  he was such a little wad of energy!

christine dancing to escape rusty's grip:

after a nice visit with gram and rusty, we headed to lago santa margarita, my favorite place to go with my little sister when i was growing up.  i had been telling christine about this lake for years and i finally got the chance to show it to her today.  she was super excited!

we walked around the entire thing, talking and planning our future exercise excursions there :)  we also took some pictures of ourselves along the way, of course:

after we got our ounce of exercise for the day, we ate at a restaurant on the lake called wings bar and grill.  we got a view of the lake while eating, it was very reasonably priced, and the food was fantastic!  no complaints here.

the restaurant:

us at the restaurant:

our view:

our food:

after a scrumptious dinner, we went for dessert (boba, of course) at cha for tea with nili, ina, and bryan.  we ended the night nicely, spending a couple of hours with good friends... and words with friends.

oh the joys of modern technology.