The Family Unit

Southern California? Yeah that's where I grew up. I like to claim Huntington Beach as the place where the cups in the pavilion are made. Huntington Beach's cup manufacturer also supplied the cups for my freshman dorm at CSU.

"Hi. I'm Julie, I'm from Huntington Beach..." Then when the person on the other end says Huntington Beach, question mark? I get to rattle off its tag line... "Yeah, Huntington Beach, the place where the cups are from."

Forget that it's the host city of the US Surfing Open, forget Holisters birth city, Boeing? Nada. Quicksilver, not impressed. Pshh forget the city that UFC fighter Tito Ortiz resides in. We make cups.

But is it home? I refer to Colorado as home because I don't like to associate with a region that is known for face lifts, superficial personalities, and Hollywood starlets.

But really, when I think of California I forget all the smog, cars and fashionable people. And I think of my family. The wetlands. The Sierras. The redwoods. The miles of coastline. The high desert. The tide pools. The wine country. The beauty. I think of Stephanie making us put pajamas on at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to pick out our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Building fires in the fireplace after thinking we were going to freeze to death at 67 degrees. Swimming naked in the pool hoping Judy, the neighbor, wasn't going to come over for an unexpected dip. The summer we had apricots coming out our ears...

In the last 4 years I wish I had gone back to Huntington Beach more. Shoot, I always knew I had an awesome family, maybe you could say they're like a good bottle of wine. The older the get, the better they get. Or maybe it's just the older I get the more I appreciate them. Regardless, my family is amazing.

I few weeks ago Bligh and I had the opportunity to drive back to Huntington Beach. Here are a few pics of the family unit.