Newport Beach - Day 2

Day 2 Adventures in Newport Beach

What better way to start day 2 but with your own exclusive Stampin' Up! Breakfast which included Starbucks coffee!  They must of known that is my favourite!  

Then we jumped onto the shuttle that Stampin' Up! provided with a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators to Laguna Beach!

Nice white sand and beautiful waves and vegetation!

We were very fortune to meet up with Sean (Stampin' Up! Creative Director) and Sara (Interim CEO) Douglass to explore Laguna Beach and have lunch together.

Lunch was delicious and included clam chowder fries that were absolutely amazing and rival our Canadian counterpart poutine!  I had forgotten that poutine is Canadian!  For anyone that does not know what it is...

 is a Canadian dish, originating in the province of Quebec, made with french fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy-like sauce.  Yummy!  Come to Canada and try it!

Here I was playing with the camera while poolside, after a refreshing dip in the pool and before heading out on our next adventure of the day!

Off to Balboa Island on a cute little ferry that costs cars only $2 and foot passengers $1 a trip.  We had met a great couple, Stampin' Up! demonstrator Rachel and her husband Emmet on the bus ride to the ferry who told us about a sunset boat cruise.  We followed their lead and enjoyed an incredible boat tour of the area around Balboa Island, including Pirates Cove, said to have inspired Disney’s Peter Pan and provided one of the sets for Gilligan’s Island.  The area is known as a playground for the rich and famous and boasts some of the country’s most luxurious homes, hotels, resorts, yachts, shopping areas and restaurants plus the legendary Balboa Bay Club and Resort.  During our cruise, the former home of John Wayne was pointed out to us on the tour along with the hillside that Canadian hockey star, Wayne Gretzky, house sits on.

For the sealions, they find warm from the water where ever they can.  Here on a buoy, but we also saw them on unoccupied sailboats too!

As the sun went down, the sky changed to a beautiful sunset.  Here you can see the silhouette's of the fishermen of the evening.

After returning to our hotel, I was involved in a WOW swap with 31 of the other Newport Beach Trip Achievers!  So much fun to swap cards with top demonstrators!  The cards are so amazing that I have posted a Newport Beach Wow Card class already to share some of my favourites!

Here is my card that I did for the swap, using the pillow top technique. I was so pleased with the results and heard many wows from my peers.

And as a night cap to the evening, a pillow gift.... 

A gift that's tag says it all "You make me happy"!  A box full of Stampin' Up! product always brings me a smile and warm fuzzy feeling, and I was so excited that this stamp set was included as I wanted it personally but hadn't bought it yet!  

Watch for Day 3 of my adventure next!