The pace starts to change at this point when there’s less planning and more doing. We’ve signed our lease, got our permits from the city to start build out, and now are getting those projects in line. After our last trip to Northern Europe, we weren’t expecting to go anywhere for the next couple years because of the shop. Yet a year later and approaching build-out, we’re finding ourselves getting tired— and we haven’t even started yet! When we turned in the last of our stuff for permit approvals, hit our five-year anniversary week, and happened to find a steal on Frontier tickets for a San Diego mini-vacay, we thought, why not go before this next stretch, as we’re waiting to hear from the city anyways? 😀
We didn’t make any plans other than relaxing on the sunny beaches of San Diego, but when we kept stumbling upon these coffee shops we’ve heard about over and over, we couldn’t resist! I’d definitely recommend all of them for amazing coffee and vibes. Enjoy some of our pictures from this last week before we journey into build out coming up ahead– get ready!
Abbot Kinney Blvd, LA
We spent the first day in LA, and as we were on our way to Venice Beach, we stumbled across Abbot Kinney Blvd. Super fun street. Full of speciality coffee (featuring Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle), wall art, and we even found Blue Star Donuts and Salt & Straw from Portland!
Venice Beach, LA
We got to check out Verve!! Love these guys.
Sunset & Firework at Universal City Overlook, LA
Canabru, Chino
We stayed in Chino and glad we did, because we stumbled across a coffee shop we’ve been following for quite a while on instagram! Not only was it cool to check out Canabru, but we got to hear more about their story directly from their hardworking and passionate owner. Great coffee, fudge and community; these guys are the real deal!
San Diego
Our cute tiny home we found on Airbnb. Sooooo chill… kind of want to live in one!
Was super cool to check out Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. We heard about them in Roasted– a coffee documentary we watched a while ago, so it was awesome to see it in person and talk to their baristas about their coffees.
Sunset Cliffs & Mission Beach
Downtown
We went by James Coffee Co as a friend’s recommendation; really cool place with delicious coffees. Tasted a Misty Valley natural Ethiopian that tasted like a blueberry– heard all about this blueberry tasting note and it was spot on! Very hip vibes, plus they share their space with other crafty shops.
If we planned it out, we would’ve hit up a lot more coffee shops, because there are a ton of amazing speciality coffee shops in the San Diego & LA area. But, we came for an anniversary vacation and were pleasantly surprised to run into these great shops around us! Now how can you not end a Cali blog post without a beach sunset?