I know that for most people in the world, Sunday is kind of a bummer day.  You’re trying to suck every last glorious minute out of your weekend without thinking about going back to work in the morning.

Of course, being a restaurant industry vampire, I’m pretty much the opposite.

Today is my Friday.  One more eight hour shift until I am free.  This week, until Thursday!

Woo!!

But, as I’m trying to pump myself up for this one last shift before my 4th of July vacation, I was looking through pictures of my “weekend” (Monday & Wednesday) last week.  And our Monday was such a perfect start to summer that I felt compelled to share it with you.

Last Sunday night, Brad and I were feeling ambitious.  We were planning on taking off early Monday morning and heading out to either Santa Barbara or San Diego.  Both are about a three hour drive, but we wanted to get out of town and do something adventurous.

Then we watched every OnDemand episode of “Girls”, and didn’t go to bed until about 4am.

Needless to say, we did not wake up early.  And by the time we were up and ready to go anywhere, there wasn’t really a point to driving either place for what remained of the day.  It would have been a three hour drive for an interesting dinner and then a three hour drive back to let the dog out.

So instead, we hopped in the car and drove up to Malibu.

Not a bad call, I’d say.

Destination, this place.

Neptune’s Net has been recommended to me numerous times as a great seafood place on the side of PCH.  With a parking lot full of motorcycles, a giant plate of fried seafood and a pulled pork sandwich, how could it get much better?

With a giant PBR, that’s how.

Ready?  Now it’s Summer.

After we finished as much as we could of the fried deliciousness, we explored a little and discovered that there is also a much healthier side of Neptune’s, where you can order steamed crab, shrimp, and fresh oysters.

Oh well.  Good excuse to come back.

We wandered across the street to the beach with a blanket in hand, and I finished my giant beer right next to this sign.

And then we headed down to the sand.

It was a secluded little beach.  Only a few surfers and sunbathers, probably all locals.  I fell in love with a chocolate lab puppy who was learning about the ocean for the first time.  Two big yellow labs chased waves, surfers, toys and each other.

Brad rolled up his jeans.  We got comfy.

It was a spectacular day.  The sky was a perfect blue.  So blue, I had to take a picture of it.

And as the PBR settled in and we listened to the waves crashing, we decided to take a little nap…

We woke up about two hours later.  Still a beautiful day.  Still completely relaxed and still loving the sound of the crashing waves.

But realizing how stupid taking a random nap on the beach without sunscreen was.

Seriously.  You should see the ridiculous tan lines.  Shorts lines.  Shirt lines.  Necklace lines.  Hand lines.

Ugh.

But we wouldn’t let that deter the rest of our Monday.  We headed back to Santa Monica and met up with David, Allie, Andie and the crew for a few cocktails at Ocean Ave Seafood.

We drank Bloody Marys.

Brad had a Virgin Pina Colada.

Oyster shooters all around.

And as we ended the night with wine and a hilariously tipsy game of Apples to Apples, I was entirely content.

Welcome back, Summer.  Please stick around for a while.  We are very, very glad to have you.

xoxo