Our California Vacation--Many Blessings

My husband and I took a much-needed vacation to California last week.  Our first stop was Santa Monica where we finally met in person my dear friend Maia Berens.

My initial contact with Maia was in 2007 when I was searching online for information on life coaching. I found Maia's website, https://www.maiaberens.com/, and was quickly and naturally drawn to her as if I already knew her.

After communicating by email and a 45-minute phone conversation, I hired Maia to be my life coach.

By 2010 I graduated from the YOU University Life Coach Training Program created by Maia. We've

been online friends, colleagues, and have had weekly coaching calls for the past 9 years. 

We were both eager to meet. When we finally met, we hugged, spent quality time together over lunch, went for a walk in the park and I even got to play with her bubbly granddaughter, Juniper.

While at the park we recorded a live video on Facebook.  A truly wonderful experience! Good friends are hard to come by.  I'm glad Maia is in my life.

By the way,  I loved Santa Monica, with its quaint homes, its variety of exotic desert-like plants, beautiful gardens and lay-back lifestyle.

         ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


After, hubby and I flew to San Francisco.  This was a completely different experience.  We stayed in the downtown area and felt like we were in our hometown, NYC, only with palm trees and hills.  What an exciting, fast-paced city.  We did a lot of walking, and eating in different restaurants.

Our best culinary experience was in Chinatown at a small Chinese restaurant called House of Nanking. What a treat, a truly authentic Chinese meal.  The best we had all week.  And we went to a few fine dining restaurants.  But this beat all of them.  So, not all that glitters is gold!!

We didn't leave the downtown area because we felt at home there.  We saw many homeless people roaming the streets and gave cash to some and leftover food to others.  

Altogether, we had a wonderful time.  We are grateful we had this experience and grateful we are safely back home!