I’m going to California!!!

It’s finally happening!! I’M GOING TO CALIFORNIA.

My journey starts April 2nd and I will almost be there for three weeks. I booked my tour with Contiki 8more details in this post). It will start in LA, where we spend one full day and then we head off to San Diego. There it will be a two day stop full of exciting adventures. Then we are heading to Arizona. We are staying in Mesa/Phoenix. Sonoran Desert, Anza Borrego Desert etc. Afterwards it’s Grand Canyon time, plus of course Route 66. I can’t wait!!! Of course Las Vegas has to be the next top. We are also staying at Bass Lake, Yosemite National Park and we will end in San Francisco. The tour is 14 days in total and we will stay in hotels and lodges. I have added three days in San Francisco to do some shopping and I also booked a day trip to Carmel and Monterey.

California has been on my bucket list for a long time and I always waited with booking atrip. Because I wanted to go with the right people. Being single and the place being on top of my list, I decided to book though. I’m very excited and curious, maybe even a little nervous. I’ll be with a group of people; I have never met before.

Here is a plan of the route:

There are some places in California I won’t be able to see during this trip, but that’s fine. I can always come back.

This means that tomorrow I’ll publish my last post for three weeks. I will be back with a Fashion Corner April 22. Afterwards I will have lots of posts about my travels though and I will give you some tips and tricks as well. 

Annie’s Summer by the Sea - by Liz Eeles

My own copy

Original Cover

The blurb:

When Annie Trebarwith unexpectedly inherits Tregavara House, her much-loved family home atop the cliffs of Salt Bay, she begins to wonder: with all the good friends and warm memories she’s made in the village, could it be her forever home? 

Luckily her gorgeous Poldark-lookalike boyfriend, Josh Pasco, has exactly the same idea. High on the Cornish cliffs he gets down on one knee, and Annie has everything she’s ever dreamed of.

But when a summer storm causes catastrophic damage to the beautiful but aging house, Annie and Josh are faced with tumbling tiles and a massive repair bill – and a roof that’s leaked straight onto her wedding gown…

Can the Salt Bay community save Annie’s house and her wedding – and give Annie the happy-ever-after she’s always wanted?

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

We are back in Salt Bay and I couldn’t be more excited! I adore this series, the characters and everything surrounding them.

This is book three of the series and Annie inherits Tregavara House. However, the house is old and a storm causes more damage. There is also a wedding to get read for, but money is tight.

I love how Annie’s and Josh’s relationship develop in this story. He is absolutely fabulous and I just enjoyed their scenes so much.

The whole Salt Bay community is awesome, they are there for each other and help in every way they can. A great mixture of characters, everyone special and important.

The book has some surprises in store and I think the storyline has a wonderful flow. I enjoyed every second of this book. The author’s style is romantic, sweet, fresh, emotional and very authentic. Of course there is also the beautiful setting and all these things together create a magnificent atmosphere.

Rating:

Amazon: myBook.to/ASbTSSocial

: https://tinyurl.com/yacjq3rm

Author Bio: 

Liz began her writing career as a journalist and press officer before deciding that she’d rather have the freedom of making things up as a novelist. 

Being short-listed in the Corvus ‘Love at First Write’ competition and the Novelicious search for a new women's fiction star gave Liz the push she needed to keep putting pen to paper …. and ‘Annie’s Holiday by the Sea’ (her first published novel) is the result. 

Liz lives on the South Coast with her family and, when she’s not writing, likes to spend time walking by the sea, and trying to meditate. Her ambition is to be serene one day …. she’s still got a long way to go.

Author Social Media Links: 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lizeelesauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lizeelesauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizeelesauthor/

Booking with Contiki

California and the surrounding states have been on my bucket list for a while and now I'm finally going! Since I'm single at the moment and my friends don't have the same holidays. So I decided to do the solo traveling again, but this time it was clear to me that it has to be with a group. A lot of bloggers have done TrekAmerica, so that's the first page I checked. I'm not big on camping  though and I didn't have a lot of options for tours. 
The places I want to see are mainly LA, San Diego, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Yosemite and San Francisco. It was also important to me to end the tour in San Francisco, because I want to spend some more days there in the end. I found one tour on TrekAmerica, but for the dates I wanted it was already booked out. Some tours didn't work because of the dates. 
I have three weeks of holidays at the beginning of April, so I needed the tour to start at the beginning of April. After not finding something onTrekAmerica I started looking for other possibilities and just typed in: tours, California. Several companies came up and I checked some of them. Contiki was the one I liked instantly! The other travelers are between 18 and 35 years old and I just liked the homepage. It's full of great pictures and they have a great choice of tours. The tours are very well described and you can see a lot of details already. Booking is easy and they send you all you need to know early enough. I even received a little travel pouch wit my vouchers inside, the luggage information and a luggage tag. 
Food is included, not for every meal, but for some. The same goes for hotels, mostly 3 star hotels and then there is an itinerary. There are things everyone does and also some optional activities. These cost extra, but I will be trying some of them for sure. 
I'm very curious about the whole experience, about the people, the hotels, the food etc. I will for sure do a Traveling with Contiki blog post, where I will be talking about my experiences. 

Fashion Corner - Cosy and Warm

One of my warm and cosy jumpers for cold winter days. 

The jumper is from Massimo Dutti, I bought it at Brussels Airport and I love it. It's so warm. It has wool inside, but not too much and it's just so pretty. Dark jeans and some beige booties and the outfit is complete. 

- Jumper: Massimo Dutti

- Jeans: Jack Wills

- Booties: Buffalo