One thing I miss about California is the road-tripping. Even though my husband and I only lived in San Diego for two years, we did so much road-tripping in such a short period of time.

We spent one winter weekend in Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains when we were missing the Minnesota snow. It's only two hours from San Diego or LA, but feels a world away — all cozy cabins, ponderosa pines and fresh, mountain air. 

It was romantic and also sort of boring... in a good way. 

All we did for two days was fart around Idyllwild County Park, accidentally climb a mountain, drink Icelandic beer in our A-frame, eat beef bulgogi breakfast burritos at Mile High Cafe and play a lot of cards in public places. We even saw a movie, we were that boring (though The Rustic Theatre is actually very cool).

Occasionally we would come across patches of almost-melted snow, which undoubtedly would be surrounded by children (fully geared up in snowsuits!) trying to build tiny, icy snowmen.

It was cute as heck.