Our boys’ waterpolo tournaments take us to some fun places and we usually try to tack on extra days to give us family time to explore. This July it was Southern California. We flew in early morning to LAX, picked up a car and drove to, close by, Venice beach for a late breakfast. Plenty of people watching on Muscle Beach and along the boardwalk, with street entertainers and acrobats that the boys recognized from random Youtube clips they’ve watched.
For the next few nights we were staying further south in Oceanside but as we left Venice we did a drive by of the Mosaic Tile house. Tours are available but we just took a quick look from the road.
We knew nothing about Oceanside but had chosen an Airbnb there as it was located centrally on the coast between Santa Monica and San Diego. The house was a couple of blocks back from the sea and in the evenings we enjoyed walking along the front with an ice-cream. One night there were low riders and vintage trucks cruising by, another dolphins, always plenty of stones to skim and great waves crashing on the rocks. There were some interesting looking rental properties on that coast road to consider for another time.
Earlier in the summer, we’d watched the film Soul Surfer, the true story about the teenage surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack in Hawaii. This totally traumatised my daughter and we were still avoiding the topic but by complete chance, the very surfboard, complete with teeth marks, is in the California Surf Museum in Oceanside – we did not go.
To the north is the arty town of Laguna Beach. The Sawdust art festival was recommended to us so we parked in town and walked inland to the site. Shuttle buses are available but it’s not far from the beach area. The children enjoyed watching some artists at work and created clay pots themselves which were then fired and posted home for us. There was a nice spot amongst the trees for lunch with live bands playing. After, we headed back to the beach for rock pooling, jumping waves and the coastal walk along the cliffs through Heisler Park. And another Youtube spot for the boys, the beachside basketball courts!
We were ready now for a car free day. Lots of the coastal towns have piers and often a Ruby’s Diner (now closed in this location) at the end, so we walked out to the one in Oceanside for milkshakes, watching the surfers and dolphins as we went.
At the back of the chalet, the children had spotted a climbing gym with big open doors, a novelty in itself for us now used to air-con Florida summers. Keeping out of the way my husband who had a couple of work conference calls, they spent a couple of hours bouldering. We then walked out to find some lunch at In-N-Out Burger, for the Californian burger experience and to give their arms a rest and later were able to go back for a little longer to make the most of the day pass.
The following morning we travelled south. First stop was to La Jolla to see the seals and then on to San Diego zoo. Huge zoo in pretty parkland. Grateful for the cable car!
For our final evening in Oceanside, we went to the harbour for the boats and a dinner of the most enormous burritos at Rockin’ Baja. The following day we packed up and drove to Huntingdon and its lovely long sandy beach. There was a stand where you could hire bodyboards for a few dollars and buckets and spades for a couple more, perfect for those of us travelling by plane with more limited luggage. From there we continued on to Santa Monica pier to meet a family we knew from Switzerland who had relocated here. More fun on their Muscle Beach and dinner in one of the many restaurants in walking distance from the pier.
Home for the next 2 nights was a hotel in Hollywood. We drove to Griffith Park ready to hike up on easy trails, to the Griffith Observatory and get our view of the Hollywood sign. Great to be out in the countryside but still so close to Los Angeles. It is free to visit the Observatory so we had a good look around and took in the views over the city before heading down on a different trail back to the car. We didn’t feel like we could come to Hollywood without seeing the stars on Hollywood Boulevard so we strolled along looking for names the children knew with our eye out for a lunch spot. We got to the Chinese theatre and the hand and foot prints of more celebrities. Heading back to the hotel we took a trip down Rodeo Drive and through Beverly Hills to tick them off the list too.
For our final morning in LA, we had booked to go on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. There are a few studio tour choices – Paramount is for ages 10+, Universal involves buying a full theme park ticket, so Warner Bros was our best option. To prepare for our moment on the Central Perk couch we had watched the first episode of Friends, and the children have been watching and loving it ever since. The tour combines time on and off the tram, visiting outside and inside sets, prop stores, costume and vehicle exhibits and finishing with the museum. This was all actually more interesting and fun than I had expected, although my husband now can’t watch any television without thinking about the fakeness of the buildings!
