Beach Day

The beach vs. the mountains, I just can't decide which I love more. Who says I have to take sides anyway? Since there are not really any mountains where I am at in CA, I will go to the beach instead. I do miss the mountains in Utah a lot but luckily its just a 10 hour drive and when I go, it can be for longer than just a weekend, usually, so it's sort of like the best of both worlds in a way.

Two Beaches in 1 Day!

 I heart the beach and take advantage of every opportunity I have to go spend time in the sand and at least put my feet in the ocean. During our trip to Southern CA we had Monday to visit a couple beaches before heading back to Utah.

First we went to Venice Beach

Some people love this beach, others are so-so about it or else they just plain hate it. I love it because it is so interesting and there are lots of things to see that you don't see anywhere else.

Smooshing a penny to get a picture on it is a must-do!

More shots of Venice beaches...tons of little shops and 2 fire engines..dont know why they were there

  

Really cool art made with metal parts from cars and other stuff

Playing around in the ocean

Trying to take a jumping picture

So peaceful

Street performers. This is what delayed us to getting to Santa Monica!

A guy was going to jump over all these people bending over. And he did it! I should probably post the video...

So, we stayed quite a bit longer than planned on at Venice Beach and I still really wanted to go to Santa Monica so fortunately it wasn't too far from where we were at. 

Luckily we were able to find a parking spot without too much trouble

Pacific Park at Santa Monica Pier!

We had lunch at Harbor Grill.

If you can see the Ferris wheel above, it is run by a solar panel! So neat.

I got a hamburger and fries for lunch and Tony made us fry sauce. He got clam chowder in a bread bowl and when I asked him which one he liked better, the one here at the pier or at Disneyland he said Disneyland's clam chowder was def. better. Who knew!

Choosing between Dippin Dots or ice-cream and the ice cream was a much better deal so that's what we did

  

Saw a brave girl holding an enormous snake

One last view of the beach before heading out. We didn't leave until probably 3:30pm , almost 4! A lot later than planned and we didn't get to our house in Utah until probably 5:30am in the morning. I don't regret it though - it was worth every minute spent in CA!

I turned out so dark here but at least the ocean looks pretty awesome! And...one last look before heading back to the car. Tony had to drag me away.

Cool license plate we saw when leaving

Pretty fountain while driving the streets of Los Angeles to get back to the freeway

Pandy & Hoote were so well behaved on the trip ;-)

I loved the way these trees looked

  

Driving towards Vegas..interesting looking sunset and the moon.

I seriously cannot wait until I can get back to the beach again!

What is your favorite beach to go to in CA?

Seal Beach

After Nicole & Laura left Sunday morning back to Utah and we all had checked out of the hotel , Brennen and I decided to hit up the beach for a few hours. We found Seal Beach and it was pretty nice. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed laying out on the beach for a couple hours then playing in the ocean some. Sadly we didn't see any seals but we didn't walk the whole length of the beach. We did see a Hindenburg type balloon, 2 airplanes pulling ads behind them for alcohol and some cool birds dive bombing for fish in the ocean. Found some cool shells too.

 Brennen buried my feet in the sand . Hehe!

Brennen got quite burned from Disneyland and the beach so we went to a super ghetto Walmart in Long Beach where he picked up some aloe and a hat. Meanwhile I was outside watch a parade get put together. For what? I had no idea until I asked someone next to me and he said its a huge Brazilian parade that happens every year a the tv crew was even there there to tape the event and re-broadcast it back to Brazil. Really cool! I got some neat video footage on my camera that I need to post...

 Here is poor Brennen scooping on tons of aloe for his poor burned head. Awww

Ate some Panda Express and wanted to go explore Hollywood but I think we'll save that for a different trip where I can plan it a bit better. The drive home was fairly uneventful, however I did have to call 911 about a drive that was driving really dumb , either tired or drunk and nearly ran me AND a big rig off the road. Scary. Got back to Mesa around 1130pm and we were exhausted. I drove the whole way. Cant complain though , the company was great and the weather was awesome and my car preformed well. I'm excited for the next Cali trip!