Better late than never, here is my acccount of our trip to California at the end of 2015.
Our trip began with the surprising good news that we would
be put on a direct flight to L.A. instead of having to stop over in Las Vegas.
We were pretty happy about this, until we had to wait for de-icing on the
runway for over 90 minutes. Still, we arrived in L.A. earlier than we would
have on the original itinerary, and we were met at the airport by my friend and
our host, Ray.
Ray had told me that he did not have much going on the week
we would be visiting and that he would show us around, but I never expected he
would pretty much spend almost all his time driving us around and acting as a
full-time tour guide. He really went above and beyond his duties as a host.
As we had just arrived and the weather was quite nice (sunny
and 17 degrees), we asked if he thought we had time to head to a beach before
dinner. He suggested Manhattan Beach, which was actually quite close to the
airport, and that’s where we headed. We were hungry so we stopped a taco place
called Wahoo’s and had excellent fish tacos. We then went down to walk on the
lovely pier and the beach itself before taking a stroll down the beachfront
sidewalk. We left as it was starting to get dark and stopped at Costco to buy
some groceries on the way back to Ray’s place. When we arrived, we realized
that Ray was giving up his bedroom for us and sleeping on a tiny bed in his
office. This was extremely generous of him and allowed us all to be in two
adjacent rooms with our own bathroom.
The next day, we visited Beverly hills, walking around in
the commercial area, where we had lunch in a café. After lunch, we went to the
Petersen Automotive Museum and ended up at a huge mall called Galleria so we could buy the boys some beach toys at Target. He told us about a make-your-own pizza place called Blaze that was located in the mall, so we had a nice dinner there. At Blaze, you chose every
single ingredient that would end up on your pizza. We were beginning to realize
that Ray likes eating in restaurants… a lot! Luckily, he always seems to know
where to find the best deals, and where we could eat and make noise with two
small kids without annoying the other diners. The boys were getting cranky as we approached their bedtime, so we headed back to Ray’s.
On our second full day, we visited Venice Beach. The
ambiance was as “hippie”-like as expected, but overall, it’s still a nice place
to hang out. The food options for lunch were not that great, however. After
lunch, we headed over to Santa Monica and walked on its lovely downtown
pedestrian street. We then drove through Malibu before heading home. Even
though it’s much warmer than Montreal, the sun still sets pretty early in L.A.
and our days ended pretty early. I guess this is normal when your kids go to
bed at 8:00 pm or earlier!
On Day 3 of the trip, we packed some lunches and headed to
Griffiths Park so we could get a closer look at the Hollywood sign and
generally enjoy vistas of the area. We were too late to be able to park at the
top of the park near the observatory, so we decided to walk up from the bottom.
The walk was not too long or unpleasant, even with the stroller, but there were
serious crowds when we got to the observatory. We barely spent any time in the
building, as it was so crowded, but we still managed to appreciate the views we
had come to see. Ray suggested we stop at the Americana mall on the way home, and we spent some quiet time in a book store there.
The following day, we decided to visit the Getty Center. We
had set aside the whole day for this visit and we took our time, enjoying a
surprisingly good lunch at the cafeteria (I had the "Mexican Bowl") and we spent
a good part of the afternoon just sitting outside on the beautifully manicured
lawns of the museum. After we left, Ray showed us around Pasadena and took us
to Granville Café for dinner, where Ray knew all about the appetizer specials
to recommend. It was New Year’s Eve, but Ray was willing to spend it with us
instead of going out. Early night for all, despite the holiday!
On New Year’s Day, Ray had the brilliant idea to head to a
famous dim sum restaurant in San Gabriel, as it was not New Year’s Day for
Chinese people yet. We headed to an all-Asian mall and Ray pointed us toward an
unexpectedly fun store: a Japanese Dollar store (called Daiso). We wandered the
store, marveling at the little taste of Japan in California, while Ray waited
upstairs at Five Star, the dim sum place. The dim sum was excellent. We later
headed to Long Beach. It was pretty quiet on the beach, but we enjoyed it, as
it was still very warm by Canadian standards. Jules and Oscar got to play with
their beach toys in the sand while the adults relaxed nearby. As we did not
have anything special planned for dinner, we stopped at Blaze again to take out
some of their excellent pizza to eat at Ray’s. We had planned a mini road-trip
to Joshua Tree for the following day.
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| Packing for the trip |
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| The pier at Manhattan Beach |
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| Beware of sharks! |
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| Jules' first time on the beach in a while |
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| The sun sets early, even in California |
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| Sculpture in Beverly Hills |
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| Every green space is an opportunity to play! |
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| Venice Beach boardwalk |
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| Beach at Venice Beach |
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| Santa Monica |
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| Short stop at the beach in Malibu |
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| Jules enjoyed Ray's lovely balcony |
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| Classic view of the Hollywood sign |
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| Griffiths Observatory |
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| View from the Griffiths Observatory |
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| Looking at a map of the Getty Center |
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| Inside the Getty Center |
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| Lovely lawns at the Getty Center |
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| Oscar napped whenever and wherever he could |
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| The trunk of Ray's Porsche turned out to be a great place to change a diaper |
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| Joshua Tree park entrance |
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| Hiking in Joshua Tree park |
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| The weather was lovely, but much cooler than in L.A. |
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| Jules enjoyed the desert atmosphere |
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| Lovely view from the mountains |
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| The Endeavour in its hangar |
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| Ecological tiny house outside the California Science Center |
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| LAX for the trip home! |
We left relatively early for the two-hour drive to Joshua
Tree National Park. We stopped on the way at the Cabazon factory outlets and I
bought some Adidas shoes for 15$. We also bought Jules his first soccer ball.
When we arrived at the park, the surroundings looked very alien to us: we were
not used to desert conditions and were surprised by the beauty of the plants
and rock formations. We stopped at a picnic spot where people were rock
climbing to eat our lunch. Then we found a place where we could take a one-mile
hike called Hidden Valley. It was a lovely and leisurely walk and we took a
bunch of cool photos. We drove to Palm Springs for dinner, and ate at a nice but surprisingly affordable restaurant named Lulu, as per Ray’s recommendation. On
the way home, it was my turn to drive, and we somehow hit a freak traffic jam
(supposedly due to an RV-fire) that almost doubled our travel time back to Ray’s.
Luckily Ray’s Porsche Macan is a pretty comfortable car to be stuck in.
On our last day in L.A., Ray suggested we check out the California
Science Center. It turned out to be an excellent family activity. Jules
particularly enjoyed the space capsules while I was in awe checking out the
Space Shuttle Endeavour in its hangar. The only let-down was the sub-par Mexican
food at the museum restaurant. We later drove through Burbank before our final
dinner in California. We were up early the next day for Ray to drive us to the
airport.
All in all, it was a fantastic family trip. Having a friend
like Ray take charge of all our needs really made the trip as relaxing as we
could hope for, given we were travelling with a one-year-old and a
three-year-old. We saw so many areas in such a short time and it really
reinforced my idea that California is a destination with a lot to offer and
worth more than a single visit.
