Hello loves! It’s been forever since I’ve posted anything but here we are!
Let me start off by admitting that I have an unhealthy deeply rooted attachment to California.
I would compare it to those plants that grow in water. Their roots aren’t really attached to anything but they’re there & deep enough – that would be me.
I don’t know what it is in particular, but for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be there. I remember begging my parents to take me to Cali but not having anything in particular to do or see, I wanted to just be there. Does that make sense?
The plan was to spend 2 ½ days in Los Angeles and 4 ½ days in San Diego so without further ado here’s a recap of our trip to California 🙂
Day 1 – 3
Let me start of by saying that while this may be contrary to many people’s opinions – LA was a little underwhelming for me, but it’s likely due to how high of an expectation I had. It was nothing like what you see in movies. Sure every city has it’s beautiful parts, but I expected more from the city as a whole. We expected the area to be more “downtown” city-ish but instead it was more suburby-ish with a few big buildings in between. All of the architecture was different and didn’t really match one another so it looked a little messy. And it’s not like we stayed in some random city, we were literally in West Hollywood.
We got to LAX around 10:15 and stumbled a little to find our luggage. That airport is enormous and we somehow took an escalator down to an empty hallway and it lead us to the back of the luggage carousel. Then after getting our baggage we had to find our way to the departures section because that’s where the Ride Shares (uber, lyft, etc.) picked you up.
Because we arrived on a Monday, the airport was extremely packed but we heard from our Uber driver that it was actually a slow day.
Lucky us…
Well, as slow as the day may have been, we ended up getting hit with a surge and paid $85 for a 20 minute drive. Like what…?
Definitely caught us off guard and annoyed us right from the get go.
Anyway, we get to the apartment and it’s exactly what the picture showed on Airbnb. A small studio with a bathroom. It wasn’t bad for a two day stay but it just felt a little dingy so we weren’t comfortable. Still for the price we paid, I can’t say I regret it that much.
So after getting settled in we decided to stroll towards the Walk of Fame, stopping by this little greek place next to our Airbnb to grab a bite first. Now let me tell you – these were literally the best Gyros I’ve had in my entire life and because it was off the main streets, it was practically empty so we had the place to ourselves.
Once we got to the Walk of Fame, we ran into the crowds of tourists. The section of the walk we were on was full of tattoo parlors, novelty tourist shops with I heart LA trinkets and what not and the block went on forever. We tried to go to a few museums but apparently they’re closed Monday’s because that’s when they have the least tourist movements although judging by the crowds, we could only imagine what it would be like on their busiest days.
Eventually we visited the Grove, which is an outdoor shopping mall down there and again it was overpopulated by tourists but while it was definitely pretty, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that we have back here.
Bored with that, we went to visit Universal Studios and walked around for a bit. The place was full but mostly with kids. It’s free to get into the main area that has stores and restaurants and stuff, but to get into any of the actual attractions was a fee. We were fully ready to go walk around the Wizarding World of Harry Potter until we go to the front and the guy says it’s $270 per person so we said hell no. That’s ridiculously expensive especially seeing as we weren’t going to go on any rides. Instead we settled for watching something at the movie theater they had there and relaxed in some super comfy reclining seats.
I think by the end of that day, we were just tired, hungry, and cranky so we headed back to the Airbnb, got some Panda Express from the plaza down the road and called it a night.
The second day we decided to make the best of it and visit all the site’s we’d ever heard about at once.
So we went to Rodeo Drive. We went to the Urban Lights at the LACMA, though we didn’t go inside the actual museum, we went to the Santa Monica Pier, walked from Pacific Beach to Venice Beach, got an uber back to west Hollywood, ate some more gyros, then went to the Griffith Observatory at night.
Yup. It was a LOOONG day.
But, it redeemed LA in my eyes.
Santa Monica was by far my favorite place. The Pier was beautiful, the water was warm, the weather was perfect. I got to dip my feet in and I may have cried a little. It was full of people but not so much that it was overwhelming. Across the street from the pier were hotels and behind them were little plaza’s full of shops and restaurants. It was just a really pretty place.
Right after we had some Johnny Rockets, we walked from the Pier all the way down to Venice beach which was beyond interesting. There were Tattoo shops on the boardwalk, shops that sold crystals and touristy trinkets again. There were people skating, surfing, smoking. People were playing football and volleyball. People sold their art and handmade items. It was actually really cool to get to see all the different ways of life between all the different places we visited.
Finally we ubered back to the Airbnb for a short break before making our way to the Griffith Observatory.
Now – in that day we experienced the fullest extent of LA traffic, but none more that the ride up to the Observatory. Apparently in that time there was a concert going on at the Greek and I could’ve sworn the 20 minutes it should’ve taken, the ride also took about an hour.
BUT you couldn’t beat the scenery up there, especially with the sun setting. It actually super romantic so I would highly recommend checking that out if you ever get the chance.
That was the end of the LA portion of the trip. What I wish we could’ve gotten the chance to do is go hiking up to the Hollywood sign but unfortunately it didn’t happen. Maybe on the next trip. 🙂
The third day we woke up super early. Everything was packed from the night before so we could take the Amtrak down to San Diego. Luckily, Jay did some research to find out the LA stop was usually packed and it’d be hard to find seats so we caught the train at the Glendale station and got situated pretty well.
Gotta love him. <3
Anyway I guess a derby was going on at that time as well because in the next few stops, the train was PACKED and everyone was dressed in huge hats and heels with drinks in hands so Jay and I just people watched most of the time.
Day 3 – 7
Now this brings us to my favorite portion of the trip. San Diego!
San Diego was amazing to us. Our Airbnb was this beautiful guesthouse. Our hosts were these two women who set out organic homemade bagels, muffins, and coffee. The AC was on which was something we couldn’t use in our LA place. The hand soap, shampoo, etc all organic. It was REAAAALLY nice. So that gave us a bit of a brighter start this time.
The first stop of this trip was, of course, the San Diego zoo. The zoo was enormous! We got to see everything but the monkeys which all seemed to be hiding that day. We did the zoo bus tours. We even took the overhead sky lift to get a view of everything. The only thing we missed doing was going up on the balloon cause they were done with trips for the day, but the place was actually a lot of fun.
When we got back towards our Airbnb we had dinner at a Mexican food place. The service was amazing. The plates were huge. The food was delicious. We couldn’t have asked for a better end of the day. PLUS they had flan. I could’ve died happy.
The next few days were a mixture of Comic – Con (which you can read all about here) and more exploration. We went back the second day to do the safari tour at the zoo again because we didn’t get to the first time. We made a stop at another beautiful mall because by this time with the amount of walking we’d done over the last few days, my feet were killing me and I refused to wear sneakers until Jay forced me to buy a pair. Luckily he did because the lines at comic-con were no joke. 🙁
While at the seaport where the convention center is we got to see the Gaslamp Quarters. The whole area was really into comic-con with pop-up shops, people dressed up everywhere, there was a parade, camera crews, TV stations, everything. It was just a good vibe to be around. We got to see the seaport and take a walk to the giant statue of the sailor kissing the nurse. We found the only place that sold Soft Serve ice cream in California and I can see why they don’t normally sell it since it was all over my shirt in no time at all.
Then on the last day we walked all the way from Mission beach to Pacific beach. Which was beautiful again.
It was MILES of walking but it was totally worth it. Every place we visited had its own personality and its own unique charms.
If I could go back to San Diego I would in a heartbeat.
So there you have it folks – my recap of our California trip. If there is one thing you should take away from this is to bring SNEAKERS! No matter what trip you go on, it’s a TON of walking. Either that or be prepared to spend a lot of time & money on uber rides.
Oh! AND SUNSCREEN. DON’T forget SUNSCREEN. Aside from my sneakers, we also carried a big bottle of water and two spray bottles of sunscreen in the backpack everywhere we went. We were outside 90% of the time we were there. We went in July so the weather was extra hot but no matter what time of year you go, if that sun is beating down on you long enough – you’re bound to get a sunburn.
Look forward to Jay doing a post on Comic-Con San Diego since tickets for that should be going on sale soon! He’ll have it up eventually.
As always, let me know if you’ve ever been. What you liked. What you didn’t like. Let’s talk 🙂
Recommendations:
LA –
Good Greek Grill – Hollywood
- Gyro
Blue Egg Cafe – Melrose Ave
- French Toast
- Scrambled Eggs w/ Homefries & Bacon
SD –
Airbnb:
Ponce’s Mexican Food
- Carnita Asada Fries
- Mini Street Tacos
- Flan
Carnita’s Snack Shack
- The ONLY soft serve in SD apparently
