California beaches

Nathan and I were lucky enough to be able to take an extended memorial day weekend down to CA for a little beach action and warm weather. We started off flying into LAX and heading towards Huntington beach where we ate lunch, went shopping, had drinks and just wandered around. We stayed that night right around Huntington and went to a good sushi place in Newport beach. The next day, we woke up early and headed down the coast with our final destination being Dana Point. We went through Corona del mar (loved this place), Laguna, and Newport stopping for coffee along the way.

We went to Dana Point to catch our boat to Catalina Island! The boat ride is about 1.5 hours and the way there was a little rough - I'm surprised I didn't throw up. we made it and checked into our beatuiful hotel right on the beach in the middle of the square, the Pavilion. It was recently renovated and perfect! There was a huge garden in the middle of the hotel with nice lawn chairs, beautiflu flowers and plam trees everywhere. They offered a wine and cheese happy hour both days which was a fun treat to look forward to at 4pm :) We rented a jetski, ate, drank, rented a golf cart to explore and ate, drank some more. It was a charming little place and the first night we were there, we were super excited to go to the Casino after dinner and gamble away! When we arrive to the casino, it was not really a casino, it was a movie theathre and museum - huh?! They said "casion means gathering place, there is no gambling here". Disappointed, we ate some ice cream :)

We stayed on Catalina two days and then headed back Friday evening. We ended up staying right in Dana Point since we arrived so late. We found out we had been 'upgraded' to the penthouse suite because the hotel was full - you would think this was a great thing, right? not so much - the air conditioning was broken so neither of us could fall asleep. We opened the windows but the noises from cars and people were so loud, that didn't help much. Finally at 2am, we called and asked for a fan which helped but we were out of it the next day.

Saturday morning we drove up to Santa Monica which was fun place - we did a lot of walking on the piers and along the beach all the way to Venice Beach where the crazies hang out. On Sunday, we headed to the Getty museum and it took us 1.5 hours just to park because it was so crazy. I can't say the wait was worth it, but I guess so, the view is fantastic and Nathan loved it. That night we stayed in Manhattan beach which I loved - could definitely live there. We flew home Monday with enough time to get a bunch of house & yard work done. It was a nice break and will hopefully keep us content until our next trip!