Spring Break in Southern California

This spring break has been one which I'll never forget! My brother and I flew out to LAX last Monday to meet with our dad who was already there. Those flights are in this post: Flying to LAX 2013

Day 1: My brother and I have been to California 5 times (Lake Tahoe and San Francisco), but never to Los Angeles! Dad and I woke up early in the morning to go watch my brother go surfing. This was the first time he had the chance to surf on the West Coast. The surfing was so much better than in North Carolina, where he had done it before! After warming up in the hot tub, we decided that it would be a good day to drive around and get a general look at as much as we could in the city and surrounding counties. We drove from Huntington Beach to downtown LA, Beverly Hills, Sunset Bl., Malibu, and Santa Monica.

My brother surfing

Day 2: We started out the day by driving up to Venice Beach to walk around and see all the stuff going on there. Venice beach is a cool place, so many different people from all walks of life! After eating lunch at Venice, we drove to the beach at Vista del Mar (which is at the end of the runways at LAX). It was a lot of fun to go out on that beach because it wasn't nearly as developed as many of the other places we'd been to. Finally, the most exciting for me, I got incredibly lucky and was contacted by Colin Summers who offered to take me on a flight around LA and the surrounding areas. That was SO cool... check it out here: Flying Over Southern California

So funny... from Venice Beach

Day 3: Waking up next to the Santa Monica Pier was pretty cool. We stayed at the Loews in Santa Monica, which was a really fun hotel. It was foggy, like most mornings, and all of the rides were closed. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to be out on that pier. Later, we headed back to the Hyatt Regency at Huntington Beach for a few more nights. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, watching my brother surf some more, and ended the day with an incredible sunset by the Huntington Pier.

Huntington Hyatt Pool

Day 4: Road trip day! We drove down the coast towards Laguna to eat some lunch at the burger restaurant Umami (which turned out to be pretty good!). We visited Crystal Cove State Park, an awesome place due to it not being developed. It really showed the "natural" coastline. We ended up driving all the way down to Dana Point for fun.

Crystal Cove CaliforniaDay 5: Last day :( After having our rental car almost accidentally stolen by other guests who thought they were driving off in their rental car, we headed to go visit a close friend of mine. I was good friends with this guy until he left in 4th Grade to live out in California. Ever since, we'd kept up and made sure to visit over the summers. To end the day, we headed to the Westin at the LAX Airport and ate at the nearby In and Out Burger (at the end of LAX's runways). It was so cool eating there and seeing planes (even a China Southern A380) go right overhead! When we arrived at the Westin, we got really lucky and were upgraded to a Terrace Suite overlooking the airport's runways. I could walk out onto the terrace on the 9th floor, and watch all the arrivals coming into and going out of LAX, up close. That was really unique!