Since we can’t go anywhere this year, I find myself reflecting on my trips of yesteryear. What I loved about them, and what I would have changed.
The trip I took in August 2019 with my daughter is still fresh in my mind. It was a wonderful trip, that I had planned exhaustively before we went.
Our trip summary
To summarize our journey, we took an early flight to LAX, picked up a rental car and drove to Santa Monica beach, where we visited the pier, farmer’s market, and ate lunch on the boardwalk. We drove to Long Beach and stayed the night at the magnificent Hyatt Regency, right at the marina and beach. The next morning we went to the Pacific Coast Aquarium, ate lunch at Islands restaurant on Long Beach, and drove to Dana Point, where we stayed one night.
The next day we went whale watching, then drove to Anaheim, where we stayed at a hotel across the street from Disneyland. We went to Disneyland two days, then drove north to Burbank where we took the Warner Brothers Tour. We then drove northeast into the mountains and stayed the night in Kernville. The next day we went river rafting with an outfitter on the Kern River. We drove back to L.A., and stopped at UCLA (Go Bruins!) because my daughter is a gymnast, and loves the UCLA gymnastics team. That afternoon we went to a beach near Pacific Palisades, then drove to our hotel near LAX in preparation for our flight home the next day.
In hindsight. What I would have done differently.
I spent so many hours planning this trip, that I thought everything would have gone perfectly. It was a wonderful trip and I’ll cherish the memories forever. But unfortunately, there were a few aspects that missed the mark, and here they are.
I’d wanted to spend at least one night of our trip at a beachfront hotel, so I could watch the sun set over the ocean. Since we would go whale watching out of Dana Point, I decided we’d stay in Dana Point the night before. I found a hotel that was supposedly across Highway 1 from the beach. It was $225 for the night, which is more than I normally want to pay for a hotel, but about half the price of the fancy hotels in the area. We checked in and found our hotel room was on the ground floor and had a very disappointing view of the ocean, plus it was dirty, had an extremely small bathroom, and didn’t seem entirely safe. We were so dissatisfied that we checked out and stayed at a different hotel near the marina.
Leaving the hotel suddenly and finding another was stressful, and wasted time. If I could do it over again, I’d either have booked us at the marina hotel from the start, or totally splurged and stayed at the expensive resort hotel at the marina.
Our whale watch trip was great, but I (stupidly) hadn’t anticipated getting motion sick. I would have enjoyed the experience much more had I brought and taken some anti-motion sickness medicine. After the whale watch trip we stopped at a Target to get a few items, and I did get some motion sickness pills.
Our hotel across from Disneyland did not have a good breakfast, so I wish we had gotten some breakfast food when we were at Target. Some bagels and cream cheese would have been perfect.
The biggest regret of the trip was that we didn’t stay a third day at Disneyland, and instead went into the mountains to river raft. I thought rafting in Southern California would be fun. A real adventure unlike the “pretend” adventures at Disney. I’d rafted many years before with my son in Washington state and wanted to share the experience with Lindsay. So after going to the Warner Brothers tour, we headed out of the city. The drive was supposed to take three hours. Instead, in rush hour traffic it was four and a half hours. To make matters worse I hadn’t realized that going north to Bakersfield, then east to Kern went through a canyon. About 45 minutes of the canyon drive was very scary, with big drop offs on one side, and cars wanting to go faster than we were going, behind us.
Unfortunately, the drive was not worth it. We didn’t enjoy the river rafting at all. The Kern can be a dangerous river, so I had delayed our trip until later in the summer when the water was lower, and of course had booked our trip with professionals – Kern River Outfitters. Before setting out, we had to endure a 45-minute safety lecture that bored Lindsay, and terrified me. Once on the river, we found that our guide had a major attitude problem. The guide berated us for our lack of paddling skills, and I did not feel safe while rafting.
The best of the trip
We enjoyed the Santa Monica beach, and the pier. We ate lunch at XXX on the pier, and it was very good. Great veggie burgers, great fries.
We loved our stay at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach. Beautiful views, and a wonderful location. We walked across the street to get supper, to the aquarium, and to lunch the next day.
We loved eating at Islands restaurant in Long Beach. They have a “secret seasoning” that Lindsay loved so much we bought a bottle to bring home with us, and I’ve since called and asked for more.
Seeing a blue whale, plus so many dolphins on our whale watch trip was fantastic. It was Lindsay’s first time seeing a whale, and what a whale to see.
Pretty much everything about Disneyland and Disney California was awesome. I bought park hopper tickets for us, so we could go from one park to the other throughout the day. I also bought Max Passes for us both days. It saved so much time to be able to get fast passes instantly on our phones rather than having to go to the ride. It also included photos taken on every ride, and by all of the Disney photographers.
Seeing the “Friends” TV show set, and a few of the other memorabilia items on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour was awesome. I also drove to the Brady Bunch house and saw it, which was fun.
I also really enjoyed visiting UCLA. Everyone we encountered was so nice, especially the parking garage attendant, who gave us a map of the campus, and told us exactly where to find the gymnastics practice building. Lindsay loved choosing UCLA souvenirs. She wore a UCLA tank top on her first day back to school.
The beach we went to on the last day of our trip – Will Rogers State Beach – was wonderful also.
It’s interesting how each beach we went to was so different. Santa Monica was chaotic, and had so many “interesting” characters. The beach near Dana Point was quiet. Even though it was a warm afternoon, there were hardly any people there. The Will Rogers beach was great. There were people there, but not too many. It seemed to be the beach that the locals hung out at.
So from a whale and dolphins, to Disneyland, beaches, Hollywood magic, and even the mountains, I was happy we were able to experience so much of Southern California.
Gina Parsons - Writer 