Travelogue: Highlights of SoCal

Travelogue: Highlights of SoCal

Sunset from the end of the Santa Monica Pier

We spent the next leg of our trip in San Diego County. Initially, I was disappointed that we could not find a place to stay in Carlsbad on the Pacific Coast. Instead, we found a wonderful hotel in San Marcos, 11 miles inland. In the end, it was the place I liked the most of our stay. There were spectacular sunsets, and there was less traffic and fewer parking problems. It was also very close to Escondido, California, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The setting of the park was nothing short of spectacular, and we actually preferred the Safari Park to the world famous Zoo.

The last leg of our trip took us to Huntington Beach, California, or Surf City USA. We wanted to be close enough to LAX so that we would arrive on time for our flight. I'd read briefly about Newport and Huntington beaches, but what we discovered was disappointing. On our first day, we went for a nature walk at Bolsa Chica, a tiny bird conservation area just a few miles north of Huntington Beach

Central Garden at J. Paul Getty Center

on the Pacific Coast Highway. When we got there we noticed that the conservation area was surrounded by furiously pumping oil wells. Then we noticed a drilling platform just a few miles offshore.

The conservation area appeared to be little more than PR for an oil company. Needless to say this hampered our desire to go in for a swim. I asked around about the oil wells, and I was told that there were many from Newport Beach to Long Beach. Oil is apparently an important source of revenue for the city of Huntington Beach, where there is apparently even an oil pump in the city hall parking lot.

Since we'd visited Coronado, Torrey Pines (fantastic hiking) and La Jolla beaches, it was time to take my crew to LA, and I'm so glad that we did. The J. Paul Getty Center in Brentwood, California, is not to be missed. The view of LA and the San Gabriel Mountains was breathtaking. Richard Meier's stunning architecture, Robert Irwin's central garden and Laurie Olin's landscaping made for an inspiring day.

Sketching Room at Getty Center

Taking my kids, particularly my 6-year-old, to a museum can be a difficult undertaking, as we discovered on our visit to LACMA last year. But my children were completely engaged at the Getty. At every turn, there was an impressive vista or fountain to see. There was also a children's sketching room and an activity centre. The collection was awesome, but my favourite was the photography section, a retrospective of Ed Ruscha's work.

For anyone going to LA, the Getty is not to be missed. Oh yeah, admission is free, but there's a $15 parking fee--the best 15 bucks you've ever spent.

The Getty Center was so inspiring that we decided to spend our last day at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. This was a mind-blowing collection, with masterpiece after masterpiece, and I felt quickly overwhelmed, as did our children. I never thought I'd say it, but thank God for Minecraft, my kids' favourite computer game. The Norton Simon has a fantastic collection of Asian art, but we couldn't spend more than a few minutes there

My kids at the Norton Simon Museum

because our children were itching to leave. This was more of a traditional museum where you're meant to go and look very closely at one or two things and then leave again. Fortunately, there was a lunch counter, which gave our kids something to look forward to, and a wonderful pond fashioned after Claude Monet's garden at Giverny.

This was a great adult museum and shouldn't be missed. An added plus--admission and parking are free.

We also visited Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier to see the sunset and visit the amusement park. Both were well worth the drive and traffic.

Overall, our trip to SoCal was great, and on our next trip, we hope to go further inland and see the desert. I'm dying to see the Joshua trees.

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LACMA: Moms Need Fun Too!

LACMA: Moms Need Fun Too!

Yellow Plastic Spaghetti Art Installation at LACMA

As the mother of a 5- and 9-year-old, there comes a time on a vacation when you have to do something of interest to mum. Yes, a mother must choose something with at least one kid activity, but she needs some spiritually enlightening activity to sustain her through hours of watching the Gator Boys and Sponge Bob and of course, the pool, the pool, the pool. Even if it was in the coolest location. From the LA Westin Bonaventure glass elevator 18-floors up, the pool looked like it was located right at the intersection of South Figueroa and Fifth Streets.

LACMA Kids' Museum

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Getty museum were the two destinations I had in mind, but I chose the former because I already knew how to get there. As you can see, there was a yellow plastic spaghetti art installation that doubled as a playground for the kids, a big hit, and there was a kid's museum where young artists could paint and exhibit their work. From the children's museum, we started with Korean art next door. I told my children to select what they liked best and to show it to me. That worked well, and I was surprised when the Dude chose a hand-painted ceramic dish as his favourite piece, but that was the end of his interest in the museum. He'd already endured 45 minutes of museum stuff, which also included a brownie at the cafeteria.

I'd heard nothing of LACMA until I read Jane Fitch's White Oleander. In fact, the museum is where teenage Astrid has her LSD-induced epiphany about her narcissistic mother. I also  remembered reading that admission was free on the second Tuesday of the month. But when we signed our children up for memberships, we were magically given free admission anyway. Just as an aside, I was expecting Los Angeles to be just as expensive as New York and Paris for eating in restaurants and admission tickets, but this was not the case. With the exception of Universal Studios and Disneyland, I found prices in LA reasonable overall. In fact, there are quite a few free activities in LA.

In the end, I was able to spend 90 minutes at the museum. I walked around with my nine-year-old and tried to show her the fabulous Motherwells, Monets and of course, Picassos. But she just sighed and said, "Not another crooked face." This was right about when I heard a child (yes, mine) throw a temper tantrum in the next room, which abruptly ended as the elevator doors closed and my husband took him down to the entrance to wait for us. I enjoyed my whirlwind visit to the museum and foolishly entertained thoughts of visiting the Getty on our last day in LA. This would not transpire we discovered, as visiting LA involves a lot of driving, and you have to take advantage of every window of opportunity.

View of the Hollywood hills from the Griffith

Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot, our iPad GPS indicated that we were not far from the Griffith Observatory perched atop the hills. The art deco-inspired observatory was a big hit with my son because there were telescopes and plenty of planetary models with  buttons to push, and it was a beautiful drive to the top. We also had a great view of the Hollywood sign on a neighbouring hill, but most of all it felt great to get out of the city just for a few minutes and see it from afar.

The Griffith Observatory is a great family activity, and it's absolutely free.


Other posts about visiting California
LA's Million Dollar Theater
Disney Theatre W/ the Kids
Unexpected Beauty of Historic Los Angeles

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