Summer vacation is almost upon us, what a better time to reminisce on old family trips!? I was going through old photos and found some great ones from California from our summer 2012 trip. Bit of a throwback but here’s what we did in Southern California for one week with my family!
Read more: Travel Tips: Traveling with Family
Beverly Hills & Downtown L.A.
I am not a celebrity junkie but I totally bought into the celebrity tour, “Look there’s Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie’s house…” yea yea yea. But hey, when in Rome! Right? Right!
San Diego Zoo
One of the best zoos in the country, they focus on keeping the animals in larger green spaces, not in tiny cells with bars. I would really like to spend more time in San Diego, but we only did the zoo.
Read more: San Diego: The city of Balboa Park, cliff-side beaches, & the Zoo
Getty Villa
This was a gorgeous center of Greco-Roman art! The part I most enjoyed was that the whole museum was designed as a replica Roman villa. It really helps to understand the original purpose and location of these art pieces if they are in a museum made for this purpose; so much better than the blank cubes most museums put their art in!
Read more: Museum Madness: Making the Most of your Museum Visit
Santa Monica Pier & Beaches
Just a disclaimer that I was born and raised in Florida, so I don’t get all googly-eyed at beaches, even the famous California beaches. Santa Monica Pier was really cool and the beaches are certainly different from Florida, but I am no fan of water that is too cold to swim in without a wetsuit!
Disneyland
Again, I live in Orlando…where we have Disney World…butttt Disney is always impressive. We decided to go to California Adventures rather than Disneyland because Disneyland was über packed and I am not about that.
Paramount Pictures Tour
Lights! Camera! Action! If you are a movie junkie (even if you are not), this is an amazing tour to see behind the scene on how some of the most famous movie moments are made. Not a cheap tour, but well worth it in my book.
Cirque du Soleil: Iris
So apparently this Cirque du Soleil show is no longer running. 🙁 But I am a Cirque du Soleil junkie so I made sure to plan one whenever possible. Even though Iris is no longer there, there are plenty of other shows and theaters to check out in L.A.
La Brea Tar Pit
This was an unexpected delight, my family out here suggested it to us and the archeology was really interesting. A smelly place sometimes with all the bubbling tar, but great for curious kids and science lovers alike.
JMF
