California Dreaming - Beaches Galore!!

I'm sitting here at my computer, awaiting yet another snowstorm to get started outside and I'm going through my pictures from my California trip from May of last year.  I'm a big scrapbooker and organizing the bijillion pictures that I take is part of what I need to do to get a travel scrapbook going.  You can read my post about travel memories here.  As I'm going through my pictures I realized just how many beaches we went to on our trip out there!  I love beaches and each beach is slightly different no matter how close together they are on the map.  I did some driving up the PCH but I didn't get too far because I kept wanting to stop.  I have written about La Jolla here, but there were so many others that were just as much fun to visit.  First up heading from San Diego north to LA is...

I covered Cabrillo here in more depth, but thought that I would make a quick reference to it in this post.  This was where I wanted to go tide pooling, but was not able to.  Beautiful, rough shoreline that I just loved!  We had so much fun just wandering around the park and caught a few wild things while we were out here.  Next up is Mission Beach.

When we got to this beach it was getting close to the end of the day.  I was wanting to capture a California sunset and this seemed like a great place to do that.  There were quite a few people on the beach because they had just gotten through a race so people were just hanging out, taking a break.

My son met a friend here and the two were running around playing together.  This super nice family also had a super friendly, very exhuberent puppy, who was completely adorable.  We just chit chatted as we waited for the sun to go down.  The mother had just finished the race and her family was there to cheer her on.

The main attractions on Mission Beach is that it is near Belmont Park, where you can ride the roller coaster or a giant wave.  We did neither of these things, content to wander around the beach.  We ended up on South Mission Beach, I think, which was a lot less crazy.

 

Next up is Pacific Beach, another San Diego area beach, you have Mission Beach to the south and La Jolla to the north.



This was one of the pictures I sent to all my friends back home haha.  Just to rub it in a little bit.  I fully expect payback :).  We stayed on the north side of the beach, which was more family oriented and quieter.  There is a surfing only beach called Tourmaline Surfing Park if you would like to try your hand at that.  We only had time for so much and the day we visited here was a relaxing day.  I spent the morning watching my son play in the surf.

 

Next up is La Jolla Beach.  I wrote about the sea lions on Children's Beach, La Jolla Beach was one of my favorite beaches, although it was really hard to pick a few favorites.  I joked to my husband that I wanted to live in La Jolla.  I can dream right??

Rough surf was the name of the game here.  Although all you have to do is walk down the path to get to a protected area that has great snorkeling and scuba diving.  The whole area is riddled with sea caves and would be a sea kayakers dream.  The easily walkable path was awesome!  We loved it because the views were just gorgeous AND you could see the sea lions all over the place.  There is also great tide pooling just south of here at a beach called Hospitals, although conditions aren't always favorable for it. 

 

Next up is Torrey Pines, not officially a beach but still shoreline with some beach areas by it and beautiful hiking trails to see the California shoreline.



There is a beach that you can get to by car where you can play in the surf of the lagoon.  This beach is right off of the PCH(Pacific Coast Highway).  We wanted to spend more time at the beach but spent too much time hiking so all we could do was make a quick stop at the beach before heading back to our hotel.  More rugged coastline and the very rare Torrey Pines.  This whole area is protected and you can sometimes see whales and dolphins.  We did not while we were here.  This beach area is a swim at your own risk area, so be careful.  This is a great beach for a work out.  While we were hiking we saw several people running and/or walking along the shores for exercise.  One exercise route to take is to park down by the beach and to walk or run up the hills via the trail.  We walked it at a casual pace and I could feel it.

 

The next couple of beaches that we stopped at were not San Diego beaches but LA and/or Orange County beaches. Corona del Mar is the first beach.  These beaches seemed to have a much broader beach area then the San Diego beaches we had stopped at. 

There were people playing volleyball and playing in the surf.  We wandered around the beach some and watched people play volleyball.  Corona del Mar also had some awesome cliffs that you could play around on and climb.  I think that was the best part of this particular beach.

 

This is an example of the caves that we found throughout the beach area.  This beach was somewhat more protected from the surf and the water was definately calmer.  This cave wasn't very deep at all, but it was still fun to check out.

And last but not least we have Santa Monica...

Santa Monica of course has the ferris wheel and mini amusement park just like Mission Beach does. As you can see from the picture above this beach was definately a lot busier then the others.  Of course this was later in the week then the San Diego beaches, which would explain much of that.  There are TONS of activities here for the kids.  You can rent just about any kind of water craft possible, learn to surf, play volleyball, people watch, go shopping or eating, all within walking distance of the beach.  Santa Monica Pier is where the amusement park is, arcade, and carousel.  You can also go to the "original" Santa Monica Muscle Beach and work out if you dare.  There is also an aquarium.  You could easily spend several days just in this beach area.

 

I had so many things that I wanted to do out in California that we just simply couldn't get to them all.  There is a definate return trip in our future.  I would love to spend more time investigating the beach activities.  We just didn't have the time for it.  Hopefully on the next trip I will be able to check out some more of these fun things.

 

A Few Tips

1. Although nudity is illegal, apparently it is somewhat overlooked in certain beaches and areas.  I know of one beach area called Black's Beach, that is not family friendly.  At least from what I read.  So unless that is something you are ok with, you will probably want to avoid those areas.

2.  Parking - we had little problem finding parking when we went, but apprently it can be a problem.  There is a lot of street parking that is both free and, paid along with beach lots and state park parking areas that also require fees.  Come early to get the best spots.

3.  There are a lot of areas where the current is incredible strong so be aware of that.  The beaches go from pretty wild to calm in a matter of feet.

4.  Be aware that the temps of San Diego are beautiful, but not warm.  I was not able to go into the water above my thighs because of how cold the ocean was.  If I had been wearing a wetsuit, maybe, but then I am also a bit cold-blooded.

This post is part of Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox, Photo Friday at R We There Yet Mom and Delicious Baby .  Be sure to check out my Facebook page as well for more pictures.

I'm sitting here at my computer, awaiting yet another snowstorm to get started outside and I'm going through my pictures from my California trip from May of last year.  I'm a big scrapbooker and organizing the bijillion pictures that I take is part of what I need to do to get a travel scrapbook going.  You can read my post about travel memories here.  As I'm going through my pictures I realized just how many beaches we went to on our trip out there!  I love beaches and each beach is slightly different no matter how close together they are on the map.  I did some driving up the PCH but I didn't get too far because I kept wanting to stop.  I have written about La Jolla here, but there were so many others that were just as much fun to visit.  First up heading from San Diego north to LA is...

I covered Cabrillo here in more depth, but thought that I would make a quick reference to it in this post.  This was where I wanted to go tide pooling, but was not able to.  Beautiful, rough shoreline that I just loved!  We had so much fun just wandering around the park and caught a few wild things while we were out here.  Next up is Mission Beach.

When we got to this beach it was getting close to the end of the day.  I was wanting to capture a California sunset and this seemed like a great place to do that.  There were quite a few people on the beach because they had just gotten through a race so people were just hanging out, taking a break.

My son met a friend here and the two were running around playing together.  This super nice family also had a super friendly, very exhuberent puppy, who was completely adorable.  We just chit chatted as we waited for the sun to go down.  The mother had just finished the race and her family was there to cheer her on.

The main attractions on Mission Beach is that it is near Belmont Park, where you can ride the roller coaster or a giant wave.  We did neither of these things, content to wander around the beach.  We ended up on South Mission Beach, I think, which was a lot less crazy.

 

Next up is Pacific Beach, another San Diego area beach, you have Mission Beach to the south and La Jolla to the north.



This was one of the pictures I sent to all my friends back home haha.  Just to rub it in a little bit.  I fully expect payback :).  We stayed on the north side of the beach, which was more family oriented and quieter.  There is a surfing only beach called Tourmaline Surfing Park if you would like to try your hand at that.  We only had time for so much and the day we visited here was a relaxing day.  I spent the morning watching my son play in the surf.

 

Next up is La Jolla Beach.  I wrote about the sea lions on Children's Beach, La Jolla Beach was one of my favorite beaches, although it was really hard to pick a few favorites.  I joked to my husband that I wanted to live in La Jolla.  I can dream right??

Rough surf was the name of the game here.  Although all you have to do is walk down the path to get to a protected area that has great snorkeling and scuba diving.  The whole area is riddled with sea caves and would be a sea kayakers dream.  The easily walkable path was awesome!  We loved it because the views were just gorgeous AND you could see the sea lions all over the place.  There is also great tide pooling just south of here at a beach called Hospitals, although conditions aren't always favorable for it. 

 

Next up is Torrey Pines, not officially a beach but still shoreline with some beach areas by it and beautiful hiking trails to see the California shoreline.



There is a beach that you can get to by car where you can play in the surf of the lagoon.  This beach is right off of the PCH(Pacific Coast Highway).  We wanted to spend more time at the beach but spent too much time hiking so all we could do was make a quick stop at the beach before heading back to our hotel.  More rugged coastline and the very rare Torrey Pines.  This whole area is protected and you can sometimes see whales and dolphins.  We did not while we were here.  This beach area is a swim at your own risk area, so be careful.  This is a great beach for a work out.  While we were hiking we saw several people running and/or walking along the shores for exercise.  One exercise route to take is to park down by the beach and to walk or run up the hills via the trail.  We walked it at a casual pace and I could feel it.

 

The next couple of beaches that we stopped at were not San Diego beaches but LA and/or Orange County beaches. Corona del Mar is the first beach.  These beaches seemed to have a much broader beach area then the San Diego beaches we had stopped at. 

There were people playing volleyball and playing in the surf.  We wandered around the beach some and watched people play volleyball.  Corona del Mar also had some awesome cliffs that you could play around on and climb.  I think that was the best part of this particular beach.

 

This is an example of the caves that we found throughout the beach area.  This beach was somewhat more protected from the surf and the water was definately calmer.  This cave wasn't very deep at all, but it was still fun to check out.

And last but not least we have Santa Monica...

Santa Monica of course has the ferris wheel and mini amusement park just like Mission Beach does. As you can see from the picture above this beach was definately a lot busier then the others.  Of course this was later in the week then the San Diego beaches, which would explain much of that.  There are TONS of activities here for the kids.  You can rent just about any kind of water craft possible, learn to surf, play volleyball, people watch, go shopping or eating, all within walking distance of the beach.  Santa Monica Pier is where the amusement park is, arcade, and carousel.  You can also go to the "original" Santa Monica Muscle Beach and work out if you dare.  There is also an aquarium.  You could easily spend several days just in this beach area.

 

I had so many things that I wanted to do out in California that we just simply couldn't get to them all.  There is a definate return trip in our future.  I would love to spend more time investigating the beach activities.  We just didn't have the time for it.  Hopefully on the next trip I will be able to check out some more of these fun things.

 

A Few Tips

1. Although nudity is illegal, apparently it is somewhat overlooked in certain beaches and areas.  I know of one beach area called Black's Beach, that is not family friendly.  At least from what I read.  So unless that is something you are ok with, you will probably want to avoid those areas.

2.  Parking - we had little problem finding parking when we went, but apprently it can be a problem.  There is a lot of street parking that is both free and, paid along with beach lots and state park parking areas that also require fees.  Come early to get the best spots.

3.  There are a lot of areas where the current is incredible strong so be aware of that.  The beaches go from pretty wild to calm in a matter of feet.

4.  Be aware that the temps of San Diego are beautiful, but not warm.  I was not able to go into the water above my thighs because of how cold the ocean was.  If I had been wearing a wetsuit, maybe, but then I am also a bit cold-blooded.

This post is part of Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox, Photo Friday at R We There Yet Mom and Delicious Baby .  Be sure to check out my Facebook page as well for more pictures.

I'm sitting here at my computer, awaiting yet another snowstorm to get started outside and I'm going through my pictures from my California trip from May of last year.  I'm a big scrapbooker and organizing the bijillion pictures that I take is part of what I need to do to get a travel scrapbook going.  You can read my post about travel memories here.  As I'm going through my pictures I realized just how many beaches we went to on our trip out there!  I love beaches and each beach is slightly different no matter how close together they are on the map.  I did some driving up the PCH but I didn't get too far because I kept wanting to stop.  I have written about La Jolla here, but there were so many others that were just as much fun to visit.  First up heading from San Diego north to LA is...

I covered Cabrillo here in more depth, but thought that I would make a quick reference to it in this post.  This was where I wanted to go tide pooling, but was not able to.  Beautiful, rough shoreline that I just loved!  We had so much fun just wandering around the park and caught a few wild things while we were out here.  Next up is Mission Beach.

When we got to this beach it was getting close to the end of the day.  I was wanting to capture a California sunset and this seemed like a great place to do that.  There were quite a few people on the beach because they had just gotten through a race so people were just hanging out, taking a break.

My son met a friend here and the two were running around playing together.  This super nice family also had a super friendly, very exhuberent puppy, who was completely adorable.  We just chit chatted as we waited for the sun to go down.  The mother had just finished the race and her family was there to cheer her on.

The main attractions on Mission Beach is that it is near Belmont Park, where you can ride the roller coaster or a giant wave.  We did neither of these things, content to wander around the beach.  We ended up on South Mission Beach, I think, which was a lot less crazy.

 

Next up is Pacific Beach, another San Diego area beach, you have Mission Beach to the south and La Jolla to the north.



This was one of the pictures I sent to all my friends back home haha.  Just to rub it in a little bit.  I fully expect payback :).  We stayed on the north side of the beach, which was more family oriented and quieter.  There is a surfing only beach called Tourmaline Surfing Park if you would like to try your hand at that.  We only had time for so much and the day we visited here was a relaxing day.  I spent the morning watching my son play in the surf.

 

Next up is La Jolla Beach.  I wrote about the sea lions on Children's Beach, La Jolla Beach was one of my favorite beaches, although it was really hard to pick a few favorites.  I joked to my husband that I wanted to live in La Jolla.  I can dream right??

Rough surf was the name of the game here.  Although all you have to do is walk down the path to get to a protected area that has great snorkeling and scuba diving.  The whole area is riddled with sea caves and would be a sea kayakers dream.  The easily walkable path was awesome!  We loved it because the views were just gorgeous AND you could see the sea lions all over the place.  There is also great tide pooling just south of here at a beach called Hospitals, although conditions aren't always favorable for it. 

 

Next up is Torrey Pines, not officially a beach but still shoreline with some beach areas by it and beautiful hiking trails to see the California shoreline.



There is a beach that you can get to by car where you can play in the surf of the lagoon.  This beach is right off of the PCH(Pacific Coast Highway).  We wanted to spend more time at the beach but spent too much time hiking so all we could do was make a quick stop at the beach before heading back to our hotel.  More rugged coastline and the very rare Torrey Pines.  This whole area is protected and you can sometimes see whales and dolphins.  We did not while we were here.  This beach area is a swim at your own risk area, so be careful.  This is a great beach for a work out.  While we were hiking we saw several people running and/or walking along the shores for exercise.  One exercise route to take is to park down by the beach and to walk or run up the hills via the trail.  We walked it at a casual pace and I could feel it.

 

The next couple of beaches that we stopped at were not San Diego beaches but LA and/or Orange County beaches. Corona del Mar is the first beach.  These beaches seemed to have a much broader beach area then the San Diego beaches we had stopped at. 

There were people playing volleyball and playing in the surf.  We wandered around the beach some and watched people play volleyball.  Corona del Mar also had some awesome cliffs that you could play around on and climb.  I think that was the best part of this particular beach.

 

This is an example of the caves that we found throughout the beach area.  This beach was somewhat more protected from the surf and the water was definately calmer.  This cave wasn't very deep at all, but it was still fun to check out.

And last but not least we have Santa Monica...

Santa Monica of course has the ferris wheel and mini amusement park just like Mission Beach does. As you can see from the picture above this beach was definately a lot busier then the others.  Of course this was later in the week then the San Diego beaches, which would explain much of that.  There are TONS of activities here for the kids.  You can rent just about any kind of water craft possible, learn to surf, play volleyball, people watch, go shopping or eating, all within walking distance of the beach.  Santa Monica Pier is where the amusement park is, arcade, and carousel.  You can also go to the "original" Santa Monica Muscle Beach and work out if you dare.  There is also an aquarium.  You could easily spend several days just in this beach area.

 

I had so many things that I wanted to do out in California that we just simply couldn't get to them all.  There is a definate return trip in our future.  I would love to spend more time investigating the beach activities.  We just didn't have the time for it.  Hopefully on the next trip I will be able to check out some more of these fun things.

 

A Few Tips

1. Although nudity is illegal, apparently it is somewhat overlooked in certain beaches and areas.  I know of one beach area called Black's Beach, that is not family friendly.  At least from what I read.  So unless that is something you are ok with, you will probably want to avoid those areas.

2.  Parking - we had little problem finding parking when we went, but apprently it can be a problem.  There is a lot of street parking that is both free and, paid along with beach lots and state park parking areas that also require fees.  Come early to get the best spots.

3.  There are a lot of areas where the current is incredible strong so be aware of that.  The beaches go from pretty wild to calm in a matter of feet.

4.  Be aware that the temps of San Diego are beautiful, but not warm.  I was not able to go into the water above my thighs because of how cold the ocean was.  If I had been wearing a wetsuit, maybe, but then I am also a bit cold-blooded.

This post is part of Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox, Photo Friday at R We There Yet Mom and Delicious Baby .  Be sure to check out my Facebook page as well for more pictures.