In October, two of my best friends (Sam and Tanya) and I took a trip to Southern California. Sam had multiple work events during 2022 and she wanted Tanya and I to go with her on one of the trips since we love traveling together. Tanya had never been to the West Coast and I’m always down for an adventure so we compared our calendars and settled on Sam’s October work trip to Southern California. We flew out on a Sunday afternoon and came home on a Friday.
We had a great flight out of Boston on JetBlue. Landing in LAX was horrible – talk about a chaotic place. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, I was very stressed out by all the people. One of the perks of crashing Sam’s work event is that we got to stay at a gorgeous resort in Rancho Palos Verdes – Terranea Resort. I definitely wouldn’t be able to afford to ever stay here on my own. When we pulled in we were like “oh…we do not belong here” – it was so fancy compared to the places we would normally stay.
We ordered room service for a late lunch and felt like celebrities when our turkey club sandwiches were wheeled into the room. After eating lunch we wandered around the resort and checked out Terranea Cove where scenes from a few movies had been filmed. Sam unfortunately had to go a welcome party for her work event that first night so Tanya and I got dinner at one of the resort’s restaurants, Catalina Kitchen. The meal itself was fine, but everything was very overpriced.
We woke up early on the second day and were able to see a beautiful sunrise from our hotel balcony. We got breakfast at the café on the resort, Seabeans. I got an All American Burrito and a Watermelon Lemonade, both were very good. Sam had work things all day so Tanya and I had the day to ourselves. We went out to Long Beach to do a whale watch for a few hours, which was so fun! We used Harbor Breeze Cruises. We saw a bunch of bottle nose dolphins that were very social and playful around the boat. We also saw four Fin whales, which are the second longest whales on earth. It was a really fun experience and both of our first times doing a whale watch. I’d recommend doing one if you’re in the area visiting. After the whale watch, we headed over to Ballast Point Brewery, also in Long Beach, to meet up with my cousin Michael and his girlfriend Kim. We had some beers and lots of snacks. After, Mike and Kim took us back to their house and we got dinner at Taco Beach, a restaurant in their neighborhood. It was really fun seeing them both – we don’t see each often since we live on opposite coasts.
Day three started with Sam going to do work things again but luckily it was her last day with work commitments. Tanya and I decided to walk about a mile down the road from our hotel to go see the Wayfarers Chapel, a stunning church built by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, Lloyd Wright. I love architecture so I was really interested in seeing this and it did not disappoint. The chapel was completed in 1951. The goal of the design was to show harmony between the nature outside and the inner world of the mind and soul. Sadly, the chapel has now been deconstructed due to risks of landslides and because of how much the ground has shifted over the last few years. Based on what I saw on the chapel website, they are hoping to rebuild it at a new location eventually.
When we got back to the resort we headed to one of the resorts multiple pools. They had a few options but we went to the Vista Pool that was for guests 13 years or older so it’d be quieter than the family pool. We had a few relaxing hours laying out in the sun reading and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves. That evening was the closing party for Sam’s work event and Tanya and I got to go with her. They had a band and fire dancers. The party was on a large outside patio so we got to enjoy the beautiful warm weather and watch the sun set.
Wednesday morning we checked out of Terranea and headed out to Santa Monica, where we would stay for the next few days. We got into the city sometime before noon but couldn’t check into our hotel quite yet so we walked down to the Santa Monica pier (which was pretty empty at that hour). Then we rented Lyft bikes and biked the Strand which was a lot of fun! We checked out the famous Venice Skate Park – it was really cool to see in person.
We went all the way out to Venice Beach/Marina Del Ray on the bikes before heading back to Santa Monica. We walked up to the 3rd Street Promenade and got lunch at Barney’s Beanery. After lunch we were finally able to check into our hotel and then took a walk on the beach, which, to be honest was pretty underwhelming and dirty. We grabbed a drink at Bungalow, which was a cute spot. Later on we headed out to get dinner. We had done some research on restaurants nearby, but ended up not going to any of them. We went to a chain restaurant, called North Italia. I will say, it was really good, even if it was a chain. We got the white truffle garlic bread to start, which was RIDICULOUS!
On our last full day of the trip, we did a hike at Los Leones Canyon, which was a really nice hike outside of the city. At the summit we had a beautiful view of Los Angeles and the ocean. We had some shade on the trail so it wasn’t too hot. If you’re looking for a hike in the LA area, this is a good one, however, I’m not sure if it was effected during the wildfires in January of 2025.
After the hike we freshened up and then went out to Venice to get lunch at Whalers. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. I had fish tacos, which were delicious. After lunch, we walked through the Venice Canals, which was just such a fascinating area of the city. There were some beautiful houses located on the canals.
From the canals, we headed to Abbot Kinney Boulevard to do some shopping. A few of the places we stopped at were Grow Venice (super cute store, I bought a few things here), Ananda Collective, Tumbleweed & Dandelion and Burro. One of Tanya’s friends from high school, Nicole, lives in LA and she meet us out on Abbot Kinney. We had a lot of fun with her and hearing about her life in LA as a fashion designer. We got a drink with her at Greenleaf and then went to The Brig for a while. I could’ve stayed at The Brig all night but the girls and I had tickets for a comedy show so we said goodbye to Nicole and headed back to Santa Monica. The comedy show was at Westside Comedy and it was really funny. We had a great time and it was the perfect way to end the trip.
Friday morning, we found out our flight was delayed so we went out to grab breakfast before heading to the airport. It was luckily an uneventful ride home, even though we got home later than anticipated. Overall it was a really fun trip!
Have you been to Southern California before? Let me know in the comments below!
📍I acknowledge the lands mentioned in this post are the ancestral lands of the Chumash and Tongva (Gabrieleno) people.
The Adventures of Suze 
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