California Nuts: Part 2

With San Diego and Laguna Beach merely pleasant memories to the South of us, we spent the next day in Huntington Beach. Famous not only for being the official "Surf City, USA," Huntington Beach is also known for its pier. At 1,850 feet long, it's one of the longest public piers on the West Coast. (Of course, the city's most important claim to fame by far is being the birth place of my husband).



We didn't allow a bit of the morning gray haze stop us from walking down Huntington's Main Street and down to the end of the pier to eat at Ruby's, one of our favorite local haunts for the good coffee, great whole wheat nutty pancakes, and amazing views. (Sure enough, surfers were spotted).



The rest of the day unfolded at a leisurely pace for a change, with puttering through tony Newport Beach's Fashion Island (east coasters, think Tyson's Corner, but an outdoor mall with coastal views), as well as a drive through Balboa Island, a tiny island jam-packed with houses, marinas, and cute shops.

Even weighed down by the approximately 1 million pounds of See's Candy we purchased between us, the little Mustang convertible was able to get us back to Huntington Beach where we enjoyed dinner in town with local family.



The next morning we hit Sugar Shack - a staple for all HB locals - and did the crazy. The unthinkable. That which all locals tried to warn us away from: driving into Los Angeles.

Actually, despite the dire warnings, the drive wasn't too bad, and we enjoyed the chance to check out the famous Santa Monica Pier on a relatively un-crowded Thursday morning including a ride on the iconic Ferris Wheel.



Great views up and down LA / Santa Monica beach...

From there we went to our hotel - the Andaz at West Hollywood. Thanks to my husband's gazillion Hyatt points, we were upgraded to a room with snazzy views and plied with copious amounts of free wine (of which we accepted one glass but cut it off there since it was only 1pm... though 5 o'clock somewhere...)



After hotel room view ogling, it was off to don our tourist hat to visit the Chinese Theater / Walk of Fame (think stars and hand prints in the sidewalk), then up into the Hollywood hills to visit the Griffith Observatory.

Opened in 1935, Griffith Observatory is an iconic LA landmark, and offers sweeping views of LA. We arrived in time to take in the daylight views as well as linger through a spectacular sunset.






Night descends at Griffith...



While the morning would see us winging our way back to the east coast, the few days away was a lovely chance to recharge, obtain a slight sunburn (LA traffic + sunshine + convertible = dangerous), enjoy Auntie/Niecy bonding, and soak in the beautiful California sights and amazingly green smoothies.

Until next time, California!