Californ – i – a
August 27, 2018 1:34 pm Leave your thoughts
This past month my boss was ever so gracious to give me a week off work so that I could embark on a great adventure down to California. This wasn’t just any ordinary trip to California though, we were convoying down with 25 other people, down the Oregon coast, through the sand dunes, driving through redwood trees, and cruising over the Golden Gate Bridge. And of course, going to every beach possible along the coast.
A little bit of history on this trip. Growing up my parents took me and my siblings on a road trip down to California every summer, that’s right, every summer. That means I was way so spoiled as a kid that I’ve been to disneyland more than my hands can count. The first year that we went on this trip it was just my parents and my brother and sister. But we when we got home we raved so much about how amazing this trip was that we convinced two of our friends to come along the next year. The year after that, my cousins and their parents joined along as well, and the year after that even more cousins and aunts and uncles joined, and the same with the next year. Until one year (in 2008) we drove down to California with 45 people following along! It was the greatest vacation we had taken yet! And so, to commemorate this amazing vacation, we held a 10 year reunion trip with all of the same people invited! Of course with everyone being older now and schedules to work around, we only ended up with 25 people, but it was incredible none the less!
From many years of experience we learned that it takes exactly 24 hours of straight driving to get from our house in Kelowna to the hotel we always stayed at in Anaheim. So with this knowledge, we would always wait until my dad got off work at 6pm on Friday, and head to California the moment he got home! My parents would take turns driving through the night and after many are-we-there-yet’s and I-have-to-pee-again’s we would arrive at our hotel at 6pm the next day. We would swim in the pool and head to Disneyland in the morning! That was how the trips went in the past, but now that we’re all older with driving licences and kids of our own, we decided to take our time on the way down and enjoy the scenery.
The same as always, we left on Friday evening right after my dad got off work. We headed south with the sole intent of making it as far as we possibly could before our eyes started forcing themselves closed. We made it just outside of Portland before pulling over to get a hotel for the night. From there we took the 101 along the coast all the way down to San Francisco! We saw many great things on the trip down but some of the highlights were:
- Driving through the redwood forests of California ? these trees are so big we even drove through one!
- Catching the sunset on the Oregon coast
- Checking out Big Sur! If you have never heard of Big Sur, you need to. It’s absolutely gorgeous!
- San Francisco! Even when covered in fog, the golden gate bridge is incredible to behold
Giant trees in Redwood Forest
Sunset on Oregon Coast
Big Sur California
Once we got to L.A. we rented two Airbnb houses that could sleep 15 each and settled in for the next 6 days. Our Airbnb’s were minutes away from Disneyland and they both had their own pool! There were so many things we wanted to see and do in L.A. that our days were jam packed!
Days 1-3 we spent driving around Hollywood, hiking Runyon Canyon, cruising through the incredible neighbourhoods of Beverly Hills, swimming at Huntington beach, walking Santa Monica Pier, chilling by the pool, and of course eating way more In-N-Out burgers than our bodies should have been able to handle.
Hike up Runyon Canyon
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach
Beverly Hills
Then days 4-6 were filled to the brim with Disneyland and Universal Studios (the best days in my opinion)! Every ride, attraction, and roller coaster was even better than I remembered it from 10 years ago. We were there from gates open to gates closed, running around like little kids again from ride to ride, and taking pictures with all the princesses. And as a huge Harry Potter fan, Universal Studios’ wizarding world was nothing short of jaw dropping spectacularness. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
Overall I would definitely say it was a week well spent.
The whole crew in Disneyland
Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios