Los Angeles vacation: beachside.

Los Angeles is underrated in my opinion.  I don't think many people who live in San Diego consider taking a vacation to Los Angeles, but we actually love it there. Our goal for this vacation was to do what we already love to do in San Diego, but in a new place. We rented an AirBnB for seven nights in Venice, walking distance to the beach, Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and Santa Monica. We made a Los Angeles bucket list, and figured we would get to what we could and do the rest on another trip. 

Here's what was on our initial bucket list:

• Trying new food
• Exploring street art
• Walking the Venice canals
• Walking Abbot Kinney Boulevard
• Playing at the beach
• Riding bikes along the beach bike path 
• Riding bikes to Santa Monica 
• Going to the California Science Center to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor
• Going to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
• Going to the Griffith Park Observatory
• Riding on the Griffith Park Train
• Exploring Silverlake 
• Visiting The Broad Museum 
• Exploring the LACMA 
• Going to the La Brea Tar Pits
• Going to the Automotive Museum
• Going to the Getty Villa

Traveling with our kids is always a challenge with new surroundings, schedules, and sleeping arrangements, but Los Angeles was kind of a perfect vacation for a family with young kids. 

We stayed beachside for four days, riding bikes to get around, and then ventured inland three days (which I'll share in another post). Los Angeles has a lot of character, and Venice Beach is quirky. Apparently, it was intended to be a mix between Venice, Italy, Egypt, and Coney Island. While I'm not sure where the Egypt part is, I think it achieves a mix between Venice, Italy and Coney Island (with a little too much Coney Island for my liking). 

Food we enjoyed: Dune (Mediterranean), Gjusta (delicious sandwiches and baked goods), Intelligentsia (coffee), The Rose (a nicer restaurant)

We also ate some food that we thought was a bit overrated (Eggslut, Blue Star Donuts, Komodo), which made us realize that we actually have a lot of really delicious food here in San Diego, so we are a bit spoiled. 

Walking around Venice:

Wandering around Abbot Kinney Boulevard:

Venice Beach:

Riding bikes to Santa Monica:

Cambria and I went on the Ferris Wheel together:

The kids enjoyed the Carousel on the Santa Monica Pier:

Fun biking and scooting along the beach boardwalk:

Everett's favorite piece of street art (since it was a larger version of him):

Riding bikes to Marina Del Rey to see this public art installation: