See Ya Cali!

If you couldn't tell from our previous posts, we LOVED our summer in California. There were multiple contributing factors, mainly the location and Dustan's job. Last year 2015, we spent the summer in Fort Dodge, Iowa. This was so completely different! The only really thing we enjoyed about Iowa was the people we became friends with. The location and weather were pretty awful, and Dustan didn't enjoy his job at all. Though this summer in El Segundo we didn't make as many friends, most everything else was just fabulous.

Funny how both For Dodge, IA and El Segundo, CA had water towers haha

We didn't know it was possible, but we became even more obsessed with the beach this summer. Living only a few minutes away, we went to the beach at least once a week. We were close to so many fun adventures--everything from sight seeing, hiking, good eats, swimming, and way more. This was a far cry from our summer in Iowa. There is so much to do in Southern California that we only knocked off a fraction of our bucket list for the summer!

And just as important if not more so, Dustan actually really enjoyed his internship this summer with the Aerospace Corporation. Unlike some of his other engineering internships, he was actually doing research that used what he has been learning at school. He got to build a thermal PID controller and test it, learn about motor control, work on nanosatellite reaction wheel jitter characterization, and design and build a thrust test stand for a new type of drone resembling a maple seed. The Aerospace Corporation also liked Dustan as well and decided to keep him on as a casual employee during his master's program, meaning that if we decide that Dustan should go work for the company after school, he wouldn't have to go through the rehiring process. Nothing is for sure of course--full-time employment is still a couple years away--but it was great to hear that the company that Dustan quite liked working for would have him full-time in the future.

The only bummer about El Segundo and Southern California in general is obviously the cost of living (and maybe that LA traffic with the crazy drivers). If we were to return and work for this company, we would be hard pressed to live how we would like with a home and going on adventures. But that is something we can worry about a little later :)

So for now.... Goodbye El Segundo, California!!!

And now, we're back in P-Town--after a brief adventure for our anniversary in Yosemite--for Dustan to do his Mechanical Engineering master's program at BYU! He will be doing research in pneumatically actuated robotics (meaning inflatable robots like Big Hero 6). As of right now, Dustan isn't planning on doing any more internships, so you'll likely be able to find us in Utah for a couple years ;)

SoCal Sight Seeing

First we made a list of all the beaches we went to during the summer in our blog post SoCal Beach Expeditions, so here is the list of all the fun places we explored that weren't the beach! This includes everything from famous restaurants, to good views, to museums. We didn't hit up every major tourist sight in LA (many of them didn't interest us much, to be honest), but we did a lot! This blog post will be much more succinct though. It is organized by time, starting when we arrived in California in mid-May to when we left toward the end of August.

Ruby's Diner

Home of the best oreo shakes (as you probably heard in our beach blog post). They are all over the southern California coast. We personally visited three of them--Redondo Beach, Huntington Pier, and Corona Del Mar. Be prepared to spend a little more than a typical beach snack shack, but it's delicious. Also, good burgers and fries.

Newport Beach Temple

Went to this temple for PJ and Katie's sealing! Gorgeous temple, I think one of the only LDS temples that is pink, not white. This temple is also teeny tiny!

Sherman Library and Gardens

Following the Newport Beach Temple sealing, we went to a very fancy reception at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar. Beautiful setting with gardens, some animals, and delicious food.

Hollywood

Hollywood really isn't that exciting, to be honest. We saw the famous sign (actually much farther away and smaller than you would imagine), the stars Walk of Fame, the handprints outside the TCL Chinese Theater, etc. We had to go once though, right? We're just more into the whole outdoors and food scene.

Rodeo Drive

We only drove down this famous road in LA, but we definitely got our fill. This road is home to all the famous and expensive brands. You get some dirty looks from the people there who know you aren't actually wealthy enough to shop there, haha. We're talking like $700 t-shirts.

Los Angeles Temple

We walked the grounds of this temple once, and went back again to do an endowment session. This temple, as all temples, is beautiful inside and out. One of the largest and tallest temples in the world. It is also probably the only temple with a dead grass lawn due to the California drought.

KBBQ

I guess Korean BBQ is a big thing in LA? Well, it is delicious! We went with one of my good friends, Rachel, who grew up in La Canada near Pasadena and she took us to all you can eat KBBQ. It was SO GOOD and fun, because you just grill it yourself. I'm sad we never went again.

Science Center

I went to the LA science center with the children I nannied for the summer. It was a blast! We took the metro/train there and it dropped us off right at the entrance. Aside from any special rides, movies, or exhibits, the Science Center is free to explore. There was a lot of fun little activities and exhibits. We easily spent the whole day there.

Venice

Venice (a small suburb of LA) kind of encompasses a lot of things to explore. There is Abbot Kinney, a famous street with lots of cute shops and restaurants. The Venice canals, which is rather self explanatory and copying the actual Italy's Venice canals. Then there is a boardwalk with tons of shops and odd people. Venice is also known for its "Muscle Beach" with a full gym right on the beach where males like to show off their muscles (or lack thereof). Venice is THE place to go people watching.

Santa Monica Pier

One of the more famous piers around. It has a few rides (rollers coaster, ferris wheel, etc.) that were our of our price range, but we did enjoy walking around. There are also lots of arcade games and restaurants/food stands. We did eat at the expensive but delicious Bubba Gump Shrimp from Forest Gump for a friend's birthday though.

Downtown Disney

We didn't splurge and spend the money to get a couple day passes to Disneyland, but we did go to Downtown Disney a couple times when friends were in town. We would watch the fireworks from the park, maybe grab a treat (beignets from the Jazz Kitchen are delicious), and walk through the shops.

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

A short hike leads you to a great overlook of the greater Los Angeles area. We wanted to see the sunset, but it was a bit cloudy and smoggy that evening.

Randy's Donuts

The famous donut shop that Iron Man crashes into. Not the most amazing donuts we have ever had, but still really good! Our favorite was the glazed buttermilk which actually was one of the most delicious donuts I've ever had.

Griffith Observatory

Another overlook of Los Angeles, but must closer to downtown. The whole Griffith Observatory was pretty neat. There is a little museum about space and the history of the observatory, as well as some huge telescopes. The night we went, there were some free viewings through these telescopes, which was pretty neat. And under the direction of some of the astronomer workers/guides, we also were able to be present when the International Space Station passed by in the sky, lit up by the sun! It was awesome.

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Famous cupcakes. Not much else to say about them. They also cupcake vending machines throughout the city though, which is funny. Very good!

Rooftop Bar at the Standard

This was our last adventure before leaving SoCal. We went into downtown LA on the metro/train to go to a bar on the roof of a hotel. And just like the internet said, this bar had some stellar views of the city! It also had a pool, water bed pods, foosball and ping pong tables, and comfy couches. Best part is, we didn't even have to order any drinks to get in! We just sipped our water.

SoCal Beach Expeditions

Obviously one of the main highlights of living in Southern California is the BEACHES. We have been living in El Segundo, just southwest of Los Angles and right by the airport. Therefore, we are living on the beach almost literally. Just 5 minutes away :) Our favorite thing to do each Saturday is hit up the beach, because who knows when we'll be living this close to the ocean again!

So this post is dedicated to all the beaches we visited this summer! They are in order from north to south along the coast.

El Matador

We spent one day in Malibu, and El Matador beach was one of the two we visited. We went to this one in the evening so that we could be there for sunset. A lot of photographers had the same idea as us. We had to hike down a set of stairs to get down to the beach from the parking lot. El Matador is just a small stretch of beach set against a cliffside. After a few hours of the tide rising, the waves were nearly reaching the edge of the cliffs, with no room to put our towels anymore. The waves here and the beaches a little more north have some pretty big waves, though the swimming areas themselves are much smaller between the rock formations. El Matador was definitely one of the more unique beaches we went to. It was one of our favorites for the summer!

Zuma

Zuma is the other beach we visited in Malibu. Supposedly this is the beach where Hollywood stars come, but of course we didn't see anyone. We weren't the biggest fans of Zuma. The waves weren't particularly big (I didn't mind too much, but Dustan loves the big waves) and the beach was packed with people. Though it is a decent sized beach, there were people over every inch! It made it hard to play our usual football or frisbee, or fly our kite. One thing we did really like was how far out the water was shallow, which made it a little easier to navigate the waves.

Santa Monica

We didn't actually spend much time on the Santa Monica beach. We were visiting the Santa Monica Pier and spent just 15 minutes on the beach to take some pictures of the ferris wheel at night. From what we saw in the dark though, the beach was probably really popular during the day. Because of it's size, I don't think it would ever feel too crowded. You can read more about our Santa Monica Pier visit in our other LA blog post SoCal Sight Seeing :)

Venice

Like Santa Monica beach, we didn't really spend any time on the beach in Venice, but we visited a lot of the surrounding areas--Abbot Kinney, the Venice canals, the boardwalk and shops, the skatepark, the gym, etc. Many people had warned us about going to Venice and all the sketchy people that hang around there, so we did find that this beach was a great place to people watch (and we made sure to leave before dark). The beach didn't seem remarkable in any way though. You could distantly see the Santa Monica Pier--the beach stretched a long way down. Again, you can read more about our Venice visit in our SoCal Sight Seeing blog post since we didn't do much on the beach :)

Dockweiler

Dockweiler has been our most frequented beach this summer! Dockweiler is huge beach, stretching all the way from El Segundo up into Playa Vista. The sandy part of the beach itself is also really wide, which was nice when we wanted to fly our kite. It is not the absolute nicest beach we have ever been to, with no fun pier or shops or snacks or anything. But it is so close to where we live (literally only 5 minutes away) in North El Segundo with free parking along the street, and Dustan's favorite part was the absolutely massive waves here. Dockweiler also has volleyball nets and fire pits on the south side of the beach, though the best waves are on the north side.

El Segundo

Technically our summer home beach, on the south end of El Segundo! We actually only went to El Segundo beach a couple times. You have to pay for parking and there is no street parking nearby to avoid the cost (though it is cheaper in the morning or evening). There is also a lot of tar on the beach, which is no fun to try and scrape off your feet. But a little fun fact, a little cooking oil gets it right off. The background of this beach isn't the prettiest with big factories and there are oil rigs out on the water. The one plus is that there is a cool little rock outcropping that's a great spot to watch the sunset!

El Porto

This beach is just barely south of El Segundo. There is a bike bath that runs along the beach across pretty much all of these beaches we've listed, so one day Dustan and I picked up some teriyaki for dinner and biked along the path until we reached El Porto. After long days at work, both of our phones were dead and we didn't take any pictures unfortunately. It was cleaner than El Segundo beach (no tar in the sand). It was a very peaceful beach, not too busy with a cute little snack shop/restaurant right there.

Manhattan

Manhattan Beach is a beach with a great atmosphere. It's usually packed, especially on the weekends. It has a cute pier with a slightly sketchy aquarium on the end with all sorts of fish, eels, sharks, jelly fish, etc. The only bummer about this beach is the parking--there are only a couple tiny lots close the beach pier that aren't super cheap, though there are bigger parking garages into town a little more. Just at the end of the summer, we finally used the Beach Cities Bus 109, which only costs $1 a person one way. It picked us up literally right outside our apartment and dropped us at the pier.

Huntington

I only went to Huntington beach once this summer with some friends, and unfortunately Dustan was working and we never made it back. Huntington is one of Southern California's most famous beaches, and is therefore usually pretty crowded with little to no parking (at least in the small lots right on the beach). Huntington is a traditional fun beach town with lots of surf shops and restaurants. Huntington is also known for its surfing, so it's fun to watch the surfers from the pier. Then at the end of the pier is Ruby's Diner where you should get a slightly expensive bite to eat and the BEST oreo shake you've ever had!

Corona Del Mar

We visited Corona Del Mar beach three times this summer, and somehow never got any pictures! If this beach was a bit closer to us (it was about an hour away), I think we would have gone more often. Though fairly populated, there is some hidden free parking up in a nearby neighborhood that still made the beach convenient and free to access. This beach also has a lot of space and volleyball nets.

Little Corona

Just south of Corona Del Mar beach is Little Corona, which is ideal if you want a bit of a challenge. Don't make the same mistake as us and wear flip flops or flimsy sandals to this beach; Chacos or old tennis shoes would be much better. Little Corona has a lot of tide pools and rock formations that are perfect for exploring during low tide. If you start at the north end of this beach and walk all the way south, you will end up at another Ruby's, a smaller and more shack-like version of the one on the Huntington beach pier. We did this beach walk at the beginning of the summer with some friends in town for a wedding.

Shaw's Cove

On our last Saturday in El Segundo, we finally made it down to the Laguna beaches about an hour south. The first one we went to was Shaw's Cove, a smaller beach that is known for its reefs. We went in the morning before the tide came in and the waves were too big so that we could go snorkeling. There is only street parking, and the entrance to the beach is a little hidden in a neighborhood, so parking was scarce but free! It had a smallish sandbar with rocks and reefs on the north and south sides. Snorkeling was a lot of fun. Not as amazing as Jamaica (which still isn't top tier) but we saw some bright orange garibaldi fish (the California state fish) and it was fun to watch the divers. Swimming at this beach was also great, even without giant waves. The beach was also really hot, probably because it was a little cove that was protected from most of the west coast wind. All in all, one of our favorite beaches!

1,000 Steps

After a morning at Shaw's Cove beach, we went to 1,000 Steps beach in southern Laguna for the afternoon. Again, there was only street parking for this beach. You have to walk down a ton of stairs--not actually 1,000 steps, closer to 300 by our count and the internet--that lead to a gorgeous beach. This beach was pretty big and has one volleyball net up. On the left south side, there is a cave that originally drew us to this beach that supposedly leads to some giant tide pools you can swim in. But due to the high tide during summer, you aren't allowed through the cave from like April to September-ish. We did enjoy watching people getting in trouble with the lifeguards at they tried to go through or swim around though. We did a lot of swimming at this beach, and Dustan took a nap while I read a book. Definitely another one of our favorites! The water down in the Laguna just seemed a little bluer and clearer, and the weather hotter.

LIFE IS BETTER AT THE BEACH :)