California Trip Summer Vacation Vacations

LA LA Land

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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14 Comments

  1. Lori

    Great photos! I have only been to Disneyland in CA.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I went to Disneyland as a kid and barely remembered any of it.

  2. Marc

    When I was in the military I was in and out of LAX a few times but never actually in the city for sight seeing. Will put it on my vacation list for places to go and see:)

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I enjoyed everything we did. I think we spent one day too many in LA and should have spent that at the beach, but live and learn.

  3. Lisa

    I am a rare Angeleno that was actually born and raised in LA and honestly, most of the great stuff is outside of Hollywood. I’ve only been to that area only a handful of times because there’s not really much to do. 😛

    I love venturing out to the beach cities like Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach where the vibe is fun and low-key. And one of my favorite spots is the Arboretum in Arcadia – about 20 minutes away on the freeway.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Manhattan Beach was awesome! If I was going to go back for a visit I’d definitely spend most of my time on the beaches.

  4. Candace

    I grew up there too and I agree with Lisa above, the best parts of SoCal are not the touristy spots that everyone thinks of. A laid back beach town, like the ones she mentioned above (and many more) are great places to go for good food and watching the surf/people. They are much more typical of SoCal life than Hollywood, downtown LA, etc. The beach towns make me homesick!

    But at least you can say you saw those landmarks! And usually the best celebrity spotting happens at LAX, every time I’ve been I’ve seen someone famous, also the LA Zoo of all places. LA is definitely an “experience” to those who aren’t from there. I don’t miss it much, did you notice the lack of trees? LA always looks so brown/gray to me when we go back.

    Did you notice how plastic and fake ALL of the TV news people looked? That always shocks me again when we visit. Living here in the PNW now you see “real” people on the news.

    Was the Getty museum on your list of places?

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Yep we went to the Getty. I did not see any famous people in LAX, disappointing!! Maybe I wasn’t in the right part of the airport. LOL

  5. Beth

    The Getty would definitely be on my must-see list – so beautiful.

    Have been to LA several times have to admit it doesn’t float my boat in the same way Napa or San Francisco does. There are so many parts of CA we’ve not been to and would love to go.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I wanted to go somewhere I’ve never been before. I went on a road trip to SF about 10 years ago and loved it. I’d definitely go back!

  6. Lisa

    The Getty Museum and the Getty Villa are two places I’d definitely go, and the Griffith Park & Observatory. The aquarium in Long Beach is great too. I’ve never been to the Tar Pits, so I’d like to go there. I was disappointed by Rodeo Drive – I thought it would be much longer! The most fascinating part was going in the clothing stores that had 3 or 4 of each item and they appeared to be hand sewn.
    My dad lived in Hermosa Beach for a while. One visit we went and did some of the touristy stuff that you did. Did you go to West Hollywood?

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Yep, went to West Hollywood. Liked it a lot!

      Rodeo Drive was definitely disappointing–especially since I didn’t see celebrities shopping. 😉

  7. Jess

    I’ve been to LA twice. Once as a 12 year old, and all we did was go to Disneyland. The second time I was 24 and my best friend (who lives in London) flew to LA to hang out for 4 days. I was already in the states for a 3 week trip. We did Disneyland, found a mall and went shopping, then stayed just off Sunset for a couple of days and went to Santa Monica, did the Hollywood thing, and shopped some more. I didn’t really like LA (the rest of the country was so much better) but I loved the company!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      That sounds fun! I definitely agree, the other parts of California were better than LA but at least I can say I’ve been now.

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