The Svec family vacations in California

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We flew out of Dallas at the incredibly early hour of 6 am on Tuesday, July 3rd.  My son Andrew has wanted to visit California for a long time and as he graduated high school this year and is heading off to college in August we are indulging his preferences for a couple of family trips this year.  (Montreal is coming up the end of this month.)  I had hoped to post every few nights with updates and pictures but unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way.  So here is a brief synopsis of our itinerary and then a gallery of pictures.

  • July 3rd – We arrived in the Long Beach Airport, retrieved our rental car and proceeded to the Crown Plaza in San Pedro.  I was thrilled with our welcome there as I was recognized as a Platinum member and our rooms were upgraded to suites.  (I had snagged two rooms on Pointbreakers so had booked two rooms so Andrew had his own room, or in this case suite.)  How cool was that.  We all loved it!  They also gave us access to the Club room which provided us with a complimentary continental breakfast each morning as well as evening snacks.  All in all we really enjoyed our stay at the Crown Plaza: Los Angeles Harbor Hotel.
  • After we checked into the hotel we headed up to the LA Farmer’s Market for lunch we ate at the Marmalade Cafe.  I had been here years ago as a child and could not even recognize anything about it.  Then we headed over to Paramount Studios for our guided tour which was great.  We took the scenic way back to hotel by cruising past the Hollywood Walk of Fame and down Rodeo Drive (Andrew spotted a Bugatti parked on the street).
  • July 4th we just hung out around San Pedro and then went over the Long Beach that evening for dinner and fireworks at the Aquarium of the Pacific
  • July 5th it was back up into LA where we had lunch in Malibu and then toured the Getty Villa.  Awesome!!  We then headed down to Venice and strolled along the promenade for a bit but having diner at the Sidewalk Cafe.  The food was great and we had a table right by the promenade with a view of the water and right in front of sidewalk piano player.  Fun day!!
  • July 6th we left San Pedro and the Crown Plaza and headed down to Huntington Beach the Hyatt Hotel and Resort there.  All the rooms appear to have balconies and ours was no exception.  We do have a partial ocean view (from our balcony), but the room is very comfortable with two queen beds as ordered.  It has a frig as well and they keep us stocked with bottled water.  (Nice!!)  [I had scored this room for us with Jerry and I each signing up for the Hyatt card at the end of last year.  This card gave each of us two free nights at any Hyatt anywhere in the world which is a very sweet deal.]
  • So we are about halfway through our stay here in Huntington Beach and just enjoying the beach, the weather and relaxing.  We have eaten twice at the Bluewater Grill in Newport Beach which is awesome as well as Ruby’s here on Huntington Beach.  Last night we just ordered a pizza here onsite at ate it up on the balcony of our room.  Tonight I think we are going to have dinner in the Red Door Lounge and take advantage of their Social Hour prices.
  • We will get back Tues. night and I will be shipping out orders on Wed.

So all in all we are having a great time and now here’s some pics:

 

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