Posted on 06/03/2015 7:59:45 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
I am planning to fly into LAX this August with my daughter (7) and son (9) while Mom stays home with the other two. We are mainly going to spend an afternoon with my dad on the Iowa at his Navy reunion, but will have a day, day-and-a-half to do other things.
I would definitely like to go to a beach as the kids have never seen the ocean. Some other attraction or park would be nice too.
I've never been to the L.A. area before and am not entirely sure what to expect. Could use some advice! Thanks.
Yeah, I’m looking at a map now and realize how packed the area is with streets and places I’ve heard of a million times but have never actually seen. Should be interesting!
Double Double, animal style!
Here are some links for various surf camps that operate in August. The Freedom surf camp is the one I enrolled my son in. It is $90 for the day per person. I think you can do a half day for less but call them to find out. The other camp is a little pricier - $90 for 90 minutes.
http://freeedom.org/surf/
http://www.campsurf.com/los-angeles-surf-lessons/private/#7ee67fe49807ecb69
Leave. LA beaches are a mass of boom boxes and cigarette butts on the weekends and not much better on the weekdays. If you must visit LA got to Santa Barbara.
Go here, there is an air space museum, an interactive science museum, space shuttle display. All fun http://www.nhm.org/site/
in n out is kind of the burger equivalent of the emperor has no clothes. Carl’s Jr makes a tastier burger. I have no idea how the marketing BS that in n out is the worlds’ best burger got started but it ain’t.
You’ll spend a day and a half in LA traffic that is like a parking lot only slower. Avoid any places like Disneyland as that is where all the thieves and panhandlers accumulate. Stay in a place that has guarded parking.
I’d have to agree that it is a good deli, not NYC but passable.
Forgot how much I liked that video!
If you wanted to do something fun after doing the surf camp I suggested in my previous post, you could go down to the Redondo Pier where they have a large fishermans market where fresh fish are sold and there are plenty of restaurants to eat at.
The 101 is the Hollywood Freeway. You can see the Hollywood sign when driving north. Sunset Blvd goes off the Hollywood Freeway (before you go through the mountains where Universal Studios is) and travels west to the ocean. It ends north of Santa Monica. Pacific Coast Highway is a pretty drive, but kids will get bored unless they just love looking at the ocean. Santa Monica Pier is great for young kids as it has an amusement park with Ferris wheel, etc. I believe you can drive right onto the pier and park underneath. It’s been years since we went to Santa Monica Pier.......we have no young kids anymore.
YES!! The Tar Pits, George C Page Museum, will interest every age. We were just there a few months ago. Never get tired of it and our son loved going there when he was in grade school.
Thanks! We will get in about 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. It seems like Manhattan and Redondo would be easy to reach yet that day.
Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.
You can’t go wrong hugging the Pacific on the PCH. I do not enjoy large cities so I wouldn’t go in to LA proper. The beaches south of SP are busy and tough to find parking. North a few miles has better access. Maybe a theme park but that is a full day and very expensive. You can spend some time at Santa Monica Pier and do some rides only a few miles from the airport. Disneyland is at least an hour drive and there is nothing nice along the way. LAX is quite cheap and easy for car rental and easy to get in and out of. Hotels are around $100 a night. Anything less wild be far from the beach. What are the kids interested in? LA is so huge it has something for everyone.
It's a freebie and will distract the kids, and they will remember them all their lives "Kids we are on the Santa Monica freeway right now, remember the (movie), (song), (TV series)
I used to recommend going to the tallest buildings in town and riding the elevators to the top, for the city experience, if someone was from a place without high rises, but I don't know if people can play downtown today.
Take the advice on beaches, don't just drive to one thinking that they are all the same, you want to miss the worst of the tourist beaches. If you drive to a remote beach, have a picnic and let the kids immerse themselves in the experience.
The USS Iowa is awesome to visit. It’s located in San Pedro where Spanish is the native language and EBT the preferred currency.
Suggest Disneyland, Huntington Beach, and/or Aquarium of the Pacific.
If I were going, I would probably visit the Peterson Automotive Museum. Wish I could also tour Jay Leno’s garage.
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