I have repeatedly said in this blog how much I love Southern California. It’s one place [that I have been to here in the States, so far] that reminds me of home. One of my favorite places within the county of Los Angeles is Santa Monica, and here are my top five reasons why (in no particular order):

1. Santa Monica Beach – It’s one of the best places in SoCal where you can bask under the sun and achieve the perfect California tan. There are more than just a handful of things that you can do here. Swimming, surfing, biking, volleyball and more. The best thing about it is that you can do all these things for free!!! Bonus: Santa Monica Beach is a favorite among producers, so be sure you have your camera ready at all times for possible celebrity sightings.
2. Santa Monica Pier – It’s just a stone’s throw from the beach, so you might as well swing by. It has everything you need to make the trip worth it: a mini-amusement park, a trapeze school, an arcade and a fishing deck, street performers and allthatjazz. And when you’re all drained out from all the activities, there’s a myriad of restaurants serving various cuisines that allow you to kickback, relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset. Watch out for those surfer bus boys. They make great eye candies and all, but sometimes tend to get too friendly, if ykwim. (If you’re single, though, go for ‘em!)
3. Third Street Promenade – A couple of blocks from Santa Monica Pier is Third Street Promenade. It is also populated by street entertainers (from dancers to fortunetellers!) and restaurants like the Pier, plus it is home to dozens of retailers, making it the one-stop place of every tourist to do his or her shopping!
4. Santa Monica Playhouse – Is it a theater? Is it a conservatory? Is it a creative school? This highly acclaimed jewel is located in Downtown Santa Monica, and serves as an intimate theater, art workshop center for both youngsters and adults, and a party venue.
5. Main Street – Located just a couple of blocks away from the beach, it is a popular spot among surfers. It is home to restaurants and pubs that attract both residents and visitors such as Urth Cafe, World Cafe and many more.

I’m sure there are more. My exploring is always quite limited for a number of reasons. But don’t these five things alone make you want to set forth to Santa Monica for an ultimate California vacation?

The drive from our house to SoCal is quite a stretch. And I have had this song in my head until we reached our initial destination.

Well, life’s like a road that you travel on

There’s one day here and the next day gone

Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand

Sometimes you turn your back to the wind

There’s a world outside every darkened door

Where Blues won’t haunt you anymore

For the brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore

We won’t hesitate

To break down the guarding gate

There’s not much time left today, yeay

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long

If you’re going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

Through all these cities and all these towns

It’s in my blood and it’s all around

I love now like I loved you then

This is the road and these are the hands

From Mozambique to those Memphis nights

The Khyber Pass to Vancouver’s lights

They knock me down

And back up again

You’re in my blood

I’m not a lonely man

There’s no load I can’t hold

The road’s so rough this I know

I’ll be there when the light comes in

Just tell ‘em we’re survivors

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long

If your going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, yeah

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long (mmmm yeah)

If your going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

There was a distance between you and I

(between you and I)

A misunderstanding once

But now, we look it in the eye

Ooooo…Yeah!

There ain’t no load that I can’t hold

The road’s so rough this I know

I’ll be there when the light comes in

Just tell ‘em we’re survivors

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long (all night long, yeah hey)

If your going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long

If your going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it

All night long

If your going my way, I wanna drive it

All night long

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, yeah

I got to do some catching up with cousin’s wife the other day while we were at his parents’ place for a simple dinner for my late paternal grandfather’s 40th day. As it turns out, things are finally starting to work out for them. My cousin, an ex-military guy, finally landed a decent job after being unemployed for quite some time following his release from Iraq. This allowed his wife to be a stay-at-home wife and mom, and both of them to finally do some house-hunting (they have been trying to move out of the parents’ house for quite a while now).

Not that I was not paying her attention, OK? But, as she was showing me their printout cheat-sheets of the houses they checked out that day, my thoughts could not help but linger to the day Um and I can finally go house-hunting for our family!  Quite frankly, being “new” here again, I am not really sure where the best place to establish is. I just want a vibrant and intellectual environment for Captain Awesome and Little HRH (and for me and Um, too).

Santa Cruz always turns up in the first page of the results every time I search for “best places to live in California”. I have yet to invest a good amount of time looking into the other factors before putting it into consideration.

SoCal is still calling, though. Last week, I got to speak with another cousin of mine who lives 15 or so minutes from Los Angeles. It was her birthday and I called her up to greet her. During our convo, she asked when I am finally going there, assured me that her house is always open as a startup and so on. This weekend, a good friend called urging me to move to SoCal. So, I dunno. Big city, beaches, and Hollywood, baby!!! There is nothing more you can ask! It is kinda like the neighborhood Um and I had back in the P.I.

It is just hard to take huge risks when you have children. So, baby steps. How about Sacramento first? At least it is somewhat close to my parents’ and Ms B’s.

I’m so itching to go on a trip! The last time I went on a vacation was October 2009, when both Captain Awesome and Little HRH were here with me. Captain Awesome was only here for two weeks then since he had to finish the school year in the Philippines. Little HRH and I stayed here until the end of December.

It was Captain Awesome’s first time here in the US. The pasyal was mostly for him. Of course, the best way to have a child enjoy his first time in California is to take him to the world-known amusement parks.

So, we took the 6-something hour drive to Southern California. It is an absolute blessing to have family that can accommodate us over there. It saves us a lot on lodging expenses whenever we take the trip to Los Angeles and San Diego. We covered 3 amusement parks during this trip, but let’s focus on Disneyland’s California Adventure Park.

Little HRH and I were just in Disneyland Park earlier that year, so I figured California Adventure would be the way to go for this trip. After all, the vacay wasn’t just for Captain Awesome. It was also for Little HRH and the child in me.

The visit was enjoyable, as one would expect. The only problem was I had 2 children with an age gap enough to have differing interest when it came to rides. My parents who were with us couldn’t help me in this area because Mommy has hypertension and Faja has vertigo than mine. I pretty much had to “schedule” the rides to accommodate both of them, and you know theme parks, one day is never enough to cover everything!

At this point, you can expect me to say my ever-famous line, I wish Um were here!

Well, we, of course, wish Um were there to enjoy the day with us. Ultimately, though, at the time, I wished he were there to go with Captain Awesome to all the cool “big kids” rides that he wanted to try instead of just tagging along for Little HRH’s rides. He was extremely bored at A Bug’s Land, where the rides were mostly for toddlers. He enjoyed the 3d presentation of It’s Tough to Be a Bug, though.

He was very happy when Little HRH dozed off at one point in the afternoon. We maximized the opportunity by trying out as many rides as we can on Golden State and Paradise Pier. Still, though, we didn’t get to try the ones with intimidating loops because of my vertigo. He asked if we can go back when his dad gets here. My answer was a resounding YES!

We were running low on energy by the time we covered Hollywood Pictures Backlot, which is a mock up of the streets of Hollywood. There were so many behind-the-scenes studios that we would have wanted to check out, but we were starving! We only got to go to Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue and take lots of pictures. Little HRH specifically requested to have her picture taken by Boo’s door.

I’ve been to Disneyland several times, both as a kid and as an adult, and it never gets old. It really brings you somewhere else and unleashes the child in you that is yearning to play and discover.

I can’t wait to go on another family trip, with the whole family here! My list of places to visit is just growing longer and longer! I can’t wait to start crossing items off of the list!

Enjoy!

***

photo: Ms C

post processing: Ms B

taken: October 2009, Santa Monica, CA, USA

Aaaah, Santa Monica!

I’ve always wanted to live in So.Cal because of the weather, the beaches and the irrational fangirl reason that hazehung knows about.

Captain Awesome and Little Princess were with me the last time I was there. We rode this huge wheel, played games and won prizes. We were there on a weekday, we almost had the entire place to ourselves.

Today, I got an invitation for my cousin’s graduation celebration in Riverside. It would be great to take the road trip and visit sunny Santa Monica again. I wish I had my three favorite people in the world to enjoy it with.

Trivia: Did you know that Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Wheel is solar-powered? Yep! It’s the only one of its kind in the world!