Roaming Free In An RV

Surprise visits are fun and when they involve family and the nieces and nephew, it’s one the best type of visits! My (Jennifer) older sister called and said for Christmas (I know, is now March and I’m just writing this) they were surprising the kids with a trip to LA and wanted to get together. Long story short, Brad and I decided to drive down to LA for a couple of days and since Brad’s brother and his wife live in LA, we had the chance to stay with them and visit with them too.

The weather was perfect in LA, the sun was shining and we took advantage of the weather to hike in the foothills of Pasadena. We hiked the day before the Rose Bowl and driving through town we saw various parade floats going through final touches under highway passes. We arrived at the trailhead, getting the last open parking spot (woo-hoo!) and started on the dirt trail that would lead us to a waterfall. The trail went down and wove its way around the hills to a campground. Once in the canyon, we crossed over many, many, many, did I mention many creek crossings with all of us helping each other and getting in lots of laughter. We reached the waterfall and it was worth every river crossing! The 50 foot waterfall gently cascaded over the rock face leading to a small pool that feed the creek we crossed. Beautiful!

After the hike we were still feeling adventurous so we took a drive to Laguna Beach to watch the sunset. The little beach town is inviting and the beach was so beautiful! It was low tide so we were able to walk among the rocks, spotting sea anemone along the way. The sunset was colorful, the air warm making it a perfect ending to the day.

The next day we headed to Griffith Observatory, which sits on Mount Hollywood and is a great place to see the Hollywood sign. The observatory has a science and space theme so there is a large telescope for viewing inside along with many exhibits. Hiking trails weave around the observatory and on a clear night they host star gazing. After the observatory we headed down to Hollywood walk of fame, getting photos of the names we knew, checking out the Chinese Theater and being surprised on how small the Kodak Theater is.

After that, Brad and I had to head home. It was hard to leave as my family was going to be there longer and Brad’s family was off the next few days but we left relishing in the memories we just created. It was a fun trip that we hope gets repeated soon!