In May I got to tag along with Christopher on two back to back client visits in Southern California. I have loved every visit I’ve made to California so far, so to be able to finally go with Chris (more than just driving over the state line for 20 min) was exciting.

Thankfully, I am still working remotely so I was able to work from the hotel or a coffee shop while Chris was on site and then at night we would get out and explore the towns we were in.

It worked out so we could celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary while we were in California, which was perfect. We started our trip with a weekend in LA.

I knew seeing this billboard right after leaving the car rental lot was a good sign, because this has been one of my self care mantras this year.

A lot of things were still closed due to Covid-19, so our options for sightseeing were kind of limited.

The first thing we did when we got off the plane at 8:00 am-ish local time was get donuts. We headed to Randy’s Donuts, because it had a giant donut on top. The donut holes were so good.

We stayed at The Line LA in Koreatown, which we enjoyed. Our room had one wall of all windows that looked out at the Hollywood Hills and we could see the Hollywood sign from bed.

We visited Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the La Brea Tar Pits. The museum is lovely and the Tar Pits smell gross, so basically what you’d expect. Honestly, the Tar Pits were really cool and there was a scientist outside working so you could ask questions and chat about how nuts they are. If you haven’t heard of these pits before, google them.

Next, we visited the Los Angeles Central Library, which I had just finished reading about in The Library Book by Susan Orlean. It was cool to see some of the old building and how they expanded the library to accommodate a growing collection. The library wasn’t completely open, just the main atrium and the sections directly surrounding it., so we couldn’t see as much as I would have liked.

We brunched at Home in Los Feliz twice (so good and so cute) and drank tons of coffee from cute places like Dinosaur Coffee.

We visited the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro, which was a gift from the South Korean government in 1975 to commemorate the United States bicentennial and as a token of friendship. The details in the pavilion and on the bell are incredible. I highly recommend the drive to see this beauty.

The most surprising thing we saw in LA… oil drills/pumps. I’m not 100% sure what these things are called. This one was in a parking lot between a gas station/McDonald’s combo and a Diner. So strange.

After our weekend in LA, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Solvang, CA. On the way we stopped for some beach views and grabbed lunch at Malibu Seafood.

So many gorgeous plants grow in California. I kept stopping to touch plants to check if they were real, and they always were. The succulents were particularly large, hand for scale, and I cannot imagine having succulents that big. Like how does that happen? Does it take years? Skill? Magic? I need answers.

The first client visit Chris had was in Solvang, CA. This town is so unbelievably charming. It feels like you are in Europe or a story book. The buildings are darling, the food is good, the plants are huge, the people are so kind, and it just feels like magic.

We stayed at The Landsby, which was the perfect hotel for this visit, very hygge. The Landsby is centrally located in town, while Chris was working on site I could still walk to get coffee, go to lunch, do a little shopping, without needing a car.

While staying in Solvang, we drove down the road to see fields and fields of flowers in Lompac, CA, which is home to the Lompoc Valley Flower Festival every June. It was so beautiful to see so many flowers all together and the smell was mind blowing. It was the scent every floral candle try to imitate, but real and perfect. The pictures do not even come close to doing justice to this spectacle.

On our way out of Solvang we obviously had to stop at Ostrichland USA to feed the Ostriches and Emus. This has become one of our favorite kinds of things to look for when traveling. Can we feed or pet a giant dangerous animal… let’s do it. In 2020 we went to pet kangaroos, and in 2021 we fed Ostriches and Emus.

After Solvang, we drove south to spend the weekend in Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park is incredible. I am so glad we got to spend two whole days exploring the diverse ecosystems in the park and check out the surrounding towns.

This cactus outside of our Airbnb was large and in charge and I wish I had one 1/10th this big.

After Joshua Tree we headed south again to Menifee, CA. This is just a typical suburban city with lots of chains and other boring stuff, but we found some excitement on the way.

We stopped to see the Cabazon Dinosaurs. We love a good roadside attraction, especially attractions with giant and/or weird shit.

Menifee is not very walkable, and I didn’t have my own car, so while Chris was on site with clients I just stayed in the hotel and ordered UberEats with varying degrees of success. This town wasn’t super exciting, but I’m glad we got to stay in California a little longer to enjoy their beautiful weather.

The last stop we made in California was Annie's Cafe Lake Elsinore, for breakfast, where we had the best coffee cake of our lives. It is my new life goal to recreate this delightful cinnamon, buttery, pan of goodness.

California was a lot of fun, and I’m truly grateful that I got to tag along on Christopher’s work trip so we could celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary somewhere exciting this year.