I got home from my travels in Asia in early May, and I was home for about 6 weeks before I hit the road again. I had a summer job lined up working at a summer camp for high school students hosted at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The best part is that Julia was there for the first half of the summer, working for their middle school program, so we got to gallivant around Los Angeles together, having a ton of fun.
During the summer, I had the privilege of going to a Dodgers game on the 4th of July, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach, and more. It was an amazing summer.
My last day with Summer Discovery was August 4th, so on August 5th, I headed to the train station. I decided to make the most of my time in California, so I pushed out my return flight home and bought Amtrak's California Rail Pass.
According to Amtrak's website, "The California Rail Pass allows for up to 7 days of travel in California over a 21-day period for $159 for adults". Since this rail pass is obviously an amazing value (Compare this with the cost of a rental car for a week), Amtrak makes it exceedingly difficult to buy. You can't buy the pass online or book trips online, only over the phone or in person; you also have to physically go to an Amtrak station to pick up a physical piece of paper that is the size of a ticket stub and carry it on your person at all times whenever you're using the pass. The closest Amtrak station to Scranton is Philadelphia, so I had no way to pick up my pass, annoyingly. But then I had a brilliant idea and asked my sister to pick it up for me because she lives outside of Washington, D.C. and the closest Amtrak station for her is only about 30 minutes, so she heroically picked it up for me. Then I spent 45 minutes on the phone with another hero from Amtrak who booked every single trip for me over the phone, since surely anyone reading this blog knows I am not one to show up at the train station and hope there's room on the next train (LOL).
My main goal on this little sojourn in California was to visit two of my friends who live out there and to visit a couple of places I've never been. So as we go through the itinerary, if you're thinking to yourself "This zigzag path makes no sense logistically," you would be correct. But this path is what worked for the friends I was visiting and for me, so here we go!
My first trip was Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo, where my friend Channing picked me up from the train station. Channing is originally from Rochester, NY and we met when we were working at Highlights for Children, the children's magazine with the Hidden Pictures, back in 2016-2017. She has lived on the central California coast, working in outdoor education, since early 2022, and I think the last time we saw each other before this visit was in the summer of 2021. We are kindred spirits and I'm so glad we've stayed in touch over the years, despite the physical distance between us.
Channing was an excellent hostess/tour guide and showed me many of the highlights of the Central Coast of California. We strolled through San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, Cambria, and she even took me to the Hearst Castle. It was a fabulous visit and we spent so much time chatting and catching up.
Morro Rock, a volcanic plug in the bay
Channing took me to see elephant seals!
Coalesce Bookstore in Morro Bay
This silly BeReal was the only photo I thought to take of the two of us during the entire visit, sadly
Wine tasting at Harmony Cellars
Downtown Cambria
Hearst Castle in San Simeon, a bucket list destination for me. According to Wikipedia, "Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947." This is Casa del Sol, one of the property's guest houses.
Posing with Casa Grande, the main part of the castle where Hearst actually lived.
My favorite part of the castle tour were the two pools we saw. This is the Neptune Pool.
According to Wikipedia again, "The Roman pool, constructed under the tennis courts, provided an indoor alternative to the Neptune pool." Just the absolute coolest!
Channing brought me back to the train station in San Luis Obispo late at night on August 7th, because I was taking overnight transportation to South Lake Tahoe. I was using my Rail Pass to get there, which required a combination of two thruway bus connections and a short train ride for a combined total of 12 hours of travel, but it was totally worth it when I stepped off the bus in South Lake Tahoe. I spent the rest of that day and the following day exploring South Lake Tahoe, and it was breathtaking at every turn.
View of Lake Tahoe from the top of the Heavenly gondola
Posing with the lake in the background
Another view of the lake with the gondolas on the bottom right
Sunset at Lakeside Beach
On a boat ride on the way to Emerald Bay
Emerald Bay
I took a tour of Vikingsholm. According to Wikipedia, "Vikingsholm is a 38-room mansion on the shore of Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe, in El Dorado County, California, and on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been called 'one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in North America.'"
Crystal clear water in Emerald Bay
In addition to exploring South Lake Tahoe, I was also there to meet up with my friend Chloë. Chloë has featured in many of my recent blog posts because we met in Korea. We were co-teachers and next door neighbors so we became really close, all the way on the opposite side of the world. Chloë is even more of a jetsetter than I am, so I was absolutely thrilled that our paths were crossing while she was home in California. Her family has a house in Truckee, which is on the opposite side of the lake from South Lake Tahoe where I was. So I took a bus from South Lake to Reno, and then from Reno to Truckee, where I met up with Chloë and her college friend Hailey. We went on a boat ride out on the lake and spent the night at Chloë's house before Hailey drove us to San Francisco the following day.
Me, Hailey, and Chloë on the boat
Did I mention Lake Tahoe is breathtaking?
Reunited! (We sent this photo in our Korea friends group chat)
Driving by Donner Pass on the way to San Francisco
We parted ways with Hailey in San Francisco, and Chloë's wonderful family put me up in their house for a couple of nights. Chloë's brother Sam taught me how to play Risk (the Game of Thrones version, where he smoked me and Chloë after only like 12 rounds). We ordered late night sushi and had a lot of laughs and time to catch up. I've been to San Francisco before, in 2017 to visit my friend Shannon when she was living there, and I ran myself, Shannon, and my other friend Colleen absolutely ragged seeing nearly everything the city had to offer. With that in mind, Chloë offered to take me sightseeing, but I told her there were only two things I wanted to do: I wanted to go to a Giants game, and I wanted to do the night tour of Alcatraz. Chloë is a big Giants fan and she'd never been to Alcatraz, so it was a win-win!
Giants game at Oracle Park (They lost, unfortunately). Chloë even loaned me a hat so her hostess skills are obviously an 11/10
Alcatraz night tour. According to my favorite source, Wikipedia, "Alcatraz, or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and security increased. Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's most secure prison. The prison was closed in 1963." Thank God, since as you'll see below, the conditions were inhumane.
Inside a cell
D-Block inside the prison
View of San Francisco from Chloë's house
After leaving Chloë, my next stop was Santa Barbara. Having seen my California-living friends, the rest of the trip was all about sightseeing in new places for me. I've always heard Santa Barbara was beautiful, but being able to see the mountains from the beach was really something else. No wonder Oprah has a house there!
Santa Barbara County Courthouse
Chromatic Gate
Old Mission Santa Barbara
I went back to the courthouse the next day to climb up and see the views from the top
View from the top of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse
View of the beach and the Santa Ynez mountains from Stearns Wharf
I took a late train that night down to San Diego, where I arrived a little after 1am and found my way to my hostel. But the benefit of doing that is that I woke up and had the whole day in the city!
In the morning, I got up early and grabbed breakfast from a bagel place near my hostel that was so good I ended up going back a second time. I then boarded a hop on/off trolley that immediately went over the bridge to Coronado Island. This is the view of downtown San Diego from Coronado Bridge.
One of many beautiful historic homes on Coronado Island
Back in San Diego proper, I hopped off the trolley and explored the beautiful Balboa Park. Balboa Park hosted the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and 1935–36 California Pacific International Exposition and is now a historic urban cultural park. Balboa Park is home to many museums and also the world-famous San Diego Zoo. This photo is a section of the Casa de Balboa on El Prado, a promenade in the park.
The California Bell Tower and the Museum of Us in Balboa Park
I got back on the trolley and rode it over to the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. It's a living museum and the site of the first European settlement in San Diego. Overall, it's more geared towards families, but I enjoyed walking around and seeing what San Diego looked like way back when. This photo is of the Whaley House, which is supposedly the most haunted house in the United States, with 26 documented spirits!
It's a dream of mine to visit all 30 major league baseball stadiums, so I got very lucky this summer that I got to visit Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Oracle Park in SF, and Petco Park in San Diego (where the Padres also lost, unfortunately, but it was fun just the same!).
During my last day in San Diego, I rented a car and drove out to Coronado Island. After a delicious breakfast in downtown Coronado, I spent most of the day enjoying beautiful Coronado Beach. Later in the day, I made the trip up to La Jolla, where this photo is from.
I tried my luck at the La Jolla tide pools and unfortunately didn't see any starfish. But I did get to see so much other variety! It was really cool and worth the effort.
That night, I went back to Balboa Park and saw a fabulous outdoor production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Balboa Park's Old Globe theater.
The following day, I headed back to Los Angeles on my last trip on my California Rail Pass. I had to end in Los Angeles because that's where my flight home was from. I took the opportunity to do a few touristy things I didn't get to do with Summer Discovery while I was working there.
I went to the TCL Chinese Theater and strolled down the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Of course I had to take a picture at the Pink Wall
Posing with Urban Light at LACMA
I also went to see the Tchaikovsky Spectacular (complete with fireworks) at the Hollywood Bowl!
The following day, I was supposed to have one last action-packed sightseeing day before my flight home, where I'd visit Melrose Trading Post flea market and the Smorgasburg food trucks, before ending the day with a celebrity-spotting tour. However, that day happened to be the day that a "hurriquake" struck Los Angeles. Lucky me, as Hurricane Hilary was bearing down and dumping rain on Southern California, an earthquake also struck the same day, so things were interesting, to say the least! Since I knew the bad weather was coming, I had pushed my flight out by a day and hunkered down in my hostel to wait out the rain.
Unfortunately, Smorgasburg and Melrose Trading Post are both Sunday activities only, so I missed the boat on both of those and I hope to make it there in the future. But thankfully I was able to do the celebrity home tour, which was silly and very fun. We drove past Drew Barrymore's home, Rihanna's, Adele's, and so many more. We also stopped for a great photo op with the Hollywood Sign, my only one from the entire summer.
Last day in California
I spent one last night in my hostel and got up early to make my flight home to Newark, where my dad picked me up from the airport. I was home for just over a week before I went on my next excursion: Niagara Falls and Toronto!
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