Wow, I never thought I would get to this point- the last of the California road trip posts.  It’s been almost 6 weeks since the end of the trip, and I have already written about Vegas, San Francisco, Yosemite and Mariposa Grove, Carmel/ Big Sur/ and Santa Barbara, and phew!  I am finally here to tell you about the last couple days in California.  We spent one full day exploring Santa Monica and Venice Beach, and then a day in a half in Los Angeles.  It was a wonderful end to an incredible road trip!  Here are all of the details.

We drove down the coast from Carmel by the Sea, making periodic stops to take in all of the beauty of the water.  We stopped in Malibu to stretch our legs and look at the ocean…

And then continued until we got to the Santa Monica Pier.  We parked the car (and paid their sort of expensive parking), and then spent the afternoon walking all around.

There were so many people that we accidentally got separated from Luis’ friends and couldn’t find them because they weren’t connected to WhatsApp, so after spending awhile looking for them, we decided to make the most of the day and walk to Venice Beach, which has a total Bohemian spirit. Before we went though, we loaded up on this free sunscreen available on the boardwalk.  What a good idea!

We walked for about an hour, all the way to Venice, while looking at all of the crazy things you only see on Venice Beach.

Luis and I visited the Venice Canals, which were really cool.  There are some super interesting and artsy houses back there!

And we looked at the nice clothing options… haha

We spent a few hours in Venice, and then made the loooong walk back to Santa Monica.  We tried to rent the Bird Scooters that were everywhere, but without wifi, it was impossible, which was unfortunate for my tired legs.

That night, we checked into our AirBnb and all crashed from a long day in the sun. 

The next day, we hit the ground running because it was our last morning with our car.  We headed straight for the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which turned out to be…pretty dodgy, and a lot less glamourous than I remembered.

It was actually the opposite of glamorous, but at least I got to try this Nitro coffee that had be bouncing off the walls and also in the bathroom every 15 minutes (sorry for the TMI….).

We visited the Chinese Theater, and then walked back to the car and drove a couple miles to Malibu (but it still took forever thanks to LA traffic) to see the HUUUUUGE houses.  I wish we had had more time to drive around, but we needed to get back to return the car and we were afraid of the traffic making us late.  Luckily. we got there on time, quickly returned the car, and then grabbed an Uber to downtown LA to meet my good friend, Meaghan.  She told us to visit this area, which was like little Mexico, so we obviously had burritos.

After that, Meaghan was kind enough to take us on the most amazing tour of LA!  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Meaghan is one of the nicest people I have ever met!  I feel so lucky to have a friend like her.  She took us to this hotel, where we were able to go up to something like the 70th floor and see these incredible views of LA.

From there, she drove us to Griffith Observatory to watch the sunset and learn about the observatory.  If I lived in LA, I think I would enjoy hiking there, but we were all happy we decided to drive up since it was so warm.

To end the night, we had Korean Food at Honey Pig, a place that was recommended to me by someone on one of my tours and the food was SO GOOD!  It looks expensive at first, but the portions they gave were HUGE!  Pro Tip: Order one of the beef or meat combo ‘family’ plates and when they tell you it’s enough food for 2-3 people, don’t believe them!  It was enough for all 5 of us.

But you know me, I hate smelling like food and I could not get out of those clothes fast enough!

The next morning, Meaghan (again!) picked us all up and dropped the rest of the group off at The Grove, which is this incredible shopping area in LA.  It’s like a mall, but beautiful.

While they all hung out there, Meaghan and I went on a little date to Backyard Bowls for some delicious acaí bowls!  This was my first time trying a real acaí bowl and aI left completely hooked.

After an hour or so, we met back up with the gang, walked around a bit at the Grove and tried one of these croissant donuts.

Meaghan left shortly after that, so we hugged and said goodbye and ‘see you soon’ and we were off to catch our own taxis to the airport.  It was a sweet ending to an amazing trip and one that I think I will always look back on.  I am already secretly planning next year’s trip, but this time I am thinking more about a national park trip!