Day 7 and 8 of Our California Vacation: Hunington Beach and Vegas

Day 7: Hunington Beach and Vegas

Well I'm back with my last recap from our trip. You didn't think we would go to California and Not go to the beach did you? Anyways Saturday morning we were finally able to sleep in somewhat since we didn't have a park to get to before opening. So we took our time sleeping in and getting ready to leave the hotel. We decided that the beach we were going to go to was Hunington Beach cause i've heard it was pretty nice. Plus it was fairly close. So we packed up the car punched the beach into the GPS and we were on our way.

As I said before the GPS was great to have and I have no clue how I would have found our way around So Cal if we didn't have it. But there was many instances where it confused me and I still got lost for a moment. Well this happened when we were making our way to the beach. However I was kinda happy it happened because we stumbled across the Import Car store Super Autobacs. Being the fan of Import Cars that I am I had to stop in and check it out. Basically its a huge autoparts store like a Pep Boys but instead of your normal car care stuff they sell performance parts. Many of which are imported dirrectly from Japan. I had a good time looking around and wish we had a little more time (and money so I could by the 2,000 wheels I want for the Type R).

We finally got to downtown Hunington Beach so we found a parking spot and then walked down the main street there looking at all the surf shops and resturants that line the street. We got to the beach and just walked along the sand and watched the people out in the freezing cold ocean surfing and buggyboarding.

After walking the beach we walked to the end of the Hunington Beach Pier so we could ge some better views of the surfers and views of the city and beach and such. After our stop in Hunington beach we then headed to a nearby mall so we could get a Cinnabon since they don't have these back home. And once we had got that it was time to make the drive back to Vegas. Once again I got confused by the GPS and missed the turn we were suppose to take. So we ended up having about a 15 mile detour to get back in route to Vegas. But the detour took us thru where the recent fires in California had been. We were able to see some of the house that burn down from the freeway and it was just sad to see the distruction the fires caused.

We made it to Vegas in pretty good timing so we got to my aunts house and unpacked our stuff again since we would be staying with them again. Unlike the first night we stayed in Vegas we were going out to the strip. I heard some of the Hotels put up some christmas decorations so I wanted to check this out since i've never been in Vegas during the Christmas season. Since I make many trips to Vegas each year I didn't need the GPS to get around the town. We first went to the Premium Outlets to do some shopping and we also got dinner there. Then we headed to the strip. We parked at the Imperial Palace (a perfect central strip location to park) and we headed north to the Vanician and the Palazo. Both had a few suttle christmas decorations but nothing major.

We then went across the street to the Wynn to see if they had any decorations up. Sure enough they at least put some lights on there trees inside and out.

We then made our way across the street and started heading back south thru Tresure Island and past the Marage. We cut thru TI but they didn't have anything set up and we didn't make it into the Marage.

I read online the Ceasars Palace usually decorates there cortyard for christmas but we were dissapointed to find no decorations there this year. Even inside they had almost no decorations except for a few in the forum shops.

Next stop was the Bellagio. Which was diffenitly the most christmas done hotel we could find. Right when you walk into the shops from the pedestrian bridge you could tell that christmas was there cause they had a christmas tree set up. We went out in front to watch the water fountain show and then we made our way thru to the garden area inside the hotel to see what christmas decorations were there. It was done up very pretty with almost everything being made out of flowers. Even the check in desk had christmas decorations behind it.

After the Bellagio we were so tired of walking (and it was getting late) so we decided to start heading back to the car to head back to my aunts. The casino smoke was so bad though so we decided to take the long way out the front of the bellagio to avoid it. But by doing that I found some great locations to take some pictures of the nearby resorts.

What usually takes about a 15 minute drive to get back to my aunts took us an hour. The Las Vegas Marathon was the next morning and so they had many of the roads around the strip closed off. after about 8 detours though we finally made our way back and ended our night.

Day 8 wasn't anything real exciting. Once again we slept in late and then packed up and hit the road to head back to Salt Lake. The drive was boring as usual and once were home it felt so nice. Unfortunatly though it was way cold and snowed the night we got home so we were really wishing we could be back in California where it was in the high 70's. But oh well. We had a great trip and can't wait to do it agian. One thing we recommend is to take an extra day to just relax in California. We spent all of our days at the Theme Parks Open to Close so we had no time to relax. It would have been nice to just have one extra day to do whatever. But I guess you live and learn right?

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed our trip recap. I know I wrote a novel pretty much but Since I added these recaps to our blog we will always have our trip to look back on and know what all we did. Anyways thanks for reading.