Treasure Spots

In the past week, Luke and I have found two absolutely beautiful spots here in Southern California that I just want to share with everyone!

Trump National Golf Club of Los Angeles, Rancho Palos Verdes

On the Sunday I flew home from Portland, Luke and I decided to take a drive up the coast. We decided to go to the Palos Verdes Peninula just north of us. After we drove through the port and were up on the hills of the peninsula, it was like a whole other world.  Since most of the beaches down here are suburbs of LA, most of the homes look like anything else you'd see in the country, except you can get to the beach in 2 minutes. However, these homes truly looked like vacation homes with the cute architectural designs you would see in Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz. As we were driving along the coast line, taking in the breathtaking views (even now, every time we come over a ridge and see the vast ocean, it still takes my breath away), we saw a small sign for a beach park. We followed the signs and were unaware of just what exactly we were about to find.  We found ourselves at the Trump Golf Club of Los Angeles! We quickly realized that it was opened to the public, so we parked our car and went out to explore.  It kills me that words cannot describe (I'm not being cheesy, it seriously does) how beautiful it was.  Here was this beautiful golf course, with lots of grass for family picnics, covered with children playing and running through the lawn, with a million (well, probably billion) dollar view of the Pacific Ocean. The park within the golf course was so beautiful to stroll around.

Almost at the beach!

Panorama beach view

I Googled this to show just how beautiful the location is

It was so wonderful to see that such a prestigious place allows families of all kind to have a nice picnic and stroll around the grounds, while enjoying the beautiful world that God created. From the lawns we walked down to the beach which was very secluded. It was so wonderful to be so isolated in such a busy urban area. You would never guess that just two miles south of us was the largest Port in the US, the Port of Los Angeles, and 30 minutes northeast of us was the second largest city in the US, Los Angeles.

Fun Fact:
The Mitch and Cam wedding from Modern Family was filmed at the Trump Golf Club.

Los Liones Canyon Trail

Luke had a three day weekend for Easter (and who says California isn't religious enough), and so we decided to take the day to do some hiking which we haven't had a chance to do yet.  After much research, I found a trail to try.  Our biggest thing was that we wanted ocean views, and boy did we find a trail with ocean views.

We hiked the Los Liones Canyon Trail  in the Santa Monica Mountains. It hugs the west side of the montains, meaning almost the entire time we had views of the ocean.  Once we got high enough up, there were 180 degree views of the ocean, and also peaks of the LA skyline.

So much ocean!

Once at the top, you had the entire world in front of you.  We lucked out with a clear morning of no marine layer (the morning fog off the ocean) or smog, meaning the visibility was great! To the east was the LA skyline, the LA basin to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the West!

Santa Monica and the pier

And in the mean time, there's still been lots of time for Disneyland!