Mom Visits SoCal — Fadetoblake 🎥

My family lives on the other side of the country, and I don’t get to see them as much as I wish I could. This past weekend, my mom took advantage of the 3-day weekend and flew out to see me. She came a couple years ago and we did a good chunk of things around LA, so this time we wanted to do some exploring outside the city.

I left work a little early on Friday, and we headed about 2 hours north to stay the night in Santa Barbara. Technically in Central California, Santa Barbara is a Mediterranean climate and sometimes promoted as the “American Riviera” (the contrast of the mountains next to the coastline gives it some great views). We spent most of the day on State Street, the name for the main drag in SB that’s famous for its pedestrian friendly shopping that lines both sides of the street. After that, we went to Stearn's Wharf, the main pier in Santa Barbara.

We checked out the Santa Barbara Mission, too.

Sunday we went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market, then headed down to Orange County to the Anaheim Packing District to eat crepes.

On Monday, we woke checked out Laguna, Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach before heading back to LA.

It was great having my mom out here, and spending time like that with her was long overdue. It’s great to show her a piece of my life out here. In the words of Michael J. Fox, “Family is not an important thing. It's everything.” And I’d listen to someone who can travel back in time.