November’s trip of 2023 brought us to sunny California!
Our final destination was Anaheim but since options for one-way flights are limited, we decided that on the way there we would do a layover in Vegas to avoid any issues. The flights were rather easy & while in Vegas, we saw Tracy Morgan! It was pretty wild! We flew to Santa Ana from Vegas on a Friday to avoid LA on Frontier.
From SNA we headed to Newport Beach. I wanted to go to as many piers as we could so we started there. The views were stunning. This pier was comprised mostly of fisherman but we still enjoyed it.
Afterwards we headed to Marina Park (our car was parked right next to it) & enjoyed the views of the marina & boats coming & going in the Newport Channel.
The next day, we headed to Disneyland & no, we didn’t even enter the park! We wanted to walk around their Downtown Disney District & we just had breakfast there at Earl of Sandwich Tavern. It was phenomenal & I am glad we had that experience of not having to rush over to the park. We went into a few shops & moseyed around but now we won’t have to waste time there the next time we visit.
After that, we drove over to Huntington Beach for more views along the pier. While we were there, they were having a Para Surfing competition which was awesome to watch. We also saw a bunch of dolphins from the pier as well, highly recommend!
Next we headed to Irvine primarily for the Great Park Balloon Ride but they were all filled up on reservations which was a major fail. This is a free attraction but you need to get their early to get tickets. Shortly after, we headed to the main reason why were in California.. you guessed it! Monster Jam! We got tickets for the All-Star Challenge which was of course an awesome time. My son also liked seeing the stadium as he’s a big baseball fan so we got two things checked off at once.ย
Our last day full day we booked an early whale watching tour with Newport Landing. This was the highlight of our trip for me personally. We saw dolphins & a few humpback whales, it was surreal & I can’t wait to do it again.ย
After that, we headed to our final pier of this trip: Balboa Pier. We also walked around Balboa Village & grabbed some bites to eat.
We flew back home out of LAX aboard Spirit on Monday with zero issues. All in all, another fantastic trip for 2023!
Head back to the TRAVEL section for additional trips!
