Lazy Morning in Laguna Beach

This past Martin Luther King Day, my friend Jenny asked if I’d be up for a day trip somewhere in the vicinity of Los Angeles. YES! I am always itching for a trip. Despite having lived in LA for around eight years total, there are still pockets I’ve never checked out. We settle on exploring Laguna Beach and San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. Today’s post features our first stop in Laguna.

Since it’s a holiday we don’t encounter any traffic on our way down to the O.C. (I gleefully deliver the line, “Welcome to the O.C., bitch!” and then have to backtrack and explain the reference to Jenny, who did not watch that TV show back in the mid-2000s). Metered parking is easily available in town but it does appear to fill up by the time we leave around lunch. We park and set out to walk the main beach.

Jenny happily snaps away with her DSLR. I am relieved that she enjoys stopping for photos, too — so I often feel guilty for slowing down my travel companions when I frequently pause for photos. But we are in sync!

The Inn at Laguna Beach is situated right along the coast; there’s a public walking path that runs in front of it. I would happily come back and stay here — the grounds are just lovely. Jenny pulls up their website to find that the mid-week price is $200/night for the cheapest room. Not bad given how upscale this place is.

Walking path along the coast, dotted on either side with palm trees:

Check out the tide pools below — I wish I had proper footwear to explore them.

This is one of the wealthier communities in the United States and they clearly take pride in these impressive horticulture accomplishments. The landscaping along this stretch is beautifully designed and maintained.

There’s plenty of art work and sculptures on display too, like this whale:

How’s this for a postcard shot:

These beaches are all public (actually, I recently learned that all beaches in California are public) and accessible by staircases along the walking path.

We head back to feed the meter and walk around the downtown shops. They’re mostly high-end places but it’s nice to window shop.

We walk less than a mile up the main drag to Laguna Coffee Company. I initially planned to visit Koffee Klatch a little further up the road because they have great Yelp reviews, but we stumble across this place first and can’t resist immediate caffeine.