A big thank you to Dawn for finding Crystal Cove Beach Cottages near Newport Beach, CA. We joined the Denver Millers for nearly a week there during spring break, and the trip was wonderful.
The Place
We slept in the Painter’s Cottage. Doesn’t it look all beach-y with our colorful towels hanging on the porch? We had one family of four (mom, dad, two young boys) and another couple staying here. There was only one bathroom, although there is a public bathroom up the trail a bit. Sleeping arrangements were one queen bed, two sets of bunk beds, and a day bed. Not ideal for four adults and two kids, but it worked. The cottages are sparse, but comfortable enough. And you walk out your front door onto the beach. Really, what more can you ask?
We saw dolphins and sea lions (alas, the pictures of the sea lions didn’t show much). Upon seeing the dolphins for the first time, Owen (age 4) declared it was the best vacation he’d ever had.
We did have some really warm weather while we were there, mixed in with a couple cooler days. No matter the weather, a fun time on the beach was had by all.
The Beach
The beach was, as expected, beautiful. The sandy area was quite large, so there was plenty of room for games of baseball, soccer, and tag, along with kite-flying. We had calm water some days and nice waves on other days. We didn’t do a whole lot of swimming, but the water was plenty warm enough for wading, and filling up pails for sand-castle construction.
We took a lot of walks on the beach, enjoying tide pools when we found them. We even saw a fogbow on Saturday morning before the fog lifted.
The couple pictures with what looks like a sand dune on the edge of the beach were taken on a half-day trip down to Laguna Beach with Simon and Owen.
After the Beach
A couple times we made it up the hill for delicious shakes at the Shake Shack, just above our cottage. One evening we were treated not only to ice cream, but a gorgeous sunset on the side.
After our stay at the cottage was complete, Tim and I had a day without the rest of the crew to do some sight-seeing on our own. We were very fortunate to be able to meet up with friends for lunch and a visit to the Manhattan Beach Pier Aquarium. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
After lunch, a nice drive took us via the (intentionally) scenic route to Santa Monica Pier. I really wanted to find this “Walk on L.A.” wheel you see me standing in front of, because I remembered seeing it when we were in L.A. for the 1993 Rose Bowl with the University of Michigan Marching Band. It took quite a bit of research before our trip for me to figure out where this thing was, but we found it, then headed to the airport.
Disney!
Of course we couldn’t spend nearly a week in the Los Angeles area and not visit Disneyland. First off, Tim and I are big amusement park fans. And second, we had two little boys with us who had never been to a Disney Park. We did take them to Cedar Point the summer before, but they were too small then to ride any of the roller-coasters.
Not so this visit. They were tall enough to ride Star Tours (a little scary), Space Mountain (they liked the dark), and Thunder Mountain (fun). Not quite tall enough for Indiana Jones. Maybe next time.
Scott and Tim took them on some spinny rides too. Dawn and I said no way! We preferred to keep our lunch.
Almost all the rides we did were enthusiastically praised afterward. Even the scary ones. Buzz Lightyear not so much - shooting the ghosts was a little too scary to be enjoyable. At least for the kids. The adults thought it was fun.