Our Family Trip to California

I’m keeping this quick and simple and sharing exactly what we did on our trip to California.

Day 1 to Day 3

After we landed in LAX, we grabbed our rental car and made our drive towards Palm Springs. This trip was one day after we returned from Toronto visiting our family so I thought it was best to keep things slow and easy for the kids. We booked 3 nights at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas resort and it was the best decision for our family.

The resort was amazing, with a lazy river, water slides, pools and splash pad. All three of my kids had a blast. During the time we were there, the water park area (Splashtopia) was opened from 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm. Each day, my kids would spend the full 4 hours at Splashtopia, running between the water slides and lazy river. They never even went into the pool.

The area was small enough that I felt safe having them run around without me chasing them the entire time. The lazy river was only 3 ft deep so my 6-year-old was able to stand and have his head above water. To top it off, there is also a small beach area with sand and sand toys which my 2 year old loved. Make sure to get there early if you want to reserve lounge chairs. They also serve food and drinks which is super convenient.

During the summer months, the resort also offered free golfing. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. Just note, it is HOT during the summer so you’ll probably want to start early in the morning. Most days, it was 106 by 10 AM.  Nuno and my cousin’s husband golfed one round and had a blast.

Day 4

We checked out of the hotel and wanted to stop at Joshua Tree national park before we headed back to LA to stay with my cousin. We’ve been to Joshua Tree once with our oldest so I wanted to take a picture with all three of them beside a Joshua Tree. Well, that never happened, LOL. So, it turns out, Joshua Trees can only be seen at a specific part of Joshua Tree national park (the name is quite deceiving). Perhaps, we should have done more research.

There are a couple of entry points to Joshua Tree National Park and we opted for the entry point that we were closest to, Cottonwood Visiting Center. As you can guess, that entry point did not have any Joshua Trees and it would have been another 2 hours to get to the Joshua Trees.

We never intended to hike since we have three young kids and it was HOT HOT HOT. We opted not to make the 2 hour drive and just went to check out Cholla Cactus Garden which was so cool and equally as beautiful. The last time we went to Joshua Tree, we went to Hidden Valley Nature Trail and Key Views. You can find more things to do at Joshua Tree National Park here.

Day 5

Hollywood Sign

Lucas really wanted to see the Hollywood sign but he is not much of a hiker. Thanks to my cousin, we found a way to drive up as close as possible to the Hollywood sign. It is a residential area. There is no parking unless you are bold enough to parallel park on an incredibly steep hill. Here is the link to the location. From here, you can hike to the sign in approximate ½ an hour so it would take 1 hour to hike to the sign and back, which is the shortest we were able to find.

Funko Hollywood

We went to check out the Funko Hollywood store. I wasn’t too excited about this but honestly, the experience surpassed my expectations. They had so many incredible displays set up, with so many familiar characters. I was impressed. I wanted to get 5 Funko characters customized to resemble each member of our family but by the time we got there, they were sold out for the day. If this is something you would be interested in, make sure to get there early. I believe it would be $25 for each customized character.

Day 6

We woke up early and made our drive to Sequoia National Park. It was about a 4-hour drive from LA. Keep in mind, there is a lot of traffic in LA, so depending on the time of day, it could take much longer. We got our car pass in advance here. We only spent the day here.  If my kids were older, we would probably spend more time hiking and maybe even tried camping… maybe! We checked out Sherman Tree Trail, Giant Tree trail and wanted to go through the Tunnel log but couldn’t find it. By then, it was getting late so I wanted to make our way down the winding road of the mountain before it got dark. Also, the drive up made me feel a bit queasy, so something to keep in mind. We spent the night in Visalia. I do not recommend my hotel so I won’t be sharing here.

Day 7

Initially we thought we were going to head back to Sequoia to check out a few more trails but we opted not to. We thought about heading to SLO but at this point we’ve done quite a bit of driving on this trip and our kids were getting a bit restless. At the beginning of the trip, we thought about heading to Yosemite as well but unless we were flying back to Tampa from San Francisco, we didn’t want to make the 6+ drive back to LA with our baby girl. Next time! We then drove back to LA. We did make a stop at Rodeo Drive just to walk around a bit. Honestly, it was very underwhelming. Just a high-end outdoor mall in my opinion.

Day 8

We took it easy this day. We didn’t rush out first thing in the morning. We drove the kids to Santa Monica Pier and I’m pretty sure this was their favorite spot in LA. We walked around, had breakfast, walked through some shops, then headed to the Pier. Lucas’ exact words, “This is such a fun area, so many restaurants, shops, beach and a CARNIVAL”. We played games, went on a few rides and ate too many unhealthy foods. We chose not to walk along the beach because, well, we’re from Florida and are surrounded by some amazing white sand and much warmer waters.

Day 9

We did want to do a few things on this day but in the end, I had to visit some family members in the LA area so we never had a chance to. Here are a few other places we wanted to check out with the kids: Malibu, Venice Beach and Santa Barbara.

If you do make a trip to California, I would suggest driving down or up the PCH. Nuno and I drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles 6 years ago and it was gorgeous. We checked out Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey and Big Sur.

Where we ate:

Palm Springs/Desert

Day 1: Resort – we kept it simple the first night

Day 2: Kitchen 86 + Bar – to my surprise, the food here was quite good.

Day 3: 1501 Uptown Gastro Pub – Everything tasted great

A few other places that were recommended to me: Eight4Nine and Tropicale

Los Angeles

Gracias Madre – a beautiful and tasty vegan restaurant

Porto’s Bakery & Cafe  – Amazing potato balls and Nuno was obsessed with the Guava and Cheese Strudel

Jeong Yuk Jeom – I love Korean BBQ and it’s not something you can easily get in Tampa so I wanted to check one out while we were in California. This place did not disappoint.

For tips on traveling with young kids, check out this blog post here.