A Taste of L.A.
A Week in Los Angeles with Evie
January 19-23, 2020
A recent project for my day job as a software consultant took me to the City of Angels for several months. As soon as my daughter Evie heard I was going to be traveling to Los Angeles nearly every week for several months, she begged for me to take her along.
This isn’t exactly an opportunity that comes along every day, so in January of this year I let her tag along for one of my week long work trips. Memories like this are priceless, and I dragged my camera along for good measure.
We landed at LAX on Sunday morning, and headed to the rental car aisle to pick our car. When I told Evie we could pick any car parked in the lot, she reponded by asking, “Which one is the fastest?”
Smiling the wide smile of a proud father, we grabbed the appropriate car and headed straight for Venice Beach.
We checked out the colorful grafiti near the beach and paused to watch some of the locals pratice their skills at the skate park.
There was no shortage of vivid colors, and I managed to get Evie to tolerate a couple of shots before we hit the Boardwalk.
Having just come off the plane from Colorado, we were a little overdressed for the beach. So after picking up some new sunglasses from a Boardwalk vendor, we got some ice cream and I gave Evie the Hollywood paparazzi treatment.
After walking up and down the legth of the Venice Beach Boardwalk, we decided to keep the California vibes going by cruising out to Malibu along the Pacific Coast Highway and hiking up to Point Dume, a gorgrous bluff that overlooks the Pacific.
The area was littered with photographers shooting couples photos, swimsuit sessions in the surf, and the typical toursity stuff.
Evie and I even encountered a group of high school age boys that we overheard shouting in excitement about the local wildlife:
“Dude! I’ve never seen OTTERS before! Look at those otters!”
Evie and I spent the rest of the trip laughing about the oversized California “otters” that looked and sounded SUSPICIOUSLY like sea lions…
I once again got Evie to let me try to blend in with the locals and snap some shots with my conspicuous looking camera.
The next day, I found a discount on admission for a trifecta of L.A. attractions: The Los Angeles Zoo, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Armed with a plan for the day, we saddled up and headed to Griffith Park where we managed to be one of the first ones in line as the Zoo opened.
We were even lucky enough to snap a photo with Evie and one of those famous California Otters!
After powering through the Natural History Museum, we ended the day in Long Beach by closing down the Aquarium of the Pacific.
It was the end of a long day of walking, and despite complaints of being exhausted, Evie had just enough energy left to show off for the camera one last time outside the aquarium.
We capped off the L.A. experience the following evening by heading down to Malibu for dinner at Paradise Cove.
But along the way, I took Evie and our sporty rental car down Latigo Canyon Road, a fun and twisty mountain stretch that leads directly into Malibu via a beautiful overlook of Latigo Bay.
It just so happened that we were overlooking the bay right as Golden Hour hit, so we stopped to grab a couple final California memories.
It was a fantastic trip with my wonderful daughter, filled with memories that will last a lifetime.
I’m so thankful I had this opportunity to share Los Angeles with Evie, and I look forward to many more adventures in the future!
Oh, and we didn’t forget to grab a photo with the “fast car” that Evie picked to accompany us on our journeys in beautiful southern California…
