Travel Adventures: California, August 2014

Before my I began my new life in Arizona, my family and I spent a week together in LA! It seemed to be the perfect way to offset the jet lag and spend one last week together before I spent the year away from them! 

It was definitely a week to remember and we created memories to last a life time. 

Our journey started on the 6th August where we flew from London Gatwick to LAX. Side note: if you're looking for a cheap flight to hop across the Atlantic (in either direction!) then check out Norwegian Airlines. I have all of my flights between here and home booked through them. They're all brand new planes with wifi - makes a 9+ hour flight much more bearable!

We arrived in LA relatively late in the evening and made the drive down to Long Beach, where we would be staying. Our little beach house was gorgeous. Just one block away from the beach with an amazing outdoor seating area and two blocks away from all of the restaurants- we were in heaven. 

We spent 6 out of the 7 days we were in California on the beach. We explored Long Beach, Belmont Shore, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be Manhattan. Everything about it appealed to my personality. It was gorgeous and it actually reminded me a lot of the atmosphere from my home city. Spending a few hours on the beach each day was the perfect way to relax after an understandably hectic few weeks leading up to my departure from the UK! Listening to the waves and people watching made for a great week!

I couldn't write this post without mentioning Disneyland! My sister and I are just a little bit obsessed(!) so we practically BEGGED my parents to take us and how could they say no? We have so many amazing family memories at Disney and this trip just added to them. We did both parks in a day and got everything in that we wanted to apart from 1 ride! Highlights for me included Tower of Terror (always!), Mickey's Soundsational Parade and Toy Story Mania. We were there from when the parks opened to when they closed after the fireworks - it was safe to say we were exhausted!

One of the biggest highlights of my California trip was meeting up with 4 of my favourite Tone It Up girls! I've known these girls online for what seems like forever so the fact that they wanted to meet me, to welcome me to the States and go for dinner was not only humbling, it was seriously exciting! Janae, Alyssa, Stephanie, Shannon and I all went for dinner at Simmzy's and it felt like we had been friends (in real life!) for years. I'm so grateful to Tone It Up for bringing us together and even more grateful that the girls made the effort to meet me. It will never be forgotten! 

California was the perfect way to start my time here in the US! I hope to go back again and not just to fly in and out of LAX! A piece of my heart belongs in California and I think it always will!! 

Love always,

Georgia