Did you know that the Los Angeles Times hosts a Travel show every year?
I didn’t …. until this year.
It was incredibly crowded and busy, and full of people trying to sell you things. But SO INTERESTING.
There was snorkeling and lassoing and surf lessons and golfing. There was an old greek man giving away alcohol and a booth where you could have your photo taken in cowboy or indian garb. There was an African musician. There were 2 (2!) booths giving away massages.
And piles and piles of paper with pretty photos, …

Allegedly – according to Wikipedia – Mentryville, CA was an oil boom town.
I’m not sure I believe it.
Right now it consists of a parking lot ($5 for parking??? give me a break), a house, a boarded up school and a couple barns.
Not too sure where the town would have been …..
For those of you who did NOT grow up in Santa Clarita with all kinds of urban legends about Mentryville and the cults that lived out there ….. Mentryville is basically a state part just on the outskirts of Santa …

Last weekend when we were … in that part of the state …. We stopped in San Luis Obispo to visit the California mission there.
Based on the amount of change that we had, we were in town for only about an hour. $1.25.
I want to be able to say that I’ve been to all the California missions. I’ve been to San Fernando (4th grade), Santa Barbara (4th grade) and now San Luis Obispo.
I love the California Missions.
I love the whitewashed walls against the red tile roofs against the gorgeous California …

One of Andrew’s co-workers is getting married in Paso Robles this April and I will be the wedding photographer. … Last Saturday they had an appointment at the venue, so Andrew and I drove up for the day (stopping by James Dean’s crash site on the way).
Have you ever been to Paso Robles? It’s wine country. When we turned onto the street where the venue is, it was just fields of grapevines in every direction … can’t wait to see it in April when they’re all green ….
When we arrived …

Saturday we made a pilgrimage to James Dean’s crash site.

Although, can you technically call it a pilgrimage if we just accidentally stumbled upon it.
Serendipity.
Andrew and I left early Saturday morning to go to Paso Robles to check out a wedding venue with his co-worker (my April bride/groom). Google Maps took us via the 5 north and 46 west.
The drive up we had been discussing future daytrips we could take (since California is awesome), including visiting James Dean’s crash site.
And not 1/2 an hour later we passed a highway sign that …

Elephant seals visit the coast

California’s oldest and largest state park

New Year’s weekend Andrew and I had the incredibly rare occurrence of having 4 days off TOGETHER (and in a row!)
All without using my precious vacation time!
We used this time to visit some of our dearest friends in Oakland …. and we took the long way there.
We’ve used our Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways book in the past (on a road trip to Las Vegas) and on New Year’s Eve we used it again to drive up the 1, along the California coast, to the San …

Another slice of Southern California living ….
The Humane Society chapter where my cousin works in San Luis Obispo …
{I wish we could have a cat}

And so continues the chronicling of our spur-of-the-moment Hann family trip to Disneyland.
My 3rd visit in a year. My first visit with Andrew in about 18 months. My first visit with my parents in who knows how long … 15+ years??
It. was. HOT.
As in I had to get napkins to sponge the sweat off of my face, and I never took out the cardigan that I brought.
Ugh.
After Splash Mountain, we headed over to California Adventure (where Kevin had never been), and visited a nice, cool place that we could sit …

As I mentioned, a couple weeks ago my family came into town spur-of-the-moment …
Kevin had just a few days before having to report to his new job, so all of them came out to Southern California and the 5 of us went to Disneyland for the day….
My 3rd trip in a year.
Andrew and I love Disneyland … I don’t know why we don’t have season passes yet …
The park was just starting to get decorated for Halloween (so Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion were closed) …
Once we got into …

As mentioned, Labor Day weekend, Andrew and I went down to San Diego to hang out with the Haugens and try to snorkel with sharks …
The original plan was to stay with Jamie and Zack (they even got a futon in anticipation of guests), but when I called her Saturday afternoon she told me everyone was staying at her Uncle Lee’s beach house in Del Mar and there was room for me and Andrew too!
Lee is selling this beach house so it was the last only time that we could …

The Sunday of Labor Day weekend we were down in San Diego specifically to go snorkeling with leopard sharks with Jamie and Zack and the rest of the Haugens…
Snorkeling. With. Leopard. Sharks.
Check out this blog post by photographer Chris Keeney for photos and video.
Some of my friends at work were a bit concerned for our safety. They thought that I would get cornered by the sharks and they’d gang up on me in their attack.
Never you fear. We survived unscathed.
Early(ish) Sunday morning we caravaned to La Jolla Shores, rented snorkeling …

Labor Day weekend we invited ourselves to hang out with the Haugens in San Diego.
As soon as Andrew got off work Saturday afternoon we hopped in the car and drove down to Del Mar.
Sharon’s brother currently owns a beach house there. He is always so nice and the family was staying at the beach house while they were in town.
And we crashed it.
With the Haugens’ permission.
This beach house is my idea of fantastic, because it is not RIGHT on the sand (i.e. within sound distance of the drunk beach-goers), but …

At the end of August, we visited the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood, run by The Cinefamily.
This place is great! One more reason we love living in Los Angeles – We drove there via Sunset Blvd, through the hills and the gorgeous neighborhoods and big trees that make up Bel Air and Beverly Hills.

Into Hollywood, where there is a music or comedy venue every block. I love L.A.
From their site – info about the theatre:
Built in 1942 by John and Dorothy Hampton, The Silent Movie Theatre ran for decades as …