Four Days, Three SoCal Cities

Hii!

I’ve been back home at Wellesley for almost four days now after a quick but packed four-day trip to California. I spent time in San Diego, Murrieta, and Los Angeles, going to beaches and restaurants and doing typical tourist activities with my friends from Wellesley. Cami—my friend doing research at USC this summer—took us around her hometown, brought us to her favorite restaurants and spots in SoCal, and introduced us to her high school friends. The weather was perfect—a very stark contrast to the 90 degree heat wave I’ve returned to at Wellesley. I’ve spent a lot of time the last few days surviving off of capri sun and popsicles, swimming in the lake, and strategically moving between air-conditioned buildings. It is nice to be back though! I’m glad to be working and giving tours again, and I’ve seen a few more of my Wellesley friends that are back on campus!

I’m still trying to catch up on sleep, but I wanted to write about some of my California trip highlights before the memories start to blur. Reuniting with my friends that I haven’t seen in a while was magical—it made me so happy to spend time with the people that I love in new cities that I also love!! Our first full day in San Diego, Cami and her home friend Skyleigh took me, Frida, and Jeanne around—we went to see San Diego State University’s campus (my younger sister is attending in the fall!), visited Balboa Park, had some really good shrimp nachos, and went to the beach.

We drove a couple of hours from San Diego to Cami and Skyleigh’s hometown, Murrieta, where we hiked a trail down to a creek (so so beautiful!!), and I got to have In-N-Out for the first time (definitely met my expectations, and I’ve been craving it ever since).

The next day we went to a couple more beaches in SoCal—this trip was my first time back at the beach in almost a year, and I got to swim, play volleyball with my friends, and eat some of our pre-packed snacks. We got froyo after and went to a really nice restaurant by the beach to celebrate Skyleigh’s 20th birthday!!

Our second to last day was spent in LA, where I did all the sightseeing and tourist things I could. We went to Grand Central Market for some food—I got dumplings and a dubai chocolate crepe (I don’t regret the crepe, but I do regret the cost). We rode the Angels Flight Railway, went to the Broad Museum in downtown LA, and visited Hollywood. I got to see the TCL Chinese Theatre—a movie palace where almost 200 Hollywood celebrities have left their handprints, footprints, and autographs on the concrete outside. We also walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was pretty cool.

We also went to the Griffith Observatory, my favorite part of LA; it’s where La La Land was filmed (one of my favorite movies!!), and you can see the Hollywood sign on the mountain.

We spent our last day in California back in San Diego! We went out to eat at a restaurant by the water for our final meal, where we had animal-shaped buns (they were so cute!).

We walked down to the beach, where we got to see seals and sea lions lounging on the shore, and had a mini picnic at a nearby park before we had to head to the airport.

It was honestly pretty devastating to have to leave my friends yet again—saying goodbye never seems to get easier. After four days of constant company, shared meals, beach trips, and sightseeing, it was a little odd to have to return to campus and real life, but I am happy to have had such a great mini vacation with my best friends! Yesterday I went down to Lake Waban—it’s not a California beach, but I love it just the same—and cooked some bok choy that Frida harvested as a botanic garden intern in one of the communal kitchens! It is nice to be back.

That’s all for my blog post today! Thanks for following along. 

Until next time! 

Bri❤️