GRISWOLDDAD
Parenting, Entertainment, and Travel Tips
Things to Do in California
California's a big state! With a state this big, there's lots to do and see. *To see the top yearly events of California, near LA, click here. For the yearly events in and around San Diego, click here. For the ones in and around San Francisco, click here. *
Anaheim
Home of Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. It may also be the most hectic place on earth when you're there trying to fit everything in, so remember to slow down and enjoy the fun with your family. It's why you're there! I know not every kid gets to visit this one or the one in Orlando, but in a perfect world, they would.
While most people flock to Disneyland while in Anaheim, people shouldn't forget about Knotts Berry Farm. Touted as America's 1st theme park, it really has a lot of rides, including some huge rollercoasters.
Bass Lake
Have you ever seen the movie, The Great Outdoors, and thought that town would be a wonderful place to visit? Well, this is the place it was filmed! Also, it's close to Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the chance to go here yet to see if it has that small town family camp feel. I sure hope it does though.
Big Sur to Monterey
This is some of the most beautiful driving of the famous Pacific Coast Highway. This area is known for its beaches, sailing, rocky coastlines, and authors. Jack Kerouac's novel, "Big Sur" was based here, as was John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row." Plus, the Bixby Creek Bridge on the Pacific Coast Highway is an architectural site to see! It's one of the tallest single span concrete bridges in the world and one of the most photographed bridges in America.
Carlsbad
Another amusement park, LEGOLAND! Legoland California is a theme park and miniature park based around the Lego toy brand.
Death Valley
Death Valley National Park is a national park in California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada. It lays between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts. Great desert views! Also this is one of the 2 best places in the US to see salt flats, seen below behind the Badwater Basin sign. Basically salt covers the ground as far as the eye can see. The other US salt flat is in Bonneville, Utah.
Humboldt County
From the desert to giant forests! The Avenue of the Giants is one of the best places to view the giant redwood trees. This world famous scenic drive is filled with outstanding photo opportunities of the trees that are the tallest type of tree in the world! Go see one of the 3 remaining drive-thru trees, Shrine Drive-Thru Tree, and Drive-Over Tree: (Humboldt Redwoods State Park 13078 Avenue of the Giants, Myers Flat, CA 95554). You can drive your car through a redwood tree or over a fallen redwood log. Your kids will like the two 2-story tree houses and the children's walk-through stump. Nearby Leggett has the Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree. The last of the 3 drive through trees is the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, CA.
Another desert park, so again there are some really great, interesting views. This one includes parts of both the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and is named "Joshua Tree" because of all the Joshua trees within the park.
Lake Tahoe
Located high up in the Sierra Nevada near the border of California and Nevada, this is a beautiful town with casinos, ski resorts in the winter and swimming and boating in the summer, hiking, and natural beauty.
Los Angeles
Too much to do here, so I had to make a page just for this city! Click here.
Napa Valley
Part 1 of "Wine Country" in California. The Wine Country is an area in northern California known world-wide as a premium wine-growing region. You can tour the great wineries, and there are plenty of great restaurants. Great places to see while there: Robert Mondavi Winery, Rubicon Estate, Domaine Chandon, Sterling Vineyards, Schramsberg, Swanson Vineyards
Oakland
Ok...there's a few cities that you have to be careful when visiting because they're known for being a bit dangerous. Oakland is one of those...but act accordingly while there, and this city can be fun with some interesting historical things to see. This is the home of Jack London, famous American novelist of books like Call of the Wild and White Fang.
At Jack London Square, you can see Jack London's cabin brought down from the Yukon (recreated from parts of the original) or visit the bar where he'd sit and write his stories, Heinold's First and Last Chance. This is one of the oldest bars in America. The name of the bar refers to the time in which, for many sailors, the pub was the first and last chance to drink alcohol heavily before or after a long voyage.
Also, while at the Square, I was able to rent a kayak and row around on the San Francisco Bay, which was exhilarating and a lot of fun.
Salinas
Have you ever read a John Steinbeck novel? If not, you should. I hesitated too, while I was in school, as I feared it would read slowly with boring "old speak" like some other classics do...but no, not this guy. His immortalization of the Mother Road and the experiences of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression with novels like Grapes of Wrath and Tortilla Flats, are beautiful reads. Well, his birthplace and the museum honoring him can be visited here in his hometown of Salinas.
San Diego
San Diego, like Los Angeles, has a lot of things to do. So, it deserves its own page. Click here to see it.
San Francisco
Once again, we've hit a city in California that just requires its own page. There is SO much to do in San Francisco, even more if you count its outlying areas like wine country! Click here to see San Fran, but the outliers like Napa Valley and Sonoma are right here on this page, because they deserve their own space.
Sonoma
Wine Country part 2. Again, this area also has plenty of beautiful wineries to tour and wonderful restaurants to eat at. Places to see: Buena Vista Winery, Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa, Jack London State historic Park.
Valencia
Ok, I know you're tired of all the amusement parks California has to offer...whew! But, how about an amusement park that has the world record for number of roller coasters? Six Flags Magic Mountain has 19, yes 19, roller coasters in one park! They could've stopped at 17 to beat everyone else, but no, they said, "we're going 19!"
Plus, this park is where National Lampoon's Vacation filmed "Wally World". So, since the Griswold's are the namesake of this site, I had to include this park, and you should too!
Venice Beach and Santa Monica
These are two of the most famous beaches in the world! There’s always something to do at Santa Monica's famous pier where there's amusement park rides, an aquarium, and festival food.
Then at Venice Beach, there are a ton of street performers, including mimes, jugglers, flame-eaters, and artists selling everything you can imagine, from paintings and crafts to giant metal Transformers statues. Protestors and Philosophizers blend together. Magicians perform magic acts, and weightlifters show off at the famous "Muscle Beach". Sand sculptors create giant works of art that you cannot simply call a "sand castle". There's still so much more that Venice Beach offers. The main strip for Venice Beach, where all of this comes together, is Ocean Front Walk. This strip is a 3/4-mile concrete boardwalk with stores, restaurants and fast-food spots, flea markets, and the aforementioned artists.
I will say, I was very surprised when I got to the beach and ran to put my feet into the Pacific ocean...to find that it was REALLY cold ... in July! This puzzled me. I tried to think back to all the TV shows and movies where the California beaches are always filled with people on the beach. But, then it hit me, they are, more often than not, on the beach and not in the water. Surfers wear wetsuits. Then there's Baywatch...so people DO get in at some point. So, I asked a local (in San Diego) and he said that the waters tended to get warmer in August and September. I think I'll just stick to my warm Atlantic, gulf-stream-filled ocean.
Yosemite is one of the largest parks in the USA. It's known for its beautiful granite cliffs and waterfalls. Spots that you'd want to try to see while there include Yosemite Falls, Glacier Point, Half Dome, Mist trail/Vernal Falls, Ansel Adams Gallery, and Tuolumne Meadows. A good place to get a pic of Yosemite valley is from 'Tunnel View', a scenic pull-off on State Route 41.
If you're in Yosemite around the second week of February, you should also see horsetail falls, which under the right conditions, the weather makes the water appear to glow orange and red, creating a "fire fall". There's also ice skating and snow boarding at Yosemite in the winter.
Hiking to Half Dome is over 14 miles with steep ascents. Mist Trail to Vernal Falls and back is only 2.5 miles. Four Miles trail is actually 9.6 when doing a round trip, taking you from Yosemite Valley to the Glacier Point visitor center. Yosemite Falls trail is 7.2 miles round trip and takes you to the top of the falls, which happen to be the tallest falls in North America. Panorama Trail takes you past Panorama Point but also gives you views of Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls, Illilouette Falls, and Half Dome, but is 8.5 miles one way!
