It’s a tough call but probably my favorite day during our recent southern California trip was when we headed north from Oceanside to check out Laguna. Like most of our days we started with a great coffee and avocado toast fix from Revolution Roasters. I realize how snobby this sounds but I’m not quick to recommend coffee places for the coffee. I’ve been to tons of coffee shops that are adorable and fun and trendy and many with yummy treats/foods. Coffee shops that have coffee I’d actually recommend are much harder to come by. Revolution Roasters is the real deal. Both Hubs and I are were super pleased with the coffee. The avocado toast was one of the best I’ve ever had.
We headed north in our rental car to scope out the Laguna area. Fun fact about my hubby: he likes to rent nice cars on vacation. At first I thought it was silly and a waste, but since I’ve seen how much joy it brings him to try out luxury car I realize YOLO, ya know? This trip we rented a Jaguar F-PACE. It was a comfortable ride that the 5 of us fit in pretty easily. Our kids are good in the car but if Rob & I aren’t interested in playing car games or answering questions about the meaning of life then we usually turn on our favorite kid podcast, WOW in the World. It’s mostly a science based but definitely geared to kids. It’s completely enjoyable to adults as well.
First stop was Aliso beach. This was honestly just a lucky find. Someone in the car desperately needed a bathroom so we pulled over. And then we decided to stay because it was beautiful. The beach is right off the parking lot. There was a wide sandy beach and nice crashing ocean waves.
While we were at Aliso we caught site of a pair of dolphins and a breaching whale! It was not crowded at all and the kids had so much fun digging in the sand and jumping waves.
South from the main beach area is a nice tide pool area with beautiful marine flora and fauna.
We finally pulled ourselves away from Aliso and drove up to check out the main strip of Laguna. We had heard about Banzai Bowls. We are hooked on acai ever since Kauai (read more here) so when the line was out the door we knew it would be good. While Rob and the kids chilled out waiting for our order, I meandered up the street for some window shopping. I popped into several darling shops including Laguna Surf & Sport, The Shop Laguna & Twig).
After acai we made our way to scope out the tide pools. The tide pools of the southern California coast were a big draw for us. Our kids are really really into animals so I knew they would love exploring the little home and environments of all the amazing marine life. We found some street parking and walked through a neighborhood to find the entrance to Victoria beach.
After descending to the beach we headed right and climbed over the rocks and started exploring the pools. It was super cool. The waves were rushing in and out of some bigger openings, filling up with white swishy water and then retreating.
On the rock edge big sprays of water shot in the air when the waves timed right. We walked around the flat areas and peered into the little pools gazing at sea anemones and crabs and little fish and such. It was really fascinating.
The stone turret known as “Pirate Tower” stands amid the tide pool areas and offers such a cool other-wordly vibe.
The kids spent some more time jumping waves and getting wet at Victoria beach before we headed back to Laguna for dinner. We were pretty beachy so opted for something casual. We ate at Wahoo’s Fish Taco.
We ended this rad day taking in some of the most beautiful sky colors I’ve ever seen. The dramatic sunset left swirls of pink, orange and blue in the sky.
