Travel Blogger Gets A Summer Of Love Tour With San Francisco Tourism & Food And Drinks At The Beachcomber In Newport Beach
The variety of life in Los Angeles is one of the great things about being in this city.
My PubClub.com colleague and I experienced that in a fun-filled day and night that took us from a busy Metro downtown to a “I feel sooo relaxed” beach, to a little yet outstanding bar on another beach, to a night strolling around a cool Southern California coastal town with food and drinks a big part of the journey.
It’s all part of living the life of a travel blogger!
It began early – up at 6, at an event by 8 a.m. – in DTLA, or downtown Los Angeles. We were press guests of San Francisco Tourism, which was holding a breakfast for LA travel journalists on the rooftop of the Grammy Museum.
That night, we were guests along with Orange County foodie bloggers at the Bootlegger Bar (if ever there was a name of a bar fit for PubClub, this is it!), part of the Beachcomber bar at Crystal Cove south of Newport Beach.
To end the evening, we met a former roommate of mine and crashed at his place in San Clemente.
We had an ambitious schedule that initially included blasting down to Carlsbad to walk through waist-deep flowers at a flower farm, but I balked when my associate Chris pointed out they charge $14 to look at those flowers. I would come up with another plan that included a ferry ride.
The breakfast was great and we got to sit down with people from all manner of Bay Area Tourism: PR reps from Napa, Sonoma, the Tri-Valley which has just started a brewery tour aboard a beer bus, Pier 39 which is celebrating its 39th anniversary in 2017, the Presidio which I learned has weekly Sunday parties on a lawn that includes yoga and cocktails (11 a.m.-4 p.m.), City Pass, the Museum of Modern Art, even the wild Bay to Breakers.
It was at this location because this is the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love in San Francisco, and the Grammy Museum has a photo display from Jim Marshall, an “inside” photographer from the Haight/Ashbury days. So after the breakfast, we got to not only see his pictures (and get in touch with our inner hippie self) but also tour the Grammy Museum, which is really cool.
This ended at about noon and we had until about 5 when we were due at the Bootlegger Bar and while it can take that long sometimes (or seem like it) to get from DTLA to Orange County, traffic was thankfully light this time of the day and had a few hours to kill.
From DTLA To Driving Down PCH & Onto Balboa Island
So we drove down the freeway and exited at Seal Beach. We drove along the coast – past Huntington Harbor, Huntington Beach and into Newport Beach – until I got a sudden inspiration to stop at Balboa Island.
Chris has never been there; it’s a small village that reminds me of the fictional New England town Amity Island in the movie Jaws. We walked along its beach path with rich people’s houses on one side and rich people’s private beach and boats on the other.
We then hopped on the Amity Island-ish ferry. It only goes a few hundred yards across the harbor to the Newport Peninsula but it’s pretty cool. The only other ferry I know of in Los Angeles is one in Marina del Rey.
And it only cost a buck. Take THAT flower farm!
Feeling parched, I suggested we get a beer in the legendary – legendary, anyway, to long-time Balboa and Newport locals – Village Inn bar and restaurant. It was dead as one might imagine on a Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 and the bartender seemed confused as to whether or not it was Happy Hour (it was not) but we did meet a local legend, a member of a highly popular Southern California surf band The Safaris.
To Crystal Cove For Food & Drinks At The Bootlegger Bar
When his friend learned we were headed to the Beachcomber, he insisted – repeatedly – that we bring him not one but two lobster roll sandwiches. Apparently they are that good.
We did not have the lobster roll, but can tell you the food we did have there was terrific. We had pulled pork, Mahi Mahi spring rolls, island roasted chicken (very moist) and my “oh you’ve GOT to have this” favorite, ahi tacos.
To wash it down they were passing out their house drink, the Pimms Cup and kept making them until, well, if we were not there working, we might have passed out on them.
Actually, as good as they were, the best drink they make is the Bloody Mary. It’s 20 ounces of pure pleasure, served in an oversized mason jar with with a crab claw and delicious grilled shrimp attached to the rim.
The Bootlegger Bar is the back bar to the Beachcomber restaurant, which is right on the beach in beautiful Crystal Cove. You have to park across PCH and either walk to take a shuttle. It’s basic with a dirt road leading to it but this rustic setting does not hide the fact that the food is sensational and the service is 5-star impeccable.
We were blown away by it.
Sunset In Laguna Beach
Then we guzzled some water and headed down Pacific Coast Highway, but I jumped out of the car to catch the sunset in Laguna Beach. I’m glad I did because I discovered a place that will have me rethinking always going to Las Brisas here in the future.
The Cliff is three levels of tables overlooking the Pacific Ocean and it also has a courtyard with a band and a bar that was just begging me to sit down and stay a while.
But we moved on, met up with the former roomie and walked through downtown San Clemente where we had a couple final beers in a pretty lively down-and-dirty bar.
In all, our day lasted 15 hours and we had traveled some 75 miles. We had seen skyscrapers, sand and a sunset.
There are not many places in the world where one can get that kind of variety in a single day, but you can do it in L.A.
And you don’t even need to be a travel blogger to do it.
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