California Day Trip - Day 13/14 San Diego and La Jolla

From Corona, we then drove to La Jolla.  I was really looking forward to it as it looks amazing from the photo.  However, I was greatly disappointed.  

It was so crowded.  It wasn't even the weekend!

We had to wait for a little while to get a table at the balcony of the popular George's at the cove
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g32578-d517327-Reviews-George_s_at_the_Cove-La_Jolla_San_Diego_California.html

Lovely view but the food was rather average.

We then drove to San Diego.  We stayed at the Gaslamp quarter. 

We went to the rooftop bar at the Marriott hotel for a drink.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g60750-d498304-Reviews-San_Diego_Marriott_Gaslamp_Quarter-San_Diego_California.html

I cannot rememer the name of the restaurant.
We were so disappointed.

The veg fritter starter was nice.
However, the kebab was overcooked, blend and stiff.  We don't normally do it but we had to send it back.

California Road Trip - Day 13 Fender guitar factory, Corona, LA

Do call beforehand to confirm that they are opened.

There was a private event and it was closed on the day we wanted to visit.  We had to reschedule our holiday in order to fit it in

http://www2.fender.com/features/visitor-center/#factory-tour

The tour was very interesting, especially for my husband who is very into making guitars.

Very in depth explanation of the process and how they control the quality of their guitar.  

They also have lots of famous guitars hung up at the visitor centre

California Road Trip - Day 11/12 Los Angeles

Keith got a Camaro convertible for the day :-p 

We drove to Malibu beach but couldn't find anywhere to park.  

I googled best lobster roll in LA and read about blue plate oysterette.  

We went to the one at Santa Monica : 

http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/blue-plate-oysterette-santa-monica

Ceviche

For Lobster roll with mac n cheese as the side.

The waitor there was very friendly and gave us some great recommendation of where to go in LA.  

We are not too interested in going to places like hollywood boulevard, we want to know where the local hangs out.  He recommended going to Main street at Santa Monica, Abbot Kinney Boulevard at Venice and Manhattan beach - and I am glad that we took his advice :-)

Santa Monica

Main street, Santa Monica

We dropped by for a scoop but I forgot to take a photo: 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/three-twins-ice-cream-santa-monica

We lovedddd Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Lots of trendy little shops and cafe
Love the graffiti

Apparently on the first Friday of each month, the road would be filled with food trucks
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/first-fridays-los-angeles-2
We saw two but didn't eat there.

Instead we went to 3 square cafe and have pretzel burger and fish taco instead 

http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/3-square-caf%C3%A9-and-r%C3%B6ckenwagner-bakery-venice

I saw someone ordering mini sandwich sampler ( where you can pick 3 from the list) looks good too

We then went to Chocolatier blue for icecream.  

We had plum sorbet.  It was very refreshing.

Apparently their venice branch is now closed :(  

It is still available in San francisco, Berkeley and Salt Lake city though.

https://www.chocolatierblue.com/locations/

Their chocolate looks amazing.  We didn't try any though.

Then coffee at intelligentsia. 

http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/intelligentsia-coffee-venice

We then went to Manhattan beach for a stroll..  and house hunting :p ( I wish.... )

Walked past this creamy but I really couldn't have anymore icecream for the day :p 

Their "cream wich" looks interesting though

We actually wanted to go to the fish market intially but it was closed :(
Didn't realize it's only opened till 7/7.30pm
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/quality-seafood-redondo-beach

We went to the r10 Social house instead.
There was a private party upstairs that evening.  Otherwise, I read that the view from there is amazing.
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/r10-social-house-redondo-beach

Smoked salmon starter

Chicken and waffle

Seared tuna

Love the interior and the food was good in general :-)
Didn't have any space for dessert unfortunately.

We went up to the Griffith Observatory for the view

We cannot leave without taking a photo of the hollywood sign

We have also been to Pho So 1 for some authentic vietnamese. 

The pho was soooooooo gooood.  I finished it before I had time to take a photo :p 

http://www2.fender.com/features/visitor-center/#factory-tour