my favorite part of the girls trip to Cali

Like I said in my last post, I've never been on a "girls trip." Until a few weeks ago.

And I had never been farther west than Missouri. 

Wheels up for a 4 hour flight to the west coast with just a couple girls I'm friends with through church had me nervous. As in almost backing out the night before nervous. But somehow I conquered my nerves. 

Obviously I had never seen this kind of scenery outside my window before. 

The flight to LA was smooth and I was thankful for a non-stop flight but it still felt like a long time to be in a box. In the air. 

We landed in LAX (oh and everybody was NOT wearing stilettos) and easy breezy got our rental car and headed off. 

My favorite part of the entire trip was probably the day we went to Venice Beach to rent bikes and ride along the coast. 

A close second is Joshua Tree National Park.

Venice Beach seemed like a pretty chill beach town. Not that different from the little beach towns I'm used to visiting in Florida. They even had Starbucks.

At the pier we saw several locals doing some fishing and a couple skateboarders. 

 I know I look like a total tourist with my camera backpack but I was really glad I had my big camera for the trip... also, those sandals made for some real cute tan lines

 This gentleman said he was cutting up a fish to use as bait for the "big ones"

We rented bikes at the Venice Beach pier and rode them a few miles down to Santa Monica Pier. It was $30 for an all day rental so we did that to avoid having to watch the clock.

I think I mentioned in my previous post that my friends did all the planning - when I saw bike ride along the beach on the itinerary my inner 9 year old did a cartwheel. As a kid I absolutely LIVED on my bike. 

Riding along the coast was so cool. Besides the fun of riding, it was nice to see the beach all along the way and do some people watching. Which is one of my favorite things to do.

We stopped off at Santa Monica Pier and rode the ferris wheel at Pacific Park and walked around a bit. It's a neat little area with plenty to do. The ferris wheel ride cost $8.50. 

I mean did you even ride the ferris wheel if you didn't take a selfie and throw a peace sign come on

 view from the ferris wheel looking toward the pier

 view of the beach from the ferris wheel - by the way, this ferris wheel is solar powered 

 looking back at other rides in Pacific Park from atop the ferris wheel 

The end of Route 66 is in Santa Monica...

This was just half our day but I'm gonna stop here so I don't overload this post with pics. 

If you get the chance to ride bikes along the beach anywhere in the world I say do it! Major fun!

There's just something about riding a bike and the wind blowing on your face that feels good. ahhhh