Travel News

One-Tank Trips: Los Angeles to Laguna Beach

Margot Black
Locations in this article:  Los Angeles, CA San Diego, CA

Going Green Beyond the Hotel’s Border’s

The next morning, we joined the hotel’s complimentary Living Green Tour. Walking around the Learning Center our enthusiastic naturalist tour guide, gave us a crash course in what it really means to live green.

In that spirit we decided to hardly drive, save on gas and walk around Laguna, as it’s such a pretty town. We took a stroll around Main Street, before wandering onto the beach and enjoy additional time with our toes in the sand. For a relatively small town, there’s so much to see including Dana Point Harbor and the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Here are a few things we enjoyed:

  • Main Beach Toys & Games: This fun little store on Laguna Avenue is a must-visit priority if you have kids. Their selection of toys is amazing–our son is still carrying his “Make Yourself Into A SuperHero” book.
  • Pizza Lounge: For super affordable food, walk to the Pizza Lounge along South Coast Highway, which offers both dine-in and take-out service. Their famous Santa Fe taco pizza easily fed three hungry mouths, along with House Special Salad.
  • Pacific Mammal Aquarium: The fantastic Pacific Marine Mammal Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine mammals stranded along the Orange County coastline. They also put a lot of time and effort into increasing public awareness of the marine environment through education and research. Visitors can tour the facilities which include a rehabilitation center (animals treated included seals and sea lions), and gift shop.
  • Three Seventy Common: This restaurant made our last evening in Laguna a night to remember. Their Sunday Night Social, which served up the same menu – family-style – to every table in the room. It was unique to share a common experience with our fellow diners. We all ate grilled artichokes with garlic aioli, California-style tri-tip steak and spring succotash, followed by yummy toasted strawberry shortcake.

Our journey back to Los Angeles, took us to an almost empty tank of gas, and although the view from the I-5 is not what you’d call pretty, we certainly had lots of memories to sustain us on the drive home. We learned that being green is not only simple but rewarding too. Thanks Laguna Beach for the environmental inspiration.

For more information on Laguna Beach, check out:

By Margot Black for PeterGreenberg.com. Visit Margot on the Web at https://blackinktravelwriting.com.

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