SoCal Travel

(See Mar 2026 Trip post.)

Reciprocal

NARM ROAM and Mod/Co

• LA: Japanese American National Museum, MOCA of LA, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Autry Museum of the American West, GRAMMY Museum, Pacific Asia Museum, American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), LA PLaza de Cultura y Artes, Italian American Museum of LA, LA Contemporary Exhibitions, Hammer Museum, Museum of Neon Art, Craft Contemporary, Holocaust Museum LA, Fowler Museum UCLA, Chinese American Museum, Amory Center for the Arts, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, Palos Verdes Art Center, Pasadena Museum of History, The Gamble House, Skirball Cultural Museum, California Botanic Garden, Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, Sasse Museum of Art, Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum, Catalina Museum, Lancaster MOAH
• OC: Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden, Bowers Museum, MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center, Orange County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, Fullerton Arboretum, UCI Museum of California Art, Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch and Gardens, Oceanside Museum of Art, Surfing Heritage, Balboa Island Museum, Moulton Museum
• Riverside: Mission Inn Foundation and Museum, Riverside Art Museum, March Field Air Museum,
• SD: SD Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art SD, SD History Center, Timken Museum of Art, SD Automotive Museum, Junipero Serra Museum

Museums

Art

Orange County

• Bowers Museum, Santa Ana.
• The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino (near Pasadena); library, art collections, and botanical gardens.
• Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Outside tile wall designed by Edith Heath.
• Hilbert Museum, Orange.

Los Angeles County

• The J. Paul Getty Museum has two locations: Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles; and Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy, Pacific Palisades.
• Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo. Also JACCC.
• California African American Museum, 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles.
• Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Wilshire and Fairfax, Los Angeles.
• The Broad.

Riverside County

• The Cheech, Riverside Art Museum (RAM), Chicano Art and Culture, 3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA, 92501, on the corner of Mission Inn Ave. and Orange St.

History or Science

• California Science Center.
• Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda.
• La Brea Tar Pits.
• Long Beach Aquarium.

Architecture

• Black Modernism – Church of Religious Science in Koreatown.
• Frank Gehry – collection at the Getty, Disney Concert Hall, 10 buildings in LA and OC.

Tours

• Los Angeles Conservancy walking tours, in-person, self-guided, and virtual. LA Conservancy architectural walking tours.
• California Migration Museum self-guided audio walking tour of migrant history in Downtown LA (Olivera Street).

Shopping

• Garment District.
• Banana Republic Factory Store at Outlets at Orange. Also at Brea Mall.
• Rainbow Acres Natural Foods, Los Angeles.

Wi Spa.

Entertainment

• Disneyland, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney.
• Disney’s El Capitan Theatre. Parking at 1755 N Highland Ave, Hollywood. Historical Guided Tour, $20, 45 minutes, Fridays through Sundays, advanced reservation only.

Food

• Santa Monica Farmers Markets. Downtown, Wednesdays and Saturdays 8am to 1pm, 155 Arizona Ave. Main Street, Sundays, 8:30am to 1:30pm, 2640 Main St. Pico, Saturdays, 8am to 1pm, 2233 Pico Blvd.
• Little Tokyo Farmers Market Saturdays 9am to 2pm.
• The Original Farmers Market, The Grove.
• Gusto Bread, Long Beach.

Music and Dance

• First Sundays, Soulful of Noise, 2 to 6pm.
• Atomic Ballroom, Irvine. WCS social Thursday nights, Fusion lesson 9:15 to 10pm and social 10 to 11:55pm on Friday nights. Quad lessons Saturday late afternoon.
• The Fifth, Anaheim.
• Cicada Restaurant and Lounge, Los Angeles, swanky dining and dancing to live music on selected evenings in an historic 1928 Art Deco building.
• Queen Anne.
• Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Transportation

• Westminster driving to LGB 12 min, SNA 19 min, LAX 30 min, BUR 45 min, and to ONT 45 min.
• Southwest Terminal 1 at LAX. Free bus shuttle to LAX/Metro Transit Center. TAP app for LA Metro.
• Amtrak Pacific Surfliner: Burbank, Union Station, Anaheim, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Oceanside, Solana Beach, San Diego Old Town. Rail 2 Rail allows free travel on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner: an NCTD Coaster Regional day pass is valid for Oceanside and south; a Metrolink Monthly Pass (~$300) is valid for Union Station to Oceanside.
• OC Metrolink map. OCTA Metrolink OC Line: Union Station, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Oceanside.
• LA Metro map.
• OC Bus stop on Garden Grove-Melanie near the Ice Palace in Westminster. 32 min ride along Garden Grove on the 56 bus to Garden Grove-Palm, 10 minute walk to Great Wolf Lodge-Garden Grove, 10 minute ride on the 03/04 Combo ART bus to the Disneyland Drop Off (Disneyland Main Transportation Center) at Harbor Blvd.
• LAX to LGB Hertz: shuttle to LAX/Metro Transit Center, Metro C Line (green) east to Willowbrook/Rosa Parks, Metro A Line (blue) south to Willow Station / 27th St Long Beach (~1 hour). Bus or Lyft last 5 miles (or 20 min to Barney).

Lodging

• Bposhtels, Anaheim.
• Modern Hostel

Donations

• Beacon House Thrift Shop, 3220 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, 310-514-4940. Also San Pedro location, and can call for pick up.
• Plato’s Closet, 15216 Goldenwest, Westminster, 714-622-4138.

High Desert

• Joshua Tree – stargazing.
• Death Valley, 1 hour south and somewhat east of Manzanar, for stargazing in the Spring or Fall when the weather is more moderate.
• The Whole Wheatery, Lancaster.

San Diego

• Jimbo’s Naturally, four stores.