I haven't been to California in about 10 years! (I went last year for 1.5 days before my Hawaii trip, but I don't really count that....)
I was able to go to the sunny state of California for 10 days at the beginning of May, essentially crashing my parents’ vacation. It was a trip filled with eating a lot of Vietnamese food and shopping! It was a great trip - except the weather was not as warm as I would have liked.
In today's post, I wanted to share some of my highlights from the trip.
1) Eating Vietnamese food
I never thought I would say this, but after this trip I was actually kind of tired of Asian food… because that is all we ate. FYI: a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in Orange County are cash only!
The banh mi here are super tasty and huge! We got the dac biet banh mi.
My parents and I came here for the banh tieu (Vietnamese donut), which are only $1! They also offer family-styled home cooked meals that are authentically made. It's also very affordable. You can get 2 entrees and soup (canh) for $7.50. Think of it as an elevated Vietnamese version of Panda Express.
Lee’s Sandwiches
My dad and I love our iced coffee, especially Vietnamese iced coffee (cafe su dua). We came here everyday to get an iced coffee.
2) Balboa Island, Newport Beach
It was a nice and sunny day when we visited Balboa Island. It was a really charming little island. There are lots of stores and restaurants to check out. You could definitely spend the whole day on the island. Fun fact: no scooters or bikes are allowed on the walking path in Balboa Island!
3) Going to San Diego
This was a fun day. However, it was cloudy the entire time so our plan to see the sunset at Sunset Cliffs didn’t really work out too well. Nonetheless, it was still an eventful day spent in San Diego.
I loved it here! It is such a great place for photos - which is why so many people were taking grad and prom pictures the day we came.
You could totally spend the entire day here - there are museums and lots of different paths and gardens to explore.
This is a really cool spot. We came to see the sunset, but obviously from the pictures you can see that it was cloudy......
If you put in Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in Apple Maps, it will route you to the location that has a parking lot!
We came here for lunch and it was SO good. Seriously the best tacos I’ve ever had - and I’m not even trying to be dramatic. We got the Al Pastor, Fish, and Shrimp tacos, an order of Carne Asada fries, and Churros.
We loved it here so much, we went twice during our trip! The vibes here are everything. It’s such a relaxing spot. The winery has such a nice view. You could sit there and eat, drink, and talk for hours!
5) In-N-Out
I couldn’t go to California and not get In-N-Out…..
I hope you enjoyed reading more about my trip to California! I am really grateful that I was able to go on this vacation and just spend quality time with my parents and our friends.