Back from Cali

It is hard to believe that I have now been back from California for 2 weeks.  I was there for 10 days with 2 friends, Andrew Pepper and Scottie Savage, seeing and doing as much as we could.  What a blast!

I’ll save the report on the sporting events for another post.

We started in Los Angeles where we did lots of touring around the city, driving in all of the famous areas and getting a general feel for the city.  We drove Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Mulholland Drive, Rodeo Drive and Melrose Avenue, amongst many others.

Highlight: I really liked the Santa Monica Pier area.  There was a carnival type atmosphere on the pier, a big beach area where we caught a really nice sunset and a cool pub/shops/walking only street area.  It was great for kicking back and soaking in the sights and sounds.

On Sunday we went to Orange County to Rick Warren’s church, Saddleback.   It was cool, the campus is big and well developed and the church service was laid back and what you would expect from a large church.  What was interesting was that there were TV’s throughout the campus with the service on, so you could watch the service from the coffee shop.  Or you could sit outside of the auditorium (in the sun, of course!).  Lots of choice, relaxed music and a good speaker (Doug Fields – Rick Warren had a video message that he was speaking at a Purpose Driven Country rally in Rwanda).  Later that day we went to Mosaic, a church in downtown LA.  That was really cool.  It’s in a club with club lights, smoke, DJ’s, dance/drama, painting, hard rock worship band and Erwin McManus speaking.  He’s a cool guy and does a really good job of focusing his message on the audience.  The audience was young, mostly early to mid-twenties.  I was very impressed with the way it all went.

After LA we drove down to San DIego for a couple of days.  We spent some time in the beautiful Gaslamp area, in the zoo at a Padres game and on the beach.  San Diego is a gorgeous city, very new and clean and the people are very laid back.  I could see myself living there.

After another stop in LA (for a Dodgers game) we drove up to San Francisco.  It was not as warm there and the SoCal attitude was gone, but I still really enjoyed it.  San Francisco has a similar feel to Halifax, very hilly with a prominent waterfront/warf area.  The main difference is that SF is much bigger and richer!  There were lots of cool shops that we explored to and from the trip to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and to the Bruce Springsteen concert (in Sacremento).  Once again, the sun was shining and SF seemed like the kind of city I could spend a lot of time in because there is so much to see and do.

Finally, on the way back to LA to fly out we took the scenic route along the Pacific Coast Highway.  It is a gorgeous stretch of rugged, hilly shoreline (much like the Cape Breton Highlands, in fact).  If you ever get to California, make sure to drive it.

I will have some more posts on the trip including the sporting events and some general comments on California.

Explore posts in the same categories: California, Erwin McManus, travel

Tags: Alcatraz, Bruce Springsteen, California, Cape Breton Highlands, Erwin McManus, Golden Gate Bridge, Los Angeles, Mosaic, Pacific Coast Highway, Rick Warren, Saddleback Church, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Monica Pier, travel

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