California is a big, and there’s only so much you can do in seven days. My first time there was mostly spent in “SoCal,” as they call this area. After we had ticked Disneyland and Universal Studios off our list, my friend’s cousin volunteered to spend his “half-day off” from school with us by driving us to Long Beach. We headed to City Beach near Belmont Shore to walk along the breakwater, enjoy the sun, watch the seagulls, and admire the view. I found an iconic Califor

The next day, we visited Universal Studios Hollywood, one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood film studios still in use that also doubles as a theme park. As the “entertainment capital of LA,” this is another iconic California destination. But it had a different vibe from Disneyland. This one enticed the “TV-producer-wanna-be” side of me (and I did become one after university grad). Since this trip was from many, many years ago, the Universal Studios I am describing is qu

The first on the list of the places we wanted to see in California was Disneyland. “It’s the happiest place on earth,” the eight-year-old in me screamed, and the eighteen-year-old me couldn’t simply brush that aside. Luckily, my companions and I felt the same way. My friend, whose aunt hosted our stay in Torrance, and our small party of three girls had agreed to meet another theatre group mate (who was staying with his cousin near downtown LA) by the entrance and we happily