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Day Trippin’: A Hot Day Calls for Cruising Around this Surf City

When the wallets tight and time is precious, sometimes you just can’t squeeze in a multi-day escape from L.A. Luckily, our centrally located town makes it a quick hop-and-skip to get to places that are vacation destinations for others in the country or even the world. For example, this past week people have come from near and far to scope out the annual US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach. While the Open brings huge crowds to this beachside community, STC explores the other sites, shopping and food it has to offer.

Huntington Beach is known for its maintained beaches, epic waves and beautiful people. The hub for all the beach action is focused around the Huntington Beach Pier. Extending 1800 feet beyond the shoreline, this pier offers a stellar spot for lounging, people watching and fishing. There is a small collection of stores and eateries on the pier, including Ruby’s Diner and Duke’s. Not far from the base of the pier, dozens of volleyball courts beacon for players. This town not only draws attention for its surf, it is also home to the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tournament.

For this STCer, every time my wardrobe is in need of some summer surf gear or even just some stylish threads, a trip to Main Street in Huntington is in order. My first stop is usually at Jack’s Surfboards. The guys and girls clothing is separated into two stores side-by-side. This giant mecca of surfing gear carries all the brands you would expect like Quicksilver, Billabong, Roxy and more, but it also carries items that are hard to find outside destination surf locations such as H.B.

For less active/surf wear, and more hip, street clothing, I tend to favor The Closet. Carrying lines such as Obey, Lira, Green Apple Tree and RVCA, this is definitely the place to pick up some rad hipster threads or if you can’t find it there, American Apparel is close-by.

All that shopping is bound to work up an appetite. If you read our article on “Eating Outside Your Comfort Zone,” you will remember we mentioned the fantastic burger joint, 25 Degrees. This H.B. location right off Main Street is a recent addition to the family, but is just as tasty as it’s Hollywood sister.

If you are thinking Mexican grub with large margaritas is more fitting to your beachy day, check out Fred’s Mexican Café on Main Street. Fred’s boasts a huge menu of traditional standards like tacos and burritos, but also and extra large menu of adult beverages, including about 13 types of margaritas. This café also has a large patio above the waves to watch all the beautiful people while you get sun drenched and toasty. If neither of these scratches your food inch, there are numerous pubs and restaurants along Main Street with surely something to offer sweet stomach relief.

One big attraction to H.B. for L.A.ers is the Huntington Beach Dog Beach. This wide stretch of sand is proud to offer a play area for your four-legged friends. Located on Pacific Coast Highway between 21st St. and Seapoint St., this beach is a puppy wonderland. Waves, other dogs, lots of area to run, it’s a nice day to spend with your furry friend. While there are crews to help keep the beach clean, they ask that you help clean up after your pal.

If you wanna escape sun for a bit, STC recommends you pop into the International Surfing Museum. At 411 Olive Avenue, the museum has a surf memorabilia including boards, films and music. In 2002, the Surfers’ Hall of Fame inducted the first group of surfers. In downtown Huntington, there is a tribute to these surfers in Hollywood Grauman’s-style with hand and footprints on the sidewalk.

If the beach is your thing, you can’t miss a quick day trip down to Huntington Beach to explore all this shore has to offer. – Lori Bartlett

This entry was posted on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Out of the City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.