fellow explorers we are in redondo beach
this weekend the traveling princess and
i having a super great time here on the
sand we just woke up from the shade
hotel which we walked like 15 minutes
this way from our hotel right here had a
super great breakfast on the balcony i'm
going to show you more of this hotel
later what are you going to see in this
video coming along with us on our
weekend here you're going to see the
beach you're going to see los angeles
we're going to go check out the grammy
museum you're going to see the redondo
beach pier you're going to see the
traveling princess playing with sand
toys that she's trying to find more of
right now you're gonna see everything we
eat the traveling princess she is hungry
she wants to eat these are some of our
favorite snacks right here these green
onion crackers that we'll be snacking on
in just a moment one thing you're gonna
see a seat you're gonna see us eat a sea
urchin tomorrow from the redondo beach
pier which is pretty good so come along
with us so the traveling princess was
just telling me earlier that one of her
favorite things about this beach is just
how family and baby friendly it is
redondo is a pretty chill beach relaxing
great place to build sand castles eat
your crackers the sandy beach goes for a
couple miles south of this pier and then
on the other side of the pier where our
hotel is it's the marina on that side
you can do lots of water sports over
there we saw people paddle boarding this
morning and some people getting ready to
go out on a venetian gondola
so we're on our way to downtown los
angeles now driving on the 110 freeway
redondo beach is just 20 miles from
downtown l.a and one of the things i
like about driving on the 110 is it
always reminds me of the movie la la
land this is where the scene from la la
land where they danced on the freeway
was shot actually if you want to get to
that exact spot from redondo beach you
take the 405 north to the 105 east and
then the carpool lane brings you on to
the 110 and from that ramp you can get
the great views of downtown los angeles
that they saw in the movie you can't
stop but you can see it while you're
driving i will point out that if you
want to take the carpool lanes on the
110 you actually need one of these
fast-track devices that you can say how
many people in your car or pay for it if
you're less than two the carpool lane
really does help you blow past traffic
because it's separate from the rest of
the freeway it goes up on those second
levels and so this is really a great way
to get in downtown los angeles first
stop in downtown los angeles lunch
there's a lot of great place to eat in
downtown l.a and since we're heading to
the grammy museum just a couple blocks
away we found this place called pizza
sociale that has neapolitan style pizzas
pizzas like they would make in naples
they hand toss the dough they bake it in
their 600 degree pizza oven what do we
have here we have their version of a
pepperoni pizza i would call it they
call it the la americana picante it's a
spicy pepperoni
it's thin
it's spicy it's good it's got a good
kick to it this one they call the mama
maria pizza
and this one has some more italian
sausage pieces of it also a spicy pizza
i love the charring of this crust
this one's good too a more complex spicy
flavor
sausage less pepperoni and the traveling
princess she's got the little cheese
pizza just for her
after that delicious pizza now that our
belly's full we are at la live it's kind
of like a city within a city here in la
but this is like kind of the most
futuristic feeling part of los angeles i
always feel like i'm in some future
world but what's really cool about l.a
live why most people come here i mean
there are a ton of restaurants to eat at
here but if you look over this way there
is the microsoft theater tons of musical
acts play here at the microsoft theater
just across the street from the
microsoft theater is the crypto.com
arena you might know this better as the
staples center it recently changed names
this is where the los angeles lakers
play other sports are here too other big
concerts that don't fit in the microsoft
theater are here as well and now just
behind the crypto.com arena is the los
angeles convention center if you're
coming here for convention like anime
expo every year you might be at the la
convention center another really cool
and unique thing in la that we always do
we come here is find the angel wings to
take pictures of it los angeles they
often say is the city of angels and
right next to the grammy museum you'll
find
one really big set of angel wings that
is really great to take
a selfie with and it gives our traveling
princess
wings we always knew she was an angel
but when i say they're everywhere even
at the pizza place we ate at they had a
set of pizza angel wings pizza it gives
you wings because we couldn't just come
to take a picture of the wings on the
outside without going into the grammy
museum and honestly i have to admit i'm
a little bit embarrassed i've lived in
southern california my whole life and
this is my first time in the grammy
museum it's a really neat museum four
stories not super big as you first come
in they've got an exhibition that tells
you all about how the grammy award
itself has evolved and i was most
excited about the michael jackson
exhibition where they've got the
original jacket from thriller it's not a
big museum but if you're a music lover
you'll definitely enjoy checking this
one out and even if you don't make it
into the grammy museum definitely look
at the floor as you're walking around
l.a live that got the grammy walk of
fame embedded in the sidewalk
as all good museums do they've got a
gift shop on the ground floor which i
thought was interesting they had all
these baby onesies what do you think
maybe a black sabbath baby onesie for
the traveling princess
now that we've got our music fix and our
city fix it is time to get back to the
beach i want to show you around a really
cool hotel you ready to go trailing
princess
she says no she's not ready to go
because she's ready for a nap that she's
going to take on our drive
[Music]
after a quick 30 minute drive on those
110 express lanes we arrived here at the
shade hotel in redondo beach back again
i want to show you around the room we
tried to make it as nice as possible
again making the bed etc i want to start
with the bed this bed right here what's
special about this this isn't any bed
this is a tempur-pedic
mattress oh and it's oh so it's oh so
comfy i really hate lumpy mattresses and
this is really nice quality quality
mattress the room actually has two beds
this sofa actually
comes out to be a bed if you so wish but
the most amazing part of this hotel is
what is out here by the way this is the
deluxe
view
king
suite room and out here where we had
breakfast in the morning and we'll have
breakfast again tomorrow morning is the
view of the marina a great table right
here and you can even see down here the
people walking by going buying their
bikes but even more amazing than that is
the bathtub out here on the balcony and
it's not like a tiny bathtub it is a
big
soaking bathtub that a big six-foot
adult like me can get into though
probably taking a bath in it you know is
this way so you can look out in the
marina view pretty nice i want to show
you the bathroom because it's a nice big
bathroom too and the bathroom is really
quite big and nice no bathtub in here
but there is a big glass walk-in shower
lots of room one fixed head and some
interesting blue tiles on the ground
this whole hotel room is super nice i
really like this place so for dinner
we're eating at sea level which is the
restaurant in the shade hotel just
downstairs from our room this on a
saturday night is quite hopping let me
get a little bit of lemon on here this
is kind of like a seafood restaurant
they got lots of seafoody things let's
give these oysters a try
it's a good oyster fresh tasting doesn't
taste seafoody not
sandy
quite refreshing first dish up their
seafood linguini pasta marinara sauce
mussels shrimp garlic bread done up all
night
[Music]
hot fresh tasty
good seafood
they're really good
let's dive in to the garlic bread
crispy warm
i like this we got a few more dishes
coming up
live music is also starting did i
mention the view here is really great
too this is a pretty nice view from this
restaurant looking at the marina too
thanks for the music guys
next dish is the whole
i'm not really even sure
actually how to eat a whole fish like
this
[Music]
but the small piece i got of it
was quite flavorful
juicy and here we have the sea bass on
risotto
risotto's good
this one definitely not as big of a dish
as the branzino
it's quite good and i like the pesto
sauce to go with it and now you may be
thinking chris are you going to eat all
of this yourself this is a family trip
so we got a few family members and the
traveling princess here as well they're
all going to help me out or did i help
them out actually so after that good
dinner we're just making our way over to
the redondo beach pier you can see it
right over there so we can check out the
sunset by the way the redondo beach pier
has two parts if you look down that way
the first part is the international
boardwalk which we walk on first we'll
come back here tomorrow and then the
pier which is the part that's actually
over the water now you may notice the
traveling princess and i are wearing
jackets now chris isn't it summer you're
at the beach shouldn't it be warm
southern california beaches actually can
get kind of chilly in the evening so
it's good jacket weather here for sunset
time now by the way this thing we're
crossing right here this is the um
bicycle path you'll see a bike come by
in just a moment the shade hotel rents
bikes they don't rent them they just
give them complimentary to people who
are staying there
so we could have bike down here but
there's also a lot of places that rent
bikes and on this path you can take your
bike all the way up to santa monica
which is a really neat ride if you like
biking telling princess do you like
biking do you want to ride all the way
to santa monica
no it's these little legs it'll be too
far
she'll do it someday though i promise
so i said we're going to the pier to
watch the sunset and if you're going to
do that you might actually think go out
there to watch the sunset but you know
what it's actually a lot better to see
it from right here this is right along
the bike path and the parking garage
because from here you get the wave
action and you can see the sun setting
behind the pier and the people so this
sunset spot is traveling princess
approved the rodano beach pier after
sunset has a total festival atmosphere
and what you get at festivals in
california funnel cakes the
quintessential california
festival food this is the one with
strawberry ice cream whipped cream 12.95
hot fresh
delicious
i have some
how late they're open tonight saturday
night in may they're open until 11
o'clock at night you can get funnel
cakes late in the evening
have some powdered sugar traveling
princess
you ready for your final cake
give it a try
well a good sunday morning to you from
the shade hotel we're just enjoying our
balcony here balcony breakfast grab and
go pretty nice the traveling princess
she really enjoyed taking a bath out
here last night she spent almost like an
hour in that outdoor bathtub where is
she right now it sounds so quiet she's
still sleeping
so we're enjoying our hour of morning
peace and
tasty breakfast but most of all
the view
one of our favorite california pastimes
at checking out farmers markets and
they're usually in the morning here
redondo beach it's sunday 9am to 2pm so
after breakfast on our balcony we came
to check out the quaint farmers market
here in riviera village where you can
pick up fruits vegetables and i smell
some really good salvadorian food back
there
if you're looking for fresh produce this
is where you're going to find it
strawberries picked this morning and
look at these huge onions these things
are huge and they've got the whole stalk
on them too i bet our bunny macgyver
would love some of these fresh carrots
after the farmers market we wandered
around riviera village the village where
that farmer's market is this is like
redondo beach's quaint downtown
neighborhood it feels very la but in in
a nice way a nice part of valley what
what nice la is in case you don't know
what i mean this cafe right here cafe
flowers and bakery lots of families lots
of kids walking around here sunday
morning lots of people having brunch
lots of outdoor seating on the street so
if you're looking for just a great place
to
wander around stroll head out the shops
do that i'm gonna get run over by this
car because i'm standing in the parking
lot so mixing they even have stores like
this that sell yarn accessories and
buttons when is the last time you've
seen a yarn and button store so after
checking out of the hotel and we were
really sad about that because we love
that room and the view we came back to
the redondo beach pier check out what
it's like here in the daytime and you
know the restaurants that everybody's
lining up for up here are the korean
crab houses there's enough of them so if
you like spicy korean crab you could
check those out we're going to do
something on the lower level
so all that pier walking has gotten me
hungry and so what am i eating something
that doesn't look like it wants to be
eaten a sea urchin one place that you
can't miss when you come to the redondo
beach pier is actually just below the
pier on what they call the international
boardwalk it is
quality seafood incorporated this place
is this amazingly epically huge seafood
market with super fresh seafood the uuni
they have live in a tank they sell it by
the pound right now it's 17.99 a pound
this one is about a pound and a half
come in here and take a look at it you
can see all the little yellow meat of
the sea urchin in there the spines they
they were still moving we've been taking
pictures of it but you just kind of go
in here with your spoon and get your sea
urchin or if you're at a japanese sushi
restaurant they'd call it uni so let's
go ahead and give this uni a try
it tastes quite fresh
it's just salty because it has like the
salt water in it and if you've had like
su uni at a sushi restaurant um
depending upon where the uni was from
whether you had it in japan or
california the ones here from california
from santa barbara
are known around the world
to be some of the sweetest sea urchin
anywhere
sweet and salty too
the lines for this place on the summer
weekend can be epically long and they
got a few different limes one for hot
food one for oysters one for the sea
urchin so make sure you're in the right
line when you come here to eat this fish
market is so big they even have their
own gift shop how many fish markets do
you know that have their own gift shop
well just further down the international
boardwalk from there and i need to turn
around next i'm not going to run into
anybody there's a whole bunch more shops
and restaurants here and if you come in
the daytime and you think it looks kind
of dead
because it is kind of dead some parts of
the day the real liveliness down this
way is at night we saw it last night it
was quite hopping down here so uni was
definitely not feeling enough but uni
never is and we didn't want to brave the
lions equality seafood because they were
epic today so we stopped over at captain
kids the traveling princess wants her
oyster crackers they're not oysters but
they're oyster crackers they captain
kids we were able to order
online from yelp
and we didn't have to brave the line
there are your crackers traveling
princess what do we have here we have a
lobster bisque
pretty good pretty good creamy we have a
chicken gumbo
spicy
we have a white new england clam chowder
good we have a
soft shell crab plate we'll have a small
bite of this one
as well
i like all this so
you find lines of quality seafood too
long or you're just on this side the
pier
check out captain kids too
before putting wheels up and getting on
the road we need to stop and get some
caffeine from the boy and the bear this
is on pacific coast highway and inside
it feels just like someplace in the
himalayas or something i got a green tea
pomegranate green tea that they actually
make the tea here from tea leaves which
i always like and oc girl she got a nice
latte which is really good oc girl you
definitely deserve this one the woman
behind the camera that you never see
she's working hard back there i want to
thank the really cool people at redondo
beach tourism for making this video
possible and if you are planning to have
a beach vacation in the near future then
you'll really want to check out my video
right here about 19 common mistakes that
people often make on their beach
vacations why so that you don't make
them and fellow explorers as usual i
won't say goodbye so i'm gonna see you
in that video