After two days of sightseeing around SoCal, I spent two more days at Hotel Irvine attending the Women in Travel summit. I don’t have many photos to share, but it was a really neat experience. I loved learning about all the different ways to work in the travel industry, different ethical conundrums, and hearing how other women have made a career of this.

The neat thing about this summit is that you don’t have to be a blogger to attend. Maybe you are just interested in traveling long term. Or the ethics involved in traveling to some countries. Maybe you’re an entrepreneur looking to start a fashion line for travelers or a nifty carrying case. They have tracks for all different kinds of travelers, and it was so neat to hear everyone’s experiences.

Once the conference was over, my friend Jenny picked me up and drove me back to her place in Redondo Beach. She recently moved to L.A. from Seattle to take a job as the Social Media Manager for the L.A. Galaxy. She’s so good at what she does, they actually recruited her for the position, and now she’s living the dream in SoCal, working for the sport she loves most. If only all of us could be so lucky.

I drop my stuff of at her place and we head to one of her new coworkers house for a BBQ. It’s the middle of March, but since we’re so far south, the weather is nice enough to be outside late into the evening.

It’s was supposed to be a dog ball pit but they weren’t that interested…

…so of course Jenny had to show them how it’s done.

Around 11pm, we hop in an Uber back to Jenny’s. We have a long, fun day of sightseeing ahead of us, we need to get a good nights rest!

Of course, every good day starts with a good breakfast. I had Googled a few places to eat in Redondo Beach before arriving in LA and decided on Eat At Joe’s. The menu looked good and it seemed the right amount of touristy.

There she is. My favorite Jingle. Once upon a time, Jenny had her name on Facebook listed as Jenny Jingleheimer, and for me, it stuck. I shortened it to Jingle and now I can call her nothing else. It suits, right?

I order the John Wayne special, because when in Rome. It consists of sausage patties on a tortilla, covered in an onion/pepper sauce and topped with fried eggs and cheese. It’s so delicious (bonus – it keeps me full for hours; an unusual accomplishment).

After breakfast, we head down to the beach. Redondo and Hermosa beaches are located right next to each other.

There isn’t much to see here except a bird looking for food.

Hey bird, hey!

We can see on the other side of the building that there is more to do over there. Instead of walking around, we take the lazy route underneath it, always on the lookout for a rogue wave.

Naughty Jingle, climbing the lifeguard stand. I swear I didn’t encourage her to do this at all.

Swings! I love to swing and we make our way over to play on them, like the big kids we are.

Such a pensive hipster.

We probably spend a good 30 minutes on the swings before needing to head back to the car before our parking expires. We walk along the boardwalk and admire the massive homes all squished in together, vying for the best views.

It’s all just so Californian.

Back in the car, we drive further up the coast towards Santa Monica and Malibu. More on that next!