LONG BEACH
Long
Beach is a wonderfully diverse, freak-friendly city, famous for its subcultures,
artists, musicians, and gay and lesbian community coexisting happily with
Snoop Dogg, the USC Mafia, and college students who attend California
State University Long Beach.
Long Beach is home to the oceanfront Long Beach Art Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art, and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The Long Beach Terrace Theater hosts performing arts events throughout the year, ranging from musicals and ballet to music performances and stand-up comedy.
Downtown Long Beach and The Pike offer a vast selection of restaurants, brewpubs, and shops, and both are a short, FREE Passport bus ride away from the Queen Mary.
Other districts you may find enticing are 4th Street, home to some fantastic specialty, alternative, and vintage shops and the terrific Portfolio Coffeehouse; Broadway, the main thoroughfare of Long Beach’s famous and lively GLBT community; and Belmont Shore, a delightful district of shops, restaurants, and bars with a small-town feel.
BEYOND THE LBC
If you wish to extend your stay in Long Beach and explore more of So Cal, there is plenty to see!
Los Angeles is a short drive to the north. Stock up on yardage and trim in the downtown Garment District, avoid Scientologists on Hollywood Blvd, contemplate Ice Age mortality at the La Brea Tar Pits, roam the exhibits of the Getty Center or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or marvel at the treasures of ancient Greece and Rome at the Getty Villa in Malibu!
Just to the south, you'll find the suburban paradise known as Orange County, with Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the shopping mecca/monument to consumerism that is South Coast Plaza as the county's major tourist destinations. Catch a wave at the fabulous beaches of Huntington, Newport, and Laguna. Laguna Beach is also famous for its artists, and there are many art festivals during the summer, including the famous Pageant of the Masters. The OC Fair is in July and is worth checking out as well.
Want something a bit more exotic? Visit Catalina Island! Catalina is the largest of California's Channel Islands and is a popular weekend getaway for southlanders. Shop, golf, snorkel, take a ride in a glass-bottomed boat, tour the backcountry and see Catalina's herd of buffalo, or kayak!
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