For our vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces, we opted to rent a three-bedroom house in Hermosa Beach, just two blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Not only did this work out quite reasonably financially – roughly $400 a night – but it gave us a lot more room than a hotel would have, plus the ability to easily cook our own food and do our own laundry.
Tawn leads a junior yoga class, which was surprisingly effective at helping the girls calm down, focus, and not get into squabbles with each other. Maybe we should sign them up for daily classes?
Actually, we didn’t rent one house, but two. The initial house was booked for our final three nights but the property manager had another similar house just three blocks away, so we moved into that one. I have to really credit this lady, she was super friendly and very helpful. If you are ever looking to rent a vacation home in Los Angeles, I’d be happy to recommend either of her two properties. (This is the first house, a 3br/3 ba and this is the second house, a 3 br/1ba.)
We did a little less cooking at home than I had anticipated, but we did eat at least breakfast at home each day, allowing for some cost savings. As soon as we moved in I made a big (2 pound) batch of pizza dough and kept it in the refrigerator for use in a couple of meals. Who doesn’t like pizza? Here’s the girls shape their own pizzas.
And there’s the finished but not-yet-cooked product, ready to go into the oven. Their dough ended up kind of triangle shaped, huh?
And of course there was room for everybody to pitch in with cleaning up and loading the dishwasher.
Once you do that, we can bundle up (it was chilly by the beach in the evenings) and head to Pinkberry for some dessert.
The second house we were in had TVs in each room, something I wouldn’t approve of at home but certainly fine for a vacation home. That provided everyone with the opportunity to lounge in bed in the morning and watch cartoons. As you can tell from this picture, we had already gone to Disneyland and everybody (including Tawn) had their stuffed animal.
A view of Tawn walking along the Strand, the 22-mile class 1 paved pedestrian/skater/bicycle path that stretches along pretty much all of Los Angeles County’s western coast from Pacific Palisades to Torrance. This grey overcast was a fixture of our vacation, at least when we were near the beach.
christao408 
Looks like you had a good time, and I prefer the gray overcast skies, especially on the beach. You make pizza dough and keep it in the refrigerator? How long does it stay good for? Do you let it rise before putting it in?
The beach house is a great idea. I try to do that when I travel. Really enjoyed it when in Hawaii.
Looks like loads of fun!! Home made pizza can’t be beat!
I liked how you “striked the pose” for the camara with the girls.
Wow, that’s a very nice place near the beach! The price is quite reasonable too! I enjoyed walking/biking along the Strand on numerous occasions.
Looks like a wonderful place to stay —
a lovely holiday 🙂
Sounds a fun time with family, beach house, pizza, yoga, ….. Great bonding opportunity.
Hope you had fun at Disneyland. That’s right by my house.
The taste of a pizza is not determined by it’s shape, thank goodness!
The bedroom looks quite cozy, actually. I can imagine what the rainy days spent in there would be like.
That is awesome!!!
@yang1815 – Did you get my message the other day?@Southeast_Beauty – Oh, but no rainy days in Southern California, right? =D@jandsschultz – That’s true. Angular ones taste better, I think, because there’s more crust!@Ricardo98 – Sure did! Entry about it is right here.@stevew918 – Put a bunch of people in a house together for a week and watch what happens… ha ha!@MichellelyNg – @slmret – @CurryPuffy – @Fatcat723 – Yeah, it really was a good choice for lodging.@murisopsis – Especially the making of it, which is so much fun.@The_Eyes_Of_A_Painter – Had to kind of duck to fit into the picture frame because of overhead cabinets.@Jewelbeetle – It’s the concept of a “no knead” dough, which goes through a long, slow rise at a low temperature. That way you don’t have to do all the work of kneading and the dough is sitting there ready to cook whenever you need it. I wrote an entry about it here.
It just became aware to me that despite the very healthy length of all of your posts, you’re still able to post very regularly, and I always see an update or two (or four) from you whenever I check my subscriptions lately. Thanks for sharing so much with us all!!
@christao408 – Sure did! I called about two hours ago, around 10 PM your local time. Kept ringing no answer. I try later!
@christao408 – Right. Once in a blue moon, perhaps.
@yang1815 – Odd, it should roll over to my mobile phone here in Thailand.@secade – You’re welcome. I try to update at least every other day but if I don’t have anything to share, I won’t force myself to post.
Looks like a great family bonding time.
$400 w/ 2 families seems like a good deal when you consider things like laundry, parking and convenience. I just love that you are teaching your nieces how to prepare meals.
@ElusiveWords – Considering that even moderate quality hotels are in excess of $200 a night per room in that general area, I think it is a really good value.@icepearlz – Sure was. And time for certain young ladies to cry, pout, whine, moan, and generally complain about how unfair life can be! =D