One of my newest favorite places is the Palos Verdes Peninsula, jutting out from Los Angeles into the Pacific. You climb a significant hill on your drive up to the peninsula, which means that you’re sitting atop stunning cliffs that fall right to the water. There are gorgeous homes and gorgeous views and plenty of fun places to stop if you’re out for an excursion. With visitors (my parents) in town last week, I couldn’t resist showing off this jewel, so off we went!
Our first stop — after a few pitstops along Palos Verdes Drive to soak in the scenery — was the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, with views of the Point Vicente Lighthouse. You can spy Catalina Island off in the distance.
And while coming back for a sunset view from this scene is now on my bucket list, the harsh midday sun does brighten the crashing seas below to a beautiful shade of turquoise.
The Point Vicente Interpretive Center is a whale-watching hub. There’s a beautiful (and free-of-charge) museum to explore and volunteers are set up on the balcony outside to watch for migrating whales, which travel the channel between here and Catalina. My youngest son was on the lookout and we actually spotted a couple of whales while on watch!
Although, we had a better view of the life-size models inside the museum!
Some wildlife above the waves put on a nice show, too.
Heading south around the peninsula, our next stop was Abalone Cove Shoreline Park where we enjoyed more fantastic views and a picnic lunch.
Our last stop was Wayfarers Chapel, a small, beautiful church made of glass and stone with beautiful gardens and beautiful views.
Certainly a place of peace and reflection, it was also a fun place for a 5-year-old and 2-year-old to run and be silly. We had pushed our outing right up to naptime and were in danger of going past the point-of-no-return. Before complete melt down mode, I managed to get a few pictures of my 5-year-old, and this is one of my favorites:
There you have it, 10 images of one of my favorite places. If you ever find yourself in Los Angeles with a few free hours, you have to go explore Palos Verdes!
Be sure to visit the other photographer’s taking part in the “10 on 10″ challenge for this year. Hop on over to North Shore and Lake County, IL Photographer, Britt Anderson’s blog to see 10 fabulous macro images, a perfect welcome for spring!
You always make me miss the ocean Amy!!! Gorgeous shots, and I can see why that last one is a fav!
[...] shared some of Palos Verdes for my April “10 on 10,” but thought it was worth another visit! We ventured back onto “The Peninsula” on a [...]