Best West Coast Beach City for High School Graduates?
 

Author: taratravels
Date: 02/14/2007, 10:36 pm
We are taking a vacation after my son graduates from high school. We will be taking boys ages 18 & 13. We want someplace new, we haven't been, that would be a fun place for teenagers! We have been to San Diego area, Monterey/San Francisco area, Northern Calif/Redwood area. What about Santa Barbara? Would there be enough fun activities for teens? Any recommendations would help. Thanks!



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First thing that came to my mind was Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Or if you don't mind the weather, come on up to Oregon. Great beaches for outdoorsy types up here.

When I was going to High School in Southern Calif, between our Junior & Senior years it was traditional for "someone" (actually, someone's parents) to rent a place in Newport Beach, and then the rest of the gang would mooch. Close to Disneyland, Laguna Beach, Corona del Mar, etc.

We took our bikes with us & rode along the bordwalk, on the ferry over to Balboa Island, the Wedge, Back Bay, Collins Island, etc. We listened to folk singers at the Prison of Socrates, dined at Sid's Blue Beet, pizza at Original Pizza at the Newport Pier, Fun Zone at Balboa, body surfed a lot (not at the Wedge - we wern't that stupid) and had a great time!!!

Stu Dudley

I would go with Stu's high school beach hang outs. If you did want to go to Santa Babara, I like the beach at Carpenteria just south of there.

I answered you on your thread a couple days ago. You just have to click on your name above to find it.

Stu, I remember going to the Prison of Socrates in the 1960s. Used to see comedian Steve Martin in his early days, as an opening act, for Tim Morgan, who we came to see. He used to do magic tricks and tell jokes.

Tim Morgan was the singer we always went there to see. I even have a Tim Morgan album!!! Follow the Drinking Gord, The Wind Blows in the Bunkhouse, & other favorites (The girls we were chasing loved his music - great way to fall in love for the summer).

How about Dick Dale at the Rendezvous Ballroom a few years earlier ???

Stu Dudley

My DH has mentioned seeing Tim Morgan at the Prison of Socrates. Coolness!

Having spent my teen years in Newport, I'd say that's the best place.

Stu Dudley---I have that Tim Morgan too! My favorite is "The Cat Came Back"---we would all sing along. And "Try to Remember. . ."

I wan't allowed to go to the Rendevous to see Dick Dale, but we did sneak one time.

taratravel, Newpport would be great. Rent a house on the Balboa Peninsula if you can. It doesn't have to be righ ton the beach, a block or two away is fine. Lots for your teens to do there---surfing, bodysurfing, boogie boarding, kayaking in the bay, hanging out on Balboa. . .

And Steve Martin, there and at the Golden Bear in HB.

I too enjoyed the summers of youth in Newport Beach...the best part of the beach house was the year after graduation when somebody actually convinced the parents to rent but NOT chaperone!!! I would never have allowed this with my kids! I think my mom assumed that the parents were there! My time there was in the early 70's. 17th St and 42nd St were the preffered locales! I am not sure I would recommend it for a vacation like taratravels is looking for. It would be okay if you just wanted to hang out at the beach, but for what a weekly rental costs it wouldn't be worth it to use it as a base for day trips to different areas. If you are into hanging out on the beach, swimming in the ocean and not much else it would be fun.

>>"Try to Remember. . ."<< The time in September, when life was mellow and oh so jolly. try to remember, and if you remember, then follow, follow



>>I wasn't allowed to go to the Rendevous to see Dick Dale, .<<

neither was I....Did you go to my High School???


>>>And Steve Martin, there and at the Golden Bear in HB.<<

Geeze - I think I saw Glenn Yarbrough a dozen times at the Golden Bear.

How about the Dillards !!!

Stu Dudley

Double ditto Newport Beach! Great spot for teens.

I spent summers on Balboa Island in the 60's as a child, the 70's as a teen, and took my own kids there in the 90's! I am too young (hehe) to remember the Prison of Socrates but I did have some swinging times at Sid's Blue Beet and The Beach Ball during college.

Isn't Dillards kaput now? Wah, we loved going there with our parents and their cronies for martini time!

Stu---Dillards, Glenn Yarborouh, many times, yes. Golden Bear, also the Mecca in Anaheim (long drive from Newport).

We recently made a CD from the Tim Morgan vinyl. Doesn't sound the same as being there.

RE: Rendevous Ballroom---"neither was I....Did you go to my High School??"

I don't know. I went to, and graduated from, NHHS. You?

Mary2Go---love your memories.

We locals went to 44th; 17th was OK when the surf was willin'. 42nd was within the OK area, but not prime.

I haven't been back for a long time. Last time I was there, there were huge belly-dump trucks hauling sand up the beach, because it had all been washed away.

And back then, Steve Martin's big joke was the butterfly on his nose.

I just had to look up Tim Morgon. (spelled it wrong 1st time) He's been married for over 40 years and lives in Orange Co. and Tahoe, but does not sing anymore. You can buy his old albums now on CD. His story:

http://www.timmorgon.com/carrol.htm

I've got rid of all my old albums over the years, but kept 10-12 special ones. One I have is Tim's, "They call the wind Maria"...can't play it, can't part with it. : ) I just finished listening to clips from the CDs. Wow, did memories come flooding back. Some of the best times of my youth spending a couple weeks each summer in Balboa and hanging out with friends.

Though I wasn't from Newport area, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, and we had Reb Foster's Revelaire Club in Redondo Beach later to listen to surf bands.

Sorry we got off track taratravels.

>>The Beach Ball during college<<

Kurt Steinbeck, J. J. Mack, and Stan Something..... I had a rental in Court St & 19th.

I was an inland guy - went to San Gabriel HS. The Dillards played at my high school graduation party.

Stu Dudley

I bought a Tim Morgon DVD filmed in 1965 at the Prison of Socrates titled, "Dirty Feet," in B&W at Ebay. It was great to be able once again to go into the Prison of Socrates and to see and hear Tim Morgon sing, though the songs are highly edited, for the sake of advancing the story, and though the story is not the real story of Tim Morgon, it is nevertheless a kind of time machine that allows a person to at least go back and see it all again and that is the value of the film. The people who saved the film, I understand, helped the former owner of the Prison of Socrates restore it in Burbank and transfer it from a 16mm print to DVD. The print is very good for a film that sat in a storage space in France for nearly thirty-five years. It was a real trip down memory lane and worth the price, only $12.99 at Ebay. They are the only ones selling it for Argo Films and Ted Nikas. Whomever they are, we thank them for saving this little gem of a film.

Since we're tripping down memory lane (at taratravels' expense - sorry) does anybody remember the <i>Insomniac</i> coffeehouse/bookstore on Pier Ave. across from the <i>Lighthouse</i>? People like Linda Ronstadt (pre-Stone Ponies) and the Chambers Bros. worked up their acts there, while the likes of Cannonball Adderly, Dizzy Gillespie, or Charlie Byrd played across the street. Or you could watch people playing Go (huh?) or reading beat poetry (Ferlinghetti would come down from City Lights all the time) while sipping a Cafe Borgia. O those were the days...

(Beebling ends...)