Southern California---which encompasses Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, San Diego and smaller cities and towns---is an outdoor enthusiast's playground, with extensive beaches, mountains, trails and canyons. In the summer and early fall, however, the heat can be brutal, especially in the valleys and inland cities. Fortunately, Southern California provides many fun indoor activities, where you can experience both natural and man-made wonders.
A few doors down from the legendary Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, the opulent Kodak Theatre has hosted the Academy Awards every year since the theater opened in 2001. On the tour, you'll see the five-level lobby and its ornate spiral staircase, a portrait hall of famous Oscar winners, the exclusive George Eastman Room, the audience seating area and other celebrity-frequented spots within the theater. The Kodak Theatre offers guided tours seven days a week, with rare performance schedule exceptions.
Kodak Theatre Tour
6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-308-6300
kodaktheatre.com
Next door to the University of Southern California in L.A.'s historic West Adams district, this expansive museum holds permanent collections on dinosaurs, marine life, mammals, insects, rocks and minerals, the history of California and the U.S. West, and much more. Temporary exhibits have included "A New American Lifestyle," "Spider Pavilion" and "Dino Lab," where you can get an up-close look at paleontologists working on dinosaur fossils. Don't miss the North American Mammal Hall, which features stunning wildlife dioramas created in the 1930s, along with several modern dioramas.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
213-763-3466
nhm.org
More than 1,000 feet in length and weighing 81,237 tons, the Queen Mary in Long Beach first set sail in May 1936. Visitors can take self-guided and interactive tours of the elaborate docked vessel and learn about the ship's colorful history. Themed tours include the "Haunted Encounters Tour," which explores the numerous legends surrounding the Queen Mary's ghostly visitors, and the "World War II Tour," where you'll learn about the ship's involvement in aiding the Allied Forces. The ship also has several restaurants and a cocktail lounge, all of which provide views of the Pacific Ocean, as well as numerous staterooms and suites for overnight lodging.
Queen Mary
1126 Queens Highway
Long Beach, CA 90802
877-342-0738
562-432-6964
queenmary.com
Twenty minutes north of San Diego in La Jolla, Birch Aquarium offers more than 60 exhibits on Pacific marine life, with displays of seahorses, great white sharks, living coral reefs and more. The Hall of Fishes features a 70,000-gallon kelp-forest tank filled with fish from the Pacific Northwest, California coast and the waters of Mexico and the Caribbean. Stop by the Shark Reef, a 13,000-gallon aquarium that displays whitetip, blacktip and epaulette sharks. Birch Aquarium also offers many educational programs for children, including "So You Want to be an Oceanographer?" and "Ocean Adventures Camp."
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
2300 Expedition Way
La Jolla, CA 92037
858-534-3474
aquarium.ucsd.edu
