San Clemente, California
San Clemente, California is a quaint little surfer town/city on the Pacific Ocean, just south of LA. It is the exact opposite of Los Angeles. When you leave the traffic, smog and general craziness of LA and drive into San Clemente, it is like another planet, in a good way. The beach views are gorgeous especially in the morning when it is a bit misty.
Grab a San Clemente monthly magazine available for free to help plan your trip. There were several magazine stands up and down the streets with the shops.
You can see the train tracks in this photo on the left.
The San Clemente Pier is 1300 feet long. It is a very active place where you can watch surfers doing their thing. There are restaurants on the pier that serve very good grub. During the holidays, the pier is lit up and a lovely Christmas Tree at the end. You can view Dana Point from the pier as well.
There is a San Clemente Trolley that is free for passengers. It goes up and down and around the beach drive. The roads have a very steep incline from the beach so older people would need a trolley. Walking around all of the shops and stores in San Clemente would definitely firm up your hamstrings and tush.
Strangely enough, there is a Metrolink Train that links to LA or San Diego that you can pick up near the San Clemente Pier. Personally, this would have been a good way to get out of LA. The strangest part of it is that the train tracks are basically on the beach, which you would think would destroy the ambiance, but it does not.
Many people have golf carts and drive around town in these and use them like they would a car for transport. That's all you really need here to go back and forth down to the beach.
This is dog heaven here. There are always people walking their dogs and they are all very friendly and let us pet their dogs and they would chat with us. 
This is very much a surfer town. We took in a surfing competition, everyone was very friendly and it reminded me of a beach double volleyball tournament. In Hawaii at some of the beaches, the locals can be very unfriendly and cold because they don't want to share their beaches with the tourists. Here in San Clemente, we found the opposite. I actually felt like I was in Saskatoon, everyone is very friendly. We learned a lot of new terms like crashing the lip, Christmas tree, and nugget, which the surfing judges were announcing over the speaker. It was a cool laid back vibe with surfers of all ages.
Love this shot of a young man psyching himself up for his shot at the trophy.
Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens is literally a 4 minute walk from San Clemente Cove Resort. We walked up there and it looked really nice. It is an old mansion built by the founder of San Clemente. You can take self-guided tours of the old house which is on a coastal bluff overlooking the ocean. We chose not to partake, as we have seen a fair amount of old homes, castles etc. I love them, Darren not so much!! This was the fountain in the driveway to the house.
We wanted to walk to a bakery and I chose the Three Dog Bakery on Googlemaps.com. We had a good walk up and down the street trying to find it which is located in a back alley storefront. When we got there we realized that it is actually a dog biscuit bakery. We had a good laugh and moved on in the search of some fresh buns for our lunch.
The trees and plants are very different from what I am used to. Normally when you have potted plants in Canada they would be filled with flowering plants. Here the pots are full of different cacti. 
Most of the houses in San Clemente area are Spanish-like architecture. That aesthetic is pleasing to me and adds to the vibe.
There are many hikes in the San Clemente area. They are well-marked trails that are groomed and maintained with free parking and usually washrooms. On our first hike, we took the beach walk which is 4.6 miles and we were delighted to see a school of Dolphins swimming and frolicking in the waves. We did a couple of other hikes up in the hills.
The views here morning noon and night are spectacular, especially the sunsets.
You can sometimes see in the distance Catalina Island which apparently is a vacation spot all on its own. You can take a one-hour ferry from Dana Point. It sounds intriguing when you read the history of Catalina Island. We have never been but maybe next time.
You can see Catalina Island in the distance in this photo to the left.
There are extra photos of San Clemente down below in a link. I highly recommend visiting and staying at least a few nights in this Southern California town/city. We stayed a week and I did not want to leave.
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