Hi! Rachel here! We just got back from a fun filled vacation to LA this past weekend! Hiliary and I got to travel to the west coast for a little break from the grind. Hiliary sent me cheap flights to Cali about 3 months ago, and I basically laughed out loud. I didn’t think that I was the kind of person that up and travels to Cali for a weekend, let alone my birthday! But as it got closer, I realized that if I want to be the kind of person who gets to see the world and take people along that I love, this was the perfect chance! I invited my little sister to come and Hiliary brought her mom!

We booked cheap flights via Allegiant and Alaska to LAX over Martin Luther King weekend. We made sure to make going to the LA temple a priority and we spent a full hour photographing the temple and the grounds. I guess that’s a perk of traveling with a professional photographer! To avoid getting stuck in traffic after, we headed straight to the beach near Santa Monica pier to watch the sunset. We explored the pier and even saw some street dancers. It felt very Californian to be out in just a light jacket after dark on a January night. 

Friday was the Disney day! Me and my sister had never been so Hiliary showed us the ropes! We got Fast Passes on our phone so we made sure to plan it out to hit all the big rides often. We also splurged and tried a ton of the food there, including a turkey leg, popcorn, churro, dole whip, cake pop, and rice crispy Mickey. Thanks to Heather Palmer for tipping us off that the Mexican restaurant near Thunder mountain does free refills. Made the $4.50 pop worth it after we refilled it 7 times during lunch. We took lots of pictures the whole day, and hit all the big rides at least twice.

I was a little naive to think the roller coasters were big and better than anything I’ve been on before. Disney is a theme park, not an amusement park. Sounds silly but once I realized the magic of Disney is the stories told, not the loop-di-loos, then it made a lot more sense why you could take your backpacks on all the rides! We stayed all day long and even caught some of Fantasmic at the end! Hiliary is the true champion and drove us the 1 hour home after to our rental house when I ended up with a migraine. Make sure to drink water kids! We did clock 22,000 steps that day!

On my birthday we did a little shopping at the Carlsbad mall and headed straight to the beach! My sister is heading on a mission to Samoa soon and her wish was to swim in an ocean before she left. We invited some cute couples to come to the beach with us and model in the sunset light! Even though we were at a private beach it was pretty busy down there! Our models were champions and it was so fun to shoot on the beach, thanks Hannah and Amanda!! They both brought me gifts and I was so floored! I have to admit that even though I got birthday texts all day long, it didn’t feel like my birthday since I was in 80 degrees and I was in a swim suit. I think I need to make this a yearly tradition! Hiliary’s mom Cari, treated us out to a yummy Cheesecake Factory dinner and oh man, it didn’t disappoint!!

Sunday was a great day to relax around our rental house. Thanks to some of Hiliary’s extended family, we were able to stay in an empty rental home for free! It was totally worth the rental car fee to be able to be on our own schedule and stay at such a nice home! We even found some ripe oranges and lemons on the property and got to taste some fresh fruit while overlooking the pool.

I’m so grateful for a friend like Hiliary that gets me out of my own comfort zone! We wouldn’t have had such a great trip without her leading the way and driving us all around. And taking lots of amazing pictures of me and my sister! Seriously, I hope to learn all of Hiliary tricks and tips! I can definitely see myself being a Los Angeles photographer, anyone want to bring us back!? Look for our cheap LA travel tips soon!

Los Angeles Photographer