@lioness Are you right on the coast? We enjoyed visiting the SoCal coast when our son lived in Hermosa Beach. Long Beach isn't too far from there, is it? He was two blocks from "the strand", the boardwalk that goes all the way up to Santa Monica.
He moved to Denver in the summer but I think we enjoyed visiting CA more than CO, but he is able to have a beautiful house in Denver and that has made him and his fiancee happy.
JK