Driving up and down the coast of California and seeing all the beaches along Route 1 is a great way to spend an afternoon. Newport Beach was one of our stops. We brought our bikes with us that day and rode about 10 miles up and down the beach.
The beach is partly commercial and partly residential. Homes are built right on the beach with beautiful ocean views. 
Even though they are small, we're sure they come with a pretty big price tag. Right in front of the homes is the (concrete) boardwalk for biking, roller blading, jogging, running, walking your dog, or whatever..... Beach stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, etc. are along the public beach. Joni loves beach shops and ice cream. 
We walked out onto the pier and watched some of the surfers trying to catch the perfect wave. They seemed to wait for a long time and when they decided to pick a wave to ride, most of the time they fell right in.
We noticed one surfer in particular that seemed more interesting than the others. 
He was paddling out to catch his wave standing on his surfboard and paddling out with a real paddle, instead of lying on their stomach and paddling with their hands. He did a great job of balancing. (see picture). When he had finally picked his wave, his rode it in, but he was paddling with his real paddle while standing (see picture)
He was paddling out to catch his wave standing on his surfboard and paddling out with a real paddle, instead of lying on their stomach and paddling with their hands. He did a great job of balancing. (see picture). When he had finally picked his wave, his rode it in, but he was paddling with his real paddle while standing (see picture)
We were surprised to see so many people in the water, although the surfers were in their wet suits. It was a chilly day, in the low to mid 60's and we were wearing sweatshirts while riding our bikes.
After Newport Beach, we drove north to Huntington Beach. The beach was beautiful and big as was the surrounding area. Sorry, but we didn't get any pictures of Huntington Beach. Joni still likes Florida better - (Delton still likes the mountains better).
