A lot of people probably think that if you live in Southern California, you spend a lot of your spare time at the beach. After all,a very large majority of folks in our state live within 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean, and more than 10 millions in the Los Angeles area are within 50 miles of the coast.

[caption id="attachment_184" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Through the hills to Malibu"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-184" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/DSCN0049-300x224.jpg" alt="Through the hills to Malibu" width="300" height="224" />[/caption]

I'm trying to think right now of the last time I got sand in my shoes or got my swimsuit soaked  with salt water, and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been this year. You see, the part of L.A. that people <em>think</em> of as L.A. is only a small part of the nation's second largest metropolitan area.

I worked in San Bernardino County -- about 60 miles inland -- for nearly 18 years, and if you were to take the palm trees away from cities like Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga or San Bernardino itself, you might as well be somewhere in the Midwest or the South.

Going to the beach is more a road trip than it is a way of life.

As far as road trips go, though, heading to the beach isn't a bad one, as these slides from YouTube show.

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I don't know if I could pick a favorite beach, although there are several that will live in my memories long after California is in my rear-view mirror. The ones around Malibu are wonderful, clean and not too crowded most of the time. Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica Beach are two that I have enjoyed walking with my lovely wife time and again.

I do suppose I have a soft spot for Huntington Beach, which was only about eight miles from my first apartment when I came to Los Angeles. Huntington Beach is the "Surf City" of which Jan and Dean sang. I haven't fulfilled my promise to myself of learning to surf yet, but I think we'll still be here next summer and I'll get another chance.

We here in the Southland may not spend all our time in the sunny surf, but we're not stupid. We know that without the ocean and all those lovely beaches, heck, we might as well be Texas.