My Day in Newport

My family was supposed to visit the last weekend in July, but unfortunately, they had to cancel their trip. I ended up moving out of my house that weekend into a hotel, and decided just to take it easy. However, I didn't want to just sit around my hotel all day, and I had the urge to go shopping. Now those of you who know me know that it is a rare occasion when I actually want to go to a mall, so I had to take advantage of the urge! I remembered that there is a well-known mall in Newport Beach called Fashion Island, plus I had been told by my bosses that I must go see Lexus of Newport, and I had wanted to revisit Balboa Island, also in Newport. Thus, I got in the car and headed south to Newport Beach.

I passed by Lexus of Newport on the way from the 405 to Balboa Island and I could see why my bosses made such a big deal of it. I don't know if you can really tell from this picture, but the dealership looks like an office complex in itself. It was HUGE, and just guessing real estate prices in this area, I don't even want to know how much money that cost to build! I didn't have time to stop inside, but I've heard it's very nice.


I parked on the main street of tiny Balboa Island and walked to the harbor to eat my lunch and look at the boats and then I walked down the sidewalk a bit looking at the pretty houses.

Some pictures of the streets crowded with cars and houses.

This is a view of the main street, which was lined with lots of shops and restaurants. It was a very cute little place and I felt like I was in some beach town in New England. Well, except for the palm trees. :-)

There was a wide canal running next to the main street. I stood on this bridge and took some photos.

Finally, I went to Fashion Island. It was quite the incredible mall. It was outdoors and had these little courtyards. This was the first one I saw, with a full carousel!

The next courtyard had a huge coi pond and was nicely landscaped.

The third courtyard had this cool fountain that would spurt water up at different intervals. The greatest part was the three kids standing on the right side of the photo. As the water went up, they were jumping up and down shouting "go! go! go!". :-)

Just another shot of the pretty mall. I was surprised with how many stores there were for dogs and kids in this mall. There were also lots of dogs everywhere. In SoCal, some stores let you take your dogs inside so I saw a lot of that. I also saw a lot of Botox! And a couple of people I recognized from TV or movies, but no one hugely famous.