This is a guest post from Yvonne Condes, a blogger in Los Angeles who specializes in gluten-free baking.  She and her husband and two young boys look for moderate to easy hikes to enjoy together on the weekends.  Note the many places where you can get a spectacular view of the ocean.

One of the great things about visiting Los Angeles is access to hiking, biking, and walking trails. Here are a few fun, easy to moderate hikes to do with your kids.

Solstice Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains:  This hike works well with both younger and older kids. There’s a nice paved trail that will take you to the ruins of the beautiful Roberts House, which was destroyed in a 1982 wildfire. If you’re feeling adventurous, the family can climb over a few rocks and see some lovely little waterfalls. Or if you feel like a workout, you can head to Upper Solstice Canyon and enjoy a 3 hour hike with spectacular ocean views.

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Once a year several spots around the Southland are transformed into scenes from a Canadian hockey film, if you squint really hard and just let someone slam you into the glass.  Otherwise, you’ll simply find yourself skating along on temporary ice skating rinks while the sun beats down on you and palm trees sway in the background.  Also?  Most likely nobody else can ice skate, either, so you don’t have to worry about making a fool out of yourself.  Everyone else is doing it.

The only way I'll ever ice skate.

Most famously and traditionally, Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles plays winter this year until January 18.  The location is home to the Winter Holiday Festival on December 12 and 13.

No need to leave the Valley (San Fernando) if that’s where you’re staying.  This is the first year that Woodland Hills Ice operates at the Westfield Topanga Mall until February 2010.  Special events, birthday parties, and open until midnight on Christmas Day.

Over yonder on the West Side, there’ll be no swimming in the pool at the W Hotel for a while.  That’s because they ingeniously turned it into a skating rink!  The outdoor restaurant/bar will serve up wintry goodies, too.  Frozen until January 24.  In Santa Monica, meet your friends at 5th and Arizona for some ice skating by the ocean until January 31.

If you’re in more southern areas of Southern Cal, there are opportunities to trip the ice fantastic down there, too.  Seaside Ice Rink Redondo Beach boasts a large parking lot and proximity to the fabulous Portofino Hotel.

Photo:  Pershing Square website

What’s the first thing you think of when you imagine a vacation in Los Angeles?  Disneyland.  Okay, yeah, that’s been covered here already, so what’s the second thing?  The beach, of course!  If you live in Wisconsin and you’re planning to visit Southern California, you’re not coming here for the art museums.

Santa Monica on Veterans' Day

The obvious beach destinations are the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach, both places that are good for classic photo opportunities.  But if you’re the kind of beach lover who wants to see more beach than people, head north.  Once you pass Sunset Boulevard you leave the tourist traps behind in favor of some of the most beautiful beach spots in the area.  If you have the time and enjoy a beautiful drive, keep going even farther than the vast stretches of Zuma Beach, itself a great destination for a quick two-hour out-of-town getaway.

Family fun at Zuma Beach

The steep terrain that drops off away from Pacific Coast Highway makes some of these beaches a little bit more difficult to access, but that’s what keeps the crowds away, and almost guarantees that you will have a pristine view once you get down there.  Nicholas Canyon and El Matador are two beautiful less populated spots.  Look closely for the brown signs directing you to the turnoffs – they’re easy to miss.  Parking here is paid for at a machine, then you display your ticket in your window.  Solidly constructed staircases get you down to the sand, but there are a LOT of stairs, so make sure you pack lightly.

El Matador

Just up the coast, Leo Carillo State Beach has a campground to the east of the highway, and plenty of parking along the sand if you take the turnoff to the west.  There’s also a stretch of beach there that allows dogs.  Not just for sunbathing, you can watch surfers, windsurfers, and parasailors, or poke around in the tidepools at low tide.  Parking is $10 a day, so make sure you’ll be there long enough to make your visit worth the cost.

The last chance beach in Los Angeles county is called County Line.  No longer the true line that ends the county, this is a local surfing spot famous for its dual breaks, perfect for long- and shortboarders alike.   You’ll know you’re there when you see the turnoff for parking on the west side of the highway, right across from from Neptune’s Net, an old-school beach shack that attracts local color as well as beach visitors for bottled drinks, grilled meats, and steamed seafood.  (Warning – there are only portable toilets at this beach and restaurant, so leave your daintiness back at Leo Carillo’s flush toilets.)  It’s a perfect destination for your drive – sit on the porch and have a snack and drink while you watch the surfers, then head back south to that turnoff that you missed on the way up.

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

I was at the mall this past weekend (picking up underwear, totally not a luxury item) and was noticing how crowded it was.  What were all these people doing here, spending all of their hard earned cash? Didn’t they realize we were in a recession, heading towards what some experts believe could be a full-blown depression? Shouldn’t they be throwing money towards their mortgage instead of at a new purse at Macy’s?

And then I realized that many of these people were not actually carrying bags of purchases.  A lot of them were families, strolling through the mall eating ice cream, or gaggles of teenagers walking and texting at the same time. Because shopping centers aren’t just about the shopping anymore – they’ve become destinations for recreation, socializing and dining.  Here are some of my favorite ‘shopping centers’ in L.A. that are not only good for the occasional impulse buy, but also for a family outing.

The Americana at Brand – this is one of the newest malls in the L.A. area, and for those that can’t bear to be too far away from their Juicy Couture, there are luxury apartments right on the premises.   The L.A. Times summed it up nicely when it described it as “luxurious living and consumptive indulgence.” It’s a great place to walk around, and an old-fashioned double-decker trolley takes you for a tour around the entire grounds.  They have mostly upscale boutiques here – Ed Hardy, Kate Spade and Kitson, with H&M thrown in for the bargain hunters. We did more snacking and people-watching the last time we were there; the $145 t-shirt that my daughter wanted was not in the budget for that week.

The Grove – This is one of my favorite places to shop and hang out, but mostly for the old Farmer’s Market that is located just west of the newly developed shopping plaza.  I prefer wandering around the stalls of produce to plunking down a week’s worth of pay for a pair of socks at Nordstroms, but that’s just me. Also, you’d be better off grabbing a meal at one of the many outdoor eateries in the old Farmer’s Market – better, more original food than what you’ll find at The Grove, where the Cheesecake Factory is the most popular choice.  (Call me crazy, but I’ve never quite grasped the appeal of the Cheesecake Factory – overpriced, gut-busting, gazillion-calorie portions of mediocre food.) But head on over to The Grove for their Vegas-style water show that takes place in the central fountain every 30-minutes.  The kids love it, and you might just catch a sale at the Crate and Barrel located nearby.

The Beverly Center – This is truly an L.A. shopping experience, not just because of the multiple levels of stores, but you’re guaranteed to see a celebrity or two.  I once stood in line behind Brooke Shields buying pantyhose at Bloomingdales, and a friend once (literally) bumped into Nicolas Cage.

Third Street Promenade – Not really a shopping center as much as a shopping corridor, the Promenade is one of the most popular places to shop, eat and relax in an outdoor setting.  Just blocks away from the beaches of Santa Monica, it’s a great place to just grab a coffee and a seat and enjoy the various amateur performers that are a popular draw.  The Good: Seis Cuerdas.  The Not So Good:  The guy doing a really bad Michael Jackson impersonation to a horribly scratched recording of ‘Billie Jean.’

Photo: Stock.Xchng