Venus Williams, 43, returns for her 24th Wimbledon

• July 1, 2023

WIMBLEDON, England — Asked two days before her 24th Wimbledon begins whether she’s still excited to play tennis at this level, Venus Williams quickly answered: “It’s so much fun.”

The next question Saturday was about being on tour without her younger sister, Serena, who wrapped up her career at last year’s U.S. Open. The reply: “Not as much fun.”

There is still a big-swinging, Grand Slam-winning member of the Williams family in women’s tennis, and it’s 43-year-old Venus, who recently returned to action after about five months away with a hamstring injury she called “a nightmare.”

That followed a 2022 in which she participated in just four contests — all in August or September, meaning she missed the season’s initial three Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon — and a 2021 in which she accumulated only a dozen.

“I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last few years, and not by choice. I wanted to be here and I couldn’t,” said the elder Williams, who will meet two-time major semifinalist Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at Centre Court on Monday, Day 1 at the All England Club. “So I just put my head down and put even more work in and got myself in a much better position — and that’s life. And you’ve got to deal with life. And I’ve dealt with my life and, most of the time, I come out on top.”

In tennis terms, that means reaching the No. 1 ranking, winning seven major singles titles, the most among active women — and five came at Wimbledon, the first in 2000, most recent in 2008 — and another 14 in women’s doubles — all with her sibling. Away from the court, she learned to live with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain; she announced her diagnosis in 2011.

“The most inspiring thing about her is the love that she has for tennis. I don’t think that love has swayed over the course of her career. I think you can see players who are older now (and) you can have a feeling they probably don’t love it as much as they did when they started it. I don’t have that feeling with Venus. I hope I’m the same way,” said Coco Gauff, who burst onto the scene at age 15 by beating Williams in the first round at Wimbledon as a qualifier in 2019.

“Obviously, just her grit for every match, every ball. I watched a couple of her matches last week,” Gauff said. “Just the will to want every point is something that’s inspiring.”

Monday’s match will be Williams’ first in Wimbledon’s main stadium since 2017, when she reached the final before losing to Garbiñe Muguruza.

Williams made her debut at the All England Club in 1997, shortly before Svitolina turned 3.

“Venus loves to play here,” said Svitolina, who returned to the tour in April after having a baby last year. “It’s just really impressive. She’s a great champion. She achieved so much in her career. I don’t know if I will be playing at (that) age and would be in this great shape, playing with such a passion. So lots of respect to her in so many ways.”

The lack of wins in recent times dropped Williams out of the top 500 in the rankings; Svitolina has been as high as No. 3 and is now 75th.

Both women received wild-card invitations for Wimbledon.

The inevitable questions arose Saturday about whether Williams has planned when she might walk away from the sport (“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” came the reply) and whether she could see herself on tour at age 50 (“It’s never been done before, so if there was one to try it, it would be me,” she said).

One more try: Might there be the sort of announced farewell a la Serena’s, allowing for a collective goodbye?

“Like I said: If I knew I wouldn’t tell you,” she answered with a hearty laugh.

​ Orange County Register 

Neil Young delivers a gorgeous, intimate solo show in Los Angeles

• July 1, 2023

Midway through Neil Young‘s lovely and sometimes shambling solo show on Friday June 30, he paused to chat with the audience again during the first of four sold out shows at The Ford in Los Angeles over the next week.

“Alright, I hope you’re not in a hurry,” the 77-year-old singer-songwriter told the 1,200 fans in sold-out amphitheater. “I feel bad for you. You have no idea.”

But that’s exactly the point of the Coastal Tour, which kicked off Friday night and also includes two nights at the Greek Theatre on Monday, July 10 and Thursday, July 13. No one had any idea what Young would play – he’d previously announced this tour would feature mostly songs he’d rarely, if ever, played live – and at times it felt like Young himself wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to play next.

“Hmm. I have a list, you know,” he reassured fans as he contemplated his next number at one point. “I’m very organized. I don’t know if you can tell that.”

No one cared, for in a terrific set that offered 17 songs in 90 minutes, Young’s running commentary only added to the warm, casual nature of a night that saw the two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame play the unexpected – a handful of songs had live debuts on Friday – and the familiar – “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem),” “Ohio” and “Heart of Gold.”

The night opened with “I’m The Ocean,” a track off Young’s 1995 album “Mirror Ball,” for which members of Pearl Jam served as his band. “People my age, they don’t do the things I do,” he sang of the restless pull of music, accompanying himself on 12-string acoustic guitar and harmonica. “They go somewhere while I run away with you.”

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“Homefires,” a song originally recorded in 1974, but not released until 2020 came next. It was followed by “Burned,” a Buffalo Springfield song from 1966 that Young noted was one of his first compositions after moving to Los Angeles. And the pattern of the night started taking shape.

“Nice place, huh?” he said of The Ford, one of the more unique venues in Los Angeles, tucked into a hillside in the Cahuenga Pass across the 101 Freeway from the Hollywood Bowl, from which screams from fans of former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson could be heard during quiet moments in Young’s set. “We could have been at the Podunk coliseum tonight.”

Other highlights early in the set included “If You Got Love,” a song pulled at the last minute from Young’s 1982 album “Trans,” which brought him to the pump organ for the first time of the night, and “My Heart,” a gentle, fragile beauty he sang while playing his grand piano.

About that piano: Young introduced it as his “burnt piano,” a Steinway he was very pleased to get for just $1,500 some 50 years ago only to discover that it had been in a fire and the soundboard was so scorched that if you touched it your fingers would come away black.

This, though, was only part of his introduction of the instruments he’d brought on tour with him. An upright piano on the opposite side of the stage, on which someone had placed Post-It notes with messages such as “I adore you” before the show? He rented that one when he came to Hollywood in the ’60s and had played it off and on ever since.

As for the pump organ? “I got it in a junk shop in Redwood City,” Young said. “It was like 800 bucks. I’m a good shopper.”

Sometimes Young even shared stories about instruments that were not even there, such as when he introduced “A Dream That Can Last” with a story about the sessions for “Sleeps With Angels,” the 1994 album made with his longtime band Crazy Horse.

“I went out for a walk and bought a flute at a drugstore,” he said. (Note: His comments are best read in Neil’s laconic nasal drawl.) “It was a very funky little flute, two dollars and 49 cents or something.

“And, uh, I don’t use it on this song at all,” Young finished as the crowd cracked up with laughter.

The magic of the night, of course, was that this all fit together so well. The story was a little surreal; the song, played live for the first time ever on Friday, was sweet, vulnerable, the piano accompaniment beautiful beneath Young’s high, plaintive tenor.

The back half of the show finally delivered a handful of familiar songs. Standing at the organ, Young asked the crowd to pick whether he should play “Mother Earth” or “Mr. Soul,” deciding after a minute of shouted requests that he’d play the former. The song is a hymn-like anthem to protect the planet, a topic about which Young has long deeply cared.

“Ohio,” the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song he wrote in anger at the killing of four Kent State University students by National Guard soldiers during a war protest, rocked as hard as anything on Friday, Young playing electric guitar for one of a handful of songs in the show. He brought back out the acoustic guitar and harmonica for “Days That Used to Be,” a wistful elegy for the faded idealism of the ’60s, from 1990’s “Ragged Glory” album with Crazy Horse.

“Heart of Gold,” Young’s only No. 1 single ever, closed the main set with everyone in the crowd on their feet and singing along. It remains a perfect song.

“Here I am at the end of the show, just played my biggest hit of all time,” he said by way of introducing “Love Earth” as a song he didn’t expect anyone to know, his penultimate song before “Four Strong Winds” closed out the night.

He did expect them to be able to sing the chorus of “love earth,” though, and expressed his disappointment hilariously when not that many even tried.

“You suck,” Young scolded them after a test of the audience’s ability to sing just two words. “I gave you the simplest part and you can’t do that.” The crowd broke out in laughter again, tried again, and at the end of the song received high praise.

“Where were you when I recorded that?” Young asked. “We coulda had a hit.”

Neil Young

When: Friday, June 30

Where: Ford Amphitheater, Los Angeles

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers keeping D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves on new deals

• July 1, 2023

The Lakers’ starting backcourt from last season’s run to the Western Conference Finals will be staying in Los Angeles.

Free-agent guard Austin Reaves agreed to return on a four-year, $56 million Early Bird maximum contract while D’Angelo Russell agreed to terms on a two-year, $37 million contract with the Lakers on Saturday, sources confirmed to the Southern California News Group.

Russell’s deal will have a player option for the 2024-25 season, a source added. Reaves’ new contract will have a player option for the fourth year – the 2026-27 season.

Free agents can’t sign their new contracts until 9:01 p.m. PT Wednesday after the free-agency moratorium period ends.

The Lakers made Reaves a restricted free agent when they officially extended qualifying offers to him and forward Rui Hachimura, who came to an agreement on a three-year contract worth $51 million when free agency started Friday.

Reaves’ qualifying offer was for a one-year salary of $2.19 million, but he was always going to receive a far more lucrative deal during free agency.

Reaves, who went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2021, originally signed a two-way contract with the Lakers in August 2021 before signing a two-year, $2.49 million standard NBA deal the following month ahead of the 2021-22 season.

The 25-year-old guard is coming off a breakout season in which he averaged 13 points (68.7% true shooting – a formula that incorporates free throws and higher-value 3-point shots), 3.4 assists and 3 rebounds in 28.8 minutes (64 games with 22 starts).

Reaves stepped up in the postseason as the team’s third-leading playoff scorer, averaging 16.9 points (61.6% true shooting), 4.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 36.2 minutes (16 games, all starts) during the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers acquired Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline. He averaged 17.4 points (48.4% shooting – 55.5% on 2s, 41.4% on 3s) and 6.1 assists in 17 regular-season games (all starts) for the Lakers.

He was the team’s starting point guard for 15 of the 16 playoff games, averaging 13.3 points (42.6% shooting – 51.9% on 2s, 31% on 3s) and 4.6 assists.

Russell, who also played for the Lakers from 2015-17 after they drafted him at No. 2 in the 2015 draft, has career averages of 17.7 points (36.2% 3-point shooting on 6.9 attempts), 5.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds. He’s also played for the Brooklyn Nets (2017-19), Golden State Warriors (2019-20) and Timberwolves (2020-23).

More to come on this story.

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​ Orange County Register 

U.S. Supreme Court defends Constitution and liberty with rejection of student loan plan, affirmative action

• July 1, 2023

This past week, the United States Supreme Court issued its final rulings for the session before entering summer recess.

Fortunately, the court fulfilled its obligation as a check on the other branches of governments and as a defender of individual right.

In the case of Biden v. Nebraska, the court struck down President Joe Biden’s cynical  and illegal attempt to bend and distort the law to waive away hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debts.

The Biden administration tried to argue the HEROES Act of 2003, passed to provide some relief to Americans impacted by the wars of the time,  gave the secretary of education the authority to terminate the student loans.

“It does not,” ruled the Supreme Court in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

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As prominent Democratic figures like Rep. Nancy Pelosi said long before the president’s sloppy power grab, terminating student debt requires an explicit act of Congress, not deliberate misreading of existing law.

Here, the court rightly denied executive overreach. We hope they continue to do so.

In another high-profile case, that of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, the court rejected the racist and discriminatory policy of affirmative action at institutions of higher learning.

“Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin,” the court ruled. “This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Here, the court wisely rejects the practice of reducing people to their skin color in order to advantage or disadvantage others. This bizarre practice, advocated by so-called “progressives,” seeks to correct injustices by perpetuating injustice. The practice should never be tolerated in a society built upon the premise that all of us are created equal and entitled to equal protection under the law.

​ Orange County Register 

County’s one-stop center for employment help expanding to Laguna Niguel

• July 1, 2023

An Orange County One-Stop is opening next week in Laguna Niguel to give more residents access to county and workforce development resources.

Staff who specialize in serving dislocated workers, youth, veterans, older adults and other vulnerable populations will provide career planning, resume writing, job coaching and more. Other training includes apprenticeship in construction and available resources will include access to computers, fax machines, copiers and telephones.

“As we are trying to get more people employed, we want to make sure they have the best interviewing techniques, that they have skills assessments so that they can qualify for a variety of different jobs that are out there,” Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said.

Folks interested in receiving services will answer intake questionnaires that will help staff determine what needs to address.

There are OC One-Stop centers in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim, but when this one opens on July 5 it will be the first in south Orange County.

“Laguna Niguel is centrally located so it can serve deep south county as well as Irvine (and) Laguna Beach,” Foley said.

The centers are developed in partnership with OC Workforce Solutions, OC Community Services, Ready Set OC, America’s Job Center of California, and the Veterans Employment Program.

Residents can visit the One-Stop at 28202 Cabot Road #140, Laguna Niguel.

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​ Orange County Register 

Kings get their goalie as Cam Talbot agrees to 1-year deal

• July 1, 2023

The Kings will sign goalie Cam Talbot to a one-year contract, as first reported, fittingly, by NHL goalie turned multi-platform media personality Kevin Weekes.

Talbot, who will turn 36 on Wednesday, will fill out a goalie tandem that already included Pheonix Copley, who went from toiling in the minors to righting the Kings’ ship last season before playing sparingly in the playoffs.

Exact terms of Talbot’s deal were not yet disclosed, but the annual average value for both goalies will come almost certainly in under $3 million, meaning the Kings went from having one of the priciest (and least effective) netminding duos in the league last season to what will be among the very lowest expenditures for goaltending this season (with its efficacy remaining to be seen).

As mentioned in SCNG’s trade-deadline preview last season, when Talbot was potentially available as a member of the Ottawa Senators, Talbot played under Todd McLellan with the Edmonton Oilers. Most notably, he started a whopping 73 games in 2016-17, when Edmonton was eliminated by the Ducks in the second round, and 67 the following season.

Talbot saw his performance dip after those rigorous campaigns, playing for four teams in three seasons. He rebounded during stints with Calgary and Minnesota, where he re-established himself as a starter before the acquisition of three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc Andre-Fleury made him expendable (Talbot was traded for Filip Gustavsson, who became a dark-horse Vezina Trophy contender this season).

Last year, Talbot plied his trade in Ottawa, where he posted a 17-14-2 record with an .898 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against. Those figures were below the league average across 36 appearances for Talbot for the Senators, an up-and-coming team in a fiercely competitive division.

After machinations to dump unfavorable contracts, most notably that of goalie Cal Petersen, the re-signing of Vladislav Gavrikov and a massive, multi-faceted investment in acquiring center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Kings had to get creative just to sign a goalie. It’s unclear how many roster players they will carry, but it won’t be 23, per GM Rob Blake, for much of the season and it could be as low as 21 initially, giving them just one extra available skater.

More to come on this story.

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​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: U.S. Women’s World Cup veterans welcome rookies onto their lawn

• July 1, 2023

Of the 23 women selected to represent the United States at this month’s Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, 14 will be making their World Cup debuts. Eight are 25 or younger.

And on a roster with ages ranging from Megan Rapinoe, at 37 one of three players appearing in a fourth World Cup, to recent Harvard-Westlake graduate/current Angel City FC forward Alyssa Thompson, who is all of 18 … yeah, there is some cultural dissonance between the veterans and the kids.

The soccer, and meshing youthful skill and exuberance with veteran savvy, might be the easy part. Some of the cultural touchstones of the older players’ era seem to be a little more difficult for the youngsters to understand.

“They’ll (the veterans) talk about, like, the technology they had, like the CD, stuff that I don’t know,” said the Portland Thorns’ Sophia Smith, 22, at the USWNT’s media day last week in Carson.

“And they’ll always make fun of us,” she added. “Like a song will come on, and Crystal (Dunn) will be like, ‘So, you know who sings this?’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ And it will be like Tupac, I guess, or like someone I’m supposed to know.

“… Some of the songs they play, (that) they’re all listening to, I have no idea what they are. They sound like what my parents listened to.”

You feel old yet?

“And they had, like, websites that were like Google before Google,” she added, and hopefully nobody has told her about the floppy disk, or the difference between Betamax and VHS tapes, or the Walkman or the iPod. Those discoveries from the past might be head-spinning.

But this works both ways.

“Not all of us are doing TikToks like Trinity (Rodman),” Smith said. “I’m not doing TikToks.”

Rodman, the 21-year-old from Laguna Niguel who plays for the Washington Spirit – and is the daughter of NBA rebounding legend Dennis Rodman – has other ways to pass her downtime besides creating TikTok videos, and she’s taken advice from the veterans about ways to avoid the noise and commotion that will surround the team.

“Coloring,” she said. “Journaling, reading, Fortnite. I’m a little bit of a gamer, so that has definitely helped me. I think being able to just like relax for a little bit in little ways, like literally coloring in a coloring book (and) just not thinking about anything, is really important.”

Midfielder Lindsey Horan, who will be playing in her second World Cup, learned about leadership from defender and national team captain (and former Portland teammate) Becky Sauerbrunn, who will miss this World Cup with a foot injury. Now a member of France’s Olympique Lyon, Horan is passing those lessons forward.

“I want to be that type of role model for the young ones coming up and the new players here … just trying to be the best role model and a voice for these young players coming in, any time they need advice or questions or whatever,” she said.

It takes various forms. For example: Thompson, who will be the first teenager to represent the U.S. at the World Cup since 1995, wasn’t sure just how she should pack for what could be as many as seven weeks on the road, should the U.S. get to the Aug. 20 championship match in Sydney, Australia.

“Best phone call ever,” Horan said. “She wanted to know the essentials for packing for the World Cup. And I had no idea what to tell her, but it was so cute. And it was, ‘Yeah, (pack) everything. Pinoe’s got like four bags.’”

Thompson said she just wanted to make sure she wouldn’t miss or forget anything. But she’s also asked the veterans questions of more substance, about what this experience is going to be like.

“They said, just lean on them during the World Cup if there’s anything I need, because they don’t know what’s going to happen there, either,” she said. “Even though they’ve been, every World Cup’s different.”

She’s had help in her adjustment to being a pro from Angel City FC teammates Julie Ertz (also a World Cup teammate) and Sydney Leroux (who returned to ACFC less than a month ago after missing nine months with ankle surgery and is not on this World Cup roster). But this experience is another step up.

“When I walk into anything new, I’m very soft-spoken and I’m not really doing anything to step on anyone’s toes,” Thompson said. “And I’ve looked up to these players for such a long time. So in this environment, I’m a little bit nervous already, but it’s more exciting than nerve-wracking.”

At one end of the spectrum, Thompson has had three national team caps. Savannah DeMelo, 25, who is from Bellflower and plays for Racing Louisville in the NWSL, has none yet. Goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury, who is 31, has had one. Rodman has had 17, Smith 29, and 23-year-old defender Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave FC has had 15.

At the other end, Rapinoe has 199, Alex Morgan 208 and Kelley O’Hara 157. All will be playing in their fourth World Cup. Ertz (118 caps) and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher (90) will be appearing in their third.

Rose Lavelle, who has 88 international caps at the age of 28 and will be in her second World Cup, noted that “it’s crazy, because last World Cup I was one of the most inexperienced players going into it, and now going into this World Cup I’m one of the more experienced players. … I think all of us who have been here before, definitely we can use that experience to help the new players know what to expect, and hopefully it’s not as much of a shock once we get there.”

Said Smith: “It’s really not hard to be a young player on this team, because everyone’s so welcoming and people look past the age and respect you for what you can do on the field.”

From the outside, such a dramatic infusion of youth seems to be a disadvantage. But head coach Vlatko Andonovski said he feels otherwise, especially knowing that Rapinoe, Morgan and Horan will be prepared to lead the youngsters.

“I’m not worried about the inexperience, but in fact, I’m excited about the energy and enthusiasm that the young players bring, the intensity and the drive as well,” he said.

And there’s this, too, with those young players:

“They’re really freaking good,” Lavelle said.

[email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

We asked AI to plan a day trip in Huntington Beach. Here’s how it went

• July 1, 2023

Can AI plan a day trip in Huntington Beach?

These days it seems there is an artificial intelligence bot for everything. Sites such as ChatGPT and DALL-E allow users to write out a prompt for the AI to complete. Prompts can range in complexity, from  drafting an email to coding for a website.

Screenshot of a prompt given to ChatGPT and the response given.

While this technology might be useful in some circumstances, it’s not always accurate. This is something ChatGPT seems to be aware of. After I asked it to write an HTML code about ChatGPT it provided this response:

“Please keep in mind that while ChatGPT strives to provide accurate and helpful responses, it may occasionally produce incorrect or nonsensical answers. It’s always a good idea to verify information from reliable sources.”

Okay, so we shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT for everything. But what about the simpler things? Can ChatGPT plan a day trip?

If it works, it could take a lot of the headache out of having fun. As it is now, making an itinerary can mean a day of scrolling through travel articles, Google suggestions and Yelp reviews – with no guarantee that it’ll result in a fun day.

We put it to the test and fed the chat bot our question:

Give me a one day itinerary for Huntington Beach, California. 

Here’s how it went.

A day in Huntington Beach planned by AI

“Start your day with a delicious breakfast at one of the local cafes or restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach. Some popular options include Sugar Shack Café or Pacific Hideaway.”

One of the first things on my mind, when it came to this itinerary, was if it was going to suggest real places. Sugar Shack Cafe is not only real, but a popular spot to be on a Friday morning. The menu was simple and the service was speedy. There was plenty of outdoor seating, which I’m always a fan of especially in a beach town. The interior of the cafe also adds to the Surf City USA aesthetic with plenty of pictures of surfers hanging from the walls as well as the main dining table made out of an old wooden board.

Typically when I’m looking for food suggestions I hop onto Google or Yelp and check the reviews and location. When I searched for breakfast suggestions in Huntington Beach on both sites, Sugar Shack Cafe was number 6 for both of them, which I typically wouldn’t click on unless the location was the most convenient from the map view. Google gave the top spot to IHOP, so points to AI for recommending a locally owned restaurant instead. – CB

I was happy with how budget friendly this suggestion was. Food can be an unexpectedly expensive component of a trip, and I always forget to budget properly for it when I’m traveling. No issues here: Our total for two people was $25.86, accompanied by speedy service and delicious food. -DE

“Visit the Huntington Beach Pier, an iconic landmark in the city. Take a stroll along the pier, enjoy the panoramic views of the coastline, and watch surfers and fishermen in action.”

Growing up in California I’ve seen my fair share of piers, but I love to see how they’re unique to each city. What I liked about Huntington Beach’s Pier was that there were a few street musicians performing. There were a few gift shops and at the end of the pier there was some construction happening for a new restaurant. It was a good amount of things to do, but also wasn’t super crowded, allowing us to find a spot to rest and watch the surfers. – CB

Also see: How piers became part of Southern California beach culture

Surfers and fishermen were abundant, so shoutout to AI for knowing the real-life surroundings I might encounter at the pier.

However, the pier visit brought up my first criticism of the AI itinerary: The end of the pier was closed due to the above-mentioned construction. While not the end of the world, I advise that if you ask AI for a plan, double-check it for seasonal closures and construction. -DE

“Explore the International Surfing Museum located near the pier. It showcases the history and culture of surfing with various exhibits, artifacts, and memorabilia.”

The International Surfing Museum was my favorite thing ChatGPT recommended we check out. We got to meet Terry O’Shea who works at the museum a few days a week. You could tell he loves what he does, especially when it means telling visitors about the giant surfboard in the parking lot that broke a Guinness World Record. – CB

I’m a California transplant, and a Colorado girl at heart. So when I noticed that we could walk from the pier to the museum, I had to give points to the chat bot for a walkable itinerary.

Plus, I would have never picked the activity myself, having never been on a surfboard. In reality, I found the museum really interesting. It caters to all sorts of interests that intertwine with the water sport, from fashion to art to history. -DE

“As the sun begins to set, make your way to Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, located just north of Huntington Beach. This beautiful coastal wetland offers scenic trails where you can observe a variety of bird species and enjoy the serene surroundings.”

One thing ChatGPT might not be able to suggest but a travel blogger can? Bring a jacket. The reserve was windy which was a contrast in temperature from our earlier activities. Also wear walking shoes. The reserve isn’t something I’d think to search for when planning a trip to a beach town, but it was a nice change of scenery. We got to see some birds diving into the water and some speedy caterpillars. There was also signage throughout that provided information on the animals and had activities for kids. – CB

We had to get in a car (the agony!) to get here, but I totally saw ChatGPT’s vision. The reserve is beautiful and jam-packed with birds, a perfect way to end a day of people-centric activities.

One small note: I don’t know how “serene” a surrounding can be when part of it includes the Pacific Coast Highway, which skirts along the reserve. The beautiful bird noises are consistently intertwined with the not-so-beautiful car noises, but you can manage to escape it if you’re on the furthest end of the reserve. -DE

Overall Thoughts:

I think this technology can be fun and be a good way to draw inspiration for a trip, but I still think doing your own research is key.

I’m someone who likes to hear about other’s experiences when planning out trips, either through blogs, social media or asking friends and family for tips. While ChatGPT does provide good suggestions, it doesn’t replace the human experience and thinking of those extra details of what to wear, where to park or even your social battery. The full itinerary ChatGPT provided was packed, giving us three suggestions for the morning, three for the afternoon and three things to do in the evening.

The other thing ChatGPT doesn’t currently seem to account for is time-sensitive events. We spotted a few throughout our day such as Art Fair on the Pier and the 26th annual Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regional Competition. Had we known these events were happening prior, we probably would have re-evaluated which activities we ended up doing. – CB

ChatGPT is no local, but it did provide a variety of different activities that left me with a better understanding of Huntington Beach.

I think it’s better to pick and choose, as we did, from the suggested itinerary than attempt to do the entire thing. The full itinerary could get expensive (eating three times, surf lessons and drinks), it wasn’t always logical (why not group all of the beach activities together?) and time consuming.

But, overall, points to the bot for its walkable, budget-friendly and varied itinerary. We had fun. -DE

Below is the full itinerary that ChatGPT gave us.

Prompt: Give me a one day itinerary for Huntington Beach, California.

Response:Certainly! Here’s a one-day itinerary for enjoying Huntington Beach:

Morning:

Start your day with a delicious breakfast at one of the local cafes or restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach. Some popular options include Sugar Shack Café or Pacific Hideaway.
Head over to Huntington State Beach, which offers pristine sandy shores and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. Take a leisurely stroll along the beach, dip your toes in the water, or simply relax and soak up the sun.
If you’re interested in surfing, Huntington Beach is known as Surf City USA. Consider taking a surf lesson or renting a board to catch some waves. There are several surf schools and rental shops along the beach that can help you get started.

Afternoon:

Grab a quick lunch at one of the beachside eateries or head back to downtown Huntington Beach to explore the various dining options available. There are plenty of options ranging from seafood to international cuisine.
Visit the Huntington Beach Pier, an iconic landmark in the city. Take a stroll along the pier, enjoy the panoramic views of the coastline, and watch surfers and fishermen in action.
Explore the International Surfing Museum located near the pier. It showcases the history and culture of surfing with various exhibits, artifacts, and memorabilia.

Evening:

As the sun begins to set, make your way to Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, located just north of Huntington Beach. This beautiful coastal wetland offers scenic trails where you can observe a variety of bird species and enjoy the serene surroundings.
For dinner, consider dining at one of the oceanfront restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach. Enjoy fresh seafood while taking in the stunning views of the sunset.
After dinner, if you’re in the mood for some live music, head to one of the local bars or entertainment venues in the area. The Main Street area often hosts live performances, and you can find a lively atmosphere with a variety of music genres.

Alternatively, you can choose to relax on the beach and watch the stars before calling it a day.

Remember to check local COVID-19 guidelines and any specific operating hours or restrictions for the attractions and establishments you plan to visit. Enjoy your day in Huntington Beach!

​ Orange County Register