The thing with LA is that you want to keep it to one general area as much as possible, or you'll spend your whole day in traffic. So I recommend you pick one relatively general area and try to do things around there.
Personally, I find the whole Venice Beach boardwalk kind of scuzzy and annoying, but lots of people seem to like it. Venice though has some cool places, and the Abbott Kinney area has some great restaurants (i.e. Gjelinas with their fish sandwiches). You could probably do Venice/Santa Monica/Malibu in a day. El Matador Beach, about 15 minute drive north of Malibu is pretty amazing, and my favourite beach (its much more natural than Venice beach, which is more of a boardwalk type situation). The Malibu Pier is nice too.
South of Venice, in Manhattan Beach, is where I had my Darryl Sutter sighting the last time I was there, ha. That's a nice little town too.
Whenever Im down in the LA area, I actually love to drive down the PCH to Taco Loco in Laguna Beach. That whole drive from Huntington Beach to Dana Point is quite picturesque, but it is a bit of a drive from LA itself, so there and back will probably will take eat up half your day, depending of traffic. But the fish tacos are worth it.
In 'n Out is ok, but I would recommend trying to find a Mexican food truck instead. The burgers aren't that much better than what you get in Calgary at a place like Clive....but the Mexican food is on a whole different planet.
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