If you want a relatively quiet SoCal beach experience I'd recommend Pismo in San Luis Obispo county. I used to travel up and down the state a couple times a year and would stop there for lunch when I could. It's the northernmost beach that feels like SoCal on a decently warm day, with a nice wide sandy beach and relatively few people. Granted it's been several years now since I've seen it myself, but SLO in general was always a great pitstop before entering the madness of SoCal proper. Montana de Oro park nearby has some nice low key beach camping as well
There are good places and people in Cal. but it is run by communism and i will never go again. The joke in my family is, we have a group (my dads brother) that lived in Cal. that were always seen as a little 'slow', yet every single one has found there way Out of Cal. The joke is the IQ of both states dropped.
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