Air Travel Discount
Links of interest for your travel plans
Newport
Beach California
Newport Beach California
has the highest per-capita ownership of Mercedes Benz automobiles in
the entire world. Houses on the bay and on the Newport
peninsula rank among the most expensive on the west coast of the United
States, which puts them in the running for some of the most expensive
real-estate, per foot, in the entire world. Home of the O.C.
and the Balboa Bar, Newport Beach California represents some of the
new-old money of the west coast. Though these houses
aren’t historic estates, the peninsula was built up in the
50s and 60s, which sets the rich development of Newport apart from the
even newer big money developments of Silicon Valley which cropped up by
the hundreds in the early 90s. The rich of Newport occupy an
interesting middle ground between the old money of the steel and oil
families of the early 19th and 20th centuries and the ultra-new money
of those who made it big during the tech boom.
However you look at it, Newport Beach California means money.
When you drive Pacific Coast Highway through town you’ll pass
yacht dealers situated across from Ferrari and other exotic car
dealerships. I’ve seen more Bentleys in the Newport
area than anywhere I’ve ever seen; they’re lined up
in ritzy supermarket parking lots like Accords and Camrys back in the
real world. I worked as a caterer near Newport for awhile and
waited on small, friend-and-family Christmas gatherings which included
200-name guest lists, carolers, magicians, and dozens of
staff. In order to reach the house where the party was being
hosted I had to get past an armed security guard at the gatehouse that
kept the riff-raff out of the gated community.
Though the clientele is posh and the real-estate astronomically
expensive, it isn’t tough to imagine why the rich decided to
settle there. Newport Beach California is a beautiful area,
with around 300 days of sunshine a year and beautiful views of Catalina
Island and the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to the influx of money
in the area, Newport boasts a great school system and amazing
restaurants. On a nice day you can walk for hours up and down
the boardwalk, people watching and checking out the surfers lined up on
the breakers. Sure, the rent for a two-bedroom apartment may
be more in Newport than the mortgage payment on a house in many parts
of the country, it’s a pretty good bet that those houses
aren’t a block from the beach and less than an hour from
Hollywood or L.A.