Bela Dejohn’s yearly vacations to the west coast turned into a daily reality of luxury and amusement when her family decided to move to California for a few short but sweet years.

Her parents, Julia and Benjamin, met in California during college. They moved back to Cleveland to have children and raise a family but soon realized they missed the warm beaches in LA. When Dejohn turned eight and her sister Niyah turned six they uprooted the family and moved back to Cali.

Benjamin received a job working as an event planner for Vortex Immersion Media at LA Center Studios where he would often bring his daughters while he worked. They spent countless afternoons in an infamous dome that was part of their dad’s workplace.

“It was like I was in the opening scene of a blockbuster movie,” Dejohn said. Her everyday life

was to see the sets of shows that she watched at home, even meeting the actors of popular children’s show Shake It Up and TV show Mad Men.

Dejohn lived right on the shore, recalling the times she spent Christmas Eve walking on Hermosa Beach. “It was a unique experience compared to Christmas in Cleveland,” she said.

One of her favorite places to visit along with the famous Hollywood sign was Palos Verdes, a small city built on a cliff that overlooked the ocean.  She and her family also visited San Diego, Santa Monica, Venice beach and Laguna beach – where her mom lived earlier in life.

She spent time at a hidden beach where the custom was to find an object on shore and add to the structure of a hut built by civilians who were previously there.

School was also different from learning experiences in Ohio. Field trips would entail going to ice cream shops on the beach, and the “hallways” were pathways taken outside.

Niyah, Dejohn’s younger sister, recalls the time they were driving to a planetarium and realized that Paris Hilton was driving in front of them. She also remembers going to a unique birthday party in which the choreographer from the children’s television show Hannah Montana taught them the “Ho Down Throwdown” dance that was featured on the show.

Benjamin said, “What I miss the most was riding my bicycle every day on the beaches and all the cool things I saw.” He remembers one morning, while riding his bike, he saw Robert Englund, the actor who played Freddy Krueger in the film A Nightmare on Elm Street, walking his dog.

During college Benjamin lived near many celebrities so this encounter, although a neat experience, did not take him off guard.

Dejohn is the typical teenager from Cleveland. She loves sledding in the winter, Friday night football games and spending her Sundays watching the Browns games. But she still feels at home in California.

She hopes to go back to California for college. “I miss seeing all of the possibilities of life in LA and experiencing them,” Dejohn said.