California beaches?

[cjbcam]

Can anyone recommend the best beach and place to stay (ocean front preferably). We want to head down to California for 1.5 weeks.
We are a family of 6. Kids will be 13,11,8 and 5. The kids love playing in the ocean. I want to browse through some shops and also take kids to Disney and San Diego Zoo.
My DH would love to go whale watching.
Price matters but is not the deciding factor. Would choose more expensive over a cheap dump kind of thing. Any suggestions?

 

[ncc1701]

Whale watching depends on the time of year. The Zoo is about 90 minutes+ south of Disneyland. Best thing might be to pick a couple of areas and do a split stay. We have done several trip staying at Huntington Beach which is about 30 minutes from DL (but not to go to D other than to shop 1 morning at DTDL) and either San Diego or Coronado to do things in that area. If spending time in DL is important you can spend a night or more in Anaheim.