<font color=navy>I really like Newport Beach - the waves are nice, & you can boogie board there. You can rent bikes, too. There are also different restaurants there.
But, for watching the sun set over the Pacific, there's nothing like eating at Tony's Fish Market on the Redondo Beach Pier.
I took some pics last month, when I took my kids to eat dinner there.
I'm partial to Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach actually consist of three beaches: the state beach, the city beach and Bolsa Chica. I think it's about 8 miles of continuous beach. At the pier, there are two restaurants at the beach: Duke's and Chimayo at the Beach. Duke's is upstairs and Chimayo is below. Chimayo has a nice outdoor patio facing the beach and ocean. Both afford nice views of the ocean and sunset. At the end of the pier is a Ruby's, a causal place that serves bugers and other sandwiches. After dinner, you can take a nice stroll down Main St. which ends at the pier. Another option is to spend the day at the beach and just before sunset, light a fire in one of the firepits and have a picnic dinner or roast some weiners. Firewood is available at any supermarket in the city.
Both Newport and Huntington Beach are in the same county as Anaheim, Orange County. Newport might be a hair closer than Huntingtion to DL. Redondo beach is in L.A. county and will take you considerably more time to get to. Here's a link to Huntington Beach's tourism website: http://www.hbvisit.com/cityfaq.html