I would suggest that you give Rainbow Air at Long Beach a check. thay have well maintained aircraft at reasonable rates, and once checked out you can visit some interesting places such as Chino (Warbird museum is awesome) Las Vegas, Big Bear (High altitude 7,000 amsl) Catalina Island and try the SVFR corridor over the top of LAX. If its instrument stuff you want, check out the approaches into John Wayne Santa Anna (Orange County) Airport (KSNA).
If you need more info, e-mail me.
Tailwinds,