Santa Monica & An Unexpected Side Trip

 

After leaving Venice Beach we headed a few miles north to Santa Monica to check out the Pier. Since it is basically a downtown area all parking lots are pay and street parking has meters. We found a parking ramp that had the first 2 hours of free parking then a pretty reasonable rate after that. The ramp was attached to a upscale outdoor mall. Something you would never find in Minnesota. Can you imagine the interior of the MOA being open during a snow storm?! LOL

 

It was a few blocks to walk to the pier, which is basically an amusement park. I guess it was cool to see but not to exciting for the three of us. We walked around for a little bit, saw the rides, Larry and Mark visited the fortune teller lady in the glass box, we stopped in one souvenir shop and were on our way! LOL

 

 

 

Here are a few more pictures I took at the pier. If you like amusement parks this is a small but good one. They have all the usual rides. Nothing to spectacular, but the usual, all crammed onto a pier over the ocean.

 

 

 

Being a person who likes road trips, I know that the old Route 66 has always been considered the “ultimate” road trip. So about the most exciting thing for me at the pier was this sign indicating this is the official end of Route 66. And that is not that exciting! LOL There was a guy riding around town on his bike with these 5 birds and they could talk. It was kind of weird because I saw the bike in two different places but it was always just parked with the guy unseen. I know he was there, right there, but he did his best to stay in “hiding” because I have no idea who this bike and those birds belonged to. I guess he wanted it that way.

 

 

This angel statue was about the most interesting thing I saw in Santa Monica. It was across the street from the mall we parked at. Not sure what it represented or why it was there but I liked it.

Getting the car out was an adventure all in itself! LOL Of course you take a ticket on the way in, but there is not a cashier on the way out, you have to find the machine to pay before you get in your car and go. Well the sign said on the third level but the elevator or somewhere on the fifth level. We were on the second. We met another lady in search of a machine and she thought it stupid that there wasn’t one on every level too. We went in search of said machine. She said, “you guys seem like you know what you are doing, I’m following you!” HAHA OK, come one. We went up a flight of stairs to level 3 and out to the elevator. That level slopped down so apparently as we went down hill it became level 2 again, OK, up another flight back to level 3. Well here are the elevators, but no machine. Turned a few corners, no machine, now looking down a long hallway leading back to the mall, we walked. At the end of the hallway was parking machine… OK that’s not the most convenient. She put in her ticket, free, she’d only been here a little while. Mark put in our ticket, one hour, fifty eight minutes! Score, two minutes before we would have had to pay!

 

OK, we found the ticket machine, made it out of the parking ramp, where’s the highway? Beats me, and Mark & Larry. OK, phones have GPS… but apparently in this area there is no GPS signal! What?! How can that be? OK, we came from over here. Road splits, go right… Ooooh, we should have went left. Got back to the right road. Drive a few blocks and an accident had just happened. Wow, maybe we got lost because we were on time to be in the accident and we avoided it! Hmmm, Mark drove through the accident scene and began to speed up and now there is a sound coming from the back tire on the drivers side, damn! Stop, get out, screw in tire, stupid accident people! Should we try to make it back, sure. On the 5, rush hour traffic, low tire indictor light comes on, damn! I get on “Places” on my phone and look for a Discount Tire. Of course, 9 miles away, down the 5 in rush hour traffic, not good. We get off the freeway and head down towards the tire place hoping to find one closer along the way.

 

 

 

We are on the road to LAX and are coming up to it. We spot a Good Year, yay!! But its feet away from LAX and the center median prevents any access to the tire shop, damn, again! OK, we will go to the next intersection and make a Uturn. Except we go almost a mile and the next intersection doesn’t have a left turn lane AND it has a sign that says “No Uturn”, damn. Being the law abiding citizens we are, we go straight. We’ll do it at the next one, DAMN, no Uturn sign at that intersection too! Well now we have no choice, we do not want to be sitting on the side of the road changing a flat tire, we bust a Uwie! LOL Back to the Good Year, an hour later, back on the road, in stop and go traffic. Lets go for a beer… or 4.

 

 

 

 

We stopped at our favorite little joint, the Pier View Pub, right by Oceanside Pier. Cheap pitchers and interesting people all in one place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this had been an interesting day… up early, hour and a half drive up to Venice Beach and those experiences. A few miles north to Santa Monica and the parking adventure. A tire mishap. Some beers and people watching at the Pier View Pub…