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…

Venice Beach, CA – Surprisingly Still the USofA

 

Larry and Mark were at the condo for the weekend and on Friday we decided to go up to Venice Beach. It’s about 80 miles north of Oceanside so we got up early and headed north. Venice Beach is, of course, home to Muscle Beach. It is not at all what I expected…

 

 

 

 

We parked a few blocks away and headed toward the beach. The first thing we came upon was Muscle Beach Venice. The original Muscle Beach was a few miles north in Santa Monica but moved to Venice in the 50s and became Muscle Beach Venice. Right next to the gym is a concrete platform/stage and stadium seating. As you can see, Mark and I made it on stage! LOL And the crowd went wild! HAHA Also, a short distance away there is gymnastic equipment including high bar, parallel bars and those hanging ropes with the rings.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked along the beach, being so early on a Friday, there were very few people there, which is just how I like it!

 

 

 

The skaters were up and ready though. I was able to get some pretty good action shots. It’s amazing to me how old the skaters here are! LOL I mean, I’ve seen some that had to be over 30. It’s great they are still doing what they love. It’s how we stay young…

 

 

 

 

 

As we continued to walk down the beach we came upon the Venice Art Walls. There is a sign out in front of it saying it is illegal do deface this work. I, personally, think this was awesome. There are some pretty fantastic graffiti artists and it’s great they are allowed to express themselves in this way. The artists do need a permit though.

 

 

OK, now came the most interesting part of our trip to Venice Beach. The street vendors and the street people, sometimes one in the same. It almost seemed like a different country, a third world country. So the street that runs along the beach starts filling up with street vendors around 10am. There is a wide variety of ware available. A lot of it is art. One guy was even selling pan handler type signs! LOL Just a piece of cardboard that made a statement. Ingenious if you ask me! This guy just gets dressed up in his weed man suit and waits for you to want to take a picture and he’ll want money for that privilege. As I walked by he yelled, “that camera cost more then my rent. I’m not a proud man, I’m just trying to make a living!” OK, so what if my camera cost more then your rent. The camera gear I was carrying probably could pay the rent for 3 months, so what. I worked long and I worked hard for it…

 

Some of the other comments I heard from the homeless: the guy bent over in this picture in the jean said, “with out women we can reproduce”, true. A homeless girl said, “just give me some money so I don’t have to punch you in the face.” Hmm, no comment. A really good looking guy, not much over 20 said, “does anyone have any change, so my dog doesn’t get raped”, as he’s looking at me. I said, “no”, which I didn’t. He said, “I hope you remember that when you’re getting raped”, wow, really? “You’re a jerk”, I said. I was definitely glad I was not there alone at night!

 

 

And of course the medical marijuana places, and there were many! I am quite sure I would have been able to get my marijuana card on this day if that is something I was interested in. Don’t think I’d be much of a problem… “The doctor’s in” LOL

 

 

Venice Beach is a cool experience, but there are definitely a lot of homeless and people who need help. I began to wonder how these people got here, what happened in their life to bring them to this. Was it a series of things the snowballed into homelessness or was it one key decision that brought them down? I hope I never find out…

Beautiful La Jolla, CA & The Seal Beach

 

La Jolla is the most beautiful place I have seen since arriving in California. It is an upscale area, with many very expensive houses built into the hills, but what I appreciated the most where the rocky cliffs along the coast and the seal beach!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the road from the ocean is this Museum of Contemporary Art, with a 30 boat pile up on the roof. It’s an interesting piece of art that looks like it was created by Mother Nature not a mere mortal artist. A tsunami perhaps… :)

 

Plenty of birds around to steal whatever food you would like to leave lying around. At one point Larry & Mark were sitting on a park bench waiting for me to create master pieces with my camera and a lady came running over by them because she opened her sandwich to eat and the birds swarmed in for the kill! One bird tried to bite her finger. I think she narrowly escaped death that day!

 

We walked over to the seal beach, which was legally named “The Children’s Pool”. In the 1930’s the towns people built the jetty to shelter the cove so their children could enjoy the calm water. In the 1970’s the seals decided to muscle the children out, as they knew a good thing when they saw it! This baby doll was left lying on the beach near the seals, makes me curious as to whether or not that fat seal had an extra snack. Ah, I’m just kidding!!! The beach is not really suitable for human swimming, anymore, because of the high bacteria content from the animals' fecal matter. A trip to San Diego is not complete until you take the drive to La Jolla and the seal beach.

At the top of the stairs to go down to the seal beach I decided to pretend to have a little mishap, here I am playing “fallin off the ledge girl” LOL Mark said, “you are fun!” Yes, I am Mark, yes I am! :)

 

 

Here are some of the things we saw along our walk at La Jolla. In the picture to the left, Larry & Mark.

 

 

 

 

There were some pretty interesting tree formations along the path, this one is like half a heart. No wonder I was drawn to it! :) HAHA

 

 

 

A restaurant at the top of the world, or top of a hotel rather… This is not where we ate. We ate at Jersey Subs today.

Pelicans on parade. There were about 5 of them gliding together as if doing a water dance. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

 

          

 

Along the path were plenty of squirrels. Cali squirrels are much smaller then Minnesota squirrels. This cute little bugger was watching me watch him. Making sure I didn’t try to take his lunch like the seagulls did to the lady with the sandwich… No worries little buddy, I’m a meat eater!

 

 

And finally some more pictures of seals; one exercising, one flopping out of the water, one sunbathing. The first one with the silvery coat was my favorite. If you are in the San Diego area, I would recommend a visit to this area. I plan to go back before I leave here in August.

 

 

Oceanside, CA – Beach & Pier

 

The closest beach to me is Oceanside beach. One day last week I went for a walk, just me and my camera down the pier. These are some of the sights I saw. I really like these little VWs now. This one is definitely missing a rack for a surf board though!

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently this is Charlie, he hangs out on the pier all the time. The action is due to the fact that you human feed him. :) I got an up close and personal look at him and I don’t think I would want to be near the end of his bill, there is a very defined point at the end to hook you with!

 

 

 

 

You will see plenty of fishing off of the pier. They were catching fish and clams this day. Most the people fishing have quite the set up, you can tell they have been here before! All the gear they need being pulled in on their little red wagons… the birds were there fishing too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, it’s the ocean, it’s southern California, you will see surfers as well. There were not a whole lot out today, and even less were actually getting up on the board, but I did manage to catch a few “catching the wave”.

      

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this picture of the life guard tower and his surf board. It’s a big job being a life guard out here. Lots of people, some not familiar with the ocean, and currents. A lot of ocean to watch and a lot of force to swim against.