The Walk to the Santa Monica Pier

 Sunday March 9, 2014

We started the morning the same way that we have every day here with a little dip in our hot tub. Yep, our own private hot tub. This little apartment rental has a very nice little backyard with a hammock and a hot tub!

Love this backyard!

We walked down to Whole Foods which is a large grocery store and picked up some things we need. This store seems to be aiming at the “healthy” eaters with lots of organic, no steroids, etc. type of food. I’m not sure where the people shop who want the cheap stuff that is not good for you… but it isn’t here 😉 Anyway, I think we can manage to eat healthy food for a while…

After this we decided to take a walk down to Santa Monica pier. It’s about 2 miles away, so we decided to wear runners. Who knew this would end up causing blisters? I wear those shoes all day and walk a lot. Is it something with the heat?!? Suffice it to say I’m switching back to the flip flops from now on! (Plus they are purple and sparkly… so that’s better too…)

Anywhere you walk you always run into interesting things and people. Check out this cool dog!

You can walk all the way from Rose Avenue in Venice Beach (where our place is) to the Santa Monica pier on a walking path right beside the beach. There is a separate path for bicyclists and other people on wheels right close to the walking path.

This little guy had his own set of wheels!

The beach is much wider then I imagined, and I can’t imagine that it is ever full!  It has beautiful soft fine sand, and today endless amounts of sunshine!

Steve had his first celebrity sighting. Some UFC guy (let’s just say I didn’t recognize him or know who Steve was talking about).

Steve was very excited to find the adult playground. Apparently he’s seen it on youtube (ninja warrior wannabes, I suspect), and was hoping to find it on the beach. Steve spent some time playing on the rings (I dutifully watched from the sidelines!) and satisfied his curiosity. Yes, he can actually make it there and back!

As we got closer to the pier there were way more people, and it was quite crowded.

On the pier!

Apparently the pier was built in the early 1900’s as part of a sewage disposal process. Now it is a very busy boardwalk and is full of amusement park rides including a carousel from the 1920’s, games and fast foods. (The sewage idea, was ended in the 1920’s… 100 years ago, Victoria… just saying….) Today we learned what funnel cake was… but not why it was called funnel cake. I’m guessing you squeeze it through a funnel to make it??

 

It looked gross to me, but clearly people like it because many stands were selling it. We walked all the way to the end, watched some people fishing, admired the view, listened to the buskers and then headed back towards Venice Beach.

On the way back we stopped at a cute little beach café that sold beach type food (burgers, fries, etc.). The real draw of this place was that you were sitting outside, staring at the ocean, with your feet in the sand. It reminded me of Greece… and that made me even happier. We sat for a while and people watched, had a drink and then headed home.

At the beach cafe💖

You can tell right away when you leave Santa Monica and enter the Venice Beach section of the walk. There are many shops and restaurants wall to wall along the path, much more interesting and unique local people hanging about, and a totally different vibe. I saw a guy wearing a shirt this morning that said “Venice: Where Art meets Crime”. I think that was probably a very acute observation.

Then we headed back up our street; there is always so much to look at. The buildings are different, there are lots of paintings and interesting things around. 

I’m going to remember to take more photos in the next few days!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and just hanging out. We are on vacation after all!