Thursday, Sept. 27/07 - Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, California

Ray wanted to check out Best Buy so we found one closeby. We spent some time in there. The Grey’s Anatomy 3rd season DVD was $49.99 there but had some sort of insert in the back that the ones we got from Ellen didn’t. After a while I was so bored I ended up sitting on the shopping cart and Ray pushed me in it while he looked around.

We went to Venice Beach as I’d read online that:

“It does have canals and gondoliers just like in Italy! Home to sun and surf, Venice also has a vibrant, off-beat beach community teeming with street musicians, skaters, t-shirt vendors, and cafes. This is a great place to shop for inexpensive souvenirs. See and be seen at the Sidewalk Café at 1401 Ocean Front Walk (at Horizon) for inexpensive American fare.”

We never saw the canals but did go by Marina Del Rey and found the Sidewalk Café. We ate at this café as they had a wide and varied menu. I had a Monet salad which had had spinach, goat cheese, glazed walnuts, apples and raspberry vinaigrette in it. It was really good. It was a neat atmosphere as no cars were allowed on Ocean Front Walk and there were various vendors on the beach side under their own umbrellas or out in the open (like the guy playing the piano, the guy painting names and the typical silver man). Little shops with oddball wares, hotels and cafes, lined the other side of the Ocean Front Walk. It was bustling with tourists, skateboarders, rollerbladers and pedestrians and behind the vendors were beautiful beaches left and right as far as the eye could see. The lifeguard towers could be seen too and I think Baywatch has been filmed here.

After we wandered around the beach and watched the surfers we drove a bit north and went to the Santa Monica Pier. There were people playing beach volleyball there. The pier had an amusement park on it which had a large ferris wheel that was 9 stories above the sea, a roller coaster and other rides. There were fishing poles for rent at the end of the pier. There was also a restaurant there too. The view of the sunset from the pier was beautiful and beaches could be seen as far as the eye could see to the left and right. We didn’t get around to looking for Muscle Beach which was supposed to be just south of the pier on the beach. It’s a surfside gym with gymnastic rings, swings and chin-up bars. It was too dark. We ended up spending some time in the arcade as they had not one, but two Centipede games!!!!! Centipede (and Battlezone) was my favourite arcade game back in the 80’s. There was also my favourite shooting game Area 51. I couldn’t leave until I got a high score on Centipede which took a few tries. Ray played Raiden while I became soaked in sweat, stiff and sore from the excitement and cursing while playing my old favourites. I was # 7 on the Area 51 game.

After leaving the pier we drove past the 3rd Street Promenade which was 3 blocks from the ocean and had a pedestrian walkway with outdoor cafes, restaurants, coffeehouses, bookstores, movie theatres and shops lining the walk. It was quite busy and reminded us of Robson Street but without any cars.

After leaving Santa Monica we went to Chinatown in L.A. for dinner. I think we got there about 9pm and ate at the Golden Dragon restaurant. I had cod and choy sum. Ugh- I forgot to ask them not to put in MSG so suffered with bloating and fatigue on the drive back to Anaheim.

We weren’t allowed to park our own car (Chrysler Sebring) at the resort so we had to leave it with the valet every night.