29 July 2006

Santa Monica

Our first day in LA was beautiful. The sun was shining so we hit the beach. We found out that hanging out at the beach here is sort of a different thing than hanging out at the beach in Saskatchewan. In SK it's assumed that water activities are involved but here it's more about walking and shopping with a scenic backdrop. We went to two poplualr tourist spots...Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. The pier was a new experience for me but I had been to Venice Beach before with my mom. The pier had a carnival area, lots of vendors and performers and an amazing view of the ocean. After walking the pier we walked over to Venice Beach which was apporx a mile away. It was a nice walk although near the end the heat was definitely beating me. Once we got there we ran into a Hare Krishna parade...lots of chanting and crazy dancing...quite strange. Nearby there was also a large group of police officers keeing an eye on things if they got too crazy. We passed many shops, restaurants, tattoo shops and boardwalk vendors. Some of more interesting vendors were: a local author, a college student trying to raise tuition, a sand sculptor, a local rap group and a novelty t-shirt vendor (oh wait...there were hundreds of those). One of the street performers that was there 15 years ago when I was there was this guy who walks and jumps on broken glass. It wasn't as impressive as it was back then as a kid but he's a funny guy and knows how to entertain. He pointed me out and said "hey you with the camera, go to the box (donation box)"...I said "I already put a dollar in"...then he said "what about the camera"...funny stuff. We had a lot of fun and took in some neat sights...it was fun just to relax on the beach and people watch.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome. I am glad you got to go to Venice Beach as an adult and share it with Nevada. Did you see the basketball court or the man in the turban with a guitar on in line skates? Sometimes the things we remember as children aren't as fantastic when we see them as an adult. I though wasn't disappointed when I went to Casa Loma, it was the same as my 9 year child remembered.
MOM

Jared Nordick said...

The second building on the left in the last picture is the hotel i stayed at last February break. That whole area is such a nice vacation spot.

Looks like you had a ton of fun.

Loaf.

Shane Sowden said...

Sweet hair dude!!! Hope the rest of your trip home is a safe one.

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