A Tale of Two Excursions: Venice Beach and Beverly Hills

 Day three started with a quick drive-by shooting of the studio we had been at the night before.  We were able to snap a couple of pictures outside, but I wanted a picture of the studio’s main entrance.  From there we headed to the famous Venice Beach.  The kids asked us what was so cool about Venice Beach.  All we could say is, “Wait and you will see!” 

We didn’t plan to spend a lot of time at Venice Beach, but we wanted to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean and see the craziness that has made Venice Beach famous.  The first thing that caught our eye was a skateboarding park.  There was quite a variety of people in the skate park, from 5-year-olds to 50-year-olds!  It looked like broken bones waiting to happen.  There were some with helmets and pads, but most were just hanging loose.

From there, we walked the strip full of street vendors and street performers.  Oh, there were lots and lots of “medical” marijuana clinics.  There must have been a lot of sick people at the beach that day because there were several people “taking their medicine!”  The kids were able to see all sorts of people. 

We were able to walk through the sand and dip our toes in the ocean.  It was freezing!  I love the Caribbean water, but it makes everything else way too cold.  Before we left Venice beach, Adri was struck by all of the skateboarders.  She found a skateboard shop and decided she needed a souvenir from Venice Beach.  To make this purchase more meaningful, she bought a plain board and had a street-vendor (artist) paint a design on the bottom that said “Venice Beach.”

We left Venice Beach and headed to Beverly Hills.  We planned to go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  We figured that would be the only thing we could afford in Beverly Hills.  We were going to walk the streets a little and see some homes.  It was one of the things that you want to say you have done, since you see it on TV.  The kids saw some fancy cars (Buggattis, Rolls Royces, etc.), huge gated houses, and stores they would never see near home.  Kristi and I were there five years ago.  What I noticed was that there were fewer fancy cars and fewer people who looked like the “richy-rich” we saw last time.  There looked like more tourist than locals.

It was finally time to get out of the LA area and head to the national parks and fewer people.  But, trying to get out of the city was a giant pain.  The traffic was very busy.  One of the busiest highways was under construction.  We went bumper to bumper, detoured, and slowly moved on.  I normally don’t mind heavy traffic and driving on busy expressways and streets, but I had had my fill of traffic!  I was ready to get out of that area.

We had a relatively long drive to get to Fresno for our next nighty-night!