Hanging out in venice beach

I'll be ready (I'll be ready), Never you fear (now don't you fear)...
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With the exception of one person, we were told by anyone who had been to L.A. that it was rubbish & not to bother. As we were flying out of L.A. we did have to bother, so we decided to follow the advice of Paul (that one person who liked L.A.) and check out Santa Monica & Venice Beach. And we’re glad we did!

Santa Monica is really nice, it has a huge white sandy beach which goes for miles. It is full of the Baywatch towers, the funny four wheeled police buggys for driving over sand as in Baywatch and the yellow lifeguard jeeps exactly like the one Mitch Bucannon drove. Jealous Sinead?? We were really tempted to buy red swimming costumes and run in slow-mo down the beach singing “I’ll be ready”, but you’ll be glad to hear we restrained ourselves! Third street promonade is a pedestrainised street, a bit like Grafton Street, but cleaner, longer, wider & sunnier! It was full of shoppers & buskers etc & is nice for a stroll. It also has a pier going out to the ocean which was full of people day & night, but it’s fairly crap so I’d advise to give it a miss. We spend an inordinate amount of time in a British pub on Santa Monica Bolavard (impossible to say without singing it in your head á la Sheryl Crow!) We had breakfast there twice, lunch once & dinner once! We’re such losers, but it had things like (Heinz) beans on toast – proper sausages (hard to get in the States) and sheppards pie! I know, we’re sad!

It’s like the biggest collection of drop-outs, stoners, acid casualties, hippies and odd-balls in the world.

Clown sitting writing a note while bodybuilder does body lifts. Nothing unusual there...
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Venice Beach is f*cking brilliant! It’s just mental! Full of freaks! LOVED IT!! I’ve never in my life seen such a collection of weirdos! We just walked down the street laughing our heads off! A bodybuilder type in the smallest possible speedos wearing a Mexican wrestling mask (like the one Jack Black wears in Nacho Libre) wandered by like it was the most normal thing in the world. No one batted an eyelid! The beach side of the street is lined with street stalls selling anything & everything (art, jewellry, gas-mask bongs, your fortune, political stuff…). The people doing the selling are far more interesting than anything they’re selling! It’s like the biggest collection of drop-outs, stoners, acid casualties, hippies and odd-balls in the world. The opposite side of the street had the usual shops and resturants. It has the out-door gym where the steroid filled body builders pose & work out. The whole place is slightly run down, which kinda adds to it’s charm! We had a few street-side beers in a German pub and watched the freakshow pass us by.

Ciara in front of the outdoor gym
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Now, onto LAX & the Cook Islands…