VENICE BEACH



Sunday was the perfect day to go to the beach. It was hot enough to actually feel like being there so at around 11:30 a.m. we once again loaded the van and the jeep and headed towards Venice Beach. I was surprised that traffic was not too bad over the weekend. You think maybe half of L.A. was out of town? We drove down the Santa Monica freeway and we didn't catch a traffic jam until we got to Bundy Ave., luckily our exit was coming up.


This sign shows $15.00 but when we left the same sign was displaying a $20.00 flat fee. Inflation only takes a matter of minutes. lol

We got to Venice Beach and started to look for a parking spot. I saw a parking sign saying $15.00 flat rate. Wow! I thought that is kindda steep, let's look some more. The next parking lot said $23.00, darn it's getting more expensive, so I turned into another street and I spotted another parking lot with a sign that said $15.00, hey, all of a sudden $15.00 per vehicle seemed very affordable, specially since this parking garage was only a block and a half away from the beach.


~~~Scenes from Venice Beach.~~~

We started on our expedition to the beach but knew it would take us forever to get there. There just is so much to see, my trigger happy finger started capturing images of anything and everything around me. I had not been to Venice Beach for over years but nothing has changed, it's still busy, and it's still fun to go there. I really want to go again and ride a bike from Venice to Santa Monica. There are shops, shows, displays, etc. etc. etc. all along the boardwalk. This time we only walked a very small portion and yet got to see so much.


Our little group posing for a photo. Can we just get to the water already?

We finally made it to the water only to find out that in that particular stretch of the beach we could not swim as the area has been predestined to boogie boarders and surfers. We could still walk around by the beach and wet our feet but could not go in, nevertheless the kids enjoyed it and I was happy to see them happy.

I was going on a picture taking expedition and mi chica came with me. We walked for about a mile, always taking breaks to see the different shows, and to even buy a few souvenirs. The weather was great, the ocean breeze felt so good, and the cloudy sky made it easier to be walking. I still got a little sunburn, sort of a signature stating we were there.













The water was pretty cold if you ask me, but then again I am kinda chicke when it comes to cold water. The kids didn't seem to mind, even Arielle got to dip her little feet in the water, brrrrrr grandpa, it's cold.

We all got hungry, while walking around mi chica and I saw this guy with a little sign saying "big slice of pizza -- .99 cents". Turned out to be false advertisement, we were told that offer is only good for weekdays. Then why on earth they send this guy out there? The answer is simple, because fool like us walk in and decide to buy the whole pizza, that's why. Anyway, next to the pizza place was a Chinese food stand, and next to the Chinese food stand was a Salvadorian food stand, and they had Papusas. So... for me papusas it was, a chicharron papusa and a loroco papusa. Ummmmm these things are good. Next destination was a little alley so we could have our pic-nic. Leave it to us Mexicanos to have a full blown picnic in front of the garage of some appartment complex.


Beware of the happy Mexicans eating a mixture of Italian, Chinese, and Salvadorian food. Yeah, we are kindda universal that way.

Once we were all on full stomachs, we walked back towards the street were we had parked and we still caught another show. These group of talented individuals were performing some pretty cool acrobatics while at the same time they enticed the audience to make some noise, clap our hands, and some even participated. We were there for maybe three hours, but you can be there for hours and hours and the shows never end.

If you like the ocean but are a people person, then I highly recommend Venice Beach as your destination point.