Day 5: The Beaches
We were up at our usual time and had brekky round the pool as always, today we were off to the coast and visit a few of the beach resorts, we had decided we would see Santa Monica and Venice Beach then go over to Malibu for the evening sunset. We were on the road by 10ish and the traffic again wasnt too bad, it took us about an hour to arrive in Santa Monica, the google map served us well again and it was easy to find our way to a car park right on the beach.
It was another hot one and we had taken our swimming stuff and towels in my rucksack, as we walked to the beach it was certainly more breezy here with the wind coming in from the ocean, Santa Monica was nice, it had a huge pier with a big wheel and a few rides on it and shops and restaurants, we walked along the beach and took in the scenry of the palm trees and the ocean, we dipped our feet in the water but didnt go in it was way too cold for that so we chickened out. We went up onto the pier for walk on there it was a proper old wooden pier and amusement arcades just like back home, we even saw a Zoltar machine (from big), as we got further up we spotted people fishing off the pier and jayne asked them if they had caught any, this bloke was boasting how his mate had just caught a huge carcas, i didnt believe so he led us over to the bin and pulled out this huge fish carcas all rotted and stripped eeeeeew, in the background an older woman was saying how popular it was for fishing, it was funny cos the accent sounded English, me and jayne walked over to her and as we got chatting i noticed her accent was northen and when she said where she was from well i alomst died cos she was from Bolton !!! i told her i was too so we got nattering for quite a while, she has retired and lives here, wot a lucky lady i wish i did !
By now we were getting hungry as it was lunch time, we decided to take a look at Bubba Gumps menu (ive never really fancied this as i thought it was all seafood dishes) how pleasantly surprised i was when i saw a large variation off all dishes, so we gave it a whirl, oh and were we glad we did ! it was the best meal of the holiday !, the place was decked out with stuff from Forrest Gump in it, it was really cool even the servers would ask you quiz questions on Gump movie, jayne had fish and chips and i had a pulled pork sandwich, ive never had it before but it was awesome , one of the best sandwiches ive ever had ! we were now big Bubba Gump fans ! i even got to take my souvenir cocktail glass home.
We got back to the car for a bout 2ish and set off for Venice beach which wasnt far at all in fact only like 10 mins away down the coast, we drove round for a parking spot and there were a lot of side streets, we parked up on a side street right at the end what we thought was a legal spot, no sign posts nothing, great we thought, hmmpphhh later on we got a shock !......we got to the front and saw that it was a huge stretch of beachfront with many shops mostly tacky ones and lots of street vendors selling stuff, plenty weirdo's down here too, if Santa Monica was quite posh then this a bit of a dump to be honest, i got my pic taken outside the muscle beach gym area for a laugh, these guys are huge ! people play plenty sports down here, tennis, gym, roller blading, skateboarding, surfing, wake boarding. We walked for a good 30 mins or so and saw some right sights, the highlight was a woman who was out of her head on sumat in her going out gear decided she didnt want to wear her shoes anymore so she just kicked them off and carried on walking and didnt pick them up , it was funny then she walked into a bar shouting the odds like she was really drunk, everyone was staring at her, we got talking to a greek bloke for a bit after he was nice and freindly but a bit out there.
It was getting a bit late now so after walking along the beach back to the car it was now 5ish, as we appraoched i saw we got a ticket, oh shit ! and when i looked at it it was for $70 !!! holy crap thats one expensive parking spot, we couldnt work out why we had got it, no one else had, i asked some workmen who had parked there why we got it and they pointed to the kerb where we had parked, it was apinted RED !!! craaaaaaaaaap we didnt even see that, an expensive lesson was learned on driving and parking in LA ! luckily we didnt get towed, we drove up towards Malibu now along the Pacific Coast Highway, the scenery was awesome, with just having the ocean on one side and then hills of Malibu with huge houses on the other, i had printed out maps of bars to see the sunset at along the PCH in Malibu, we chose one called Moonstones, it looked quite posh and we even had to pay for valet parking cos there was no other room, we sat at outside on barstools right on the ocean/shorefront, all you hear was the crashing of waves, it was a spectacular view, we had 2 or beers here (well i did) and saw the sun go down, we even saw a seal and some crazy birds diving for fish, we got back on the road home about 7ish and it was going dark now, Jayne didnt like driving in the dark so we just took our time getting back and found our way no problem by the time we got to Anaheim it was nearly 9, we decided to grab some food to take back to the hotwl to eat round the pool so we stopped at a little strip mall near our hotel and opicked up some chinese take out from a panda express, it was good and we got huge portions for the price, another bargain, we sat and had some smirnoffs at the pool after our food back at the hotel and chilled till we were tired and in bed by midnight. Tomorrow was a relatively quiet day.
It was another hot one and we had taken our swimming stuff and towels in my rucksack, as we walked to the beach it was certainly more breezy here with the wind coming in from the ocean, Santa Monica was nice, it had a huge pier with a big wheel and a few rides on it and shops and restaurants, we walked along the beach and took in the scenry of the palm trees and the ocean, we dipped our feet in the water but didnt go in it was way too cold for that so we chickened out. We went up onto the pier for walk on there it was a proper old wooden pier and amusement arcades just like back home, we even saw a Zoltar machine (from big), as we got further up we spotted people fishing off the pier and jayne asked them if they had caught any, this bloke was boasting how his mate had just caught a huge carcas, i didnt believe so he led us over to the bin and pulled out this huge fish carcas all rotted and stripped eeeeeew, in the background an older woman was saying how popular it was for fishing, it was funny cos the accent sounded English, me and jayne walked over to her and as we got chatting i noticed her accent was northen and when she said where she was from well i alomst died cos she was from Bolton !!! i told her i was too so we got nattering for quite a while, she has retired and lives here, wot a lucky lady i wish i did !
By now we were getting hungry as it was lunch time, we decided to take a look at Bubba Gumps menu (ive never really fancied this as i thought it was all seafood dishes) how pleasantly surprised i was when i saw a large variation off all dishes, so we gave it a whirl, oh and were we glad we did ! it was the best meal of the holiday !, the place was decked out with stuff from Forrest Gump in it, it was really cool even the servers would ask you quiz questions on Gump movie, jayne had fish and chips and i had a pulled pork sandwich, ive never had it before but it was awesome , one of the best sandwiches ive ever had ! we were now big Bubba Gump fans ! i even got to take my souvenir cocktail glass home.
We got back to the car for a bout 2ish and set off for Venice beach which wasnt far at all in fact only like 10 mins away down the coast, we drove round for a parking spot and there were a lot of side streets, we parked up on a side street right at the end what we thought was a legal spot, no sign posts nothing, great we thought, hmmpphhh later on we got a shock !......we got to the front and saw that it was a huge stretch of beachfront with many shops mostly tacky ones and lots of street vendors selling stuff, plenty weirdo's down here too, if Santa Monica was quite posh then this a bit of a dump to be honest, i got my pic taken outside the muscle beach gym area for a laugh, these guys are huge ! people play plenty sports down here, tennis, gym, roller blading, skateboarding, surfing, wake boarding. We walked for a good 30 mins or so and saw some right sights, the highlight was a woman who was out of her head on sumat in her going out gear decided she didnt want to wear her shoes anymore so she just kicked them off and carried on walking and didnt pick them up , it was funny then she walked into a bar shouting the odds like she was really drunk, everyone was staring at her, we got talking to a greek bloke for a bit after he was nice and freindly but a bit out there.
It was getting a bit late now so after walking along the beach back to the car it was now 5ish, as we appraoched i saw we got a ticket, oh shit ! and when i looked at it it was for $70 !!! holy crap thats one expensive parking spot, we couldnt work out why we had got it, no one else had, i asked some workmen who had parked there why we got it and they pointed to the kerb where we had parked, it was apinted RED !!! craaaaaaaaaap we didnt even see that, an expensive lesson was learned on driving and parking in LA ! luckily we didnt get towed, we drove up towards Malibu now along the Pacific Coast Highway, the scenery was awesome, with just having the ocean on one side and then hills of Malibu with huge houses on the other, i had printed out maps of bars to see the sunset at along the PCH in Malibu, we chose one called Moonstones, it looked quite posh and we even had to pay for valet parking cos there was no other room, we sat at outside on barstools right on the ocean/shorefront, all you hear was the crashing of waves, it was a spectacular view, we had 2 or beers here (well i did) and saw the sun go down, we even saw a seal and some crazy birds diving for fish, we got back on the road home about 7ish and it was going dark now, Jayne didnt like driving in the dark so we just took our time getting back and found our way no problem by the time we got to Anaheim it was nearly 9, we decided to grab some food to take back to the hotwl to eat round the pool so we stopped at a little strip mall near our hotel and opicked up some chinese take out from a panda express, it was good and we got huge portions for the price, another bargain, we sat and had some smirnoffs at the pool after our food back at the hotel and chilled till we were tired and in bed by midnight. Tomorrow was a relatively quiet day.
posted by joeintoronto at
3:59 PM
