Friday 2nd August
My my this morning was very difficult to get up. We were both extremely tired, I managed to get myself up because I had packed more the day before so I could go to the shops to get us more lucky charms to eat with the last of the milk! By 11.20am we were on the bus which supposedly took 45 minutes to get to Venice beach, an hour and 15 minutes and two buses later we were there. Luckily the bus was less eventful than the metro.
Venice beach was very intriguing, it was kind of a hippy can you feel the love kind of place. Lots and lots of stalls with wonderful art work and not so many wonderful stuff but interesting to look at all the same. Unfortunately not many photos were taken because they were really strict on being given some tips for photos. There were a few street performers around and it was nice and warm with lots of beautiful people walking around with surf boards and the like. We walked down very slowly watching everything, walked all the way to muscle beach which has lots of work out equipment and other stuff for gymnastics. It had lots of people doing tight rope walking and stuff like that which was really good to watch especially as there were so many people around walking and cycling enjoying the warm weather. We walked down the pathway along to beach which was lovely, it was really long and wide and the sand was pristine white with volleyball nets dotted around all over the place. You could see the fairground at Santa Monica so we walked further down to have a look. There was a long pier with lots of stall for trinkets and the general things people on a beach holiday might indulge in. Also all your typical American diner type places and hot dog stands, cotton candy stands, people fishing and people singing with guitars. We spent a maybe 45 minutes walking up and down before having lunch then finding somewhere to sit with a drink for a moment to relax.
After that we went down onto the beach and sunbathed for perhaps an hour and a half, we both fell asleep a couple of times and it made us both dread the night ahead because we were so tired! However we did feel a bit more relaxed after lying in the sun for a while.
After another sit down with a drink and a quick wash down at a sink in the toilets and away we went to find the public bus back. It took a little while getting to where we needed to be, partly due to the amount of people doing various street performances and the crowds watching them, and partly due to the station being a bit of a walk away.
On the way back there was a rather interesting man with crutches who liked to make conversation with people and bring attention to himself. I'm assuming he was in the Vietnam war because he said he'd been in the army and had been dealing with "this" since the 70s, I know all this and he never even spoke to me. Some very eccentric characters around.
Anyway we managed to get back to the hotel at around 7.30pm, where we changed bags around a bit and were kindly allowed to use a room to just freshen up slightly before going to catch the shuttle to the airport.
Not much to say from then on I suppose other than the typical airport stuff you do. We ate at a cool 50s style American diner which was pretty good and we were on the plane by around 11.30pm I think.
