California Day 2, The Beach

So we were so ridiculously busy the entire time we were in California that I only had a chance to blog on the first day that we were there! Good times were had by all and I'm glad that we had a full agenda. I am sad that I didn't get the chance to blog daily about the goings-on though.

With that said, my plan is to update about each day and post a few photos. Here we go!

Venice Beach!

Day two of our fabulous California excursion brought us to Venice Beach. We had amazing weather and beautiful deep blue skies. Our method of transport? Bicycles, of course!

There's me, bein' awesome on a beach cruiser bike. We rented them from this great little place near Andrew's house. We received a free scoop of ice cream from the adjoining shop for doing all day rentals! A great start to the day.

Andrew dropped us off in his car then drove back to his place and biked down to meet us. That down there is Jake waiting.

He always looks so cool. I love that about him, along with many other things. 

This happened to be a great time to do some flash with daylight work. I like the result.

We biked about 7 (I think) miles to the beach. I can't remember the last time I was on a bike before this little adventure, so I was super shaky on the bike. Plus, beach cruisers are a bit different from regular bikes. They have really wide handlebars (which I wasn't used to) and they're supposed to be more... wobbly, I guess? Hence the "cruise" in the title.

They took getting used to, and I almost fell off a few times.

Since we were going to Venice Beach and all, we rode through the Venice Canals of Los Angeles!

They were beautiful, the houses were amazing. We stopped at the first canal for a short break and I took the opportunity to snap this photo.

Also this one here. Directions for the canals!

We did a lot of bicycling through traffic, which made me incredibly nervous. A lot of people bike comfortably in LA, but I'm not one of those people, especially not on a strange bike. I was pretty sure I was going to get hit by a car. Every time I tried to look over my shoulder to check for traffic I started to fall to that side.

So we finally made it to Venice Beach! The photo at the top of this post is probably my favorite from the day, with this shot of the pelican coming in at a close second!

This bird was monstrous, and also quite calmly sitting on the end of the pier. He didn't mind people getting close. I hate birds, they scare me, so that was taken with my 18-200mm. I was about 6 feet away or so.

The beach was beautiful. We went to the very end of the pier where people were picnicing and fishing. We admired the view for a while before heading back to land and locking up our bikes so we could walk around.

We dined at this fine establishment:

It was pretty good. I love a good hot dog stand. We need more in Washington! There's just something about them that are (is?) so quaint and enjoyable to me.

So we ate our dogs and enjoyed the amazing view. I did my best not to people watch, because the people at Venice Beach were kind of scary and skanky.

But look how beautiful the scenery was! It was just amazing, I really fell in love... I think.

After we finished eating it was finally off to the water!

The bathroom facilities were disgusting. They were beyond disgusting. Revolting? Horrifying? Moist cesspools of God knows what? I hardly know the words to describe the situation.

Needless to say, it was a difficult and upsetting situation to change into my bathing suit there. But I did it, because I bought the suit the day before and dammit I was going to wear it.

Andrew and his awesome friend Andrea went into the water. I decided that it was too cold. Warmer than Washington water, but still far too cold for wimpy little me. So Jake and I guarded the hole that Andrew was digging.

This bird looked right at me. I mean, directly. You probably can't tell in this small photo, but if the full sized file gets zoomed, he is in an eye-to-eye DEATHLOCK with me. I hate birds.

And with that, I leave you with a final gorgeous photo of Venice Beach. It was a full day, to be sure. There were amazing photos to be taken, along with delicious food to be eaten and fun people to spend time with. I guess it wouldn't have been a true big city experience if it weren't for the horrific restrooms though. -MJ