Venice Beach and Santa Monica

Day Three: As noted, we were up early and decided to spend the day in the sunshine in Venice Beach. It was warm and beautiful and we had a great time walking all along the promenade taking in the sights. Lots of interesting street vendors lined the way and we browsed the shops and booths as we walked along the beach. I was cracking up about the availability of medical marijuana in various “clinics” announcing “the doctor is in!”

Rich and I walked into one “clinic” just to look around and were immediately asked if we were there to make a purchase. I said no, we were just looking and besides we didn’t have a prescription. Well, apparently, that is no problem whatsoever. For $40, you can see a doctor and walk right out with whatever you need. As you can see by the sign, just about any malady qualifies you. Hmmmm, I do believe I am suffering from CRAMPS. :) The “clinics” also had cute young women standing outside in medical coats, though you could be pretty sure they were not actually medical personnel of any kind. It was all very interesting to me and made me wonder how many people in California are driving around stoned at any given time of day.

A very cool tumbling team performed. Perhaps ironically, part of their message was anti-drug.

There are still lots of old hippie sentiments around.

These cute gals were advertising Cirque d'Soleil coming to town in January

and passing out funky eyewear.

Interesting people

Skulls for sale

Metal art

Lots of volleyball players on the beach

We ended up walking all the way to the Santa Monica Pier and back again, about 6 miles, we figured. Nice to get some exercise and lots of sun!

Parking lot hockey

Funny bouncy shoes

On this day, my RV attitude began to change, maybe because we were not cooped up in the vehicle in traffic for hours, I don't know. But suddenly I did not mind it so much and began to relax about the whizzing cars and trucks and narrow roads and lack of parking. Oh yeah, we did have a bit of a funny story in Venice Beach. We parked in a large city lot (where they charged us double for an RV--not fair!) When we returned after our long afternoon of walking, we climbed into the RV and made ourselves a sandwich. Rich looked up to see a guy PEEING on the side of the RV. I'm sure he did not think anyone was inside. Rich banged on the door and the dude finished up and moved away. Ugh!

Next stop, Malibu!