VENICE BEACH AND SANTA MONICA PIER 1/3/2012
On the way home from our Southern California road trip, the boys and I decided to stop in at a couple of world famous beaches. I chose the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. We arrived at Santa Monica and used one of many convenient public parking lots, all charging around $1 an hour. There were very few people on the beach this early in the morning and the theme park on the pier was closed. We roamed around the pier and explored a bit of the waterfront trail.
Next stop was the world famous Venice Beach. I was hoping for a good cultural experience for the boys, they had never been around the kind of people that populate Venice Beach. Imagine their surprise when we got solicited to receive our medical marijuana card within the first 30 seconds! We enjoyed some of the local food choices and people watched while walking up and down the beach walk.