Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We decided to go to Santa Monica today. The traffic was quite heavy so we crawled along the freeway for a while then decided to go a different route (off-freeway) and we eventually got to the sunny shores of Santa Monica.
David wanted to hire bikes to cycle up and down the beach-front, but we decided on a spot of lunch first. We had lunch at "Bubba Gump's", which was an experience! We had never eaten there before and the staff were very chatty (a bit scripted though) and the food was good.
We then wandered over to the bike hire shop, where i noticed that they had a tandem cycle. We hummed and harred a bit, then decided to hire that, instead of normal bikes. David was being very safety-minded and insisted on wearing a cycle helmet (i think it was more so he could cover up the bad haircut i gave him).
We set off (a bit wobbly) along the beach and really got the whole relaxed California vibe from the people there. Even the tramps seemed relaxed and happy. I was at the front of the bike (in control as usual) and David was powering the engine at the back, as we made our way south along the beachfront. We reached Venice beach and saw some lovely beachfront houses. We also went to Marina Del Ray, which was a combination of expensieve yauchts and quaint american clapboard style buildings.
David wanted to go for a swim, so we pushed the bike over a great expanse of sand, to the shoreline. Although the guy at the bike shop said that the Pacific Ocean was always cold, David said that it is was warmer than the swimming pool at our hotel (what an ironman he is). I tried to read my book while David was swimming, but i got paranoid about a random shark attack, so couldn't really take my eyes off where David was splashing about in the water.
We stopped at Marina Del Ray, at a Mexican Cantina, for a quick refreshment (Beer for David, and a Margharita for me), then headed back to Santa Monica. We decided to swap seats on the bike, and David took the lead, with me in back. Not the most succesful arrangement and we had a few close calls with other people/sand, but we made it back safely to the bike store.
We then took the car and made our way up the coast (Pacific highway 1) up through Malibu, and a bit further on we parked to see the sunset. David got chatting to an eccentric american guy, who kept on referring to the friend with him as looking like Harrison Ford (which he did not). He gave us some good directions for the quickest way back to Hollywood (after suggesting that we take a helicopter, as that is REALLY the fastest way). He also pointed out a dead whale on the beach next to where we were parked. I wasn't curious to go an see it though, but the seagulls seems to be rather interested!
We headed back (as per directions) via the Malibu Canyon road. I would imagine that this road would be quite impressive in the day, but as it was already dark, it looked like any other road. We arrived back at our hotel just before 8pm, tired and saddle sore, and went to bed. David doesn't go to bed this early when he's on his post round!
- comments