As crazy and lively as the beach is in the daytime, I think it comes to life most in the evening when the masses depart and the beach can speak for itself.
Pretty huh? I got a bit creative with the next one, and used my sunglasses as a filter. Artiste? Moi?
Those footprints belong to Ad's big hoofs. But let's pretend they're The Hoff's. Some of Baywatch was filmed here, after all.
So that was Wednesday evening. Thursday was a bit of a write-off. We slept in, left at lunchtime to go to Newport Beach, drove around trying to find anything that looked like The OC and then gave up, sat on the beach to eat a soggy tuna sandwich (Whole Foods let us down this one time), then drove two hours back through rush hour traffic on the freeway and that was that. The evening, however, was better with a little trip to a Santa Monica cinema to see Thor. FYI, Milk Duds rule.
Friday was more eventful. Universal Studios!
First thing we did was take the Studio Tour, on a big trolley. That's our tour guide.
Dur-da....dur-da....dur-da-dur-da-dur-da-dur-da...DUR-DA! Argh.
This is us getting ready to be be thrown around, 3D style, by King Kong. Excitements. (PS, where's my tan?)
Then we found out about some unlikely neighbours. That's Wisteria Lane, home to Desperate Housewives...
...right next door to Whoville (from How The Grinch Stole Christmas)...
...oh, and there's Bates Motel from Psycho. What a nice little community.
The tour continued past cars on fire, impromptu floods and New York streets. And then finished up near this big blue screen. In front of it is the (currently dry) lake where they film water/lake/sea screens, like the one from Pirates Of The Caribbean where Cap'ain Jack is floating in a little row boat. Kinda take the Hollywood wonder away...but cool all the same.
That night, our last in America, we went to an awesome Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica called Lula Cocina. De-lish. I had fish tacos and a mojito (I meant to order a margarita but got confused). Muchos tequila and cool paper decorations. On a par with the Taco Joint in Chicago, I'd say. Well, nearly.
On the way back to Venice, we passed this. I've no idea what it represents or why it lives on a pharmacy's outside wall, but I thought it summed up this part of LA pretty well.
So there you have it. America, we had a blast and we'll see you soon.
YEE-HAW.
