When we finally got here after our ordeal on the bus, suffice to say we were not particularly in the mood to be all jovial and excited about playing tourists. But we tried our best to shake off the negativity and take in one of LA's most iconic beaches and attractions.
Unlike Santa Monica Pier and the carnival atmosphere it provided, Venice Beach is much more for the adults than the young ones, except for a certain area which I know my cousin Samuel would absolutely love (there is a special part in the video clip for you Sammy!)
Before you even get to the beach you have to pass the promenade of shops, stalls, street performers and crowds. A lot of people visit this beach and the locals have certainly made sure that it is an entrepreneurial area for them. I don't think there is anything you can't buy from the myriad of shops or temporary stalls that people have set up like a Sunday market. We browsed through these up and down the main strip, but we weren't here to shop.
We soon came across the famous basketball courts that feature in the movie "White Man Can't Jump". I was particularly excited to see these and the type of street ball that was being played. This is were some of the best players in the world have honed their skills over the years - Wilt Chamberlain, Dr J, Magic Johnson, Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. No NBA stars were out practising the day we were there, but I did watch a 50-year-old African-American woman tearing up the court and talking the best trash I've ever heard. She would have only been just 5 foot, but man she could play.
Not far away was the famous Muscle Beach. Once the home gym of bodybuilders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, it's the only outdoor gym of it's kind in the US. It does feel a bit weird standing there watching, but then you think to yourself "they are in there because they love their bodies, so they probably love you watching them love themselves".
We decided to take my deflated ego and move on to find somewhere for lunch. While strolling we past the new skate park which was full of skeg heads and bystanders. I could just picture you here Sammy, tearing up the half-pipe.
The beach itself is very beautiful, and there would be 100 m of soft yellow sand between the promenade and the water. Scattered along at intervals of 100 yards or so were the iconic lifeguard towers made famous by the TV series Baywatch. Mel didn't want to do her impersonation of Pamela for me ... but it did not stop me singing "some people stand in the darkness" all the way along the promenade. We could only imagine how busy it would be in summer here. I almost felt like a swim myself as it was quite warm, which was strange considering it was the middle of winter and still in the low 20°s.
We were very lucky to secure a seat outside on the patio of a burger joint where, just out on the promenade was a three-man band playing some blues. It was great to sit there with a Corona and some fries doing a bit of people watching and scenery gazing.
Here is a video with some of the highlights from the beach.
Unlike Santa Monica Pier and the carnival atmosphere it provided, Venice Beach is much more for the adults than the young ones, except for a certain area which I know my cousin Samuel would absolutely love (there is a special part in the video clip for you Sammy!)
Before you even get to the beach you have to pass the promenade of shops, stalls, street performers and crowds. A lot of people visit this beach and the locals have certainly made sure that it is an entrepreneurial area for them. I don't think there is anything you can't buy from the myriad of shops or temporary stalls that people have set up like a Sunday market. We browsed through these up and down the main strip, but we weren't here to shop.
We soon came across the famous basketball courts that feature in the movie "White Man Can't Jump". I was particularly excited to see these and the type of street ball that was being played. This is were some of the best players in the world have honed their skills over the years - Wilt Chamberlain, Dr J, Magic Johnson, Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. No NBA stars were out practising the day we were there, but I did watch a 50-year-old African-American woman tearing up the court and talking the best trash I've ever heard. She would have only been just 5 foot, but man she could play.
Not far away was the famous Muscle Beach. Once the home gym of bodybuilders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, it's the only outdoor gym of it's kind in the US. It does feel a bit weird standing there watching, but then you think to yourself "they are in there because they love their bodies, so they probably love you watching them love themselves".
We decided to take my deflated ego and move on to find somewhere for lunch. While strolling we past the new skate park which was full of skeg heads and bystanders. I could just picture you here Sammy, tearing up the half-pipe.
The beach itself is very beautiful, and there would be 100 m of soft yellow sand between the promenade and the water. Scattered along at intervals of 100 yards or so were the iconic lifeguard towers made famous by the TV series Baywatch. Mel didn't want to do her impersonation of Pamela for me ... but it did not stop me singing "some people stand in the darkness" all the way along the promenade. We could only imagine how busy it would be in summer here. I almost felt like a swim myself as it was quite warm, which was strange considering it was the middle of winter and still in the low 20°s.
We were very lucky to secure a seat outside on the patio of a burger joint where, just out on the promenade was a three-man band playing some blues. It was great to sit there with a Corona and some fries doing a bit of people watching and scenery gazing.
Here is a video with some of the highlights from the beach.
After lunch we headed back up to Santa Monica Pier for one last look and as we were walking, this incredible sea mist started to roll in and the visibility would only have been 20 to 30 metres ahead of us. We certainly couldn't see the water anymore and even the pier snuck up on us. So it was into a taxi to take us back to Hollywood Boulevard for us to see one last Cirque du Soleil show before heading home.
IRIS was the perfect closing night for our LA experience. As previously mentioned, we did not particularly like our stay in Los Angeles and were very much looking forward to home, but IRIS reminded us of why this city is so popular, and that is because of the entertainment industry.
This particular Cirque du Soleil show is entirely based on 'the movies' and so it was perfectly placed at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars. It is a wonderful entrance and you can spend a lot of time looking at the various plaques and posters of past movies and award winners.
The show itself was absolutely amazing and blew away both our expectations. Neither of us had heard a lot about the show, but once again Cirque du Soleil rose to the occasion and presented a masterpiece of acrobatic circus stunts and magic. The characters were beautifully performed and the sets, costumes and props, were decked out like a Warner Bros back lot.
It was just the right chord to finish our trip on.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
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