Part 3: Venice Beach - January 17, 2018

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​After a day at Six Flags, my dad and I would go for a drive the next morning around the Los Angeles area, heading up towards the LA Coliseum, over through Hollywood and then down Sunset Blvd until we got to Venice Beach. This was the first time I had been to this beach before, and it was a fascinating experience as there were a lot of real characters here. The area can be a little but rough around the edges, but there is a vibe to the place that makes it worth exploring. Dad spent most of the time here sitting and enjoying some of the local musicians performing nearby, while I took a short walk down to see what was going on.

Much of the main walkway alongside the buildings had a variety of buskers and artists trying to sell their work. Across from these vendors and artists in the buildings are a variety of shops and restaurants. Many of which are the small local burger or pizza shop or treats.

Closer to the shore, there is a path for pedestrians and bicycles that stretches through Venice Beach and some of the neighboring ones. This offers a great view of the shoreline, especially of the Coast Mountains toward the North near Malibu.

One of the other things I found interesting in the area was a fairly large skateboard park that was a popular destination, not just for skateboarders, but also for passers-by who took a few moments to stop and watch. I don’t claim to be familiar with the difficulty of different tricks done by skateboarders, but the maneuvers these guys were doing looked far more difficult than anything I could have done. Heck, just riding a skateboard would be an interesting task for me. Fortunately, these guys were around to show how it’s done.

Before heading out I caught back up with Dad, and we sat to enjoy a bit of music from these two guys who played a mix of songs from the Beatles to some of the latest hits, and they did so using one of those musical devices that you could play a beat like a drum set, and then it would repeat it so they could play their guitars with it. Forgive my ignorance as I do not know what the device is called, and as I looked for it, I couldn’t find it before publishing this update.

And that was our visit to Venice Beach. While it is a little rough around the edges, it is certainly a neat place to spend a little bit of time and just take in the atmosphere. Up next, we’ll head south of the boarder to explore what was once one of the most popular places to spend a day when visiting San Diego.

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