Visiting with my Sister

My sister Sue came out to LA for one of her medical conferences.  Since LA is only about 1 hour from our condo, we planned to spend Saturday with her after she set up her booth at the conference.  As we hadn't even been to LA since we got here in January, this was a good time to visit and explore some of the sights together with her. The ride in was shorter that we thought, no traffic on Saturday morning, and picked Sue up at the LA Convention Center around 11:30.  Our immediate plans were to head to the famous Santa Monica Pier.  We have seen this pier many times on TV shows like NCIS/LA and on TV newcasts, but never in person.

LA is not on the coast.  It is about 10 miles inland from Santa Monica, my GPS took me on the highway and got us there quickly right to the Pier parking lot.

Santa Monica Pier & Parking Lot from afar.  Red arrow (lower right) in my car.

 The weather was absolutely gorgeous for a day in November, high 70's to low 80's without a chilly sea breeze.  People were swimming in the ocean on November!

View from the pier. Beach and people swimming.

 We have been on a few piers in California, but this is the first one with an amusement park on it.  There was also a Classic Car Show going on at the same time.

Sue & Elly on the Santa Monica Pier

Ferris Wheel & Roller Coaster on the Pier

A old car leaving the Classic Car Show driving on the pier.

The first building on the pier is the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  This restaurant chain was inspired by the 1994 movie "Forest Gump."  I just had to take a tourist picture here!

Sue & Elly at the Bubba Gump Store & Restaurant

This must be Bubba Gump!

All along the pier there were many street performers working for tips & donations.  Some of them were pretty good, some were just eccentric. There was a slight-of-hand magician working close-up magic that was excellent, I was standing three feet away and couldn't see how he did any of this tricks. There was also a man with his pet parrots that he would let fly to peoples shoulders and let people pet and hold them.  There was also a guy painted in silver, WTF?

For the finale the magician would pull out the white tray and the eggs would fall into the glasses, blindfolded

The parrots perched on the owner's bicycle. They don't fly away and they talk!

 

Parrot on a little girl's Shoulder

Parrot on baby's lap

The silver guy, Mr Ink!

When we got to the end of the pier, it was time for lunch, so we got a table outside on the patio with an ocean view!  We ate at the Mariasol Restaurant on the pier, and despite the not so great reviews that I read afterwards, we all though the food was pretty good!

Refreshments before lunch at Marisol

After the pier, we walked over (about 3 blocks) to the Third Street Promenade.  This is a shopping district that is closed to vehicle traffic. 

Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica (not my picture)

Both shoppers and street performers were out in force here also. Here is a video I uploaded on one of the street performers doing back flips on one leg.

 Here is another of a man balancing & flipping plates.

View of the Promenade as we were leaving.

After we had seen enough and rested on the benches on the walkway, we headed to our car and our next adventure! On the way back to the car, we stopped to watch the merry-go-round in action on the pier.

Merry go round on the Santa Monica Pier

For the next adventure we decided to make a trip to the famous Venice Beach since it was only 5 minutes south of Santa Monica.  The GPS got us there without problems and we parked right in the center of all the action on the strip.

If we thought that we saw strange sights and street performers in Santa Monica, the sights in Venice Beach were in another world altogether!  There was a skate board park, a roller-blade dancing area ,an endless menagerie of street performers and just very strange people in all sorts of dress and barely-dressed!

Skate Board Park

My video of the skate board park.

 

Panorama of Venice Beach from the Skate Board Park

 My video of roller blade dances performing for everyone's enjoyment.

We continued down the strip enjoying the sights until we came to Muscle Beach   It has changed a lot from the pictures that I saw in the '70s.  It has a lot of high-tech exercise equipment now.

Muscle Beach in the 1950s

Muscle Beach now

We were now tired from walking so much today and headed back to our car, but not without one more souvenir tourist photo from Venice Beach.

Really?

To get from Venice Beach to Sue's hotel, the GPS took us through some back roads of Beverly Hills and up Rodeo Drive where all the high-end stores are. It was a nice sightseeing tour before we ended up at the Four Season's Hotel where we went in for some drinks and appetizers in the lounge.  The place was gorgeous!.

This is the lounge at the Four Seasons where we had drinks and appetizers

After a tour of the room and the hotel, we said our goodbyes and headed home.  We had an absolute blast today!