Santa Monica/Venice, CA. The place we fell in love with.

Hi all!

I know it's been a while, but it turned out that spending a huge amount of time on producing words here is not what I would love to do on a regular basis, thus, I kind of abandoned this blog (sadly). But now, out of the blue, I want to share a part of our trip that touched my heart. It does not mean that this blog has revived from the ashes. More likely, it means that I'll try to maintain it in a new less time-consuming manner.

The experience that I want to share with you is a 4-day stay in Santa Monica, CA which was a final stop of our 2-week vacation. Santa Monica and Venice are almost indistinguishable so I prefer to think about them as about one place. People who watch Californication may know the place as a lot of the scenes from the series take place there. For the teaser, here is the Californication opening. Almost all of the places from it will appear later in this post.

We arrived to our airbnb apartment at about 8 pm and were not patient to see the ocean as it was only 6 streets away. No photos were taken then, as it was too late, but, no surprise, the beach way still there next morning:

These beach -is-there signs are really popular.
The locals know what people are looking for.

The beach is huge! But despite its size it is nice and clean.
Either people are conscientious enough, or public services that clean
it properly... or both. Anyway, it looks amazing.

Some military stuff going on.

Some pelican-like birds flying around.

By the afternoon water leaves a 20 meter strip of sand where you
can wander around if you do not want to get wet.

On the other side of the sand strip there is an Ocean Frontwalk. The part of it that is in Venice is not just a road, it is a place where you can find many creative people and their works, buy some souvenirs or just listen to some local band playing. It is also definitely a go-to place for people-watching.
It starts with its famous sign:

Historically, this place was called Venice of America and was supposed to remind people of the original Venice in Italy (you'll see later why). But then the last part of the name was dropped and now it is simply Venice, LA, CA.

Really doubt that someone still rides it

Since medical marijuana is legal in CA, just for $30 bucks you can find a reason to get a prescription for it. There also were real doctors there, only there robes were green, but due to huge NO PHOTOS sign I prefer to respect their privacy and not to post the full picture.

Being there I finally realized what people mean by "beach culture" (at least to some extent). For me, a beach is just a place where I can cool in water and grill on the sun. For the locals it seems to be their life! And they can name a hundred of other ways to use it: surf, bike, jog or walk along, do yoga, play volley, just sit and watch the waves or the sunset,

Skate

Go to gym

and many-many others. It seems like these people do not need Broadway musicals, jazz-clubs or comedy clubs. They have their always awesome weather and magnificent nature, so why stay indoors while you can enjoy your life outdoors? Don't get me wrong, they still have all those things, it just feels that the priorities are different there.

Possibly due to such relaxing outdoor, warm and close-to-nature lifestyle people seem to be more creative there.  LA is probably the world capital of street art. You might have noticed some of the works already, but here are more:

Let's leave the beach for a moment and dive a bit deeper into Venice:

Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice CA

This one is just a pharmacy.

Venice Canals, man-made canals that were supposed to remind you of Venice. I really doubt, that it is the case, but it is fine. They create a unique atmosphere of the place just as fine:

Just some bird.

 

If you are a yacht fan,  you can see a bunch of them in Marina del Ray.
Not too far from Venice. 

By the way, unlike New York, this area is full of nice old cars:

The last place I want to lead you to is the northern part of the Broadwalk and the famous Santa Monica Pier:

Bike and walk roads

Gosh, I love those palms!

Really cute houses

The sunset on the ocean is amazingly beautiful!

Santa Monica turned out to be the birthplace of fitness.

The famous pier and mountains at the background

The pier is old and wooden and, therefore, smells like old MSU dorm, but it has it own style. It is also the end of historic Route 66:

Unfortunately, I do not have any good quality pictures of the pier itself, so I'll show you what I have:

This sign you can see in the final moments of Californication

Well, that is basically it. To sum up, this trip has revealed another America to us. A bit shaggy, burned with sun and erased by salt and sand it is mindbogglingly cute, cozy and charming. A place where people do not rush anywhere, but take their time - it is all going to stay the same tomorrow, there is not reason to hurry. A place where people do not hide at home, but feel more comfortable outdoors, exposed to salty breeze and sun. A place where the atmosphere is so creative that you almost want to sit down and do something of your own (even if you are completely talantless).

I might be totally wrong in everything I have just said, but that is how I will remember the place. At least till our next visit. Also, I can easily imagine us living there and, if we have a chance one day, we will definitely give it a try.

P.S. Anticipating a request to compare it with NYC or Hoboken, I'd say that you cannot compare apples to oranges. These places are completely different in terms of people, culture, weather, culture and lifestyle. None of them is better, they are both awesome and, considering where to live you should choose the one that you feel you belong to.