On of the quintessential images of Los Angeles are people roller skating along the coast and most of those images come from a place called Venice Beach. This area has been of interest to me for awhile because I was curious about the skate parks, weight lifting, and volleyball so on a nice day Lee and I took a drive to check it out. We went early so we were able to get a great parking spot and we started walking along the path where all the businesses are located.

For me it was a bit of an assault on the senses but saying that I think its something everyone should do once if they visit here. Fair warning though there is a pretty strong pot smell throughout the walk and there are homeless people in the area. Personally I wouldn’t go at night but in the daytime it didn’t feel unsafe. It was a bit overwhelming for me though and since we walked up then back it was a long three miles.

To be fair there were a few unique shops and the occasional street performer that caught my attention, but there was a lot of repitition in the stores.

On the beach side of the shops there were also individual vendors along with recreation areas which many people were using.

We also happened across some street performers who work for tips, but by the time they drew a crowd I got bored and wandered off.

Interspersed amongst all this were people with dogs, people on skateboards, people with roller blades and they weren’t super careful about running into people. We almost got clipped a couple of times. Thankfully there was a bike path on the beach side and the bikers stayed mostly on that.

The beach itself was huge by the way and you aren’t going to see any pictures of that because the sand was deep and hard to walk in and we ultimately didn’t even go down to the water. There was lots of room for people though and it reminded me of the boardwalk areas in Jersey…without the wooden boardwalk. One of the coolest things we saw was a small bungalow area which was originally owned by Charlie Chapman. The bungalows have been converted to small shops but it shows how popular this area was even in the 1920’s.

My main disappointment was the lack of serious volleyball players but the skatepark exceeded my expectations. It’s obviously a tight knit community with serious skaters of all ages acknowledging each other and it was by far the coolest skate park I have ever see. They even had a separate area for roller skaters which was really cool as well.

I will also say that if you are in the area take a minute to drive over some of the canals they built for the city of Venice. I had no ideas these existed, but people live along them and there are walking paths as well if you are so inclined. That was pretty interesting. Again I am glad I went once and I did appreciate the facilities they had for all different kinds of people. It’s just not by jam, but I know Lee will be excited to take people who visit us there. Me I might pass or maybe I will just sit at the skate park while everyone else walks the row.

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