Before I start this post I wanted to mention that when I was traveling for work I got to see our friends Dan and Sharon. They worked with us at Timothy Lake one season and we have stayed friends and even seen each other a couple of times in our travels. Currently they are taking a break from the road so Sharon can help with her three young grandkids and she is managing the ROC non-profit thrift store run by a church in Oklahoma City. So when I had a work trip schedule for OKC I was thrilled to see her. Not only did she pick me up from the airport but I got an off hours tour of the thrift shop. It was incredibly clean and since it supports a food bank and a community center I hope you will drop by if you are in the area.
When I got back from my two trips I didn’t have a ton of energy but we decided to explore some of the local farmers markets. Turns out LA has tons of these and even though we are in a big city they are supplied by lots of local farms. The Hollywood farmers market was the first one we visited and it was HUGE. I mean big, one of the largest non permanent markets I’ve ever been to. We wandered up and down the aisles and even though it was a bit crowded for me there was a lot of variety and some great live music.
Another weekend we headed towards Santa Monica which Lee has been wanting to see since we got here. We got lucky and saw their smaller, but just as nice, farmers market as well before heading over to the beach.
Lee has been talking about walking the Santa Monica pier since we go here. Not only has it been in countless movies but its also the end point of Route 66. It was a bit tough finding a place our truck could fit into but once we did we walked along the huge beach to the pier.
One of the cool thing about the beaches here is they have permanent exercise equipment. We saw rings (large and small), swing sets, and the coolest was poles where people brought their own straps and tried tightrope walking. The sand is very thick and there is a great combination bike/walking path all along the beach. Our destination was the pier though so we continued to head that way.
The pier itself was surprisingly small with several rides and some carnival games. It was crowded, even for a chilly day, and I can’t imagine what it would be like if the weather was nicer. Since I have spent some time as a kid on the Atlantic City boardwalk I was underwhelmed but the views from the pier of the ocean and coastline were outstanding.
As we got past the carnival area there was a place where people could fish and there were several musicians and street artists which was nice. We saw two enterprising young women dressed as LA police but I was more impressed by the young woman who was dressed as Sherlock Holmes. Both groups were busy taking pictures with tourists.
I was getting hungry so we decided to eat at the restaurant at the end of the pier. The food was so-so but our table was great and we were in the corner with a fantastic view.
Like many things in life it didn’t live up to its press, but we got to check another item off our list and it was worth the drive just to be at the end of Route 66. I really appreciated the history of that.
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