Venice Beach

Today, Matt and I are headed down to Orange County for a long-awaited visit to our favorite beach. It's not swimming weather, of course, but I'm so excited to feel the sand on my toes and just listen to the waves crash on the shore.

This little beach trip reminded me that I never blogged about our visit to a wildly different beach in California -- the one that everyone says is "sooo LA." Although, I must say, Venice Beach is so not the kind of Los Angeles that we've fallen in love with. We knew that heading into that Saturday beach trip, but figured we had to cross it off our list at some point. It's fascinating, to say the least. Observe:

The boardwalk is crowded with tourists, shops, sidewalk vendors and street performers.

The most ridiculous of these shops is the medical marijuana doctors. There were at least a dozen of these when we went to Venice Beach last August. An employee would stand outside, handing out flyers and inviting people to come inside and get cleared for medicinal marijuana. Even more ridiculous than the existence of these shops was the shockingly high number of customers inside each one. Seriously.

Further down the boardwalk, we encountered the designated graffiti areas, where spray painting walls, trash cans and trees is entirely legal.

Next, there is the skate park, which is actually pretty entertaining.

Not too far away from the skate park is a huge collection of courts -- basketball, tennis, etc.

Then, of course, there is the famous "Muscle Beach," where meatheads pay about $10 to workout for hours in front of thousands of people at the beach. We tried to get a picture of the fake & bake superstar in the yellow speedo below, but he moved to a different machine right before we snapped a shot. Along with the paid gym are a bunch of free apparatuses that anyone can use, and we had fun playing around on them for a little bit. 

Lastly, the actual ocean, which seems to be a big afterthought with all the crazy busyness of Venice Beach. We spent the bulk of our time enjoying the cool Pacific water on a hot August day. That was more like it.

So there you have it: our least favorite beach in LA that you can't help but visit just to see the spectacles. I must admit, though, despite not loving Venice Beach, seeing these warm swimsuit pictures has me itching for summer!