Santa Monica Beach and Pier

2009-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

After having a great night's rest, and breakfast at our favorite, The Nosh, we planned to go to Santa Monica to see the Pacific Ocean. Neither one of us had seen it before, so we were excited at the prospect. We asked Alfredo, our waiter, about how to get there. He was very eager to give us directions and knew exactly how to get us there. Straight down Olympic, right on Lincoln and left on Colorado Ave. Simple enough and off we went.

It was a beautiful, sunny and breezy day to be at the beach. Everyone had said the Pacific is cold. We were on the fence about taking our bathing suits and decided against it. I thought for a moment as I stood on the beautiful, white sand, that maybe we should have, if for no other reason, than to get a little sun. Well, because it was so breezy, I'm thinking I would have been too chilly. However, there were plenty of sun bathers. There were also a lot of people in the water, much to my surprise. It was fun to watch as those who were getting in for the first time, squeal because it was so cold. But, like any other time, getting use to it is half the battle.

We took off our shoes and stood in the Pacific Ocean! Then we walked toward the pier. It was huge! It was so neat to stand under the pier and watch the waves come in to shore among all those pylons! That was one of my favorite moments. Too cool!

The pier itself had the usual stuff just like an Ocean City boardwalk, but bigger - and on a pier! There was an amusement park with a Ferris wheel, roller coaster and a historic Carousel built in 1922. There were shops, arcades and restaurants - one restaurant being the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. There is also a Trapeze School on the pier. Unfortunately, no one was taking lessons at the time.

We walked to the very end of the pier, where Mike put a quarter in the telescope viewer and saw a couple of seals sunbathing on some rocks that were way off shore. That was cool too!

At that end of the pier, we found the Mariasol Concina Mexicana restaurant. You know you're in trouble when the menu doesn't list drink prices and when you ask the waiter how much, he won't tell you. Needless to say, it wasn't "cheap". But it was a cool place to be to watch the comings and goings on the pier.

And of course, there were people working for tips along the way. You could see one-man bands at various points along the pier. One guy had a bike with a tree looking thing on the handle bar. On the tree thing were three beautiful parrots that talked. Now that's entertainment.

It was a great place to be, sitting on a bench, eating an ice cream cone, and watching everything going on around you. My kind of day!

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To the Beach - Santa Monica

Santa Monica Beach and Pier