"WE ARE going to the beach."
It is only your real friend who knows you best. Naturally, these lips curled upward when host and hostess with the mostest in the City of Angels leg of the Uncle Sam country tour revealed the itinerary for the day.
Nenet B. after all is a good friend who knows that this traveler is a beach person and Vince L. is about to find out why.
It is the dead of winter though, bad timing? If you are looking for the cast of Baywatch, then it is. The set has packed up centuries ago. If you are, at least, would like to catch some "Baywatch babes," still no dice. Go visit in summer.
If you just want to see the Baywatch Lifeguards and the headquarters of the largest lifeguard ocean organization in the US, you're in luck. Anytime is a good time for this.
This is no movie set, this is the real deal and at 2300 Ocean Front Walk is where you will catch these lifeguards, all 200 or so plus 700 more on a peak season -- I see you drooling now. And just like in the movies, they do patrol and safeguard 50 kilometers of beach and 110 kilometers of coastline and save lives.
This is just one of the exciting features to see in this world-renowned destination in Southern California and home to some of LA's beat poets and artists, Venice Beach. Running parallel to this shoreline along the Pacific Ocean is the Ocean Front Walk or the boardwalk.
At any season of the year, this part of LA is teeming with tourists while the locals enjoy their lifestyle along this strip. Although summer is the busiest, actively entertaining and the best time to catch more flesh than cloth, the boardwalk still thrives with activities year round.
This is not called Muscle Beach for nothing. Yes, there's an al fresco gym if you want to catch some muscle flexing. If you have the balls, then play with them at the handball courts, paddle tennis courts, beach volleyball courts or the basketball courts where the high level of street ball got the Venice countrywide recognition which may not be surprising if a good number of NBA players were developed or recruited from these courts. Nice to become famous playing your favorite ball, isn't it?
Surfing? The Venice Breakwater is an acclaimed local surf spot in Venice, located north of the Venice Pier and south of the Santa Monica Pier. But if you want to glide on land there is also the Skate Dancing plaza or just do some pedaling on the bike trail.
But if you prefer to brisk walk or take the leisurely pace, entertainment comes a plenty along the boardwalk, you can catch several amazing streets performers and shopping can be fun. Shop for a peek into you future from one of the many fortune-tellers, a treatment of medical marijuana from any of the "clinics," a shirt or the ever famous must-have, a refrigerator magnet, from the thriving souvenir shops.
You may have missed the Pamela Anderson moment but if your touristic pastime lists people watching and star gazing, you might be lucky to get a paparazzi moment with the prominent residents of the Venice. Julia Roberts, Kate Beckinsale, Anjelica Huston, Nicolas Cage and so much more Hollywood, politics and art name-droppables live in the area.
I am in Los Angeles and I get my time at the beach, nice. I will swim and tan on the next visit perhaps. But now I get off the boardwalk, comb the beach and head towards the Santa Monica bay. Another story will unfold when I get there.