santa monica

karey and i rented a car on sunday and went to santa monica. we never got to go to church which made me feel a little weird all day, but other than that we had a really fun time.

karey was super nervous about renting a car but it went fine. however what started as $17 a day quickly added up to more like 50ish a day. still it was worth it. so we were cruising along the 405 and suddenly came to a stand still. welcome to parking lot l.a. we had aunty sherry's gps with us and we crawled for almost an hour before we had to have all the 6 lanes of traffic or whatever exit. that was fun. just as we got to the point of no return on our exit ramp, the police officer jumped in his car and drove off, opening up traffic. that bit.

eventually with miss gertrude gps recalculating we made our way back onto the free way and into santa monica. it was a hot day and i was sure to slather myself thoroughly with sun screen so as to protect my already charred flesh. karey being true to pattern had to pee urgently while we were trying to find parking so basically after we parked she took off like a banshee while i was slathering. when she got back we locked up and started walking down the beach. the sand is so soft there! california sand is so much yellower than our silver sand. walking down the path beside the beach you see all sorts of cyclists on their beach cruisers, roller bladers, dog walkers, joggers etc. it's got that kind of vibe. there's palm trees lining the walk and there's a field of sand dotted with turquoise life guard huts-- and then the crashing waves and the surfers.

karey and i were surprised to come upon 'muscle beach'. apparently the original muscle beach too. all of a sudden there's all these gymnastic equipment in the sand and people are all busy walking a beam, or practicing tight rope, or swinging gracefully on these rows of hanging rings. this one girl we watched doing it, made it seem so easy and graceful but i saw this muscular shorter guy who couldn't even go from the first ring to the next. next we came upon this square patch of grass full of people doing different things, like sit ups, hand stands, yoga, acrobatics, juggling etc. it was so interesting to watch. we came back later in the day and just sat and watched everyone. at the time though, we were super hungry and were looking for a place to eat. we were so hungry that we passed up every busy looking place and settled for a non-busy place on the pier that was not very good at all. thus it's non-busy-ness. ah well. then we wandered up the pier. there were lots of shops and restaurants and vendors all along it.

karey wanted to get a route 66 hoodie from this one guy but he didn't have her size. aparently the pier is the end of route 66. i didn't know. then we stopped to watch these mexican break dancers do their show. they were funny and kind of charming but the show wasn't that great or that long. they were all "if you give us 1 buck that's like a quarter for each of us! yadda yadda" so i gave them 2 bucks. karey gave them 3. later when i confessed that all i gave was 2 bucks she was all "whaaaaaaa? i thought you dropped a fiver for sure!" no way man.

we walked to the end and watched people fishing for a while and sat on some steps and listened to some musician playing something, took some pics and then wandered back down to the amusement park. there's an amusement park on the pier. we decided to take the ferris wheel ride but didn't want to spend our money on anything else. by this time my sunscreen was seeping into my eyes and making them sting and water. why does this always happen to me? i don't put it on my eye lids or anything. so anyways the ferris wheel was five bucks. as we waited in line we noticed that there was a huge bee swarm out on the loose. this made me nervous but i kept my cool pretty good because there were none landing and swarming near me. while we waited we saw this person come out in a bee suit ( i think it was a woman, but i can't be sure) and spray them. they dropped off of the railing in huge clumps. they had to shut down the coaster and the droppy ride because of the bees. wasps actually.

karey was nervous when we were on the ferris wheel, but after the first time around she got over it. i felt a little light headed and flighty because we were up so high but i was ok. i held onto the middle bar and that anchored me. i always need an anchor. we took lots of silly shots of ourselves and each other while we were up there and i was sorry when it was over.

then we left the pier and went down in the sand and looked at a field of crosses set up in the sand for the soldiers who died in iraq. people had put names on each cross. eventually we found ourselves walking up from the beach along a path in the filtered green light. it was nice. we walked around some streets for a while but didn't find anything worthy of going into. when we got back down to the beach we found a souvenir shop and karey found a hoodie she liked. she's all about the hoodies.

then we watched the people on the green patch--especially the people practicing the acrobatics and stuff. then we drove back to lake forrest, ate supper at a mexican place (i had fish tacos) and then got frozen yogurt at a yogurt bar.

when we got home we chatted with the aunts and nina (karey's cousin) in our back bedroom resting on the air mattresses. while everyone else slept i watched the guardian with kevin costner and ashton kucher (fatima's beau) on karey's portable dvd player. i did it every night so the others could get a head start to fall asleep before i started snoring. karey and i would start out with one ear bud a piece but she would fall asleep in the first five minutes and then i'd get both buds.

this bud's for you.

ps. don't miss the post below.