HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: On a bike and no HILLS
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing
WORD OF THE DAY: Two-fer again
It’s the week-end. That doesn’t really make much difference to me but it means that Christy has 2 days off so the three of us can be together before Eric flies to Cannes on Monday. Our plan for today was to go to Venice Beach. This is the area that Eric and Christy used to live for 8 years before buying their place in Hollywood. Christy’s ex brother-in-law moved into their Venice Beach home and this is where they had kept their bicycles since the move last year. So the plan was to take the bikes for a spin (I would hire one) and then the biked would be dropped at a friend’s house for further storage. There really isn’t anywhere where the bikes could be ridden where they live now, so they are keeping them that side of town.
As it turned out I didn’t have to hire a bike as Christy’s brother-in-law (ex) had his bike there, so after collecting them we hit the road as they guys gave me a small tour of their neighborhood as we made our way to Venice Boulevard and then onto Abbot Kinney Boulevard. We stopped at their shopping district; locking up the bikes we took a stroll. There were pubs, groovy little shops selling things from light fixtures to funky chairs and art. It was a very alternate area and the people living there also came from all walks of life. It had a great vibe to the area and after a small walk we decided it was lunch time and we stopped at a place called Local 1205. It was pretty much the inside of an old warehouse, gutted out and they had bench seating with tables and the main menu items consisted of 10+ sandwiches options. It was an organic/health shop where they also made great fruit shakes and sold some local produce. My sandwich was 14USD but I have to say it was one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten and there really weren’t that many ingredients on it. I have never really understood or noticed if organic foods taste better than the run of the mill supermarket stuff, but today I think it just proved that it definitely tasted better. 12 out of 10 for the sandwich. After lunch we continued looking at the shops and then circled back to the bikes. The guys had told me, even though the bikes were locked up that it is a common occurrence that they could get stolen, even though they were locked up. I hoped that they would still be there, cause if the bike I was using was stolen I would have to pay to have it replaced. My mum always told me to never borrow anything that you couldn’t afford to pay back. All I can say is thank goodness they were still there when we got back!!!
Venice Beach was next and only a short ride from where we were. Venice is a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, artists, and vendors. Venice Beach includes the beach, the promenade that runs parallel to the beach ("Ocean Front Walk" or just "the boardwalk"), Muscle Beach, the handball courts, the paddle tennis courts, Skate Dancing plaza, the numerous beach volleyball courts, the bike trail and the businesses on Ocean Front Walk. The basketball courts in Venice are renowned across the country for their high level of street ball; numerous NBA players developed their games or are recruited on these courts. Venice was home to some of Los Angeles' early beat poets and artists and has served as an important cultural center of the city.
Venice of America was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town, 14 miles (23 km) west of Los Angeles. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought two miles (3.24 km) of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891. They built a resort town on the north end of the property called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. After Ryan died, Kinney and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street in the unincorporated territory. After the partnership dissolved in 1904, Kinney built on the marshy land on the south end of the property, intending to create a seaside resort like its namesake in Italy. When Venice of America opened on July 4, 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the marshes for his residential area, built a 370 m-long pleasure pier with an auditorium, ship restaurant, and dance hall, constructed a hot salt-water plunge, and built a block-long arcaded business street with Venetian architecture. Tourists, mostly arriving on the "Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, then rode Venice's miniature railroad and gondolas to tour the town. But the biggest attraction was Venice's mile-long gently sloping beach. Cottages and housekeeping tents were available for rent.
The town's population increased; it annexed adjacent housing tracts, and changed its official name from Ocean Park to Venice in 1911. The population (3119 residents in 1910) soon exceeded 10,000; the town drew 50,000 to 150,000 tourists on weekends. By 1925, Venice's politics became unmanageable. Its roads, water and sewage systems badly needed repair and expansion to keep up with its growing population. When it was proposed that Venice be annexed to Los Angeles, the board of trustees voted to hold an election. Those for annexation and those against were nearly evenly matched, but many Los Angeles residents, who moved to Venice to vote, turned the tide. Venice became part of Los Angeles in November 1925. The canals of Los Angeles' Venice neighborhood were modeled, on a smaller scale, of those in Venice, Italy. Los Angeles had neglected Venice so long that, by the 1950s, it had become the "Slum by the Sea." With the exception of new police and fire stations in 1930, the city spent little on improvements after annexation. Stretching about one a half miles along the manicured sands of the Pacific Ocean, the boardwalk is a large part of what makes Venice unique. On the west side of the "walk" are hundreds of street vendors and performers. You can see everything from break-dancing to broken glass walking. Mimes to musicians, jugglers to jesters and everything in between make up the human landscape. You can have your fortune read, get a temporary tattoo or have your name written on a grain of rice. If souvenirs is what you are after then the boardwalk is the place to go. The Westside offers unique arts and crafts, odds and ends and one of kinds only obtainable here. Paintings, photos, rocks of various sorts and sculptures are among the popular offerings. On the Eastside are the store fronts of the boardwalk. Here you will find every sort of t-shirt under the sun. From the politically motivated to sexually charged to the plain old Venice Beach t-shirt there is sure to be one for everybody. In addition, there are tattoo and piercing stores, skate and surf shops, medical marijuana dispensaries and more. You can buy sun glasses, vaporizers, beer and shoes. This is all in addition to the large selection of restaurants, juice spots and bars. In summary, packed into its one and a half mile, the boardwalk has more diversity in demographics and retail then probably anywhere else in the world.
It still looks a little seedy today, but there were a lot of people here, remembering it was Saturday and the vibe here was high. It was too busy for us to ride our bikes, so we hopped off them and walked the main beachfront, weaving our bikes through the masses of people. We saw Gold’s Gym and there were a few beef cakes working out in their swimming trucks and nothing else. Too muscly for me but whatever you picture Gold’s Gym to be is exactly what it looked like. It wasn’t that busy in there though. They obviously have no shame working out as hundreds of people walk past taking pictures of them all day long. The other thing that was in your face, besides all the people is the Marijuana Medical Centers. It is legal to consume the drug for medicinal purposes so they have these guys hawking out the front of these ‘medical’ centers, offering people ‘consultations’ to see if you need to have any of the stuff for your ‘health’. Funny as, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t get too close to those guys as I didn’t want them leaving any residue on me anywhere as I was leaving the country in 4 days and didn’t want to be swapped and found positive for cannabis or something. Imagine trying to explain that one to customs. No thanks.
We then left the busy beach front and headed down to the actual canals of Venice Beach. You can’t come all this way and not see the actual canals. It was so calm and quite here after the bounce and chaos of the boardwalk. There are footpaths that lead all over the canals and we rode a few of them looking at the amazing homes and just enjoying the tranquility of the area. There are some beautiful homes and gardens to just marvel at as we rode past. The quaint bridges that stretched from one side to the other were really picturesque. Eric’s friend didn’t live far from here so we pedaled our way from the canals and when we got to his mates house there was no-one home. After a few attempts a calling and knocking on the fence we just decided to head back to the car and they would have to drop the bikes off another day. The best thing about riding around the area was it was all flat as a tack. Not a hill to be seen which is a great thing, firstly I hate riding hills and secondly hopefully it will lessen my saddle soreness tomorrow. The last time I rode a bike it was on Death Road, so this really was a walk in the park compared to that-but I think any bike ride will pale in comparison to that ride of 65km downhill extreme riding.
During our ride Christy and I spoke of all my belongings in storage back home and what was I going to do with it all? It is a great question and one I really don’t know the answer to just yet. The reality is that I am going to have to get rid of 90% of what is in the shipping container eventually. It is just wasted money now paying 300AUD a month to have it stored when at the end of the day I am going to get rid of most of it. My main thing I am hesitant about is some pieces of furniture that was my mums. It has great sentimental value to me and I defiantly would be reluctant to let that go. The unfortunate thing is that the furniture is not in my taste, so I would never really use it. So is it worth me trying to hold onto it when you take all that into account? I would certainly offer it to her sisters first before I did anything as drastic as donating it, but it is something I need to seriously think about along with the rest of my stuff. Will I need 300 Elmo’s? Will I need 60 bottles of Vodka (maybe)? Will I need 3 beds and 2 TV’s? Probably not. Will it be worth shipping it all and then donating stuff once I am there? I am sure after my first 3 month stint I will have a better idea on what I will and won’t need and then I can figure out that headache in December when I return and I have to go through it all then. A job I am not looking forward to, but hopefully Zeme will be here then too and we can go through it all together. He will probably have a heart attack when he sees all the crap, um I mean stuff, I have.
We were home by 6pm and decided to have a quick meal at home and then head to the movies to see Rock of Ages that had been released just 2 days ago. It starred Tom Cruise and this was probably the closest I was going to get to him here in Hollywood. I have always been a Tom Cruise fan. Even with all the Scientology guff that he is into (and seems weird to me) he is still a good looking man and to think he is 50 in 2 weeks’ time is just mind blowing. 50!!!! I didn’t know too much about the movie itself but once we go to the cinema, bought my popcorn and Icee, I found out it is a movie based on a musical and that Tom would be singing!! Now this should be good….. Rock of Ages is an American musical film and is an adaption of the 2006 Chris D'Arienzo comedy rock/jukebox Broadway musical of the same name. The film stars country singer Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta with an ensemble cast including Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Malin Åkerman, Bryan Cranston, with Alec Baldwin and Mary J. Blige. The film featured the music of Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Twisted Sister, and REO Speedwagon. It seemed a little cheesy at the start and a bit Glee-ish from what I have seen of the TV show, but I have to say I enjoyed it and being a 70’s child I enjoyed the 80’s music through the whole movie. The last movies that I saw was with Kate in Buenos Aires in January and then we saw The Vow in Caracas in April. I just love the popcorn that you get from the movies, they seem to be the only ones that make it just the way I like it, salted.
So we were home by 11pm and another great day in LA as they start to tick down to my departure home. It seems quite surreal that I am at this part of my journey and I am feeling a little mixed about it all. Sad that my Odyssey is coming to an end. Happy that I get to see my best friend and my god-daughters and then excited for what my future holds. Fold all that up into one and that is a whole lot of emotions going on there!!!!
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