anniebrooks: Day 5 Santa Monica

We drove from Del Mar up to LA - have never driven on a 7 lane Highway before, and it was very busy but everyone seems to stick to the 65 mph limit. We are staying 2 blocks back from Santa Monica Beach (at The Huntley) so walked down to the sea front in the afternoon. We walked along the pier, and then headed for Venice Beach – it was all very vibrant and there were a high proportion of fascinating tramps and weirdos. Once again, I was tempted to ask one of the more crazy individuals to take the daily pic (I was very keen to ask a rollerblading lady in a bikini who had had - I can only imagine – ‘work’ done. She was an alarming, gravity-defying sight!). We ended up asking a very cool Venice Beach young lady instead who (once again) was unfazed by our asking for her photo. This is turning into a nightmare for The Bees though, who find the whole thing excruciatingly embarrassing, even though they agreed the plan was a good one in principle.

On our drive here we had planned to listen to Californian music but Amy Winehouse got first play. We also have a holiday reading list: Huckleberry Finn (on Bella’s A level list for Sept, and Mark Twain was born in San Fransisco), ‘Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler (many of his novels were based in Santa Monica, a place he hated!), ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac, and ‘The Confederate General from Big Sur’ by Richard Brautigan. Some of our merry crew are also reading their Highway Code and their Grade 5 Music Theory. Ah! To be young.