SANTA MONIA PIER

The Santa Monica Pier is located where the 10 Freeway ends and Pacific Coast Highway begins. It's free but parking is currently 7:00. Actually, the pier isn't "all that" but it is still a nice place to go. There is a separate costs for entering Pacific Park which is located on the pier and includes rides. I didn't research whether there is an admission cost or you just purchase tickets for the rides but you can purchase them in advance online.

There are a few places to eat including Bubba Gump's at the beginning of the pier:

and Mariasol's at the end of the pier:

If you're looking for a place to go on a date, you'd like to throw a fishing line off the pier:

or you're someone who likes arcade games and a take in a few amusement park type rides, it's definitely worth taking a stroll on the pier.:

Another reason I recommed the pier is that who doesn't like the beach? If you don't like trekking across the sand your feet don't ever have to touch it. You can lean on the rail that lines the pier and still enjoy the breeze and the view:

watch the waves crashing and just enjoy a lovely day at the beach.

THE BEACHES

Over all, my trip this weekend to the beaches turned out to be a bit of a bust. I did get some decent pictures so I can't complain too much but I was disappointed by how much Redondo Beach Pier had changed, traffic after I left the pier was awful and it took me way too long to get down the coast, I couldn't stop at two of the beaches because of traffic and everywhere but the pier was a zoo. So, I'm taking the almost pictureless way of introducing you to the beaches down around L.A. Though these beaches are in different cites, they are all still a part of L.A. County and anyone in L.A. knows or should know where these beaches are.

REDONDO BEACH PIER - See the post below this one.

DOCKWEILER - I drove by it but didn't stop. I used to hit dockweiler beach a lot. I've always loved the beach and ladies, if you don't know the sand is like a natural pumice on your feet.

MARINA DEL REY - Marina del Rey is more about the marina than it is about a beach. It is where most of the boats are docked. Marina del Rey is mostly known for, at least by me, for the restaurants around Admiralty Way. I attended a meet 'n greet in December at The Warehouse. Great place! I drove through Marina del Rey today, thought I'd take some pics of the restaurants but that didn't work out either.

VENICE BEACH - I started to go to Venice Beach but the one street I took toward the parking lot I knew of was backed up and literally inched for four blocks. It would have made for some interesting pics because Venice is always full of interesting things, vendors and people. I was getting a headache from traffic so I opted out.

Cool! I just found a live webcam of Venice beach. Of course there's nothing going on now but check it out during the day. I will.

SANTA MONICA - When I was a kid this is where my family always went. I will always have a fondness for Santa Monica because of the fond memories. I thought I would go the the Santa Monica Pier but decided not to go. By this time I wasn't in the mood for how many people were there. I made a wrong turn and couldn't back out so I wound up having to pay $6.00 to drive through the parking lot which was half occupied by a filming crew's hundreds of trailers. I'm exaggerating...a little.

By now I'd been on the road for three hours and was a little ticked that after all this time I had not yet put my feet in sand or been near the water so I ventured down a packed Pacific Coast Highway and found a strip of the beach past the pier where the parking lot was practically empty. Eureka! My kind of place! I paid $7.00 for parking, parked, took my tennis shoes and socks off, put my earphones in, turned on my IPOD and treked across the sand with my camera.