Getting adjusted - the beach cities - Day 2

Breakfast at the Travelodge consists of a variety of sandwich bread, cream cheese, strawberry jelly, oranges and waffles with maple syrup. Nothing special if you come to think of it, but the fun part is that you can make the waffles yourself. First you spoon the batter into the waffle iron and set the timer to turn the iron after 2 minutes or so. Another 2 minutes and the 'attack' alarm goes off. Yum !

A couple of orange juice cups, two medium sized waffles and a toast of whipped cream cheese later - hey, I was hungry - we were on our way to Santa Monica. I enjoyed taking Mom and Ton over the crowded 405. They were thrilled to be sitting in a white sporty Pontiac, listening to the Beach Boys on K-EARTH 101, cruising along the palm trees and realizing that they are not in Spain anymore (since they both live there), but in Los Angeles.

Mom was even clapping her hands to the music, jacking up the volume of the radio so that it attacked our ear drums. I was like "wow, junior, keep it down will ya!".
But I remember what a first day in LA feels like. You're 6 years old again and you're in Disney Land for the first time. The palm trees are like the cartoon characters waving and dancing in front of your eyes. The scenery feels like all of the rides that are waiting for you to discover. And the fast food places scattered across the city are inviting like candy apples or cotton candy from a Disney land vendor.

Once I parked the car under the Santa Monica Mall, we walked to the famous beach pier and strolled all the way to the end of it. Since it was still morning, the pier wasn't all too crowded. In fact, we didn't hear much English on the pier, but the wind that came from the ocean over the pier carried voices in German and even Dutch.
Holland Dutch. Yuk. It's like Americans hearing British English. They either think it's totally cool and stylish to have a British accent, or they despise anything that even remotely sounds like it. When it comes to Holland Dutch, I sort of shiver every time I hear it, especially here in LA.

Mom and Ton were comparing the feel of the beach to the Mediterranean beach in Spain. They admitted the beach in LA to be A LOT bigger, more palm trees and greenery, and cleaner too. It made me feel kinda proud. Silly huh.

When we got to the 3rd street promenade for some window shopping, the sun was beaming down on us like a torch in a cave. It was noon already. People were flocking into restaurants. If we wanted something to eat before lines formed outside, we'd better make sure we got there first. We ended up at Vinnie's pizza place and had a Caesar's salad with a basket of French fries. I realized that I've gotten so used to the ketchup here that it never crossed my mind that Mom and Ton would need mayonnaise with their fries. The waitress smiled and responded 'Oh, yum' to their request and I found myself apologizing for it. "Yeah, we're Europeans". Again, very silly.

The second stop that day was at the notorious Venice Beach. I still remember the first time I visited that place. I was sixteen years old and thought smoking weed and drinking beer was the coolest thing you could do. Venice Beach is a great place for people who are pro-drugs. Hobo's are sitting on the street with signs like "Got weed?", "I want no cash, just booze", and "Yeah, me too".

Flairs of weed waft through the air, interrupted by the incense smoke coming from hippie shops. This is a place where useless people belong. This is the place where the crazier you are, the more you'll feel at home. As a sixteen year old teen, this was exponentially cool. As a 26 year old, I feel more and more disgusted by it. I was shocked by the I guess 50 year old white man with a gray beard sitting there with a sign that said "I have 3 kids but no money. You figure it out" and was even more shocked to find three teenage girls sitting farther away at the side with a sign that says "Hey, at least we're not your kids."

Even with all of the weird looking people along the boulevard, Venice Beach still has some charm to it. The heart of LA really does pump through it's vein. Skaters alike gather at the skate ramps, basketball freaks play all day long and obsessed bodybuilders show of their stuff at muscle beach. Here and there some buns wiggle in front of you as blond bikini women skate across the bike path on the beach. And the yellow life guard jeeps still remind me of the Baywatch series.

Yes, I even got to take that nap on the beach. For about an hour of so, all I could hear was the breaking of the waves and the music that drifted from the Indian store to the beach. And I dreamed about rental cars and waffles. It was refreshing.

Later that night, we visited the Edlefsen family in El Segundo. I was a little bit nervous because you never know how people will get along but after the official 'nice-to-meet-you's' we had a very fun talk. I love Jo-Ann and Steve and really consider them to be family. I remember visiting them for the first time with Aki in 2001 and telling them how we would love to live in LA and how Jo-Ann said that they could've adopted us if we weren't 18 already. And although I know she was sorta joking about it, I also knew that I wouldn't have really mind either. Another silly idea.

The last meal of today was a take out Gyros wrap. A perfect closure for our first day.

Tommorow : Universal Studio's !