After having breakfast at our Santa Monica Hotel, we went to Perry’s bike rental place located on the Santa Monica beach and rented a couple of mountain bikes for the day. We left around 10am and followed the beach bike path all the way past the Santa Monica pier to Venice Beach where we stopped because Buddy wanted to pay his respects to the famous Muscle Beach. We also went to the large spectator area and to the handball courts and the basketball courts, which are free to the public.
We got back on our bikes and rode took the bike path to the end where it joins up with the road at Marina Del Rey. We stopped there and had lunch at this very nice bay that looked out over the marina. After lunch, we headed back to our hotel, but we once again had to pay homage to Muscle Beach by watching a group of guys playing basketball. We continued along the bike path and went past Santa Monica all the way to the end on the other side, which is at Will Rogers Beach. There’s no way to go any further, so we turned around and went back to Santa Monica and returned the bicycles.
We could see at the end of the pier that there was a mime pretending to be playing the guitar, and he was really pulling it off like he was really performing. It seemed, sadly, that no one was watching his performance. I like mimes, but I know most people don’t. The pier was all abuzz with people and it was almost 9pm. We were exhausted from our bike ride today, so we went back to our hotel and fell asleep easily.
The next morning was overcast, but that didn’t stop us from taking a free coastal walking tour with a local guide named Collin who’s a retired English gent now living in the US. He took us to the pier and then down to the beach where US military vets were installing small white crosses in the sand; one for each military person killed in the Iraq war. We found this act very moving. We walked further down the beach, then up some ‘joggers’ steps where many locals exercise by running up and down these steps. Our ‘walk’ ended in about 4 hours, were we promptly went to the nearest Starbucks of a much needed caffeine boost.
Our next stop to see the Farmer’s Market located on Fairfax in Los Angeles, but first, it was time to take a break and just relax poolside at our hotel.