Santa Monica, CA

It was a beautiful wake up in Santa Monica!  I was so excited to do nothing; no plans if you can believe that!

We rented bikes and headed out for a spin to Venice Beach . . . .

. . . lots of weirdos along the way but always look the other way and see a nice blue ocean!  It was a nice ride especially on the paved paths but was starting to get crowded so we headed to the famous Santa Monica Pier to play some games and ride some rides too!
                       
I don't do these type of rides, LOL.  We took some time to watch all the fishermen too . . . never saw anyone catch anything!

It was a nice time hanging out at the pier but the beach was calling a certain 8 year olds name; mine not so much . . .

It was cold and windy, and I had a little different experience on the beach . . .

. . . needless to say I had a nice white line across my face from the sun but Colin continued to work on his masterpiece . . .

I was amazed at the adults who just walked right in the middle of his work.  I mean come on walk around.  It really was a relaxing time and hardly anyone was out and about considering it was a holiday weekend!  On the way back to the hotel Colin wanted to 'play' on the exercise stuff . . . I was amazed how far up the rope he made it with no shoes!

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and a night time swim.  The pool was closed due to an accident of a child . . . so hot tub it was!  And it wouldn't be a vacation if there wasn't at least one 'Pigeon Party' . . .

I won't even mention that Colin made a friend with a homeless man in the park who shared his sandwich with him to feed the birds; how nice of him and Colin had no clue he was homeless.  We saw these old quarter rides . . .

Colin wasn't impressed especially after I told him this was all I had to ride when I was a kid.  A great day of just hanging out.