Santa Monica Boulevard

Tourist beach day and a bit of cleaning up..

Having had a forced stay in a hotel last night, we were at least able to take advantage of the inclusive breakfast. The crown jewel of which was this pancake machine which continually produced pancakes from an internal conveyer belt.

After a full load up of sugar and e-numbers, we set off along the coast. Just before Malibu beach, we found a car park where we could sort out the van and start packing our flight bags. As we'll be city slickers for the last couple of days, we though we should take advantage of the space to sort the climbing gear.

It didn't take long, before our belongings started to spread across the car park! We had accumulated a lot of stuff! 

Having sorted, packed and streamlined back to necessities, we were left with some of the things we had bought on arrival in the states; tent, towels, lamp, tarp etc. Right on cue, we came across a couple who were extremely grateful to take it all off our hands - and actually insisted on waving us off with a photo and handful of dollars! Bonus!

A little further down the coast, we took a stroll a long the beach at Malibu after a little drive by some incredible beach front houses.

Then it was onto the busy busy beach town of Santa Monica, which also turned out to be the end of Historic Route 66 which we had followed parts of last month. 

After using a bit of iPhone technology to sourced a car parking spot, we headed down to the famous pier.

And watched a few amazing street performers along the way.

Even though the sea was pretty cold, plenty of people were still keen for some beach time! 

After the pier, we had a bit of an ice cream, coffee and shopping session along the boulevard. It's a mix of surf shops and designer label stores. I was surprised to see that Louis Vitton has made a couple of surfboards - no doubt catering for the demands and needs of the fashion conscious surfer! I didn't dare ask how much a Louis Vitton surf board would set me back! 

We popped down to Venice beach on the way to the Hotel, but although there was a great sunset going on, there was also a sandstorm blowing across the beach! We didn't hang around and instead, found some food and our hotel for the next two nights.