Christmas in Santa Monica

Next up, Los Angeles! Now our time in Los Angeles was scattered over a few different areas, over two different visits, but first up we will talk about Santa Monica. I first visited Santa Monica when I was only 10 years old, and only have few, if somewhat vague, memories of it. It is the glamorous beach side companion to Hollywood in that all the rich people work in Hollywood and Beverly hills, then spent their time in Santa Monica, so needless to say it was a very nice, if a little bit posh, place. As most of you all know, we were fortunate enough to have spent Christmas down in Santa Monica which was everything you could ask for. Perfect weather, fantastically generous people and the beach. What more could you ask for from such a place.

The sunset over the Santa Monica Pier. 

We've added in this one just to take sure everyone at home still remembers what we look like.

Christmas Eve sunset

Christmas morning opening our pressies, very Disney themed as you can tell.

The 3rd Street Promenade was a ghost town on Christmas morning.

We decided to have Christmas day brunch at Barneys Beanery, more on that below...

Now Barneys Beanery is a fantastic story. We met a family on our first night in Santa Monica at Teppenyaki  (thank you Jeff & Brenda for introducing this to Lauren, she absolutely loves it!). We spent most of dinner talking about our travels throughout the states with the entire family, and also included where they were from and everything in the middle. We had such a good night conversing, and by the time we were set to head off, it popped up in conversation that David was actually the owner of a restaurant nearby and would love it if we would go and try it out if we had time. Not only that though, they insisted that whatever we ate of drank, would be on the house, completely free (which he wrote down on the back of his business card). Yes you heard me correct, free. It was an incredibly generous offer, so we decided to check it out the next night, and boy were we glad we did. We had some of the most delicious food there that we had eaten in a long time. It was the kind of place that made breakfast at 8pm cool again, and Lauren is a big advocate of that no doubt! But, while there offer was incredibly generous, we couldn't eat free, it just didn't feel right or just, considering the caliber of meals we had just eaten, so the business card stayed hidden in my wallet, for good reason.

So we came back the next day which turned out to be Christmas day, and just after we had arrived, the whole family had come in to enjoy a brunch at their restaurant (personally I think that's the ideal way to spend Christmas, no cooking nor cleaning is a winning combination!). After a quick chat, and a brunch later, we picked up the check only to find out that it had been taken care of. Honestly, it was just one of those moments that was fitting for Christmas day, and for a brief moment, it felt like we were back home with family, it was incredibly generous, and meant more to us than simply a meal. It was something special.

So the bottom line is, if your in Santa Monica, go to Barneys Beanery! Its on Third Street Promenade between Santa Monica Ave and Arizona Ave, or check out their website at http://barneysbeanery.com/
Ohh and did I mention that decor was awesome, a mish-mash of everything authentic America, and what made it better was every direction you look, there is some kind of sport on. Cant ask for much more than that. Thanks David for the memorable experience, and fantastic food. We will be sure to check back in we visit again.

But anyway, I digress, back to the blog!

As it was around 25 degrees on Christmas we thought it would be nice to have a little swim. Although as it turns out the water was ICE cold! Like I'm talking, you put a cup of lukewarm water in the freezer, take it out just before it freezes then submerge yourself in that. That's exactly how cold the water was. The only people in the water were crazy little kids who could obviously not feel the cold. And I'm just too old for that now, clearly. 

The Santa Monica Pier.

As it was Christmas day every tourist without a family to have lunch with flocked to the beach for the beautiful day, which included us.

Christmas day Dippin' Dots.

Just a nice shot down the Santa Monica Beach. 

Some of the few rides on the pier.

This guy's chest hair was insane. Like I cannot stress this enough, it was absolutely crazy. But what did make us laugh is the fact that it looked someone had half zipped down his chest hair, as you can see its full bush on his chest then a small line down his stomach. Unless he was wearing a skin jacket to hide his hair, who knows. 

The inner ballerina in me wanted to give a few of the beach equipment a go. 

Amazing balancing, I must say. 

Working hard on Christmas day, as usual. 

As a treat we decided to go to Teppanyaki for dinner (and it also helped that not a lot was open that night considering). 

Some of the onions cooking. What was crazy though was the fact that they couldn't set anything on fire anymore because they were worried about lawsuits, which are crazy popular here. 

Our delicious steaks cooking away.

The pathway on the way down to the Venice Beach Boardwalk. 

A shot down the coast from the Santa Monica Pier. 

Venice Beach. 

The actual Venice Beach sign. Thank you segway for taking me here. 

A typical store in Venice Beach. Well, actually, not that typical. This one was actually a medical marijuana evaluation centre. As it turns out you can pay $30 for an evaluation, and basically say you have a sore neck, and they will give you a card that allows you to buy and smoke small amounts of marijuana legally. Crazy. 

Venice Beach Boardwalk. 

All along the beach from Santa Monica to Venice beach are swing sets, gym equipment, volleyball courts and most other things you can imagine.

Nice shot from the walk back from Venice Breach.

Food trucks! Finally!

My amazing Segway. That thing was crazy fun to burn around on for almost 3 hours. 

The actual Hotel California.....I bet you'll have that song stuck in your head for the next couple of hours, you can thank me later. And if you don't have it stuck, go listen to it, then it will get stuck. You can also thank me later. 

Turns out there are rooms available!

The Venice boardwalk

Lauren couldn't help but get a henna tattoo on the Venice boardwalk. Not bad for $20.

Dusk over the Santa Monica Pier. 

Another good shot of the Pier and palms at dusk. 

Some of the amazingly delicious food from Barneys Beanery. Breakfast is making a comeback for the prime time 8pm slot!

Beer tasters at the Beanery. Amazing. 

Honestly, I had some good tacos in my life, and I guess its only fitting in California, but the Chipotle Taco's I had at the beanery were something of legend. Hands down best tacos I've ever eaten. Enough said. 

Turns out Route 66 actually ends right in the middle of the Santa Monica pier. Who knew. 

Lauren thought it would be appropriate to put a nice sleezy photo of me on the blog. Ohh and that behind me is Lauren's friend Caitlyn, who flew into LA that morning.

Pacific fair on Santa Monica Pier. 

The Entrance to the Santa Monica Pier. 

So what did we gather from our stay in Santa Monica? There are still good, genuine, generous people out there. The kind of people that you look back on and say; that really made our day, and our Christmas, something special; and I hope I can do that for someone else one day, pass on the generosity.

We also learnt that beaches aren't always warm, despite their appearance. So what do you do in that case? you run back to your heated outdoor pool in your hotel and pretend your at the beach, minus the annoying sand that ends up in every crevice for weeks to come, and the annoying crowds. Come to think of it, maybe you scrap the crowds and stick to your hotel pools, well at least until summer comes around anyway.

So, funnily enough our next blog post will be about the past. We spent our first visit in LA in Hollywood, which we will talk about in our next post.

So until then, Merry Christmas to all of you for a couple of days ago, and Happy New Year to all those celebrating tonight, unfortunately we will have to wait another 17 hours for ours to come. So if the world ends, be sure to give us a call, being 17 hours in the past we may have a chance to change our fate.

Kristian & Lauren.