Santa Monica

After we saw Venice Beach, it was time to go to Santa Monica.

Because every beach has his own typical feeling to it,
it’s worth to see them all.

The most famous part of Santa Monica is the Pier,
because it has an amusement park on it.

Amusement park on the pier
Amusement park on the pier
Amusement park on the pier
Amusement park on the pier
Theme Park
Theme Park

While we were walking on the pier I thought I saw Kelly Rowland,
but i’m still not sure about it.

Kelly Rowland ?
Kelly Rowland ?
Kelly Rowland ?
Kelly Rowland ?

The view from the pier of the beach is so beautiful!

Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica Beach

And when i looked at Marlise,
I had the feeling she liked Santa Monica a lot.

Marlise happy to be at Santa Monica Beach
Marlise happy to be at Santa Monica Beach

So we sat down to see the sun set,
while listening to a crazy hippie sing.

Artist performing on the pier
Artist performing on the pier

After the sun had set,
we went to Tar and Roses for dinner.

It is a cool restaurant,
with an open kitchen and a small selection of food.

Marlise at Tar and Roses
Marlise at Tar and Roses
Me at Tar and Roses
Me at Tar and Roses

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Venice & Santa Monica With David

Last week, I went to Venice and Santa Monica, with David Decoster.

Because it was such a busy week, I wasn’t able to upload the pictures at that moment.

But here’s what we did.

First we went to Venice Beach to walk around and look at what was happening.

In Venice everybody thinks they’re an artist!
But believe me, they aren’t always good.
Its harsh to say but some of them are really without talent.
But they are having a good time.

Artist
Artist

Or this guy.
He’s just a drunk bum, who’s trowing all his bottles, from the night before, on the ground to jump into it.

Crazy artist
Crazy artist

But there are also people like these guys.
Giving a real show, doing crazy jumps, dancing, entertaining the audience en giving advice to kids.

Street artists
Street artists

Or the creator of this piece of art.
He recreated Bumblebee from the transformers out of trash.

Bumblebee
Bumblebee

Or the freak shows.
With the bearded lady (who’s just a man), the monkey man, the little man and so on.

Freakshow
Freakshow

But besides all the shows and craziness, Venice is also known for all the sport possibilities.
The Free outdoor gym, the basketball courts, the weird tennis, skate bowls, ….

So we walked towards all the sport possibilities, to check them out.

And with a views like this, the walk was more fun

The Beach
The Beach
On the Boardwalk
On the Boardwalk
The Beach
The Beach
Boardwalk
Boardwalk
Hippies
Hippies
Boardwalk
Boardwalk
The Beach
The Beach

 

Here we are at the skate bowl, where everyone is giving their best shot, because they know there’re always people watching.

There’s a really nice atmosphere.
Everybody is talking to each other without knowing another.
Clapping if somebody did something cool or asking, encase someone fell, if their okay or need some help.

Skate bowl
Skate bowl

Then there is the free outdoor gym with all kinds of attribute to workout.

Venice Muscle Beach is known is as a legend for working out.

So David couldn’t resist and had to 20 pull-ups.

MuscleBeach
MuscleBeach

There’s also an paid outdoor gym, so you have to be a member to use the machinery.
And the one’s working out in the outdoor gym, are really liking the attention of the crowd and constantly interacting with them.
Especially the guys, they think it’s the ideal place to pick up girls.
So there constantly showing off their muscles and what they can lift.

MuscleBeach
MuscleBeach

Afterwards we watched some random guys, playing basketball.

Playing b-ball
Playing b-ball

When we walked the whole Venice boardwalk, it was time for a cold beer.

Drinking some beers
Drinking some beers

After a couple of beers, we went to Santa Monica.

Santa Monica is completely different than Venice.
Not that many performers, no more hippies and crazy people, less activities and so on.

But it has other things to offer too.
The pier, a nice promenade, a lot of restaurants and shops, …

And in our case, we wanted to see the pier.

Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Pier

When we walked over the bridge, we saw the typical LA traffic.
There’re always traffic jams, no matter what our or where you go.
In this case it was a traffic jam towards Malibu.

Traffic
Traffic

But on that bridge you also had a nice view over the beach.

The Beach
The Beach

On the pier itself, you have a lot of possibilities what you want to do.
There are restaurants, tourist shops, an amusement park, fishing possibilities, …

Here’s a picture of one of the most known shrimp restaurants in America, Bubba Gump.
It’s that famous, that they even got a tourist shop.

Bubba Gump
Bubba Gump

Here’s the entry of the amusement park, but we didn’t went inside, because it looked like an amusement park for kids.
But still cool to see, because unbelievable that they build it on the pier.

Pacific Park
Pacific Park

While you walk around on the pier you hear different kinds of bands playing
or street artists trying to get the attention of the people.

Band playing on the pier
Band playing on the pier

But it’s really crowed during the weekend so the street performers get a lot of attention

Crowded
Crowded

Once your at the end of the pier, you get a really nice view over the beach.

The Beach
The Beach
The Beach
The Beach

 
After walking the whole day and looking around in the two cities, we had dinner and went back to my place.
David had to work early the next day and his hotel was located an hour from Los Angeles, so after one drink we called it a day.

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David Decoster Arrived in Los Angeles

The Belgians keep on arriving, in Los Angeles 😛
What a coincidence!
First Filip Grossard, now David Decoster.

Normally David had some business meetings somewhere else in America, but they changed it last minute, to Los Angeles.
So he came over, to visit me.

Here he is, driving in my street.
In the right corner you see some children, selling fresh lemonade.

 

Arrival David Decoster
Arrival David Decoster

 

We sat on my terrace for a little bit and then out of the blue, there was a blimp flying over, so I had to take a picture of it.

Goodyear Blimp
Goodyear Blimp

But from the moment the sun set, it was so beautiful, I had to take another picture.

Goodyear Blimp in the clouds
Goodyear Blimp in the clouds

 

After a few drinks, we ordered a Uber (Taxi) and went to Santa Monica.

It feels like, there’s always something happening.

This time there was a guy dancing and doing funny things.
So we took some time, to see him perform.

Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer

Because we forget to reserve the restaurant and if we wanted to eat there, we had to wait for an hour.
So we decided to go to a sports bar instead, have a drink, eat some wings and Nachos and watch some UFC.

Mega Corona/Margarita
Mega Corona/Margarita
Watching UFC
Watching UFC
Enough TV's ?
Enough TV’s ?

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The 30th L.A. Marathon

On the 15th of march it was the 30th L.A. Marathon.

As a promotion it was illuminated by 124 skyward spotlights, the evening before the marathon.
It was incredible to see.

The high-power, vertical beams had illuminated the 26-mile route from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica.
Here are some pictures of how it looked:

The LA Marathon
The LA Marathon
Lights
Lights with stars
Lights in the sky
Lights in the sky
Beam
Beam

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iPhone Troubles

Went to the LA fitness and dropped my iPhone and now it has a cracked screen as a result.

Cracked my screen
Cracked my screen

I searched for a Screen repair in the neighborhood on Yelp.

But because all the reviews were different, per Repair center, I couldn’t decide where I needed to go.

So I thought about waiting until I was back in Belgium and bring it to IHEAL.

But then I wanted to download an app, but I couldn’t, because it didn’t have enough capacity.

Not enough capacity
Not enough capacity

So it was time for a new one and went to the Apple Store in Santa Monica.

Such a beautiful store!!

Apple Store Santa Monica
Apple Store Santa Monica
Apple Store Santa Monica
Apple Store Santa Monica
Apple Store Santa Monica
Apple Store Santa Monica

Even at 9PM you can follow some free sessions.
That night it was a video editing session

Video editing training in the Apple Store
Video editing training in the Apple Store

But it wasn’t interesting, so i went to an Apple “genius”, to get an Iphone 6.

After wandering around, I went home, synced it and “play” with it.

New Iphone 6
New iPhone 6

There we go.

First launch
First launch

Up and running.

Synced and ready for use
Synced and ready for use

After syncing it and installing some extra apps, it still has enough capacity for extra’s.
Lovin it!

Capacity problem fixed
Capacity problem fixed

Problems solved.

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