The Beach... finally

After being here for over a month we finally saw the ocean. We went Memorial. The day was wonderful. It was cool in the morning and warmed up to a beautiful sunny California day by noon.















We liked the Santa Monica Pier. It's a huge pier with games and rides. Felt like we were in a scene from Lost Boys.

A few performers on the Pier.

"Dancing"

Then we walked down the boardwalk to Venice Beach. You could find people selling everything from art, to palm readings, to framed bugs (actually cooler than it sounds), to musical voice mail greeting... and lots of other eclectic stuff.

Can't wait to go back.

Renaissance Fair

So we went to the Renaissance Fair the other week. It's kinda like the Celtic Festival back in VA... but different. It's here for months so it's much more permanent feeling. It was a lot of fun but not as "real" feeling as the Celtic Festival.

It had people putting on shows...

Lot's of people dressed for the occasion

da Vinci people

Cute











Blacksmith

Glass Blowing






















The "interesting" ones



This guy was having a little too much fun... He was mugging for the camera here. Couple hours we saw him getting sick in the porta john... and a while after that we saw him heading into the first aid tent... good times.























I love this pic.








The Queen on parade

Us Getting into the spirit...

Trying to look serious in the
Robin Hood hat, but not
pulling it too well. :)

La Brea Tar Pits

We were lucky and ended up going to La Brea Tar Pits on the first Tuesday of the month, which meant it was free!!! We took the tour around the grounds and then walked through the museum. It was really cool to see all the fossils.

This case held 400 wolf skulls. There were more than 1600 wolf skulls found at the site.

Celebrity Sighting #2

So we saw our second celebrity.  We were leaving Borders when Masi Oka walked in.  He plays Hiro on Heroes.  We didn't get any pictures, but it was really cool.  Here's just a photo from the internet.

Universal City Walk

Universal Studios has an outdoor mall with restaurants and different shops outside the entrance to their park.  We're really happy that they also have a movie theater there that offers discounted movie tickets at certain times.  Here's some pics of the area.