Venice Beach

Monday, July 20th

I took the two-hour "Homes of the Stars" Tour. After, while I was thinking about what to do, I decided to call the only pen pal from LA who kept in contact with me after I placed my ad in the "looking for a platonic friend(in L.A.)" ad on an online personals website. It turned out he was free and wanted to meet. The person who arrived was not what I was expecting.

The guy who arrived was tanned, slim, and driving a black convertible. I've never been in a convertible before. My LA epal (electronic pen pal) suggested we go to Venice beach. When we arrived, LA epal spent about 10 minutes driving around looking for a parking space. We walked along the beach for about an hour. We had pizza for lunch, it was on me. Since my epal drove us down to Venice, I thought paying for lunch was the least I could do. The pizza shack looked a bit ratty, but the pizza was surprisingly good. We walked a bit, then we had to return. Unfortunately LA Pal (in wanting to save money by not going to a parking lot), ended up receiving a parking ticket for $50.

On the way back, LA Pal had to do some quick banking business "Upper-Class" style. He has an account at a private bank where customers have to be buzzed in. There was something very "Hollywood" about the exchange he had with the bank person. On the one hand they both did the hugs and squeezes with the cute names, but every once in a while they would cast a quick "glance". It was almost like they were checking to see who would drop the falseness of the situation first. Neither did. Oh, and one more "Hollywood" moment. While riding back to Hollywood Blvd. Janet Dickerson said hello to LA Pal. I didn't recognize her until LA Pal told me who she was. She stuck her foot out of the window.

On the way back, LA Pal offered to take me to dinner later on that evening. At first I was going to say yes, but after I thought about it, I wasn't in the mood for expending so much mental energy stressing about dinner, so I cancelled.

I spent the evening walking about the Hollywood neighborhood. What I found a bit strange was that once I walked off the Hollywood Blvd. There was a plainness about the place I wasn't expecting. Both New York City and Tokyo seemed to have a "big city vibe" that seemed to be woven through various neighborhoods that let you know you were in a big city. LA didn't seem to have it. I took a picture standing in the middle of the street of Hollywood Blvd (the heart of Hollywood), other than a few flashing lights, it was relatively quiet. Where New York and Tokyo stay on all night, Hollywood, seem to have a bedtime.

Well, instead of going out and exploring, I decided to take some time to update my blog. For the last couple of days, I've too exhausted to do any blogging when I return to the hostel, so I thought I would do it early this time. Today is the last day of the GO LA Card. I'm going to try squeezing in three activities today. If I accomplish these three activities, then I will feel like I got my money's worth. I'm going to head over to one of the "Hollywood" museums I missed. I then want to visit the Japanese American Museum. I will try to then squeeze in Universal Studios. However, if I don't do anything but wondering around the neighborhoods, I don't think I'll be too upset. This is after all a vacation. I should be relaxing not stressing myself about schedules and deadlines.

The attached photo is one I took on the way down to Venice Beach. I will upload a slideshow of my other photos at another time.
Completion (first draft) - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:30AM
Post Date - Saturday, August 8, 2009 1:00PM